McMillan - Flight 93: the story, the aftermath, and the legacy of American courage on 9/11

Flight 93

Flight 93

The Story, the Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11

Tom McMillan

Foreword by Governor Tom Ridge

Copyright 2014 by Tom McMillan

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

Project editor: Meredith Dias

Layout: Adam Caporiccio

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN 978-0-7627-9522-2

eISBN 978-1-4930-1421-7

Contents

In Memoriam

THE CREW AND PASSENGERS OF FLIGHT 93

Pilots

Captain Jason M. Dahl

First Officer LeRoy Homer

Flight Attendants

Lorraine G. BayCeeCee Ross Lyles

Sandy Waugh BradshawDeborah Jacobs Welsh

Wanda Anita Green

Passengers

Christian Adams

Todd M. Beamer

Alan Anthony Beaven

Mark Bingham

Deora Frances Bodley

Marion R. Britton

Thomas E. Burnett Jr.

William Joseph Cashman

Georgine Rose Corrigan

Patricia Cushing

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

Linda Gronlund

Richard J. Guadagno

Toshiya Kuge

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

Foreword

by Governor Tom Ridge

Honorary Co-Chair, Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign

First Secretary, US Department of Homeland Security

43rd Governor of Pennsylvania

The Founders of the United States of America affirmed by their own words and deeds that preservation of liberty is more than an ideal but a way of life. They hoped that way of life would see the country and the greater world through inevitable challenges and the passage of time.

How proud they would be to know that the stand for liberty and freedom has long had a home in the American experienceas a group of forty courageous people demonstrated on September 11, 2001.

Every September 11 that has passed since that year, people have gathered to honor the nearly three thousand soulscitizens of the world from more than eighty nationswho lost their lives on that tragic day.

We miss them, but we also have worked hard to celebrate the contributions they made while they were here.

Among those contributions is the accounting we have of the last hard moments of the fourth planethe plane that began to veer from course and speed toward the US Capitol, the plane that didnt reach that intended target, the plane that held the brave passengers and crew of United Flight 93.

The sweeping and inspiring story of Flight 93, of bravery that had no bounds, spoke volumes of people, brought together by chance, but bound together by courage.

Having learned of the fate of the other three planes and the terrorists intentions for theirs, the men and women of Flight 93 rose up and fought backcollectively and intrepidly and at all costs.

Because of their sacrifice on that day, lives were saved, and thus heroes were made over the skies of Shanksville.

These extraordinary men and women have our respect, our admiration, our gratitude, and, with it all, our promise that future generations will know their names as well as their selfless and moving valedictory.

Through the devotion and hard work of the Families of Flight 93, the National Park Service, countless volunteers, and generous contributors, the Flight 93 National Memorial is now a beautiful and peaceful resting place for these forty precious souls. Visitors can come to this hallowed ground and learn of the people who fought the first battle against those who attacked our nation.

In this book, Tom McMillan wraps it all togetherthe moments and the memorial. But more than that, Tom shines a soft light on the lives of the passengers and crew. He takes off the generic label and, with the help of their family and friends, allows us to see the individual lives that the 40 Heroes connected to while on earth, the depth of their goodness, the reach of their ambitions, and the many reasons that help us understand where their strength and bravery originated.

This book tells the story of people whose courage mattered, whose lives had great meaning, and who remain deeply missed. Its a story that will long be told, respectfully and gratefully, just as we find on the pages that follow.

Governor Tom Ridge

Authors Note

We can never know every detail of what happened aboard Flight 93 when the passengers and crew staged their heroic revolt on September 11, 2001. But a number of sources, including the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder, and reports of phone calls from the plane, provide valuable information about their activitiesand the response of the hijackers.

As a result, it now is possible to piece together a reasonable step-by-step reconstruction of those final desperate minutes of their lives. I have attempted to do so in chapters 8 and 9, using the best information available thirteen years after the attack.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) created an animation of the Flight 93 flight path, based on the flight data recorder recovered at the scene. It enables us to know the altitude and direction of the plane throughout the flight. It also recorded the various turns made by the professional pilot and the hijacker pilotincluding the rocking of the wings in the final five minutes.

Phone calls made from passengers and crew from Airfones on the United Boeing 757 offer a window into their thoughts and actions. Three of those on board left voice messages for loved ones, and there are direct transcripts of their words. Twelve other calls that got through to family members or coworkers on the ground have been recounted in various forms. The wives of two passengers involved in the counterattack, Deena Burnett and Lyz Glick, wrote books that included details of their phone conversationsas did Lisa Jefferson, the GTE/Verizon operator who took a call from passenger Todd Beamer.

Most of passengers and crew, however, did not make phone calls from the air that day. It is impossible to know their storiesand, therefore, the complete story. Were they part of the planning? Did they participate in the counterattack in any way? Would they have provided different perspective? It is an everlasting mystery.

The FBI released a detailed transcript of the cockpit voice recorder that gives us a specific chronology of the voices and sounds in the cockpit during the last thirty-one minutes of Flight 93. As of 2014, the audio recording has not been made available to the general public. Only family members, investigators, and those involved in related court cases had listened to its content and the various pitches and inflections. Still, the transcript provides significant insight as to what was said and heard in the cockpit that day.