Flight 93

United Airlines Flight 93 was United Airlines' scheduled morning transcontinental flight across the United States from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to San FranciscoInternational Airport in California. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Boeing 757–222 aircraft operating the route was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists as part of the September 11 attacks. It subsequentlycrashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, during an attempt by some of the passengers to regain control.
The hijackers breached the aircraft'scockpit and overpowered the flight crew approximately 46 minutes after takeoff. Ziad Jarrah, a trained pilot, then took control of the aircraft and diverted it back toward the east coast of the UnitedStates. Although the evidence remains inconclusive, it is widely presumed the intended target was the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.[1]
After the hijackers took control of the plane, severalpassengers and flight attendants were able to make telephone calls and learn that attacks had been made on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia. Some of the passengers thenmade an attempt to regain control of the aircraft. During the attempt, however, the plane crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 80miles (130 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. All on board, including the four hijackers, were killed. A few witnessed the impact from the ground and newsagencies began reporting the event within an hour.
Subsequent analysis of the flight recorders recovered from the crash site revealed how the actions taken by the passengers prevented the aircraft fromreaching the hijackers' intended target. Of the four aircraft hijacked on September 11 – the others were American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 175 –...