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Posted on 11/27/2001, 2:28:44 AM by blam

Hijackers squabbled as passengers fought back

FROM KATTY KAY IN WASHINGTON

TERRORIST hijackers flew United Airlines Flight 93 into the ground deliberately as they argued about how to stop a courageous group of passengers from bombarding them with crockery and almost regaining control of the cockpit. While this desperate struggle went on at the cockpit door, passengers could be heard crying and praying in the last moments of the Boeing 757, which were revealed for the first time yesterday.

Through the anguished voices of all on board, there is chilling evidence of just how close these few passengers came to averting disaster on the fourth hijacked plane on September 11, according to a Newsweek report.

The four hijackers, red bandanas tied around their heads, are heard screaming at each other. One shouts that they should use the axe kept in the cockpit to beat back the passengers as the sound of plates and metal trays crash repeatedly against the door. Another is almost in tears as he pleads for his fellow hijackers to “take it easy”. He is drowned out by one of the gang screaming “Give it to me” as he fights with his own comrades for the aircraft controls.

The one at the controls decides to try to knock the passengers off their feet as a last line of defence by putting the aircraft into a steep dive. He is heard mumbling to himself about cutting off oxygen to the passenger compartment but cannot find the right control. As half a dozen men charge up the aisle towards the cockpit, the hijackers, hearing this bedlam, suddenly realise that two of their team are left outside and are heard dragging them inside to safety as they push away the first of their assailants.

One of the passengers was a trained pilot whose job it would have been to steer Flight 93 to safety. Two others had played American football. They had said their farewells to loved ones from telephones on the backs of the aircraft seats or their mobiles.

The aircraft was now beginning to roll and from the jigsaw of voices pieced together from the black box recordings it sounds as if at least one of the passengers had by now forced his way into the cockpit. He reaches for the controls, the effort clearly audible on these tapes.

This struggle for life goes on for at least eight minutes until the hijackers’ leader, believed to be Ziad Jarrah, realises they are outnumbered and in Arabic tells the other al-Qaeda recruits that they must crash the aircraft rather than let themselves be captured.

They never reveal what their target was to be — Camp David, the Three Mile Island nuclear site or any Washington landmark — but Jarrah is the one who decides they cannot carry out their mission. His is the last voice picked up the black box as he cries out: “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest). The time was 10.06am.

Less than an hour earlier in the cockpit of Flight UA93, Captain Jason Dahl, 43, who had learnt to fly before he could drive, and Leroy Homer, 36, the first officer, received a radioed text message from air traffic control in Chicago warning aircraft of that morning’s hijackings.

“Beware cockpit intrusion,” the text message said. At about 9.15am, the crew typed a one-word reply: “Confirmed.”

At 9.28am, the hijackers — Jarrah, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Haznawi, Saeed al-Ghamdi and Ahmed al-Nami, all in their 20s — made their move. They were the youngest of the hijack teams sent by Osama bin Laden and were shorthanded because, the FBI believes, the man who should have taken over this flight could not get a visa. Air traffic controllers on the ground heard muffled screams and Captain Dahl shouting: “Hey, get out of here.”

It was then that the hijackers make their first mistake. Thinking that they are speaking to the passengers, they switch on a microphone, but their heavily accented voices are relayed to air traffic control. The controllers sit powerless, listening to someone — probably one of the pilots — pleading for his life. From the frenzied telephone calls that would come from the passengers, it seems that the hijackers cut the crew’s throats.

Confident that he is in control, 27-year-old Jarrah says in halting English: “Hi, this is the captain. We’d like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board. We are going to turn back to the airport. And they have our demands, so please be quiet.”

Jarrah was an engineering student who lived in Germany with his girlfriend. Just before boarding the plane at Newark he had telephoned her to talk about a wedding they were invited to attend that weekend.

The 33 passengers and surviving crew were herded to the back of the aircraft, which turned nearly 180 degrees back on its flight path, heading towards Ronald Reagan International Airport, Washington DC.

Two of the hijackers — Jarrah, 26, a trained pilot, and al-Haznawi — flew the aircraft. Another remained at the curtains dividing first and second class, while a fourth stood over the bodies of the murdered crew.

Some of the passengers realised that they could reach the in-flight phones. At least 26 made poignant calls, all of them knowing it was the last call they would make. Sandra Bradshaw, a stewardess, called her husband, Phil, a pilot, who was looking after their two children, Alexandria, 2, and Nathan, 1, at home in North Carolina.

She kept calm, explaining what had happened and what they could do, then, realising that there was no escape, telling him how much she loved them all and how he should kiss their children.

Elizabeth Wainio ended her phone call with her stepmother, saying: “I’ve got to go, they’re breaking into the cockpit. I love you. Goodbye.”

At 9.57am, the cockpit voice recorder picked up sounds of a struggle, with one passenger shouting: “Let’s get them.”

On board the passengers were giving a running commentary on how the hijackers were struggling to keep the aircraft straight and how they were planning to take back the Boeing that should have been on its way to San Francisco. Jeremy Glick, 31, a website sales manager and former judo champion from New Jersey, called his wife, Lyz, who was staying with their daughter Emmy, aged three months, at her father’s home.

In detail he told her what the hijackers were doing while she telephoned the police on another line. Mr Glick asked if it was true what another passenger had heard in a call, that terrorists had crashed aircraft into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. She bit back her tears and said:
“You need to be strong, but, yes, they are doing that.” Her husband realised that those on board had no other option because they were not hostages but were trapped on a flying bomb. She could hear him formulating a plan with two other men, now identified as Tom Burnett and Mark Bingham, 31, from San Francisco, who ran his own PR company. All were more than 6ft tall, well-built and fit. As the three discussed attacking the hijackers, Mrs Glick said: “Honey, you need to do it.”

He joked about using a plastic butter knife as a weapon. Then he said: “Stay on the line, I’ll be back.”

Todd Beamer, 32, an accounts manager from New Jersey, married with two sons, decided not to call his pregnant wife, Lisa, because he did not want to worry her with bad news. Instead, he telephoned the switchboard of the company that provides the telephone service on United Airlines flights.Whispering, he told how one of the gang appeared to have a bomb strapped around his waist with a red belt. “In case I don't make it through this, would you please do me a favour and call my wife and my family, and let them know how much I love them.”Seconds later the aircraft nosedived into a disused quarry in Pennsylvania.

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