United Airlines flight 93 was hijacked on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States by al-Qaeda. Some 45 minutes after the plane departed from Newark International Airport in New Jersey, four hijackers attacked the cockpit, and “Mayday” was declared over a radio transmission as sounds of a physical struggle were heard. At 9:32 AM a hijacker announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen: Here the captain, please sit down keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board. So, sit.” At 9:57 AM passengers voted to rush the cockpit in an attempt to retake the plane. During a call with an air phone operator, Todd Beamer, one of the passengers, was heard saying, “Are you ready. Okay. Let’s roll.” Five minutes later, with the passengers apparently close to breaching the cockpit door, the hijackers decided to “pull it down” and began a sharp descent. Subsequent audio recordings led some to believe that the passengers managed to get inside the cockpit and struggle over the controls. At 10:03 AM flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people on board. The plane would have reached Washington, D.C.—its suspected destination—in about 20 minutes.
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