Dawn of 9/11
On the morning of September 11, 2001, at 5:00 a.m., Al-Qaeda hijacker Ziad Jarrah left the Days Inn Hotel with his fellow hijackers. Ziad and his associates planned to hijack American Airlines Flight 93, departing from Newark Airport, and potentially crash it into the Capitol Hill building in Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital. Their likely objective was to target U.S. government officials. Before boarding the plane, Ziad made calls to five different places.
One of these calls was to Lebanon, where his ancestral home was, another to France, and a third to his girlfriend in Germany. Later, in a German court, Ziad’s girlfriend, Aysel Senguen, testified:
“On the morning of September 11, Ziad called me while I was in the hospital due to throat surgery.”
“Ziad said some short but strange things,” she said. He told Aysel three times, “I love you.”
Aysel asked, “What’s the matter?” Ziad repeated, “I love you,” and then hung up the phone. This was Aysel’s last conversation with Ziad, as he then embarked on his final mission. While Ziad dreamed of marrying Aysel on one hand, he was also actively involved with Al-Qaeda. This was undoubtedly a strange contradiction.
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Bad Men
The group of four Al-Qaeda members, tasked with hijacking Flight 93, arrived at Newark Airport under the leadership of Ziad Jarrah, who was a trained pilot. The other members of this group, all from Saudi Arabia, included Ahmed Al-Haznawi, Saeed Al-Ghamdi, and Ahmed Al-Nami. At the airport, when the four hijackers passed through the security checkpoint, the airport’s security system flagged one of them, Ahmed Al-Haznawi, as suspicious. However, after further checks, Newark’s security staff cleared Haznawi.
Jarrah took seat 1B in the business class of Flight 93, which was directly in front of the cockpit.
Ahmed Al-Haznawi sat in seat 6B, while Saeed Al-Ghamdi and Ahmed Al-Nami occupied seats 3D and 3C, respectively. The flight was scheduled to depart from Newark to San Fransisco at 8:00 a.m., but due to congestion at the airport, it was delayed by 42 minutes. Interestingly, just three minutes after this flight took off, Al-Qaeda’s main hijacker, Mohamed Atta, crashed Flight 11 into the World Trade Center in New York.
The Twin Towers were clearly visible from Newark Airport. Had the flight been delayed by another three or four minutes, its passengers could have directly witnessed the World Trade Center attack.
It is also possible that the flight could have been grounded and spared from disaster.
However, the ill-fated flight had already taken off. Out of 182 available seats on the aircraft, only 44 people, including crew members, were on board. Most of the seats on the plane were empty.
View of World Trade Centre
At 9:05 a.m., when Al-Qaeda’s hijackers crashed the second plane, Flight 175, into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, Flight 93 had reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. At this point, the flight attendants began serving meals to the passengers. Following the World Trade Center attacks, New York Air Traffic Control started issuing safety alerts to other planes in the air, instructing them not to allow anyone into their cockpits. At 9:23 a.m., such a message was sent to Flight 93.
At 9:26 a.m., the plane’s pilot, Jason Dahl, confirmed receipt of the message and sent an acknowledgment back to the control center. At 09:27:25 a.m., the flight crew responded to a routine radio message from Air Traffic Control. This was the last communication from the flight crew before the hijacking. Approximately 46 minutes after takeoff, at 9:28 a.m., the hijackers launched their assault to take control of the cockpit. The most significant indication of this, as noted on the radar, was the sudden descent of the plane by 680 feet in just 30 seconds.
In the Cockpit
At 09:28:17, Cleveland Airport’s Air Traffic Control, located near Flight 93, heard unclear sounds of possible screams or a struggle. Only 35 seconds later, the pilot’s voice was heard over Air Traffic Control, saying, “Mayday, mayday, get out of here, get out of here.” From the pilot’s voice, it was evident that while he was signaling Air Traffic Control about the grave danger, he was also addressing the hijackers trying to enter the cockpit, asking them to leave. However, the hijackers soon neutralized both pilots and took control of the aircraft. At 09:32 a.m., hijacker Ziad Jarrah made an announcement to the passengers of Flight 93:
“Ladies and gentlemen: This is the captain speaking. Please sit down and remain seated. We have a bomb onboard, so sit down.”
Apparently, this message was intended for the passengers on the plane, but either by mistake or intentionally, it was recorded by Air Traffic Control. At 09:35 a.m., Jarrah disengaged the autopilot mode of the plane and began flying it manually. He turned the westbound aircraft back eastward. At 09:28 a.m., after the hijacking, passengers on the plane began using the GTE Airfone to contact their loved ones on the ground. The first call in this series was made at 09:30 a.m.
Connection with Land
One of the passengers, Tom Burnett, spoke to his wife, Deena, at 09:30:32.
Deena was at home, busy with the children, while also listening to the news about the World Trade Center on television. She was already worried about her husband Tom, who was supposed to be on a flight departing from Newark Airport that morning. Deena’s mother-in-law, Tom’s mother, dialed Tom’s number. The phone rang, and after a while, Tom answered.
“Deena”
Deena said, “Hello.”
Tom asked, “Deena?”
Deena said, “Tom, are you okay?”
Tom replied with some concern, “No, I’m not okay. I’m on a plane that has been hijacked.”
Deena then told Tom about the planes that had just crashed into the World Trade Center towers.
Hearing this, Tom informed his fellow passengers sitting nearby about the crashes at the World Trade Center. Tom also described the situation inside the plane to Deena: Two hijackers were in the cockpit, while two others were guarding the cockpit door with bombs in their possession.
He also mentioned that the hijackers had red bandanas tied around their heads.
After some time, Deena made another call and informed Tom that a plane had just crashed into the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters. Tom once again shared this news with his fellow passengers.
They began piecing the information together and concluded that the same fate might befall their plane.
Tom reassured his wife, saying, “Don’t worry. We are planning to take back control of the plane. One of our fellow passengers has a license to fly small planes. Once we regain control, we will use his experience to land the plane safely.”
Emotional Moments
At 09:37:03, another young passenger, Mark Bingham, called his mother. As soon as his mother answered, he said, “Hello, Mom! This is Mark Bingham. I want to tell you that I love you very much.” He added, “Our plane has been hijacked by three hijackers. They have knives and a bomb.”
Mark’s mother, who was once a flight attendant herself, asked, “Mark, who are they?” In response, Mark said, “Mom, trust me.” In a caring tone, his mother replied, “I trust you, Mark.”
She continued, “Tell me, who are they?” At that moment, Mark’s call dropped.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, his mother turned on the TV and learned that three planes had already crashed. She concluded that her son’s plane had also been hijacked.
She immediately tried calling her son again, but the call didn’t go through, so she left him a voice message.
In the message, she said, “Some planes have already been hijacked and crashed. Perhaps the same might happen to your plane. Here’s what you should do: work together with the others and overpower the hijackers to regain control of the plane.” She ended the message with, “Son, I love you very much.”
At 09:43 a.m., another passenger, Todd Beamer, tried calling his pregnant wife, but the call did not connect.
He pressed zero on the airphone to speak with an operator on the telephone company’s helpline.
Beamer explained the entire situation to the operator, Lisa, and said to her,
“Can you do me a favor? Can you tell my wife and family how much I love them?” Lisa promised that she would deliver his message. She also offered to try connecting his call to his wife immediately, but this time Beamer declined. He said he didn’t want his wife, who was pregnant at the time, to go through the shock of the situation.
After understanding the circumstances outside, the passengers on the plane concluded that they had to regain control of the aircraft at all costs. Otherwise, the hijackers could crash the plane anywhere. The passengers were using the airphones on the plane to try to contact their loved ones on the ground.
Many of them, in a deeply emotional manner, were reassuring their loved ones of their love.
Entangled Between Love and Mission
Ironically, the main hijacker of Flight 93, Ziad Jarrah, had made similar reassurances to his girlfriend just a day earlier. The day before hijacking Flight 93, he had sent a heartfelt letter to his Turkish girlfriend, Aysel Sengün. In the letter, Jarrah addressed her with the mixed German and Arabic term “Chabibi” and wrote:
“I will wait for you until you reach me. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they must take action… You should be very proud of me. It is an honor. You will see the results; everyone will be happy…”
Forever your man!
Ziad Jarrah”
Along with the letter, Jarrah sent his pilot license, pilot logbook, and a photograph of a beach to his girlfriend.
Ziad completed his higher education in the city of Hamburg, Germany. There, he found both the love of his girlfriend, Aysel Sengün, and the hardline ideologies of al-Qaeda. He connected with both, but he never let Aysel know about his involvement with al-Qaeda.
The Revolt
Inside the plane, passengers began discussing a revolt. Flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw called her husband at 9:50:04 and informed him about the situation.
She also told him that the passengers were planning to overpower the hijackers together. She said she was heating water in the back of the plane to throw at the hijackers to subdue them. Since two hijackers were standing guard at the cockpit door while the passengers were gathered at the back of the plane discussing their plans, the hijackers realized that the passengers were preparing to revolt and might attack at any moment.
From the cockpit recordings and the passengers’ communication with the ground, it was evident that the passengers of Flight 93 began executing their plan for revolt at 9:57 a.m.
Passenger Todd Beamer, who was in contact with operator Lisa, was overheard by Lisa. saying:
“Friends, are you ready?
Alright.
Let’s roll.”
After that, the sounds of a food trolley moving and dishes falling could be heard. It seemed the passengers were using the food trolley to ram into the hijackers standing at the cockpit door. Inside the cockpit, Ziad Jarrah yelled,
“What is it?
Is there a fight happening?”
The hijacker standing at the cockpit door informed Ziad Jarrah that the passengers had launched an attack and were trying to break into the cockpit. In response, Ziad Jarrah began turning the plane left and right to disrupt the passengers’ balance and thwart their assault. The passengers persisted in their efforts, prompting Jarrah to shout from inside the cockpit: “Hold the door firmly! Hold it!”
He then began pitching the plane’s nose up and down. There was chaos, with the passengers’ voices shouting, dishes breaking, and the hijackers at the cockpit door screaming as the passengers mounted a vigorous attack.
The Final Move
At 10:00 a.m., Jarrah consulted with a fellow hijacker sitting next to him: “Should we finish it?”
The other replied, “No! not yet. When everyone comes, then we’ll finish it.” Once again, Jarrah jolted the plane up and down. Despite the severe turbulence causing them to stumble and fall, the passengers refused to give up.
One passenger shouted: “Get into the cockpit! If we don’t, we’ll die!”
At 10:00:16, another passenger yelled:
“Roll it!”
This was likely a reference to ramming the food cart into the cockpit door.
The relentless assault by the passengers began to overwhelm the two hijackers guarding the cockpit door.
At 10:01, Jarrah recited “Takbeer” or Quranic verses twice. He then asked another hijacker:
“Now, is it time! Should we bring it down?”
The other hijacker responded: “Yes! Bring it down now.”
From the back, a male passenger shouted, “Pull it up!”
A second later, a hijacker said, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”
Jarrah was shouting in Arabic, “Give it to me!” This was possibly a reference to the plane’s yoke, the control wheel. The passengers were just seconds away from breaking through the cockpit door. At that moment, Ziad Jarrah pitched the plane’s nose downward at a 40-degree angle towards the ground and shouted:
“GOD IS GREAT” with full force.
This was the final recording from the cockpit. At 10:03 a.m., the plane, traveling at a speed of 500 miles per hour, crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania State. All those aboard the plane met their eternal rest.
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