The short answer
On September 11, 2001, four hijackers affiliated with al-Qaeda took control of United Airlines Flight 93 en route from Newark to San Francisco, intending to crash it into a federal government building in Washington, D. C. After learning by phone of the day's other attacks, passengers and crew fought back, and the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people aboard.
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Dateline Episode Trailer -- Heroes: The Story of Flight 93 | Dateline NBC
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United Airlines Flight 93 was a scheduled domestic flight operated with a Boeing 757-200, registration N591UA, from Newark International Airport, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport, California. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the flight was hijacked by four men affiliated with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda as part of the coordinated September 11 attacks. The hijackers intended to crash the aircraft into a federal government building in Washington, D.C. A 42-minute ground delay let passengers and crew learn by phone of the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that morning, and, recognizing their flight was likely part of a similar suicide mission, a group of passengers organized to fight back. In the resulting struggle, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people aboard and preventing the hijackers from reaching their intended target.
Roughly forty-six minutes into the flight, at about 9:28 a.m., the hijackers fatally stabbed a first-class passenger believed to have been Mark Rothenberg and then stormed the cockpit, struggling with the flight crew as air traffic controllers listened in. A Cleveland controller picked up a distress transmission of a man shouting, "Mayday! Mayday! Get out of here! We're all gonna die here!" The cockpit voice recorder captured a hijacker announcing a bomb on board, the sounds of a wounded crew member moaning, and a flight attendant believed to be purser Deborah Welsh pleading before she was killed or otherwise silenced. Beginning at 9:30 a.m., passengers and crew called family members, colleagues, and emergency dispatchers from onboard phones; flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and CeeCee Lyles reported the hijacking, and passenger Edward Felt reached a 9-1-1 dispatcher from the rear of the aircraft.
After passengers voted on whether to act, the revolt began at 9:57 a.m. Passenger Todd Beamer, connected to a telephone operator, said he and other passengers were planning to storm the hijacker guarding the cabin; his final recorded words were "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll." Passengers Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick each called family members about the plan to rush the cockpit; Burnett told his wife, "Don't worry, we're going to do something," and Glick stayed on the line until the end of the flight. The cockpit voice recorder captured sounds of the assault, including the use of a food cart as a battering ram against the cockpit door, as the hijackers maneuvered the plane to knock passengers off balance. At 10:03 a.m., amid the struggle, the aircraft crashed into the field near Shanksville. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the plane struck the ground at 563 miles per hour in a forty-degree, nose-down, inverted attitude, leaving a crater eight to ten feet deep.
Investigators recovered the flight data recorder on September 13, 2001, and the cockpit voice recorder the next day, buried 25 feet below the crater. The county coroner identified about 1,500 fragments of human remains, roughly eight percent of the total; all 40 non-hijacker occupants had been identified by December 21, 2001, and their death certificates listed the cause of death as homicide. The FBI restricted public access to the cockpit recording, though victims' relatives heard it in a closed 2002 session, and a transcript was released publicly in 2006 after being played during a related federal trial. Flight 93's passengers and crew were nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal in September 2001 and received it in 2014. A permanent Flight 93 National Memorial, its design selected through a 2005 competition, was dedicated in 2011, with a visitor center opening four years later.
Flight 93 departed Newark International Airport at 8:42 a.m. after a 42-minute delay, following its scheduled 8:00 a.m. departure.
Hijackers stormed the cockpit at approximately 9:28 a.m. after killing one passenger, then took control of the aircraft and diverted it toward Washington, D.C.
After learning by phone of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, passengers and crew voted at 9:57 a.m. to storm the cockpit and began their revolt.
The aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m., killing all 44 people aboard short of its intended target.
Investigators recovered the flight data recorder from the crash site.
Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder, found buried 25 feet below the crater.
The passengers and crew of Flight 93 were nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal.
All 44 people aboard Flight 93 had been identified through analysis of recovered remains.
The FBI allowed relatives of Flight 93 victims to listen to the cockpit voice recording in a closed session.
The 'Crescent of Embrace' design was selected from 1,011 submissions as the winning design for the permanent Flight 93 National Memorial.
A bill was introduced in Congress proposing the Congressional Gold Medal for the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
The transcript of the Flight 93 cockpit voice recording, played for jurors during a related federal trial, was publicly released.
The permanent Flight 93 National Memorial was dedicated.
Congress granted the Congressional Gold Medal to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
The Flight 93 National Memorial visitor center opened, four years after the memorial's dedication.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Flight attendant aboard Flight 93; called her husband twice by phone, reporting the hijacking and later that passengers were forcing their way into the cockpit.[3]
Purser aboard Flight 93; a woman believed to be Welsh was heard on the cockpit voice recorder pleading with the hijackers before being killed or otherwise silenced.[3]
Passenger who called 9-1-1 from the rear of the aircraft to report the hijacking.[3]
Passenger who called her stepmother during the hijacking, ending the call as passengers moved to breach the cockpit.[3]
Captain of Flight 93, aged 43; killed when hijackers stormed the cockpit.[3]
Passenger who called his wife and remained on the line until the end of the flight, reporting that passengers had voted to rush the hijackers.[3]
Passenger who called his father during the hijacking to report that the flight had been hijacked.[3]
Passenger who made multiple phone calls to her husband and others during the hijacking.[3]
First officer of Flight 93, aged 36; killed when hijackers stormed the cockpit. His widow identified his voice on the cockpit recording shouting distress warnings during the struggle.[3]
Passenger who left her sister a phone message reporting that there were men with a bomb aboard.[3]
Flight attendant aboard Flight 93; named among the crew who died in the crash.[3]
Passenger who called a friend during the hijacking and said the passengers believed they were going to be killed.[3]
Passenger who called his mother during the hijacking to report that the plane had been taken over by men claiming to have a bomb.[3]
First-class passenger, seat 5B; the source describes him as believed to have been the passenger fatally stabbed by a hijacker early in the hijacking, though this identification is not certain.[3]
Flight attendant aboard Flight 93; called the United Airlines maintenance facility and then her husband to report the hijacking, saying she was heating water to throw at the hijackers.[3]
Passenger who organized a plan with other passengers to retake the aircraft; his last recorded words to a telephone operator were 'Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll.'[3]
Passenger who made several phone calls to his wife describing the hijacking and telling her that passengers were planning to act.[3]
Passenger who attempted unsuccessfully to place a call during the hijacking.[3]
Flight attendant aboard Flight 93; named among the crew who died in the crash.[3]
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