UNITED FLIGHT 93 SHANKSVILLE PENNSYLVANIA

In a blackened day on the 11th of September, 2011.  Four United States commercial airlines were hijacked by terrorist and plunged into targeted monumental structures of the United States, except for one. The first two rammed into the twin towers of the world trade center and the third, into pentagon. The fourth one target was not known, simply because the passenger fought back and grounded the plane, as the popular heroic narration was. Or perhaps not.

Sitting in the residential emergency operation center deep in the white house, waiting to give the order for the US Airline 93 to be shut down after receiving information that it has been hijacked, Vice President Dick Cheney was quoted to have said, on hearing of the crash of the airplane, “I think an act of heroism just took place on that plane.” The truth is, there were enough evidences to show that the passengers planned to do something and take back control of the plane, as there were phone calls later released by authority, of the passenger telling their family, friends and emergency operator of the incidents unfolding on the plane, clearly stating that they were planning to fight back. There were also evidence from the voice recorder of struggles to regain control but this was as far as the truth goes. There were insufficient evidences to suggest that the revolt was successful or not and the action or inaction of the US authorities and media respectively has done nothing to suppress this doubt. Rather, they focused on selling the heroic story that the American public has been led to believe till date.

The hijack began around 09:28 a.m., the attackers having waited for 46 minutes to begin their assault contrary to the attackers of the other three waiting only for 30 minutes to launch their attack. The attackers, Ziad Jarrah, Ahmed al-Nami, Ahmed al-Haznawi and Saeed al-Ghamdi took control of the airline after injuring the pilot and co-pilot, who have disabled autopilot to prevent the terrorist from taking control. All passengers on board were moved to the rear end of the plane with threat that they have a bomb on board. Passengers made calls to their loved ones telling them of the incidents on board and leaving a final message of love, with a particular passenger calling 911 from the toilet where he locked himself. From the voices from the voice recorder, which was safely retrieved from the crash site, there was evidence of a struggle by the passenger to regain the cockpick even as Jarrah was tipping the plane to dissuade such effort, before the eventual crash amidst shouts of Allah is great by the hijackers.

In the aftermath, Somerset County coroner, Wally Miller worked with the FBI to investigate and identify the deceased. Miller recorded the death of the 33 passenger and the 7 crew member as homicide and the death of the hijackers as suicide. In the wake of the crash, media agency across the United States reported the heroic action of the passengers and even movies have been made to narrate the event. A temporary memorial was built at the crash site before eventually, the Flight 93 National Memorial was built.

However, critics have decided to ask the question that the US media have refused to ask. What if the flight 93 had been taken down by the United Government? It was reported that there was a C-130 military cargo plane flying close to the passenger plane before it crashes and it is a known fact that the US have had electronic warfare devices capable of intentionally jamming all signals to an aircraft and crashing it on all their C-130s. The possibility of the plane being shot down have been negated by the statement of Lee Purbaugh, an eye witness who saw no smoke from the plane prior to the explosion, though an explosion was reported on the plane. Whatever the truth was, one thing was clear, those were heroes on that plane who fought to change the fate of many more.