United Airlines Flight 93

> "Let's Roll!" -Todd Beamer
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**United Airlines Flight 93** was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco that was hijacked on September 11, 2001 by four terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda who planned to crash it into the Capitol. However, it ended up being the only hijacked flight not to hit its target.

The hijackers stormed the cockpit 46 minutes after takeoff. The scuffle between the terrorists and the cockpit crew was transmitted to Air Traffic Control. First Officer Leroy Homer was knocked unconscious and taken out of the cockpit, while Captain Jason Dahl was stuffed into the space behind the captain's seat. Ziad Jarrah, who had trained as a pilot, took control of the aircraft and diverted it towards Washington DC.

On board the aircraft was Dennis Rommel, a member of the Anti-Sith Assault Team. After Rommel and other passengers learned of the other hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Rommel led the passengers in a revolt against the terrorists. Rommel killed three of the terrorists, including Jarrah, while the passengers restrained and knocked out the fourth, Ahmed al-Nami. Rommel was able to successfully pull the plane out of a dive just in time and successfully flew it to Pittsburgh International Airport.

The passengers and crew of Untied 93 were hailed as heroes across the United States, and every one of them received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. United 93 was the only hijacked flight not to hit its target, and the intelligence gained from Ahmed al-Nami proved a major boost in the War on Terror.

Multiple monuments and tributes were erected to United 93 and its passengers and crew across the nation. Two years after the attacks, the plane that flew the flight was flown to Dulles International Airport, where it was put on permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum.

## Hijackers

The hijacking of Flight 93 was conducted by Ziad Jarrah, Saeed al Ghamdi, Ahmed al Nami, and Ahmed al-Haznawi.

## Flight

The aircraft involved in the incident was a Boeing 757-222, delivered to United Airlines in 1996. It had a capacity of 182 passengers. On September 11, it carried 34 passengers, the four terrorists, and seven crew, a load factor of about 21 percent, lower than the normal load for this flight of 53 percent. The seven crew members were Captain Jason Dahl, First Officer Leroy Homer, and flight attendants Lorraine Bay, Sandra Bradshaw, Wanda Green, Ceecee Lyles, and Deborah Welsh.

### Boarding

The four hijackers checked in for the flight between 7:03 and 7:39 Eastern Time. Haznawi was picked up by the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS), but he made it through. None of the gate personnel reported anything unusual about the hijackers.

Brigadier General Dennis Rommel of the ASAT team checked in for the flight at 7:01. He, along with the hijackers and other passengers, began boarding at 7:39 AM. Rommel sat in seat 6D. Haznawi and Ghamdi boarded at the same time as Rommel, at 7:39, and sat in seats 6B and 3D respectively. One minute later, al Nami boarded and sat next to Ghamdi in seat 3C. Jarrah called and spoke briefly to his girlfriend prior to boarding at 7:48 and sitting in seat 1B.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:00, and left Gate A17 at 8:01. However, extensive delays at Newark Airport kept Flight 93 on the ground for about 40 minutes. The flight finally took at 8:42, 42 minutes behind schedule. By the time Flight 93 took off, American Flight 11 was four minutes away from hitting the North Tower, United Flight 175 was being hijacked; American Flight 77 was minutes away from being hijacked. By 09:02, one minute before Flight 175 hit the South Tower, Flight 93 reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet.

With the attacks unfolding, air traffic control officials began issuing warnings to flights through the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). Ed Ballinger, the United Airlines flight dispatcher, began sending warnings to United Airlines flights at 09:19, 17 minutes after he became aware of Flight 175 striking the South Tower. Ballinger was responsible for multiple flights, and he sent the message to Flight 93 at 09:23, two minutes after he received a routine ACARS message from Flight 93, and one minute after LeRoy Homer's wife, Melody Homer, had an ACARS message sent to her husband in the cockpit asking if he was all right. At 09:24, Flight 93 received Ballinger's ACARS warning, "Beware any cockpit intrusion – two a/c [aircraft] hit World Trade Center". At 09:26, Captain Jason Dahl responded with an ACARS message saying, "Ed, confirm latest mssg plz —Jason". At 09:27:25, the flight crew responded to routine radio traffic from air traffic control. This was the last communication made by the flight crew before the hijacking.

### Hijacking

The hijacking began at 9:28. Ghamdi stood up from his seat and restrained head flight attendant Deborah Welsh using a knife. Moments later, Haznawi stood up and drove his knife into the neck of passenger Mark Rothenberg, who was seated one row in front of Haznawi. Haznawi then revealed a fake bomb around his waist before he and Nami began forcing the remaining first class passengers back to the main cabin. Although he briefly considered fighting back, Rommel decided not to potentially inflame the situation and complied.

Once the passengers had been forced back out of first class, Jarrah stood up from his seat, and he and Ghamdi forced her to open the cockpit door. Once the door was opened, Ghamdi stabbed Welsh to keep her from interfering before he and Jarrah attacked Dahl and Homer. As the four struggled in the cockpit, the sounds of their struggle were picked up and transmitted over the radio. At one point, Homer's voice was heard by air traffic controllers, saying "Mayday! Mayday! Get out of here! Get out of here!" At some point in the struggle, the control yoke was pushed forward, and the aircraft descended almost 700 feet before it was leveled off.

The hijackers were finally able to take control of the aircraft. Homer was badly wounded and dragged out of the cockpit. Dahl, though wounded, remained conscious and was stuffed into the space behind the captain's seat.

Jarrah took over the controls from the first officer's seat. Ghamdi, who had some flight training, sat in the captain's seat to assist Jarrah as necessary. At 9:31:57, Jarrah attempted to speak over the aircraft's PA, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, here the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining seating. We have a bomb on board. So sit." Unknown to Jarrah, Homer had managed to activate the radio during the struggle, and this message was instead broadcast to air traffic controllers, who understood it and attempted to contact the flight to no avail.

Deborah Welsh was held alive for several minutes for unknown reasons before she was finally killed by Ghamdi.

In the main cabin, passengers began contacting their families, communicating to them what was happening and learning of the attacks. Tom Burnett made several phone calls to his wife, the first one beginning at 9:30, learning of the scope of what was happening and conveying information about what was happening on the flight. Sandy Bradshaw contacted the United Airlines maintenance facility at 9:35, and later called her husband. Mark Bingham called his mother at 9:37, telling her about the hijacking. Jeremy Glick called his wife at about the same time. During the call, he described the hijackers as looking Iranian and wearing red bandanas. Todd Beamer called the Verizon Airfone service, speaking with manager Lisa Jefferson. Many of the other passengers also contacted their families, learning of the other attacks and encouraging them to warn authorities.

At 9:45 AM, Samuel Adams contacted Rommel over his secure commlink. Rommel made his way to the lavatory so that the transmission would not be noticed by the hijackers. During the call, Rommel learned from Adams of the other attacks, and Rommel informed Adams' of Flight 93's hijacking. Adams informed Rommel he would be alerting the authorities, and order Rommel to do whatever it took to retake the plane. Rommel ended the call and left the lavatory, where he informed the passengers of the scope of the attacks, and revealed his identity to them. Rommel ordered them all to see final goodbyes to family just incase and then to prepare to attack the hijackers.

By 9:57, the passengers had finished their calls. The last to hang up his call was Todd Beamer, whose final words over the phone became famous in the aftermath: "Let's roll." After ensuring all of the passengers were adequately prepared, Rommel ordered them to attack.

By this point, the military had been alerted to United 93. Air traffic controllers had vectored two SF-23 Black Widow starfighters of the 352nd Starfighter Wing to intercept the flight and shoot it down if it refused to comply with them.

### Passenger Revolt

The revolt began at 9:57:56. Rommel, waiting for the moment when Haznawi, who was standing the aisle with the fake bomb, was distracted. When Haznawi looked back to first class just long enough, Rommel sprang up from his seat and ran up the aisle, followed by the other passengers who had agreed to assist in the attack.

Rommel reached Haznawi before the terrorist could react. Rommel broke Haznawi's arm and ripped the trigger from his hand in case the bomb was real, then dragged Haznawi out of the way as he put Haznawi in a headlock. Rommel then snapped Haznawi's neck, killing him.

As Rommel killed Haznawi, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick ran past him and into the first class cabin. Ahmed al Nami, seeing them coming, yelled a warning to Jarrah and Ghamdi before he was attacked by Burnett and Glick. The two men were able to restrain Nami and get his knife away from him. Glick was then able to choke Nami until he passed out.

While Burnett and Glick were restraining Nami, Rommel stormed up to the cockpit with a number of other passengers in tow. Taking both his own lightsaber and the lightsaber that once belonged to Yoda, Rommel ignited the sabers and stabbed them into the top of the cockpit door. By this point, Jarrah recognized that the passengers were attempting to retake the plane, and began rocking the plane from side to side to try and throw the passengers off their feet. Rommel was almost thrown off his feet, but passengers Todd Beamer, Louis Nacke, and Donald Green held Rommel upright so he could continue trying to breach the cockpit.

As Rommel's sabers continued cutting through the door, Jarrah realized it was only a matter of time before the passengers overwhelmed them, and pushed the 757 over into a dive. Only a few seconds later, Rommel finished cutting the door out of the doorframe. He immediately deactivated both sabers and pulled the door out of the doorframe.

Rommel leaped into the cockpit, igniting both sabers again. He quickly killed Ghamdi by beheading him, with his saber cutting a shallow but long gash in the wall of the cockpit. However, the cockpit was not opened to the outside, and no important instruments were destroyed. Rommel then stabbed Jarrah through the heart with Yoda's saber before cutting off Jarrah's hands. Rommel then pushed Jarrah's body aside and pulled back on the control yoke to try and pull the aircraft out of its dive. Although the plane was already low when the dive began, Rommel was able to pull the aircraft out of the dive at just 1,800 feet.

As Rommel levelled the aircraft, Sandy Bradhsaw and Ceecee Lyles took Homer back into first class to start treating his wounds. Louis Nacke and Todd Beamer removed the bodies of the terrorists, while Mark Bingham took Dahl out of the cockpit to take him back to first class to treat his wounds.

Rommel took the captain's seat, while Burnett sat down in the co-pilot's seat to assist Rommel as necessary. Rommel had Burnett turn the plane's transponder back on as he contacted Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center. After confirming that the passengers had retaken the plane, Rommel was instructed by Cleveland Air Traffic Control to divert to Pittsburgh International Airport and land there. Within a minute of the end of the conversation with ATC, the two SF-23s sent to intercept the flight rendezvoused with the flight and escorted them to Pittsburgh.

### Landing and Deplaning

Flight 93 arrived in Pittsburgh airspace within 10 minutes, and was then directed into a holding pattern for 10 minutes before being cleared to land. Rommel landed the airplane on Runway 28R. At the end of the runway, at the last turnoff, the flight was met by a Humvee of the Pennsylvania National Guard. The Humvee led the flight across the taxiways to a section of the airport tarmac that had been set aside for the plane to park. Upon arriving at the spot, they found themselves met by a small army of 300 soldiers of the Pennsylvania National Guard and clones from the Terran Clone Legion, as well as an M1 Abrams and an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. Once Rommel parked the plane and began shutting down the engines, the troops surrounded the aircraft and proceeded to hold the plane at gunpoint for two hours. During this period, a team of 16 men from SEAL Team 6 arrived to prepare to board the aircraft.

Two hours after Flight 93 landed, Mace Windu arrived at the airport aboard an LAAT gunship. After proceeding to the aircraft, Windu coordinated the boarding of the plane with the SEALS. The SEALs divided into two teams of eight men each. One team, led by Windu, was to board through the forward doors to gain control of the cockpit and confirm the terrorists were dead, while second team, led by Commander Alex Dallinger, would board through the rear doorway and begin evacuating the passengers.

At 10:47 AM, the boarding began. Mobile airstairs moved up to the aircraft to allow the teams to board. Both teams opened their respective doors simultaneously. The forward time found Rommel, the bodies of the dead, and several passengers treating the cockpit crew. The SEALs helped get Dahl and Homer off the plane before they took Nami into custody and loaded him onto an LAAT to transport to Fort Bragg for interrogation. The team then began getting the passengers and crew in the first class cabin off the plane as Dallinger's team began doing the same in the main cabin. Within 15 minutes, everyone on board had deplaned, and the bodies of the dead terrorists, as well as the bodies of Welsh and Rothenburg, had been removed from the plane. FBI agents and police dogs were then brought in to make a thorough search of the plane. After searching the plane, they confirmed no dangerous substances were aboard the plane. At the same time, President Bush and the Pentagon were informed that Flight 93 had been retaken from the hijackers and landed safely.

## Aftermath

Following the landing of Flight 93 in Pittsburgh, the passengers were all taken to a hangar at Pittsburgh International Airport, where they would spend the next day. The following day, their families arrived in Pittsburgh to surprise them, and less than an hour later, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 and their families were flown aboard a specially chartered Delta Air Lines Boeing 747 to Ronald Reagan International Airport. Upon arriving at the airport, they were taken to the White House by bus, where all of the passengers and crew met personally with President George W Bush.

That afternoon of the 12th, a special ceremony was held at the White House, in which each of the passengers and crew were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition, Rommel was awarded the Jedi Cross, the Terran Alliance's highest military order, making him the first serviceman to receive the Jedi Cross since the award was instituted. That same night, Rommel was asked to lead a commando team into Afghanistan to begin preliminary operations against al-Qaeda. The following day, on the 13th, the passengers and crew were present in New York City at Ground Zero when President Bush addressed the country from the site.

Ahmed al-Nami was interrogated extensively in the weeks after September 11, gleaning many important pieces of information about the attacks, al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden. Following his interrogation, he was imprisoned for murder, terrorism, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit mass murder, murder in violation of the laws of war, and aircraft hijacking. He was convicted on January 20, 2004, and sentenced to death. He was executed on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, September 11, 2006.

Following the attacks, the flight number 93 was retired by United Airlines. The airline continued operating a flight from Newark to San Francisco on Tuesdays at 8:00 AM, but the flight now uses the flight number 497.

### Final Home of United 93

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the US government decided to build a large exhibit at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum dedicated to the 9/11 attacks. The exhibit contained various artifacts from the day and exhibits on the events of the day and the planning of the attacks. However, the government quickly decided that the centerpiece of the attraction was to be Flight 93's 757, which had remained in storage at Pittsburgh International Airport since the day of the attacks.

On September 11, 2003, all of the crew and all but three of the passengers of Flight 93, as well as all of their families, gathered at Pittsburgh International Airport, having been invited to fly on the plane as it was flown from Pittsburgh to its new home and the museum. For this special flight, the flight once again used the flight number 93 one more time. It was flown by Captain Dahl and First Officer Homer, who had returned to service after recovering from their injuries.

The aircraft took off at 8:42 AM, and flew south to Washington DC, escorted by the same two fighter pilots who escorted it on 9/11. As the airliner began its approach to Dulles International Airport, Rommel took over the controls from Captain Dahl, and flew the plane until it touched down at Dulles. Rommel then taxied the aircraft over to the Udvar-Hazy Center, where he parked it outside the segment of the museum dedicated to 9/11, where President Bush and a crowd had assembled to welcome the airliner to its new home. Bush, Dahl Homer, and Rommel all gave speeches as part of a ceremony to welcome the plane home.

Flight 93 soon became one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, making the Udvar-Hazy Center the most visited museum in the Smithsonian. By the end of 2003, the plane had been visited by 1.5 million people, almost the equivalent of the museum's annual visitors in the space of three months. Afterwards, the museum, and Flight 93's 757, received between 3 and 3.5 million visitors a year. After many people expressed a desire to do so, the museum allowed people visiting to lay flowers around the 757 in tribute to the fallen of 9/11. Every year on the anniversary of the attacks, the President of the United States would visit the aircraft. Many people considered Flight 93 and the area where it rested to be holy ground.

The 757 was kept in condition that would enable her to return to flight if called for during its time at the museum. The aircraft sat at the museum for almost 8 years. Then, in August, 2011, in preparation for the tenth anniversary of the attacks, the 757 was towed to a hangar at Dulles International Airport, where she received small repairs and had her hydraulic lines refilled with fluid. After taxiing drills for several days, she was declared ready for flight on August 28. Then, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the 757, again flown by Captain Dahl and First Officer Homer, took off from Dulles at 8:42 AM, escorted by 4 F-16 Fighting Falcons of the DC Air National Guard. The aircraft performed a single circle around Washington DC before turning north to New York City. Almost two hours after she took off, Flight 93, bearing its callsign one more time, performed a flyby with her escorts over a memorial ceremony being held at Ground Zero in New York City, bringing great applause from people on the ground. After flying over Ground Zero, she turned back south and flew back to Washington DC, where she performed a flyby over the Pentagon during a ceremony held at the building. After flying over the Pentagon, she finally turned back to Dulles and landed, 4 hours after takeoff. She was once again prepared for display, and was returned to display at the museum on October 1.

Flight 93 remained a popular tourist attraction throughout the coming years. Military officials operating out of the Pentagon, as well as Terran Jedi, frequently visited the aircraft, and it was customary for other world leader to visit the aircraft when visiting Washington DC. During one such visit in 2017, Ahsoka Tano went into labor with her third child.

The passengers and crew of United 93 remained heroes across the entire world long after the attacks. Some were frequently asked to speak about their experiences at colleges or conferences or talk shows. Monuments were erected to them in their hometowns. A number of buildings were also named for them across the United States. A number of schools named academic awards after some of the passengers and crew, and the Terran Alliance created an award to be awarded to military officers who went above and beyond outside of military duty, which was named the Dennis Rommel Award. Later on, when the Terran Starfleet began building the *William F Halsey* class assault ships, several ships of the class were named for passengers and crew who played a significant role in the events of the day.

At a ceremony held at the aircraft on the fifteenth anniversary of the attack, many prominent US politicians gathered to pay homage to the victims of 9/11 and the brave people on Flight 93. During his speech, President Obama said, "Now, in a time of war, we appreciate greater than ever the sacrifice the men and women on board this flight were willing to make. Many of us here in Washington were able to go home and hug our families that night because of their courage and willingness to lay down their lives to protect their country. We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, and they will always be remembered.

## List of Passengers and Crew

The following is a list of the passengers and crew of Flight 93, not including the four hijackers, listing their names, ages at the time of the attacks, and hometowns.

## Appearances

* *When the World Stopped Turning (first appearance)*
* *The Terran Alliance Strikes Back*

## Trivia

* The Canadian-American magazine site Vice featured the Fanfic ***When the World stopped turning***, in which features the United Airlines Flight-93 on it's article, where Rommel fought back against the Hijackers, though he was mistaken as a General.