The Courageous Passengers of Flight 93

The Courageous Passengers of Flight 93

On September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 was scheduled to depart at 8:00 am from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California. However, the Boeing 757 was delayed 42 minutes due to runway traffic. By the time Flight 93 took off and was heading west over Pennsylvania, three other planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

At 9:28 am, air traffic control heard screams in Flight 93’s cockpit. Moments later, terrorists took over the controls and told its passengers, “Remain sitting. We have a bomb on board.” The passengers were herded to the back section, and within a few minutes, the plane changed course and was heading for Washington, DC. Several of the passengers made phone calls to loved ones, who informed them about what was happening with the other terrorist hijackings. 

One of the passengers, Todd Beamer, tried to place a credit card call through the phone on the back of the seat in front of him, but he was routed to a customer-service supervisor, Lisa Jefferson. With FBI agents listening, Beamer informed Jefferson that hijackers had taken over Flight 93, and that one passenger had been killed. He also shared that two of the hijackers had knives, and that one appeared to have a bomb strapped around his waist. 

When the hijackers suddenly veered the plane south, the passengers knew they had to do something. According to cell phone conversations, Beamer and three other men formed a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers. The other passengers and crew agreed to the plan as it was quietly relayed up the aisle. They decided to storm the cockpit. But first, Todd Beamer recited the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, and the other passengers joined him:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

(Psalm 23:1-4)

Todd Beamer then asked Lisa Jefferson, “If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them.” After this, Jefferson heard Beamer clearly shout, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll!”  These were Beamer’s last words. The plane’s voice data recorder later revealed pounding and crashing sounds against the cockpit door and shouts and screams in English. “Let’s get them!” A terrorist is heard shouting in Arabic, “Allahu akbar!”

At just past 10:00 in the morning, Flight 93 crashed into an empty field at 580 miles per hour. Everyone on board was killed. It turns out, the plane was only twenty minutes away from its suspected target, the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. While September 11, 2001 was a sad day in American history, Flight 93 was a true story of faith, courage, and heroism – a record that reveals the greatness of the American spirit.

The Courageous Passengers of Flight 93