The Crash of Flight 93
Evidence Indicates Flight 93 Was Shot Down
According to the official story, Flight 93, the fourth jetliner commandeered on 9/11/01, was flown into the ground near Shanksville, PA, as a result of a struggle in the cockpit between the hijackers and passengers who had rushed them in an attempt to gain control of the aircraft or otherwise prevent it from crashing into a strategic target, such as the U.S. Capitol.
The evidence shows that Flight 93 did indeed crash near Shanksville, and suggests that the passengers did struggle to gain control of the plane. However, the cause of the crash was apparently trauma to the aircraft -- such as a missile strike -- rather than the actions of whoever was in the cockpit. Evidence of such trauma preceding the jetliner's nose-dive includes the widely scattered debris field, numerous ear- and eyewitness accounts, and evidence that NORAD and the 9/11 Commission changed the timeline to hide the plane's true fate.
Far-Flung Debris
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| This and other photographs show a deep impact crater, indicating that the plane plunged into the ground at a steep angle. |
Local officials stated that crash debris was spread over a wide area. According to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, state police Major Lyle Szupinka "confirmed that debris from the plane had turned up in relatively far-flung sites, including the residential area of Indian Lake." 1 The residential areas of Indian Lake range from three to six miles from the crash site. As noted on the pages describing Flight 93 and its crash site, there were a number of debris fields. Small debris descended over Indian Lake and New Baltimore, about three and eight miles from the primary crash site, and an engine core was separated from the main impact crater by about 2000 feet.
Some officials have suggested that wind scattered the debris once on the ground, but wind certainly couldn't have blown a one-ton engine a half-mile, nor could the 9-mile-per-hour wind have blown debris for eight miles.
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| Debris fields from Flight 93 were scattered across eight miles. |
An article in Popular Mechanics attempts to explain the far-flung debris by suggesting that the engine "tumbl[ed] across the ground" and that the light debris was "blasted skyward by the heat of the explosion from the crash." Such scenarios are impossible given the nature of the crash, wherein the plane dove into the soft ground from a nearly vertical trajectory. This is evident in the deep impact crater whose shape mimics the cross-section of the aircraft, and by the agreement among eyewitness that the plane dropped from the sky in a vertical fashion.
Struck in the Air
Eyewitness accounts corroborate physical evidence that portions of the plane were destroyed in the air, consistent with a missile strike from a nearby military plane. These accounts support the following elements.
- A white jet in pursuit of the jetliner
- Peculiar engine sounds before the crash
- Sounds of explosions before the plane fell from the sky
- Appearances that the plane suddenly began to drop vertically
Further evidence that Flight 93 was shot down was provided by an apparent slip-up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in an interview with Brigadier General James Marks aired on December 24, 2004.
I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be. 2 3
[emphasis added]
[emphasis added]
Fudging the Timeline
There are several independent lines of evidence that establish that Flight 93 crashed at 10:06 in Shanksville, PA. These include the following:
- Seismic signals recorded by seismic observatories at Soldier's Delight, MD, and Millersville, PA, which pegged the impact time at 10:06:05, with an error margin of 5 seconds.
- A report from Cleveland Air Traffic Control that they had lost radar contact with Flight 93 at 10:06. 4
- Reports by witnesses on the ground of the plane flying low and erratically around 10:05. 5
- Various press reports that put the time at 10:06. 6 7 8
- Radar records released by the FAA. The Post-Gazette noted, two days after the attack:The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday it turned over to the FBI a radar record of United Airlines Flight 93's route.
The data traced the Boeing 757-200 from its takeoff from Newark, N.J., to its violent end at 10:06 a.m., just outside Shanksville, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 9
Despite these extensive bodies of credible evidence establishing Flight 93's impact time at 10:06 AM, NORAD and the 9/11 Commission asserted that impact was at 10:03. NORAD provides no evidence to back up its claim, but the Commission provides a long footnote to justify its use of 10:03.
References
2. Pentagon: Rumsfeld misspoke on Flight 93 crash, 12/27/04 [cached]
3. Surprise Trip for Donald Rumsfeld; Interview With Brigadier General James Marks; Christian in Iraq, CNN.com, [cached]
4. Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny, post-gazette.com, 10/28/01 [cached]
5. Complete 911 Timeline: United Airlines Flight 93, CooperativeResearch.org,
6. We Know it Crashed, But Not Why, The Philadelphia Daily News, 11/15/01 [cached]
7. Day of Terror: Outside tiny Shanksville, a fourth deadly stroke, post-gazette.com, 9/12/01 [cached]
8. Part I: Terror attacks brought drastic decision: Clear the skies, USA TODAY, 2002 [cached]
9. What was the danger to city? Doomed United Flight 93 passed just south of Pittsburgh, post-gazette.com, 9/13/01 [cached]
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Won-Young Kim
Notable Retractions
| Seismographic stations | Shanksville, PA | |
| Station Code | Station Name | Distance (kms) |
| SDMD | Soldier's Delight, MD | 190.6 |
| MVL | Millersville, PA | 217.8 |
| SSPA | Standing Stone, PA | 107.6 |
| MCWV | Mont Chateau, WV | 92.1 |
In the spring of 2002, earth scientists Won-Young Kim and G. R. Baum published Seismic Observations during September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attack in a report to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. In that paper they established the time of the crash of Flight 93 at 10:06:05, plus or minus five seconds. Their conclusion was based on the analysis of the seismic records from the four seismic recording stations listed in the table on the right.
Kim and Baum quantified the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the relevant parts of the signals from the four stations. They found that whereas the SNRs from MCWV and SDMD signals were low, those from SSPA and MVL were about 2.5:1 and 2:1, respectively. The authors examined the three-component records from the SSPA station (vertical, North-South, and East-West), noting that "Short-period surface waves, Rg and Lg waves, are quite clear."
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| This illustrations from Kim and Baum's paper shows the locations of the four seismic stations whose records they used to establish the time of Flight 93's crash. |
The authors also note that the features of the signals are consistent with an airliner crash.
The three-component records at SSPA are dominated by strong Lg arrivals, whereas the Pg waves are difficult to discern and have amplitudes comparable to the noise level. This is typical for seismic waves generated by airplane impacts and crashes.
The authors state with confidence their conclusion that Flight 93 crashed at 10:06.
The seismic signals marked as Sg in Figure 5 propagated from the Shanksville crash site to the stations with approximately 3.5 km/s. Hence, we infer that the Flight 93 crashed around 14:06:05±5 (UTC) (10:06:05 EDT). The uncertainty is only due to seismic velocity at the uppermost crust near the surface in which the Lg waves propagated.
According to the 9/11 Commission Won-Young Kim later retracted his conclusion that Flight 93 crashed at 10:06. The Commission Report states that Flight 93 crashed at 10:03, and provides the following footnote.
168. Ibid., pp. 23-27.We also reviewed a report regarding seismic observations on September 11, 2001, whose authors conclude that the impact time of United 93 was 10:06:05±5 (EDT). Won-Young Kim and G. R. Baum, "Seismic Observations during September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attack," spring 2002 (report to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources). But the seismic data on which they based this estimate are far too weak in signal-to-noise ratio and far too speculative in terms of signal source to be used as a means of contradicting the impact time established by the very accurate combination of FDR, CVR, ATC, radar, and impact site data sets. These data sets constrain United 93's impact time to within 1 second, are airplane- and crash-site specific, and are based on time codes automatically recorded in the ATC audiotapes for the FAA centers and correlated with each data set in a process internationally accepted within the aviation accident investigation community. Furthermore, one of the study's principal authors now concedes that "seismic data is not definitive for the impact of UA 93." Email from Won-Young Kim to the Commission,"Re: UA Flight 93,"July 7, 2004; see also Won-Young Kim,"Seismic Observations for UA Flight 93 Crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania during September 11, 2001," July 5, 2004.
All of the sources that the Report cites to support its claim of a crash time of 10:03 are apparently unavailable for public inspection, including Kim's 2004 paper, for which one will search in vain on the web. The " FDR, CVR, ATC, radar, and impact site data sets" cited by the Report all remain unavailable to the public. This contrasts with Kim and Baum's 2002 paper, which documents its case for the 10:06 crash time.
Early press reports consistently pegged the crash time at 10:06 or later. Only NORAD asserted that Flight 93 had crashed at 10:03. 1 2 3 4 5
References
2. Investigators locate 'black box' from Flight 93; widen search area in Somerset crash, post-gazette.com, 9/13/01
3. A Bell Tolls In Shanksville, CBS News, 9/11/02
4. 'America is grateful' to Flight 93 heroes, CNN.com, 9/11/02
5. , September 11 News, Heroes - Flight 93
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