They were fantastic heros that should be in our history books forever. Here is a recap from my local paper. I cry with pride and sadness when I think of them and what they did. Their heroism cannot be overstated. They are AMERICA.
FLIGHT 93
Heroic struggle to thwart plan
By Kristi Belcamino and Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMESS
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Somewhere over Cleveland, San Ramon's Tom Burnett noticed that his flight wasn't headed home to San Francisco anymore.
When the Boeing 757 lurched into a U-turn, none of the 38 passengers knew where the plane was headed, but they knew soon enough they had been hijacked.
Three men speaking a foreign language stalked the aisle with knives and box cutters. They showed passengers a red box, claiming it was a bomb. At least one person was stabbed.
In the cabin, in a flurry of activity, passengers huddled in groups and dialed their loved ones on cellphones, speaking quietly and quickly. One man locked himself in the bathroom and called 911.
Burnett and Jeremy Glick called their wives. The men were shocked to hear what had happened to three other planes hijacked that morning. Knowing their probable fate, they took a vote. A plan was made. The fight over control of United Airlines Flight 93 was on.
The day after terrorists hijacked four planes, destroying thousands of lives by crashing two aircraft into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York and a third into the Pentagon outside Washington, evidence suggests that a handful of passengers aboard Flight 93 gave their lives to prevent terrorists from crashing their plane into an unknown target, but one likely in Washington.
They are being hailed as heroes.
"That is very, very possible," FBI spokesman Andy Black said. "It appears from conversations with family members and loved ones on the ground that at least several individuals on that plane, including Burnett, realized the dire situation and took action in an attempt to regain control of the plane. I believe that they are responsible for averting a further and greater loss of life."
Neither Burnett nor Glick had planned to be on Flight 93. After a delay the previous night, Glick had postponed his flight from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco to the next morning. Anxious to get home, Burnett, 38, boarded Flight 93, an earlier flight than he had booked.
Though they didn't plan to be there, the men joined to hatch a daring plot to overtake their captors. Instead of sounding frightened in their cellphone calls, Burnett and Glick seemed gung-ho. Loved ones could hear the adrenaline in their voices.
"We could take them! We could take them!" family members on the phone overhead Glick telling other passengers.
About 6:44 a.m., Deena Burnett was serving her three children breakfast at their San Ramon home when the phone rang. It was the first of four tense calls from Tom that morning.
"Please sit down and don't draw attention to yourself,'" Deena Burnett told her husband during the last call, sometime between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. "He said, 'No. They're going to run the plane into the ground. We're going to get up and do something.'"
Then Thomas Burnett hung up. It was the last time Deena Burnett would hear her husband's voice.
Other conversations were taking place on the plane. Using a phone on the back of the seat in front of him, Jeremy Glick called his wife, Liz, who was at her parents' house with their 2-month-old daughter. His plane had been hijacked by three men armed with knives, he said.
Liz patched the call through to a 911 dispatcher in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The dispatcher, Liz and both her parents listened in as Glick described the man and gave a play-by-play of their movements about the plane.
The men had voted and decided to rush the hijackers, Glick told his loved ones.
"He died a hero's death -- as any soldier who would have received a medal of honor," said Glick's uncle, Tom Crowley.
About 6:45 a.m., Mark Bingham called his mother's house in San Jose. He spoke briefly to his aunt, who passed the phone to his mother, Alice Hoglan.
"This is Mark Bingham," he told her. "I love you. I'm on a flight from Newark to San Francisco and the plane has been taken over by three guys and they say they have a bomb."
Then he seemed distracted for a moment and told her, "'Yes, it's true.'"
She asked who the hijackers were, but the phone went dead.
About 10 a.m., Flight 93 crashed into the ground southeast of Pittsburgh, Pa., creating a huge crater and leaving virtually no trace of the plane.
The wreckage and scene on the ground indicate the plane was in a nose dive, possibly traveling close to 350 mph, said Barry Schiff, an aviation safety consultant and retired TWA captain.
Schiff said that, based on the flight path, the hijackers most likely gained control of the plane above Cleveland. The 757 then headed east, passing just south of Pittsburgh before it zigzagged and plowed into the ground.
"(The zigzag) might indicate the beginning of a struggle," Schiff said. The loss of control indicates that no one was flying the airplane -- or that someone else interfered.
"If the hijacker was in the cockpit flying the airplane and in an attempt to wrestle control of the plane, some force hit the controls, sending the plane toward the ground," Schiff said. "Lord knows."
Staff Writer Yvonne Condes contributed to this story. Kristi Belcamino and Karl Fischer cover police, crime and public safety. Reach Kristi at 925-945-4782 or kbelcamino@cctimes.com. Reach Karl at 925-945-4780 or kfischer@cctimes.com. |
