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CNN Live At Daybreak
Cockpit Voice Recording From United Airlines Flight 93 Will Be Played Today
Aired April 18, 2002 - 05:19 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The cockpit voice recording from United Airlines Flight 93 will be played today, but only for relatives of the 40 passengers and crew members killed in that September 11 crash. The FBI will play the tape in a closed session at a Princeton, New Jersey hotel. As you know, Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers apparently tried to take it back from the four hijackers.
Of course, the FBI says some families don't want to listen to the final minutes of Flight 93. Others, though, hope it will help them understand what happened.
Our David Mattingly spoke with one victim's widow, who led the push for the release of those tapes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEENA BURNETT, WIDOW OF FLIGHT 93 VICTIM: I'll distinctly between listening for my husband's voice. I hope that I hear it and yet I don't know if I'm prepared to hear his voice.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been seven months since Deena Burnett's husband Tom died along with 39 other passengers and crew of the hijacked United Flight 93. And now, with mixed emotions, she prepares to listen to the cockpit voice recorder, a family's only opportunity offered by the FBI.
BURNETT: And when I found out that plane crashed, I knew that was not in Tom's plan. I wanted to know what happened and that was my first question, what went wrong?
MATTINGLY: But that is just one of many questions that could go unanswered. The identifiable sounds on the tape are reportedly sparse and inconclusive. FBI Director Robert Mueller had resisted the idea of playing the 30 minute tape for the families, citing concerns it would not provide any comfort.
BURNETT: They think we're looking for peace of mind when, in fact, we do not expect to find peace of mind from listening to the last 30 minutes of that flight.
MATTINGLY: What Deena Burnett is looking for is an understanding of her husband's last minutes alive that began with a series of cell phone calls high over Pennsylvania.
BURNETT: My husband called me four times that morning from the airplane on his cell phone. He told me he was putting a plan together to take back that aircraft.
MATTINGLY: As Tom moved through the aisles, Deena could hear him talking to other passengers, plotting a move. One passenger had already been killed. He was waiting, he said, until they were over a rural area before they stormed the cockpit on a mission to reach the controls.
BURNETT: I knew that he was coming home. He instilled in me the confidence that he would be home later that day.
MATTINGLY: Leading the way for the families, Deena was pushing the FBI for access to the cockpit voice recorder two days before the device was even recovered. Two weeks later, she was in the White House with her three small daughters, appealing to the president for a chance to listen to the tape.
BURNETT: The president responded by saying I can see why you would want to and from there it was condolences.
MATTINGLY: And that's more than the tape itself may offer. There are reportedly voices of nervous hijackers at the controls then the possible sounds of a struggle, ending with the crash of Flight 93 in the remote countryside near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
BURNETT: I look into the sky and I see airplanes fly overhead and I have to close my eyes because it reminds me of what it must have been like for him to be flying and then fall out of the sky the way they did.
MATTINGLY: Feelings amplified as I follow Deena on board an eastbound jet. This former flight attendant now afraid to fly, constantly thinking about Flight 93.
BURNETT: I look at the aisle and I think about the passengers and crew charging down the aisle to the cockpit. I think about the movements they must have made on the airplane and their experience.
MATTINGLY (on camera): And as Deena Burnett comes to Princeton, New Jersey to listen to that 30 minute tape she and her family join dozens of others in wondering if they are truly prepared to hear it.
David Mattingly, CNN, Princeton.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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