- Remembering 9/11
What happened on United Flight 93?
United Flight 93 was the fourth plane commandeered by hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, crashing in an empty field near a rural Pennsylvania borough. Two decades later, what happened in Shanksville remains lesser known than the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This educational tool details what happened and contains sensitive content.
8:42am
United Flight 93 takes off from Newark heading toward San Francisco. The plane had been delayed because of heavy morning traffic.
9:00am
The Federal Aviation Administration as well as airline officials begin to understand that they may be facing the prospect of multiple hijackings, but have not yet warned other flights.
9:02am
The plane reaches the assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet.
9:19am
A United Airlines dispatcher takes initiative and begins to warn multiple flights to “beware any cockpit intrusion — Two aircraft hit World Trade Center.”
9:24am
The dispatcher’s warning is received in the cockpit.
9:26am
Puzzled, the plane’s captain asks the dispatcher to “confirm latest mssg plz.”
9:28am
The plane dives about 600 feet from the assigned altitude. This is presumed to be the moment hijackers took control of the plane. Air traffic control receives a “mayday” radio transmission. Sounds of a physical struggle are also heard.
9:32am
Nearly an hour after takeoff, a hijacker makes or attempts to make an announcement to passengers: “We have a bomb on board.” FAA headquarters were made aware of the hijacking aboard United 93 minutes later.
9:34am
The plane turns southeast toward Washington D.C. Authorities later believed the White House or Capitol Building were possible targets.
9:45am
Some passengers and crew have already learned through phone calls that hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. They later share that passengers and crew members intended to revolt against the hijackers.
9:57am
Passengers begin their attempt to retake the plane. A flight attendant tells her husband that “everyone’s running up to first class” during a call. The hijackers roll the plane back and forth to throw them off balance.
9:59am
The hijackers and the passengers struggle for control of the cockpit.
10:02am
Under the possible realization that passengers may be close to overtaking them, the hijackers discuss pulling the plane down. They begin rapidly decreasing altitude.
10:03am
The plane crashes in an empty field, killing the 40 passengers and crew on board as well as the four hijackers.
United 93 was the fourth plane commandeered by hijackers during the 9/11 attacks. In the days and weeks following the crash, federal, state, and local officials flocked to the empty field just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The teams scoured scorched fields to identify human remains, and investigate the crash.
Photo: FBI
“There was nothing. No bodies, no wreckage,” said Andy Barth, of Somerset Area Ambulance Station 902, who was among the first responders to arrive on the scene that day. “Just scattered small pieces of metal. I didn’t see anything larger than five or six feet. I’d have never guessed it was a big plane like that.”
Photo: David Lloyd / AP
The flight recorder was found on Sept. 13. The FBI’s investigation ended about two weeks later, and found no evidence of an explosive device aboard the flight, contradicting what passengers had come to believe.
Photo: Department of Justice
The United 93 crash brought the world’s attention onto the small borough of Shanksville — a farming community 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh with a population of just 245 people at the time of the attack.
“How nice it is to live in a small town, not in a big city where these things happen,” one resident had told a coworker after hearing of the crashes at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but before the United 93 crash.
Photo: LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff File
The loud rumble, screeching nosedive, instant fireball and residual mushroom cloud of smoke were impossible to miss across town.
One resident said the crash, which left a 10- to 15-foot crater in the open field, felt like an “earthquake.” Another likened it to “when they blast the strip jobs,” a reference to the once bustling coal mining industry synonymous with Western Pennsylvania.
Photo: LAURENCE KESTERSON / File Photograph
- Read MoreShanksville honors United Flight 93 crash victims 20 years after 9/11
The small community could only imagine what was in store as media and officials descended on the region. "It's put the little town of Shanksville on the map and probably in the history books,” said one resident, “but not the way anyone would want to do it."
Today, its residents continue to honor the legacy of United 93’s victims.
Photo: TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
A 40-foot chain-link fence long served as a temporary memorial to the 40 passengers and crew members who died during the crash. Scores of tributes, including firemen’s helmets, crosses, pictures, and flowers, were left through the years.
Photo: LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff File
Today, the Flight 93 National Memorial pays tribute to the lives lost in the crash. It was completed in 2015 and is maintained by the National Park Service.
Photo: TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
The memorial honors the 40 passengers and crew members who died aboard United Flight 93. They are:
- Christian Adams
- Lorraine G. Bay
- Todd M. Beamer
- Alan Anthony Beaven
- Mark Bingham
- Deora Frances Bodley
- Sandy Waugh Bradshaw
- Marion R. Britton
- Thomas E. Burnett Jr.
- William Joseph Cashman
- Georgine Rose Corrigan
- Patricia Cushing
- Captain Jason M. Dahl
- Joseph DeLuca
- Patrick Joseph Driscoll
- Edward Porter Felt
- Jane C. Folger
- Colleen L. Fraser
- Andrew (Sonny) Garcia
- Jeremy Logan Glick
- Kristin Osterholm White Gould
- Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas
- Donald Freeman Greene
- Wanda Anita Green
- Linda Gronlund
- Richard J. Guadagno
- First Officer LeRoy Homer
- Toshiya Kuge
- CeeCee Ross Lyles
- Hilda Marcin
- Waleska Martinez
- Nicole Carol Miller
- Louis J. Nacke II
- Donald Arthur Peterson
- Jean Hoadley Peterson
- Mark David Rothenberg
- Christine Ann Snyder
- John Talignani
- Honor Elizabeth Wainio
- Deborah Jacobs Welsh
Photo: KEITH SRAKOCIC / AP
This story contains information from The 9/11 Commission Report, the National Park Service, The National Transport Safety Board, as well as archives from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, and The Daily Item.
Staff Contributors
Reporting: Sam Morris, Patricia Madej
Editing: Cindy Henry, Jessica Parks
Design & Development: Sam Morris
Digital: Jessica Parks, Rachel Molenda, Patricia Madej