On the morning of September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 left Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco.
It was supposed to be an ordinary cross-country flight.
There were 44 people aboard—37 passengers, including four hijackers, and seven crew members.
Most of the passengers had no idea that while they were in the air, America was already under attack.
At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
And Flight 93 was still in the sky.
9:28 A.M.
The hijacking began.
There was a violent struggle in the cockpit. Air traffic controllers heard a pilot desperately calling “Mayday” over the radio.
The hijackers took control of the aircraft.
The passengers were forced toward the back of the plane.
Then something happened the hijackers could not control.
People started making phone calls.
Thirteen passengers and crew members made 37 calls from the aircraft.
And through those conversations, the people aboard Flight 93 discovered the horrifying truth.
Two airplanes had already struck the World Trade Center.
Another had struck the Pentagon.
This wasn’t a normal hijacking.
Their airplane was part of the attack.
And suddenly those phone calls became goodbyes.
THE LAST PHONE CALLS
Passenger Mark Bingham called his mother and told her his plane had been hijacked.
Tom Burnett repeatedly called his wife, Deena. She told him about the World Trade Center attacks.
Burnett understood what that meant.
He told her that passengers were getting together and preparing to do something.
Jeremy Glick called his wife. He told her that passengers were discussing rushing the hijackers.
They even took a vote.
They knew what could happen if they attacked the cockpit.
But they also knew what could happen if they did nothing.
Lauren Grandcolas called her husband and left a message expressing her love.
Linda Gronlund called her sister. She knew about the World Trade Center and understood what was probably happening.
Her message became a goodbye.
CeeCee Lyles, one of the flight attendants, called her husband.
She wanted him to know she loved him.
She wanted her children to know she loved them.
Honor Elizabeth Wainio called her stepmother.
As the passengers prepared to move toward the cockpit, she ended the conversation with words no parent ever wants to hear:
“I have to go. I love you. Good-bye.”
Then she hung up.
Because it was time.
THEY MADE THEIR DECISION
Think about what these people were facing.
They weren’t soldiers preparing for combat.
They were husbands.
Wives.
Mothers.
Fathers.
Friends.
Businesspeople.
Flight attendants.
Ordinary Americans who had gotten on an airplane that morning expecting to go home, attend meetings, see family or simply continue living their lives.
Now they believed they had only minutes left.
They could sit down and wait.
Or they could fight.
They chose to fight.
At approximately 9:57 a.m., the passengers and surviving crew began their assault.
Flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw had been talking with her husband. She told him that people were running toward first class.
Then she ended the call.
Passengers rushed forward.
The hijackers violently rolled the aircraft from side to side trying to throw them off their feet.
But they kept coming.
Inside the cockpit, the hijackers could hear them getting closer.
The cockpit voice recorder captured the struggle.
The passengers were trying desperately to get through the cockpit door and regain control of the aircraft.
Among the most famous words associated with those final moments came from passenger Todd Beamer.
An Airfone operator who had remained on the line with him reported hearing someone say:
“Are you guys ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
And they went.
10:03 A.M.
The passengers continued fighting.
The hijackers realized they were losing time.
Flight 93 suddenly plunged toward the ground.
At 10:03:11 a.m., the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Everyone aboard was killed.
There were no survivors.
But there was something else.
Flight 93 never reached Washington.
The hijackers had programmed navigation toward Washington, D.C., and investigators concluded the intended target was likely either the United States Capitol or the White House.
Whatever the precise target, the passengers and crew made sure the aircraft never reached it.
They were approximately 20 minutes flying time from Washington when Flight 93 went down.
THEY COULDN’T SAVE THEMSELVES.
SO THEY TRIED TO SAVE PEOPLE THEY WOULD NEVER MEET.
That is what makes Flight 93 different.
Those passengers weren’t expecting someone else to rescue them.
They knew help probably wasn’t coming.
They knew the odds.
And still they stood up.
Some had just told their husbands and wives they loved them.
Some had said goodbye to their families.
Some knew their children would grow up without them.
And then they put the phones down.
They looked at one another.
And they went forward.
They didn’t know whether history would remember their names.
They didn’t know monuments would someday stand where their aircraft fell.
They only knew that somewhere ahead of them were innocent people who had no idea another airplane might be coming.
So they fought.
RESTORED LIFE AFTER
Courage isn’t always someone standing without fear.
Sometimes courage is being terrified and moving forward anyway.
The passengers and crew of Flight 93 couldn’t choose what happened to them that morning.
But in their final minutes, they chose what they were going to do about it.
Their last conversations weren’t about money.
Careers.
Possessions.
Politics.
Or all the things people spend their lives worrying about.
Again and again, the final message was much simpler:
I love you.
Maybe there is something all of us should learn from that.
Life can change between one phone call and the next.
Say what needs to be said.
Love your family.
Hold them close.
And never assume you’re guaranteed another tomorrow.
On September 11, 2001, a group of ordinary people boarded Flight 93.
They never made it home.
But because they stood up when it mattered most, neither did the terrorists make it to their target.
They were passengers when the flight began.
They were heroes when it ended.
RESTORED LIFE AFTER