Col. Matthew Klimow, executive assistant to the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, Pentagon: No one had ever contemplated the need to shoot down a civilian airliner.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold: I told Rick Findley in Colorado Springs [at NORAD’s headquarters], “Rick, we have to have permission. We may have to shoot down this aircraft that is coming toward Washington, D.C. We need presidential authority.”
Maj. Dan “Razin” Caine, F-16 pilot, D.C. Air National Guard: I handed our wing commander the phone to talk to the high levels of government to get the rules of engagement.
Dick Cheney: It had to be done. Once the plane became hijacked—even if it had a load of passengers on board who, obviously, weren’t part of any hijacking attempt—having seen what had happened in New York and the Pentagon, you really didn’t have any choice. It wasn’t a close call.
Matthew Waxman: That really grabs you by the collar, when you hear the vice president giving the order to shoot down an unidentified aircraft flying toward the national capital. That stands out as one of the most frightening moments of the day, partly because it highlighted the sense of continuing danger. There was also the realization of the enormous dilemmas that faced decision makers at that moment with very little time and imperfect information.
Commander Anthony Barnes: I knew, without a doubt in my mind, that that was a historical precedent—that never before had we given permission to shoot down a commercial airliner. I got back on the phone—it was a general of some sort in the Pentagon—and on that secure line I was talking on, made sure that he understood that I had posed the question to the National Authority and the answer was in the affirmative. We made sure that we did not stutter or stumble because the emotion at that point was very, very high. Fortunately we didn’t have to use that authority.
Josh Bolten, deputy chief of staff, White House: Vice President Cheney was very steady, very calm. He clearly had been through crises before and did not appear to be in shock like many of us.
Commander Anthony Barnes: The president was safer aboard Air Force One than trying to come home, and Mr. Cheney—without question—he was in charge. He was in charge of the space and we would bring him information.
Dick Cheney: As bad as the events of 9/11 were, some of us had practiced exercises for far more dangerous and difficult circumstances—an all-out Soviet nuclear attack on the United States. That helped—that training kicked in that morning.
Eric Edelman, principal deputy assistant to the vice president for national security affairs, White House: He was a calming influence on people because you’d sort of be embarrassed to, in front of him, betray any sense of, Oh my God.
Condoleezza Rice: There were times that day that it felt like an out-of-body experience. But you keep functioning, even though you don’t really believe it’s happening.
“We’re in a little trouble here”
* * *
The Military Responds
With the order from Vice President Cheney, the military scrambled to find planes it could bring into the fight—even if that meant launching them unarmed, launching them on a kamikaze mission to crash their own fighters into hijacked airliners. It was an unbelievable and unprecedented mission, the weight of which was not lost on the pilots gathered to take it on. What was not yet widely known was that the United 93 passengers were planning, at the same time, to take the plane over themselves.
Col. Matthew Klimow, executive assistant to the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, Pentagon: It was a very painful discussion for all of us. We didn’t want the burden of shooting down the airliner to be on the shoulders of a single fighter pilot, but we also didn’t want to have that pilot go all the way up the chain of command to get permission to shoot. It was decided the pilots should do their best to try to wave the airplane off, and if it’s clear the airplane is headed into a heavily populated area, the authority to shoot can be given to a regional commander.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney, F-16 pilot, D.C. Air National Guard: This sounds counterintuitive, but when the magnitude of the situation hit me, I really lost all emotion. I was really much more focused on What are the things I need to do to enable us to protect our capital? What are the things I need to do to facilitate us getting airborne?
Brig. Gen. David Wherley, commander, D.C. Air National Guard: My translation of the rules to Sass [Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville, F-16 pilot] was, “You have weapons-free flight-lead control.” I said, “Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?” They both [Sasseville and Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney] said yes. I told them to be careful.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville, F-16 pilot, U.S. Air Force: As we’re going out to the jets, Lucky and I had a quick conversation about what it is that we were going to do and how we were basically going to do the unthinkable if we had to.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: We would be ramming the aircraft. We didn’t have weapons on board to shoot the airplane down. Both Sass and I had 105 bullets, lead-nosed. As we were putting on our flight gear in the life support shop, Sass looked at me and said, “I’ll ram the cockpit.” I made the decision I would take the tail off the aircraft.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville: We didn’t have a whole lot of options.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: I had never been trained to scramble the aircraft. It would typically take about 20 minutes to start the jets, get the avionics systems going, go through all the preflight checks to make sure the systems were operating properly, program the computers in the aircraft. That’s not even including the time to look at the forms, do the walk-around of the airplane, and whatnot. We usually planned about half an hour to 40 minutes from the time you walked out the door to the time that you actually took off.
Col. George Degnon, vice commander, 113th Wing, Andrews Air Force Base, Prince George’s County, Maryland: We did everything humanly possible to get the aircraft in the air.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: I just got my radios up and I was yelling at my crew chief, “Pull the chocks!” He pulled the chocks and I push my throttle. The crew chief was still running under the tail so that my gear would come up—there are safety pins that are all in the airplane—and so they were pulling all those safety pins as I was taxiing to go do an immediate takeoff. I didn’t even have an inertia navigation unit. I didn’t have any of that set up. It was lucky it was a clear, blue day because we didn’t have all the avionics. They were not yet awake when we took off.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville: I was thinking, Wow, we’re in a little trouble here.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: Sass and I fully expected to intercept Flight 93 and take it down.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville: I was going into this moral or ethical justification of the needs of the many versus the needs of the few.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: I genuinely believed that was going to be the last time I took off. If we did it right, this would be it.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, commander of the 1st Air Force, NORAD, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida: Bob Marr quotes me as saying that I told him that we would “take lives in the air to save lives on the ground.”
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: Seeing the Pentagon was surreal. It was totally surreal to see this billowing black smoke. We didn’t get high. We were at about 3,000 feet. We never got above 3,000 feet, at least on that first sweep out.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville: There was all this smoke in my cockpit. It made me nauseous to be honest with you—not from an Ugh, this stinks, it was more from an Oh my God, we’ve been hit on our own soil and we’ve been hit big. I couldn’t believe they had gotten through and they managed to pull off this attack.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: The real heroes are the passengers on Flight 93 who were willing to sacrifice themselves.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville: They made the decision we didn’t have to make.
Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney: I don’t remember how many miles we got away from D.C., but we flew quite a bit down
the Potomac. We said we need to go back over and fly over D.C. because we’ve clearly sanitized the area. When we returned to D.C., that was when things began to settle down.
“Let’s get them”
* * *
The Fourth Crash
A few minutes before 10:00 a.m., United Flight 93 passenger Edward Felt, a 41-year-old married father of two who was traveling as part of his job as a computer engineer for BEA Systems, called 911 from the plane and reached emergency dispatcher John Shaw in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It was the first tip to Pennsylvania authorities that there was trouble in the skies overhead. This is an abridged transcript of their call.
Ed Felt: Hijacking in pro—
John Shaw: Excuse me? Hey somebody’s reporting a—
Felt: Hijacking in progress.
Shaw: Sir, I’m losing you, where are you?
Felt: United Flight 93.
Shaw: Wait a minute, wait, United flight. United Flight 93.
Felt: Hijacking in progress!
Shaw: Okay, where are you? Where are you?
Felt: I’m in the bathroom, United Flight 93.
Shaw: Okay, where are you?
Felt: I don’t know.
Shaw: Where are you?
Felt: I don’t know where the plane is.
Shaw: Where did you take off?
Felt: Newark to San Francisco.
Shaw: I got it, okay, stay on the phone with me sir.
Felt: I’m trying to . . . [unintelligible] at the bathroom. I don’t know what’s going on.
Shaw: Hey somebody get the FAA, Newark to San Francisco and they got a hijacking in progress. Okay, yeah. Get somebody from the airport on the line. This is a hijacking in progress. Are you still there, sir?
Felt: Yes I am.
Shaw: What’s your name, sir?
Felt: Edward Felt.
Shaw: How big of a plane, sir?
Felt: It’s like a 757.
Shaw: This is a 757. Hey we need—It’s a 757. Sir, sir?
Felt: Yes.
Shaw: Okay, how many people on the plane?
Felt: It was—it was pretty empty, maybe [unintelligible].
Shaw: Can you still hear me, sir, sir, sir can you still hear me? It’s over [unintelligible]. There’s a plane . . . said the plane’s going down. It’s over Mt. Pleasant Township somewhere. Sir? It’s going down. You better make an announcement on [unintelligible]. It’s over Mt. Pleasant somewhere. Hello?
* * *
Alice Ann Hoagland, mother of United Flight 93 passenger Mark Bingham: The uniqueness of Flight 93 is that it was in the air longer than the other flights. People on board were able to find out about the fate of the other three flights and mount an effort to thwart the hijackers, even if they weren’t able to save their own lives.
Deena Burnett, wife of United Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett: It was silent, and I could feel my heart racing. Tom said, “We’re waiting until we’re over a rural area. We’re going to take back the airplane.” I became very frightened and I begged, “No, no, Tom. Just sit down, be still, be quiet, and don’t draw attention to yourself.” He said, “No, Deena. If they’re going to crash this plane, we’re going to have to do something.”
I asked, “What about the authorities?” He said, “We can’t wait for the authorities. I don’t know what they can do anyway. It’s up to us.” He said, “I think we can do it.” Neither of us said anything for a few seconds. Then I said, “What do you want me to do? What can I do?” “Pray, Deena, just pray.” “I am praying. I love you.” Tom said, “Don’t worry. We’re going to do something,” then he hung up. He never called back.
Lisa Jefferson, Verizon Airfone supervisor: As that plane took a dive, I could hear the commotion in the background. I heard the flight attendant screaming. People hollering out, “Oh, my God! Jesus, help us!” [Todd Beamer] asked me, if he didn’t make it, would I please call his wife? I told him I would, but I asked him if he would like me to connect him to her right then. He said, no, he didn’t want to upset her. She was expecting their third child in January, and he knew she was home alone. He gave me his home phone number.
Lyzbeth Glick, wife of United Flight 93 passenger Jeremy Glick: Jeremy said there were three other guys as big as him, and they were going to jump on the hijacker with the bomb and try to take back the plane. He asked if I thought that was a good idea. We debated a little bit. He said that they were going to take a vote, and asked what did I think he should do. I said, “You need to do it.” He’s a very strong man, and large—six feet, 220. He was a national judo champion, so he was really well equipped with self-defense. He was joking, “I have my butter knife from breakfast.” Despite everything, he was able to be a little bit humorous. Then he said, “Okay, I’m going to put the phone down. I’ll be right back. I love you.”
Philip Bradshaw, husband of Sandra Bradshaw, flight attendant, United Flight 93: We talked about how much we loved each other and our children. Then she said: “Everyone is running to first class, I’ve got to go. Bye.” Those were the last words I heard from her.
Lisa Jefferson: Todd turned to someone else and he said, “Are you ready?” I could hear them; they responded. He said, “Okay. Let’s roll.” That was the last thing I heard.
* * *
Transcript from the United Airlines Flight 93 cockpit voice recorder:
9:57 A.M.
Voice in Arabic: Is there something?
Voice in Arabic: A fight?
Voice in Arabic: Yeah?
Voice in Arabic: Let’s go guys. Allah is greatest. Allah is greatest. Oh, guys. Allah is greatest.
Voice in Arabic: O Allah. O Allah. Oh the most Gracious.
[Sounds of a struggle, grunting]
Voice in English: Stay back.
Voice in English: In the cockpit! In the cockpit!
Voice in Arabic: They want to get in there. Hold, hold from the inside. Hold from the inside. Hold.
Voice in English: Hold the door.
Voice in English: Stop him.
Voice in English: Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.
Voice in Arabic: There are some guys. All those guys.
Voice in English: Let’s get them.
Voice in English: Sit down.
Voice in Arabic: Trust in Allah and in him.
10:00 A.M.
Voice in Arabic: There is nothing.
Voice in Arabic: Is that it? Shall we finish it off?
Voice in Arabic: No. Not yet.
Voice in Arabic: When they all come, we finish it off.
Voice in Arabic: There is nothing.
Voice in English: I’m injured.
Voice in Arabic: O Allah. O Allah. O Gracious.
Voice in English: In the cockpit. If we don’t, we’ll die.
Voice in Arabic: Up, down. Up, down, in the cockpit. Up, down. Saeed, up, down.
Voice in English: Roll it.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Is that it? I mean, shall we pull it down?
Voice in Arabic: Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.
Voice in Arabic: Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen. Cut off the oxygen.
Voice in Arabic: Up, down. Up, down.
Voice in Arabic: What?
Voice in Arabic: Up, down.
Voice in English: Shut them off. Shut them off.
Voice in English: Go, go, move, move.
Voice in English: Turn it up.
Voice in Arabic: Down, down.
Voice in Arabic: Pull it down. Pull it down.
Voice in English: Down. Push, push, push, push, push.
Voice in Arabic: Hey. Hey. Give it to me. Give it to me.
Voice in Arabic: Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me.
Voice in Arabic: Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me.
10:03 A.M.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest.
Voice in English: No!
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest.
Voice in Arabic: Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest.
* * *
Lyzbeth Glick, wife of United Flight 93 passenger Jeremy Glick: I didn’t want to listen to what happened, so I gave the phone to my dad. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that I found out what had transpired. My father told me later that he had heard a series of screams. Then there was a series of more screams, and then it sounded like a roller coaster. Then there was nothing.
* * *
As the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 tried to wrest control of the plane from the hijackers, their decisions in the air would alter the lives of those who lived in the small towns in Somerset County, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, who suddenly found themselves in the midst of the nation’s still-unfolding tragedy. The crash sowed even further confusion among the military and air traffic controllers who were mustering the government to respond to an attack they still didn’t understand.
Sgt. Patrick Madigan, commander, Somerset Station, Pennsylvania State Police: While we were watching, I said, “At least there’s no terrorist targets in Somerset County.” Shortly thereafter, we received a call [from Ed Felt] that a plane was over Somerset, and my first thought and reaction to that was, What am I going to be able to do about it?
Rick King, assistant chief, Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company: I called my sister, Jody [King Walsh]. Jody lives in Lambertsville, which is not very far. As I was talking to her, she said, “Rick, I hear a plane.” She said, “Rick, it’s loud. It sounds like a jet.” I said, “Oh, my God!” I walked out onto my front porch, and I could hear the plane. I could hear the engine screaming.
The Only Plane in the Sky Page 18
