United Flight 93
UA 93's flight path on September 11, 2001, from Newark, New Jersey, to Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
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| Suicide hijacking summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | Tuesday, September 11, 2001 |
| Summary | Terrorist suicide hijacking |
| Site | Field near the Diamond T. Mine, a coal strip mine in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Passengers | 37 (including 4 hijackers) |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 44 (including 4 hijackers) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 757–222 |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| Registration | N591UA |
| Flight origin | Newark Int'l Airport (now Newark Liberty Int'l Airport) |
| Destination | San Francisco Int'l Airport |
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four Al-Qaeda terrorists on board, as part of the September 11 attacks. It crashed into a field near the Diamond T. Mine in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, near Indian Lake and Shanksville, during an attempt by the passengers and crew to regain control, killing all 44 people aboard including the four hijackers. No one on the ground was injured. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 757–222, was flying United Airlines' daily scheduled morning domestic flight from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California.
The hijackers stormed the aircraft's cockpit approximately 46 minutes after takeoff. The pilots "did something that caused the airplane to not function well". Ziad Jarrah, a trained pilot, took control of the aircraft and diverted it back toward the east coast of the United States in the direction of Washington, D.C. Although the specific target is not known, it is believed that the hijackers were intending to crash the plane into either the White House or the Capitol Building.
After the hijackers took control of the plane, several passengers and flight attendants were able to make phone calls and learn that attacks had already been made by other hijacked airliners on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Many of the passengers then attacked the hijackers in an attempt to gain control of the aircraft. During the struggle, the plane crashed into a field near a reclaimed strip mine in Stonycreek Township, near Indian Lake and Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 130 miles (210 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. A few witnessed the impact from the ground and news agencies began reporting the event within an hour. Vice President Dick Cheney, in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center deep under the White House, upon learning that United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania, is reported to have said, "I think an act of heroism just took place on that plane."
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