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American Morning
America's New War: Look Back at Heroes of United Airlines Flight 93
Aired September 18, 2001 - 10:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's right about at this moment that one week ago, United Airlines flight 93 crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. You recall, this is the track of the aircraft. It left Newark Airport, bound for San Francisco, and took a very sudden U-turn around Cleveland, heading back toward Washington, D.C.
Now, it was, as we say, the fourth aircraft hijacked. The other -- when it became apparent that there was trouble, the other three had crashed into buildings, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the president, we now know, authorized Air Force fighter jets to, if necessary, shoot down this aircraft if it were heading for, say, the Capitol or the White House. Well, fortunately, that fighter pilot did not have to make that dreadful decision.
And he did not have to make that decision because it appears from all we have been hearing, based on those phone calls, that the passengers on United 93 took some heroic action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Little more than an hour after United flight 93 left Newark Airport for San Francisco, the 757 reversed course and was heading toward Washington. Passengers began making frantic phone calls home.
Passenger Jeremy Glick, a 31-year-old, 6'1 Judo champ called his wife to tell her the plane was hijacked. That the hijackers stabbed a flight attendant, and to find out if what he'd heard was true - that another plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
When she said, yes, he put down the phone, and came back and told her the male passengers the taken a vote to attack the hijackers.
Todd Beamer was one of the other men who voted to attack. He used a GTE air phone to call a GTE supervisor who patched him through to the FBI. Beamer told the FBI one hijackers positioned in the rear of the plane claimed to have a bomb strapped to his body, and that he, Beamer, and the others were going to jump him.
He had the GTE supervisor promise to call his wife, Lisa, who was due with their third child in January. After Beamer put the phone down, the supervisor overheard him say, "let's roll." Passenger Tom Burnett, a 6'2 former high school quarterback was also apparently part of the group. He called his wife four times during the hijacking. On the last call he told her the male passengers were getting ready to do something.
DEENA BURNETT, WIFE OF HIJACK VICTIM: He said they already knifed a guy. They are saying they have a bomb. Please call the authorities.
O'BRIEN: The fourth member of the passenger revolt, and there may have been others, was Mark Bingham, a 6'5 rugby player. He was sitting in first class with Tom Burnett, and as it turns out, two of the hijackers. He called his mother to say goodbye.
ALICE HOGLAN, MOTHER OF HIJACK VICTIM: He said, I want you to know I love you very much. And I'm calling you from the plane, we've been taken over. There are three men that say they have a bomb.
O'BRIEN: There is no way we can know what happened after the passengers decided to attack. President Bush authorized U.S. fighter planes to shoot down the airliner if it threatened the nation's capitol. It never got that far.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): Now, near the crash site in Pennsylvania, mourners gathered for a memorial service to honor the victims of United flight 93. First Lady Laura Bush joined friends and family at yesterday's service. Mrs. Bush told them the nation stands by them during their time of unimagineable grief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: This has been a week of loss and heartache, of a kind none of us could have ever imagined. What happened in New York City in Washington, and here in Pennsylvania caused deep suffering across our country. We're still grieving as the details become known, and especially as we learn the names of the lost, the story of their deaths, and the story of each of their livers. All of us, as americans, share in this grief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Also yesterday, some family members visited the crash site to grieve, and to leave know momentos in honor of their loved ones.
As we all know, in the wake of those attacks, the air traffic control system was shut down. That was an unprecedented action by the FAA. This is a replay of what's going on over the United States, and in particular Pennsylvania this morning. This is from 8:25 eastern times. The skies are full again. Planes going to and fro. Nearly back to normal, but of course in many ways, normalcy eludes us.
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