The 9/11 Flight That Fought Back

Let's show you what's going on around the country kids uh on this Tuesday the night of the Latin Grammys sunny skies down through Texas all the way from the bottom of to be completely honest the morning of Tuesday the 11th of September 2001 started off as an extraordinarily boring one Fashion Week was underway in New York the morning's headlines featured stories about cloning a lost spy plane and the lackluster economy Morning television ran celebrity interviews and Feelgood stories Everybody Loves Raymond was on it sixth season there's piece on CBS about retro American cooking and really

that was as exciting as it got it's kind of quiet around the country we like quiet it's quiet it's too quiet 35,000 ft in the sky at 9:24 a.m. Captain Jason D now 42 minutes into a routine 5 and a half hour flight from newor to San Francisco checked in with Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center Cleveland United 93 is 35 inter some routine back and forth some talk about the weather some talk about the traffic 12 mil East everything seemed fine and then less than 5 minutes later that same air traffic controller received two radio

Transmissions that would come to haunt him for the rest of his life those distress calls frantic unintelligible screaming were broadcast to everybody on the frequency 1523 did You hear your company did you hear some interference on the frequency couple minutes ago screaming yeah I did 797 and uh over the next few minutes the air traffic controller tries desperately to make contact with the pilots to no avail United 93 CL United 93 verify your level of 3 as the plane began to rapidly change course before switching off its transponder he knew that something was Very very

wrong and he was right Flight 93 it would turn out was the last of four planes to be hijacked that day in what would become a strategic and symbolic disaster and one of America's most enduring tragedies we've had a national tragedy but unlike the other planes Flight 93 would never reach its Target instead it would crash into a field 65 mil southeast of Pittsburgh and that left everybody with one Question what exactly happened on that plane no no indication whatsoever that this very carefully coordinated massive attack was going to occur there's been a complete intelligence

failure here and there will be price to pay for that thank you for your patience ladies and gentlemen we are now boarding all passengers in all roads all passengers in all roads for 43-year-old Captain Jason D who's making his way to that morning's Pre-flight briefing to begin prep for his 8:00 a.m. flight from nework to San Francisco today was undoubtedly a good day you see he was on his way back from Ground Control where he' managed to charm his way into a behind the-scenes tour even with his many years of experience the magic of Aviation

still hadn't lost its Edge for Jason a well respected standards Captain when he wasn't flying he's teaching others to fly and he was damn good at it too Patient even tempered and quick to make a joke to put others at ease Jason was a particular favorite among his fellow Pilots we just made everything look so easy and no doubt he had a little twinkle in his eye that morning his fifth wedding anniversary was just a few days away so he just had to make it through a few busy days and he'd be jetting off to

London with his wife where he'd be announcing his totally low-key surprise gift of a grand piano Something that was no doubt a topic of conversation between him and his co-pilot that day 36-year-old first officer Leroy Homer Jr though the two had never flown together before that morning in many ways they were Kindred Spirits Leroy was a man with flying in his blood as a kid he assembled model planes voraciously read every Aviation book he could get his hands on and he spent hours marveling at takeoffs and landings with his dad at MacArthur Airport near his

home in Long Island as a pilot in the US Air Force he'd risked his life on humanitarian missions without falter but now as a United Airlines pilot he' earned himself a reputation as a softspoken family man with a polite and distinctly open-minded attitude and some interesting War Stories to boot that morning as the crew consisting of two pilots and five flight attendants went through their pre-flight briefing the weather would have no doubt Been a topic of conversation seriously it was blue skies all all the way they couldn't have asked for better with Decades of experience

between them as the crew made their way to their Boeing 757 to undergo preparation they were likely as calm and collected as ever 31-year-old first class passenger mark bingum on the other hand was absolutely not in fact at the same time Jason and Leroy were doing their pre-flight checks Mark was bombing it down the freeway While praying he wouldn't miss his flight a gregarious and openly gay rugby player that stood at 6'4 and 220 Mark Bingo made an impression wherever he went people loved him even though he now owned his own highly successful PR firm

he was markedly unpretentious and unusually Resolute look this was a man who had single-handedly fought off two muggers walked right up to Tom Cruz and insisted on shaking his hand and who just a few months before this trip was Thrown to the ground while running with bulls in Spain twice 10 out of 10 years of free will but you know Mark had been out with friends the night before last and it had been the kind of night that had ended with Jager Meister shots and the sound of birds chirping so on this morning nursing the

last remnants of a hangover he'd overslept and now his friend who was giving him a ride that morning wasn't Even sure he'd make it but Mark really couldn't miss this flight he's supposed to be an usher at his friend's wedding in San Francisco and so as soon as he pulled over he ran out of the car through the airport and finally at the very last minute made it onto the plane on United Airlines Flight 93 Mark joined seven crew members and 37 passengers from all walks of life passengers such as 79-year-old Hilda Marin who was

heading to California to live with her Daughter 20-year-old tshi yugay a student from Japan who adored all things America and was determined to earn a degree in the states and become fluent in English 38-year-old Richard Gano a conservationist with the US fish and wildlife service who adored all animals particularly his own a black German Shepherd called raven 42-year-old Lou na a Charming but no nonsense toy store manager with a predilection for fast cars fancy wine and weightlifting on his Way to sort out an issue with the supplier 21-year-old Nicole Miller a college student and part-time

waitress who'd made a last minute decision to fly to the east coast to visit a friend and was now flying back the photo you're looking at now is of Nicole boarding the flight happy as ever it'll be the last photo ever taken of her of course there are many more lives many more stories than it's practical to cover here but the point is these were ordinary folks Just going about their lives hoping that those 5 and a half hours would pass as quickly as possible while the 8: a.m. from Newark to San Francisco was never

an overly popular route the flight was unusually under booked with only 44 Souls on board including the seven crew members and a capacity for 182 passengers the load Factor was just 20% so the plane likely felt quite empty as they settled into their seats and stowed away their hand luggage they had no idea That between 7:03 and 748 four terrorist hijackers had checked in and successfully made their way through United Airlines one security checkpoint and were now sitting in first class and though one of those hijackers was selected for additional security screening as part of

the tsa's counterterrorism program that screening was only designed to detect explosives knives with blades less than 4 in of which the hijack recers on United Airlines Flight 93 had plenty were happily carried on board as was the policy almost everywhere at the time it seems unfathomable today but back then going through airport security was a relatively benign experience remember airport security wasn't administered by federal employees as it is today but by private security companies there were some bare minimum requirements such as metal detectors and x-ray inspection systems for carry-on bags but beyond That security measures

were largely at the company's discretion the private security firm that operated United Airlines checkpoints at New York Liberty International that day didn't even use closed circuit surveillance at the time those working on the security checkpoint saw nothing that they deemed to be concerning or suspicious and so by 8 a.m. as the doors to the plane were closed and its massive 60-ton body taxed onto the runway to Prepare for takeoff the hijackers on board had defeated every single security layer that America's civil aviation system then had in place to Prov prevent a hijacking and everybody's fate

was sealed There's No Going Back From Here unit3 United 93 delays off the airport less than minutes M's frequency for changes let me know when you're ready for the pushor this frequency call you For 93 that morning when Captain Jason D checked in with nework airports air traffic control tower he learned that there was significant congestion as it turned out flight 9 3 would have to wait its turn a fairly ordinary occurrence for a morning commuter flight nothing about this recording stands out except of course the time 8:14 a.m. American 11 climbing table level 3

American 11 climbing level 35 American 11 Boston M Lima how do you here clear American 11 Boston this is uh Adam this is Boston I turned American 20 left and I was going to climb he will not respond to me now look like he's turning right yeah I turned him 20 right oh okay and he's only going to uh I think 29 okay than American 11 if you here Boston center right Dan American 11 American 11 Boston 250 miles away over at the Boston Air Traffic Control Center an air traffic controller by the name of

Peter zooki had just lost contact with the pilots Manning American Airlines flight 11 a domestic flight from Boston to Los Angeles a controller with 19 years experience under his belt Peter's immediate thoughts were that the pilots just weren't paying attention and so he spoke to his colleagues for advice no One interpreted flight 11's failure to respond as a sign of a hijacking after all in this pre- 911 World it wasn't unheard of for a commercial aircraft to deviate slightly from its course or for a controller to lose contact with a pilot for a short period

time so initially he wasn't too worried that was until flight 11 suddenly changed its course and then he started to feel uneasy perhaps he' made a mistake or maybe his equipment wasn't working so he Checked it out while continuing to attempt contact and then at 8:21 flight 11's transponder an electronic device that helps Air Traffic Control identify and track a plane's location was turned off Peter tried to push down the Sens of dread he was now feeling because the simultaneous loss of radio contact and transponder signals was a really bad sign it usually meant a

catastrophic system failure or a crash but see that didn't make any sense because he now Managed to switch to tracking flight 11 by a more rudimentary method its primary radar returns and he could clearly see that flight 11 was still in the air and that's when he heard it [Applause] is that American 11 trying to call we have some claims stay quiet and you'll be okay we're returning to the airport and who's trying to call me here American 11 are you trying to call nobody move everything will be okay if You try to make any

yourself and the airplane let's stay quiet in later interviews Peter would describe how he felt in that moment with Precision not angry not confused but scared those messages weren't intended for him but for the passengers on board the flight right there and then Peter understood exactly what was happening clear as day flight 11 was being hijacked trying to fight the rising Panic he screamed at his supervisor from his desk and then for this brief moment he looked around the room and he realized everybody was staring at him like he' lost his mind as the recordings

were pulled and analyzed Peter remembered feeling so frustrated at how blasé everyone seemed to be nobody seemed to quite understand the garbled message on the tape and the general assumption was that Peter was being a bit dramatic and had probably made a Mistake a hijacking was unlikely to say the least and an act of Terror that didn't even enter Peter mind let alone anyone else's see while the events that followed and their underlying motivations are clear to us now it's very important to understand that on that morning they weren't whilst hijackings persisted globally the threat

of a domestic hijacking within the United States was mostly seen as a Distant memory and it wasn't that such events weren't taken seriously it's just that at the time they weren't really the pressing concern that say on board explosives were while there was a golden age of hijacking in the 60s and' 70s the last domestic hijacking in the US was carried out in '94 by a disgruntled FedEx employee and it was a rousing failure frankly there were expectations about how hijackings were supposed to play out too namely that the hijackers Aimed to land the plane

that they would issue immediate negotiable demands and that they wouldn't try to banish the idea that anybody would use a commercial airliner as a guided missile while still inside it simply wasn't recognized on either an organization or a personal level still when Peter's colleagues began to piece together parts of the hijacker message that morning alarm Bells did start ringing while they didn't understand precisely everything The hijacker had said they understood enough to know that they now had a rogue 767 hurtling through the skies to make matters worse the plane's Sudden Change in Direction meant it

was about to enter another Center's airspace unannounced and their method of tracking it without the transponder was severely limited they didn't even know the altitude Peter and his colleagues had to get the message out across the system and Fast now if you're not really into planes or aviation in general it's easy to gloss over just how vast and complicated this system is but understanding it is key to understanding how everything is about to unfold so here the very very simplified version if you've got this video on in the background you you may want to look

up so when a plane leaves airport it does so with a flight plan which has been put together by the airline's Flight dispatcher who are based at the airline's own operation centers as the plane follows the route set out on that plan its Pilots communicate with a number of different people and systems along the way who will have received the flight plan ahead of time first is ground control and there's tower control terminal radar approach control but once the planes are on Route and above 20,000 ft they're passed by radio between any number of art

tcc's air traffic control Centers or just centers as then known like Boston Center the USA has 22 and they are divided up like this in the US this is all overseen by the FAA or the Federal Aviation Administration a part of the US federal government mandated by law to quote regulate the Safety and Security of civil aviation now the FAA has its Command Center which has General oversight of all US Air Traffic and sorts out any issues that affect multiple facilities and then sitting Above that and overseeing very broad high level policy and decision making

is the faa's headquarters two separate buildings two separate functions both located in Washington DC around 30 m apart so when a controller suspects a hijacking other nearby air traffic control centers are notified alongside Personnel all the way up the fa's chain of command right up to their headquarters where a designated hijack coordinator will contact the pentagon's National military command center to ask for a military escort aircraft to follow the flight and report back the National military command would then seek approval from the office of the Secretary of Defense and if they gave that approval then

those orders would be passed down the North American Aerospace defenses or norad's chain of command now NORAD is a Canadian American bational military organization that was established in the 50s to jointly Counter the threat of Soviet bombers norad's job is to defend us airspace and while plane hijackings fall within the remit of this Mission up until this point that really only involved acting as an escort while the situation was deescalate nor as real concern at the time with cruise missiles and the use of aircraft to deliver weapons of mass destruction in other words things coming

into the United States from the outside cruise missiles were hijacking the chain Of command was the same NORAD alerted its American region who in turn passed the request on to one of three regional divisions in this case needs the Northeast air defense sector and they in turn alerted any available defense sites that each housed battle ready aircraft okay so you didn't come here to listen to me talk about complex organization structures or FAA terminology or maybe did I don't know no judgment here but either way I'll cut to the chase because Uh there is a

glaringly obvious problem with this system this is way too long a chain of command to react to a hijacking that is also an external enemy attack and that's because nobody really expected the two to happen at the same time on the same plane like I said before there were expectations at the time about what plane hijackings were supposed to look like and it wasn't this it was completely unprecedented and that was a huge problem because big complex Nonlinear systems like NORAD and the FAA do not like novelty they are presupposed on predictability all the individual

actors doing what they're supposed to do in a given way at a given time ass sure systems like this have protocols Sops chains of command for when things go wrong but that's only for the problem s that it foresees what about the problems that it doesn't well information gets lost small ostensively inconsequential decisions Can have dire consequences in short inevitable chaos or normal accidents if you really want to get into the weeds failures in intelligence notwithstanding it was this not exclusively but more than anything else that the hijackers were about to exploit to put it

plainly the system designed to protect passengers that day and the protocols underpinning it were quote unsuited in every respect for what was about to Happen at 8:29 15 minutes after flight 11 had become unresponsive Boston Center received a call from an American Airlines Operation Center to report a call they'd received from one of the plane's flight attendants about a possible hijacking the call the American Airlines Center had received was from 45-year-old Betty on and she was already operating outside of the system's predetermined protocol for a hijacking by calling them the information she had Passed on

was horrifying several of her fellow flight attendants were either dead or incapacitated mace had been used for crowd control and now the plane was flying erratically upon hearing this Boston Center kicked into gear controllers worked together to move the other planes out of the way the chain of command was notified and supervisors at nearby air traffic control centers at least the ones Boston thought flight 11 might intercept act were informed of the Situation actually in New York Boston uh I got a little situation with American 11 American 11 he is a uh 767 departed Boston

going to LAX uh we don't know where the aircraft is going we lost his frequency then we lost this transponder and now the air is uh just west of Al head and do South oh my goodness minutes later at 8:33 a third transmission was received from flight 11 and this time Peter made sure it was played out Loud nobody please going back to the airport don't try to make any stupid moves the whole place went quiet Boston Center had no idea what airport the hijacker was referring to they just knew they needed eyes on that

plane and fast by now the information had made its way up to the faa's headquarters but nothing seemed to be happening and that's because for reasons that still aren't entirely clear nobody at the faa's headquarters had actually contacted the Military and so a controller at Boston Center decided to just break protocol he made a few calls got a phone number and called needs one of norad's regional divisions himself weapon hi Boston Center tmu we have a a problem here we have a hijacked aircraft headed towards new New York and we need you guys to we

need someone to scramble some f-16s or something up there to help us out is this is this real world or exercise no this is not not exercise man address Okay hey uh hold on one second okay yep hey hey hey hey hey okay I can't emphasize enough just how not in line with protocol just picking up the phone and calling the military is and I think you can hear that in the controller's voice but in any case it's here with this controller that the first notification at any level was received by the military that flight

11 had been hijacked but it still wasn't enough by 8:40 flight 11 was fast Leaving Boston's airspace and their information on the more precise elements of its location was lacking so they started radioing in to other nearby planes to request visual confirmation and while only a few saw the hijacked plane many of them definitely heard it 17 175 goad we figured we wait to go to your Center uh we heard a suspicious transmission on our departure at of Boston uh with someone sound like someone ke the Mike and said everyone stay in your seat oh

okay I'll pass it along over here hey kingst 93 line go ahead you know 175 just came on my frequency and he said that they heard of suspicious uh transmission when they were leaving Boston oh yeah of everybody stay in their seat that's what they heard as a suspicious Mission see the hijackers Hadn't realized it but they' broadcast that message to multiple other planes on the frequency when one of those planes United Airlines flight 175 another domestic flight from Boston to Los Angeles moved from Boston Center's airspace to New Yorks its Pilots trying to be

helpful made sure that the controller at New York Center was aware of the situation and you can really feel that inevitable chaos that we talked About earlier closing in here remember New York Center had only been informed of the presumed hijacking of flight 11 just 10 minutes ago by Boston Center this was their first time hearing about any radio transmissions and it was secondhand from a plane that well was me minutes away from disaster itself this was a very common theme that day not every person working at every facility was operating with the same exact

information this was certainly the case At needs where having now received a direct request from Boston Center to scramble aircraft Personnel was struggling to use Boston Center's Intel to locate fighting on their own radar Scopes okay mode three 1443 last known no this is real world okay I got a z point last position you know what just start hitting up tracks all around that area that Z Point okay just north of uh SD MCC scramble Otis copy same Mission MCC I don't know where I'm scrambling these guys too I need a direction uh destination not

only did military personnel not know where to send the fighter aircraft many weren't even sure whether flight 11's hijacking was real world or exercise on top of this Boston centers request to scramble Fighters had been issued to needs effectively the bottom of the chain of command needs remember is a regional division of NORAD and NORAD answers to the Secretary of Defense via the Pentagon's National military command center so back up the chain of command they had to go to get permission from their superiors at least that's what was supposed to happen in reality the first

in line Superior Major General Larry Arnold saw how desperate the situation was and basically said screw it scramble now and we'll get the permissions later and with that while military ID techs were still attempting to locate flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. two combat ready f-15s Prepared for takeoff there's with an active air defense scramble scramble immediately P 45 46 all parties acknowledg with initials command post power on the approach Julia killer all parties are clear to drop Julia here but it was far far too late Eng the World Trade said that Tower number one is

on fire the whole outside of the building was just a huge Explosion 104 company stand by at this time engine 10 Manhattan 10 engine 10 World Trade Center 1060 send every available amulance everything you got to the World Trade Center now transed for the World Trade Center for the World Trade C at 8:46 and 40 seconds American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Cent's North Tower killing everybody on board instantly in claiming the lives of many many more though the military ID Tex had Managed to locate flight 11 for a brief moment it

was too late and everybody that was tracking flight 11 watched as it disappeared from their screens all said and done the military had 9 minutes to respond to the news of the first hijacking the most notice they had before any of the plan's impact word of the crash at the World Trade Center spread like wildfire while early reports were highly speculative many directly involved pieced together the two events Fairly quickly it was the worst possible outcome for some like Peter who was now in the car park trying to fight back tears the guilt was almost

overwhelming they had no idea how bad things were about to get 175 recycle your transponder score code of 1470 you know 17 New York United 175 D New York Dela 1489 do you read New York 1489 go ahead okay just want to make sure you Read New York United United 175 do you read New York 5 minutes after the crash over at New York Center air traffic controller Dave btia began receiving reports from his colleagues about a fire at the World Trade Center but since had said that it was flight 11 he continued with his

assigned duty of trying to locate the now lost flight it was then that he noticed that the position of one of his other flights was no longer actively Updating so he made radio contact with its Pilots to no avail that flight was United Airlines flight 175 the same flight that had reported the strange message heard from American Airlines flight 11 Dave still busy looking for flight 11 put flight 1 75's Behavior down to the pilots not paying attention just like daa he figured 175 would update their transponder code and make itself known in a few

minutes but then he noticed an unrecognizable transponder Code in his airspace 33 21 and that plane was rapidly ascending that frightened him and so he contacted his colleagues to try and figure out what the hell was going on hello you um see that United 175 anywhere and do me a favor you see that Target there the 3321 code at 335 climbing don't know who he is but you got the US Air 583 if you needed to send him down you can nobody we we have a Hijack we have some problems over here right now oh

you do yes and that may be real traffic nobody knows I can't get a hold of the United 175 at all right now and I don't know where he went to all right okay I'll see if I have one all right okay you know 175 New York so in Dave's mind initially at least he had two separate problems flight 175 becoming non-responsible and a rogue plane operating on an unfamiliar transponder code flying Erratically through his airspace but then Dave received a vital piece of information a nearby pilot identified the plane flying under 3321 as a

United Airlines Boeing 767 flight 175 Dave finally realized was the Rogue plane now if you want to hear a senior air traffic controller locked in and at the absolute top of their game there's truly no better example than Dave btia on the morning of 9911 I mean seriously I actually had to check that I Hadn't accidentally sped the recording that when I was listening to this for 17,000 D3 heavy New York Center Roger good morning maintain FL 220 us 542 redu speed to 280 Delta 2315 Delta 2315 turn left immediately Roger traffic 1:00 10 Mi

turning into your face descending out of 31 it's a hijack the aircraft we don't know what he's doing let turn immediately 20 don't Point okay you can maneuver as necessary to avoid that aircraft sir I do not know what he's Doing USR tw3 tw3 traffic 1:00 10 m South eastbound descending at a 28.7 okay you can uh deer 542 for heading at 29er Z Now R vectors for your climb you're Delta 2315 he's behind you now you can turn right to heading is 280 join the airway Delta 2315 any evasive action you need to take

is approved the guys sitting next to Dave listened on in horror it was like something out of a film Flight 175 missed two planes by 200 ft well nobody could figure out what Flight 1 75's intentions were they knew about the World Trade Center crash but hadn't yet connected it to flight 11 they could clearly see that the plane had now moved Southwest and was completely off its flight path at around 8:55 a manager at New York Center was updated on the situation and he began to initiate the hijack protocol telling his supervisor everything he

knew and when that supervisor attempted to get that information up the chain of command by Informing senior regional managers he was told that they were discussing a hijacked aircraft and that they couldn't be disturbed the idea that anything could possibly be worse than a single hijacking seemingly hadn't entered their minds little did they know American 77 Indy American 77 American indie American 77 American in radio check how do you Read over the next few minutes yet another plane American Airlines flight 77 would go dark this time it was Indianapolis Center's airspace a few minutes later

its transponder was turned off however unlike the other flights flight 77 was not found on primary radar as the controller grappled with The Disappearance of flight 77 he had no knowledge of the other hijackings that had taken place across the system because as it turned out Indianapolis Wasn't one of the centers on the original call made by Boston thus the controller believed that American Airlines flight 77 had quote experienced a serious electrical or mechanical failure or both and was gone this information was communicated across the system prompting search and rescue rather than hijacking protocols the

FAA headquarters would not receive word of the situation until 9:24 around half an hour after it disappeared when Indianapolis Center started to doubt its initial assumptions and suspect based on what they were now seeing on TV that maybe flight 77 had been hijacked from there began a frantic search back at the New York Center the supervisor now panicking about flight 175 circumvented protocol and contacted the next in the chain of command the faa's command center himself no doubt this was a judicious decision given the circumstances but it was nonetheless Just like the others far far

too late still tracking flight 175 one of the controllers at New York Center made contact with another smaller Facility Who in theory if their data was correct should have had a visual on the plane from their window hey can you look out your window right now can you can you see a guy about 4,000 ft about 5 East Euro right now looks like he's yeah I see him you see Guy Look is he Descending for the building also he's descending really quick too yeah well that's 2500 ft now he just dropped 800 like like once

once week that's that's another situation who what kind of play is that can you guys tell I don't know I'll read it out in a minute another one just hit the building wow the the whole building just came apart holy smokes at 903 United Airlines flight 175 Crashed into the world Trade Centers south tower unlike the first crash every major news station now had eyes on the towers and it was broadcast on live television to an estimated two billion people now remember oh my God my God that looks like a second plane something many of

you watching this video will likely remember all too well not knowing if that was 175 or another road plane that wasn't in their airspace the manager at New York Center decided to just cut to the Chase and call the military via needs just as Boston Center had done this was the first indication that needs air Defenders had of the second hijack you'll recall earlier that Peter zooki and his colleagues were struggling to understand the precise wording used within the messages broadcast by flight 11's hijacker well just as flight 175 hit the second tower they figured

it Out the hijacker had said we have some planes plural shortly after this at 9:05 Boston Center immediately instructed all of its controllers to inform all aircraft in their airspace to heighten cockpit security which they did then over the next 10 minutes Boston Center also asked the faa's command center the guys responsible for inter facility management twice to request that all air traffic control centers Nationwide do the same and there is no evidence to Suggest that the faa's command center acted on this in any capacity I'll get the message out thank you very much and

look from here things get really messy really fast Indianapolis Center still dealing with flight 77 doesn't know about the multiple hijackings nor add the guys above needs still don't know about any hijacking but flight 11 Boston Center becomes concerned that yet another flight Delta 1989 has been hijacked American Airlines operations centers are an absolute mess trying to figure out whether or not it was their missing flight 77 that had just hit the second tower or or something else and meanwhile amidst all of this United Airlines Flight 93 had reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 ft

nobody aboard that plane had any idea of the growing chaos that was now ripping its way through the systems designed to protect Them 20 minutes earlier at around 8:41 having waited on the runway for about half an hour United Airlines Flight 93 was finally cleared for takeoff United 93 went 330 s Runway four left clear for takeoff take off four left United 93 takeoff went as expected and to 856 right as Dave ptio was frantically moving planes out of flight 1 75's path United Airlines Flight 93 was instructed to climb to a cruising altitude of

35,000 F feet by another nearby Controller at the very same New York Air Traffic Control Center whose airspace they were in at the time United 93 climbing maintain flight level 3 23 by 902 Flight 93 reached the requested altitude and it stayed in New York's airspace for another 20 or so minutes 93 starting to pick up some light shop at 35 any R reports the uh first complaint I've had in United 93 contact the Cleveland Center morning Cleveland tonight at 93 with your 350 some light toop here at 35 any R report uh no just

little light sh nothing worse than a United 93 what you're hearing is United Airlines Flight 93 being handed over to the next airspace on their Flight Plan Cleveland Center what you're not hearing is any sign of panic and that's because Captain Jason D and first officer Leroy Homer Had no idea about anything that had unfolded over the past hour even though two planes had now hit the Twin Towers even though the White House had been evacuated even though the FAA had shut down airspace over New York City and even though multiple FAA Airline officials now

had an understanding that hijackers were going after multiple aircraft nobody at leadership level had thought to use the vast Network at their disposal to warn the planes that were Still in the sky why well according to later interviews FAA officials thought it was the airline carrier's responsibility to notify planes of security problems not theirs this was of course news to the Airline carriers who at the time were facing a quote escalating number of conflicting and for the most part erroneous reports about other flights as well as a continuing lack of Vital Information from the FAA

about hijacked flights at 9:25 FAA Headquarters had enough concern to order a quote Nationwide ground stop and to request that its own Command Center quote get awareness up to all traffic management coordinators or the traffic management units to report any unusual circumstances direct to the command center of loss of identification or any unusual radio transmission which demanded that air traffic controllers report on any problems as they arose and not try to prevent any further problems From happening it's frustratingly myopic but that's how it came to be that flight 93's very last chance to be warned

of the horrors that were about to unfold very unfair barely rested in the hands of one man over in United Airlines headquarters in Chicago just before 9:00 a.m. 63-year-old United Airlines flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger had just received word from his manager that a flight attendant aboard flight 175 was Relaying some very disturbing news the plane had been hijacked that flight alongside 9ed Airlines Flight 93 and 14 others was one of the flights Ed was responsible for that day now flight dispatchers are different from air traffic controllers because they work for the airline companies themselves in

very broad terms they're in charge of putting together and monitoring flight plans and while technically they have joint responsibility with the captain Communication with the plane is really only on an as needed basis Ed as with every other flight dispatcher quote did not have the capacity to listen in on Communications between his flights and air traffic control so he didn't know anything other than what he just heard from his manager and what he and all of his colleagues were about to watch on a huge TV right in the middle of their office now remember oh

my God my God that looks like a second Plane come in just from the right hand side of the screen so this looks like it is some sort of a concerted effort to attack the World Trade Center that is underway in downtown New York we will see that scene again just to make sure we saw what to Ed a highly skilled dispat of 34 years it didn't matter who was responsible for telling who what all he knew when he saw those images was that there was trouble And that he needed to warn his Pilots he

determined that the best and quickest way to get the message out was via acars a digital data link system used to send short text messages between aircraft and ground stations he took a brief moment to think about the best and most succinct way of phrasing it and then he started hammering out the messages manually typing and sending them one by one and in the middle of sending those messages out a message from Captain Jason doll with whom Ed was well acquainted appeared on his screen good morning nice climb out of EWR after a nice tour

of the apartment courts and Ground Control 20 Northeast West at 550 occasional light chop wind 29050 ain't helping Jay Ed fired back his warning message at 9:23 beware any cockpit intrusion to aircraft in NY hit Trade Center at 9:24 that message the first first warning sent out by any of the Airline carriers whose planes were Involved in 9/11 was received by two very confused Pilots see just a few minutes earlier at 9:22 the pair had received a message from Leroy's wife who seeing what was happening on TV had an AC car's message sent to the

cockpit to ask if everything was okay confused at 9:26 Jason hit Ed back with the following message Ed confirm latest message please Jason just 2 minutes later as Ed was writing his reply the hijackers on board attacked the [Music] cockpit while the precise details of the order of the attack aren't known it's generally thought that it looked something like this at 9:28 four hijackers seated in first class Rose from their seats tied red ties around their heads and over a period of about 40 seconds attacked an incapacitated first class passenger Mark Rothenberg threatened the rest

of the passengers with a fake explosive device ushered Everybody to the back of the plane and gained access to the cockpit attacking both pilots and taking over the controls the most likely scenario is that this all happened simultaneously since quote taking over the cabin first would have likely alerted the flight deck to a problem and waiting to control or move passengers once the cockpit was secured would have increased the risk of Passenger intervention less than a minute after the last radio Contact with air traffic control flight 93 could be seen suddenly descending before transmitting two

distress calls on its frequency in quick succession the actual recordings are yeah they're bad perhaps if the warning had been received earlier there might have been a chance however minute but such as it was Leroy and Jason were both strapped into their seats like sitting ducks completely unable to defend Themselves United 93 verify your level of 3 United 93 CL United 93 CL okay so back over at Cleveland Center John worth the air traffic controller now responsible for Flight 93 had just become aware of multiple hijackings and the two planes that had now hit the

twin towers and he saw Flight 93 descend quickly so he hit the loud speaker before the second distress call and everybody in the Office heard it alongside all the other planes on that frequency at the exact same time President Bush went live on television apparent terrorist attack on our country terrorist attacks of course there have been rumors and plenty of inference up until this point but to hear the words said by the president of the United States well you can only imagine the confusion and concern not only on the ground but up in the air

too to know uh yeah I'll keep you Advised on that in a second an 797 clel United 1523 did you hear your company did you hear some interference on the frequency couple minutes ago screaming yes I did 797 and uh we couldn't tell what it was either okay American 1060 ditto on the other transmission American 1060 you heard that also yes sir twice Roger 561 Alpha Charlie keep your air speed back 250 knots and put reaching 370 we heard that also thanks I just wanted to confirm it Wasn't some interference now John didn't want to

panic the pilots so he tried his best to appear as calm as possible deep down though he was terrified because he knew exactly what the hijackers intended to do with that plane and he also knew that all he could do now was report to his manager and keep a track of it until the military could take over and so that's what he did he sat there and he watched the plane like a hawk waiting for the Hijackers to turn their transponder off just like they' done on the other planes but his concentration was quickly interrupted

uh calling Cleveland Center you're unreadable say again slowly it was the pilot hijacker and the message just like on the other other planes had been accidentally transmitted to everyone on the frequency and not to the passengers in the cabin back at United Airlines dispatch Ed and a number of other colleagues received word about the Probable hijacking of Flight 93 and for the next 5 minutes they began sending out more AC car's messages but of course there was no response to these or any subsequent attempts at contact meanwhile on the back of the plane the passengers

now herded to the last few rows were almost totally unaware of what was happening those first few moments after the hijacking had taken place must have been both terrifying and confusing especially Since the plane had just taken a roller coaster like dip losing altitude and then quickly regaining it once the plane leveled out though the first class passengers began to exchange details of what they just saw to economy passengers who likely would have seen very little from behind the curtains thinking about what to do next and trying to push aside the growing sense of panic

he must have been feeling it seems that one passenger at least initially realized that the Answer was staring him right in the face the airphones While most people had cell phones in 2001 at 35,000 ft planes are generally above the effective cell tower range which would have made them difficult though not impossible to use the airphones which just so happened to be placed on the back nine rows of the plane though outrageously expensive would have been far more reliable and so throughout the duration of the flight passengers started making calls a total Of 37 to

be precise it's because of these calls that we have so much information about what happened on board that plane the very first of those calls to connect was between first class passenger 38-year-old Tom Bernett and his wife Dena and it was placed just minutes after the hijacking had taken placeing at the time Dina was at their home getting their girls ready for school while on the phone with Tom's mom the two reassuring each other in the Face of the images they were now seeing on TV that he was probably fine and the chances of one

of those planes being Tom's was minute but then again Dena didn't know the precise details of his flight as the senior VP of a medical devices company Tom flew so much that she just stopped keeping track he said he'd be home today on an early flight if possible and that was all she knew not yet understanding the nature of the attacks the two speculated that it was Probably a major issue with air traffic control and then the core waiting tone sounded it was Tom and he didn't miss a beat listen our airplane has been hijacked

it's United Flight 93 from new to San Francisco his tone was quiet to a matter of fact he then went on to give Dina further details of the attack that somebody had been killed that there was a bomb and that she needed to call the authorities right Away her whole body froze she actually had to remind herself to breathe okay 911 I have to call 911 she remembered thinking she made the call and finally through a series of transfers she found herself on the end of the line with a confused FBI agent she relayed what

she knew but before she could finish the cor waiting noise sounded again they're in the cockpit with the first words out of his mouth in this Call while still remaining remarkably calm he provided even further detail explaining that he tried to help the passenger that had been attacked but there was no pulse realizing that Tom hadn't been seeing or hearing any of what had been reported Dena quickly told him everything that she knew that people were hijacking planes all down the east coast and hitting designated targets and that they'd already hit both towers of the

World Trade Center there was a Moment of silence on the line as Tom processed what this meant oh my gosh in that instant his grip on the situation turned from a nebulous fear to something far more substantive those hijackers had no intention of Landing This Plane of all the tickets of all the flight routes he could have booked he picked this one but if there's one thing to know about Tom Bernett it's that he wasn't The type of guy to dwell a deeply religious man with Traditional Values who lived by a strict moral code Tom

Bernett had within him a streak of defiance and he wasn't afraid to disagree with anyone if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything he liked to say he had dreams of one day becoming a politician he had so much much conviction in the way things ought to be and love nothing more than to get into a debate with any Willing participant and he'd usually win it's a prise precisely no one that Tom's brand of fearless Defiance had led to a sort of deao leadership role that day because well that's just how Tom was

and it's thanks to him and his wife Dena that the passengers on United 93 had a sense of what was about to happen as quickly as they did Dena listened as Tom confidently and matter of factly repeated to other passengers what she'd said including his Seatmate Mark Bingham it was that information that Mark simultaneously relayed while on the phone to his mom Mom this is Mark Bingham the stress had caused him to address his own mom using his full name I want to tell you that I love you he then relayed everything he knew in

a calm controlled and focused way and he must have realized how outlandish the whole thing sounded because he finished with you've got to believe me it's true of course Mark's Mom had been watching the events unfold on television so she absolutely did believe him meanwhile back at Cleveland Center John watched Flight 93 climb from 35,000 to 40,000 700 ft while making a 90° turn Southeast he felt the turn deep in the pit of his stomach there's no way that maneuver wasn't throwing people around the plane he thought and then he considered the trajectory and he

Realized that plane was headed straight for Washington it was around this time 9:36 that everybody over at Cleveland Center started to become increasingly frustrated rather than waiting around a senior member of Staff called the FAA Command Center again and specifically requested military assistance for Flight 93 even threatening to just do it themselves if necessary and the person on the other end of the phone reminded Them that such a decision was well above them in the chain of command and that they were quote working on the issue meanwhile 2 minutes later at 9:38 in Washington flight

77 crashed into the Pentagon instantly killing 64 passengers including five hijackers and six crew members on board as well as 125 military personnel and civilians its primary radar Target was only discovered 6 minutes prior at 932 by the FAA who would inform the military At 9:34 Despite knowing of flight 77s disappearance for just over 20 minutes at this point up until then the only contact senior staff at the FAA had with the military was to inform them at 9: 23 that flight 11 was still in the air and headed towards Washington meaning a second set

of fighter pilots were scrambled and then Airborne at 9:30 not to deal with flight 77 but with flight 11 a plane that no longer existed looking at flight 93's CVR transcript at This time around 9:30 it's quite clear that the hijackers in the cockpits were becoming increasingly frustrated and frantic too as they disengaged the autopilot alarm started blaring and there were more than 40 instances of one of the hijackers saying things like like no sit down stop and don't move it's believed that this is because one of the pilots was still alive and was doing

whatever he could to interfere with the hijackers or communicate with control Who could still be heard calling for him over the radio on top of this the voice of what is thought to be flight attendant Deborah Walsh can be heard in the cockpit though it's not exactly clear how she came to be in there the CVR recording doesn't begin until 3 minutes or so after the cockpit was breached the most likely scenario is that she was used to get the pilots to open the door realizing that the crew were no longer Useful to them the

words in the name of Allah most merciful most compassionate were heard before the words everything is fine I finished Deborah Jason and Leroy were not heard on the recording again minutes later at 9:39 the plane's new pilot now Al to aware of the need to keep the remaining passengers and crew compliant attempted to make a second announcement over the plan's internal Communication System but of course This message didn't reach the [Music] cabin it reached every other plane on the frequency and John who responded quickly with 93 understand have a bomb on board go ahead now

there was of course no response but just as everybody was expecting a few minutes later at 9:41 Flight 93 turned its transponder off on that air and John knew this would happen so he had no problem using alternative tracking Methods at this Point several passengers had open lines of communication receiving more precise details about the other hijackings one such call was between 31-year-old sales exec Jeremy Glick and his wife liis Beth Liz I need to know something he said one of the other passengers has talked to their spouse he said they were crashing planes into

the World Trade Center is that true staring at the images on the TV and front of her she hesitated for a moment before Replying yes they are meanwhile at 9:43 over in Illinois at the airphone operations center supervisor Lisa Jefferson was called Over by one of her staff who was in tears the call the employee had told her was about a possible hijacking with no idea what to expect Lisa took the call on the other end was a calm softspoken gentleman it was 32-year-old Todd Beamer one of the passengers on flight 93 somehow the phone

had rooted to the Airphone operations line Todd told Lisa what was going on and then he started talking about his family his two boys and the one on the way Lisa didn't tell him about the attacks she wanted to spare him the grief but she didn't need to he and every other passenger on the plane already knew well enough that they weren't hostages who were about to have a crazy story to tell their grandkids they were collateral damage trapped Inside a guided missile with no way out that realization should have had most of the passengers

paralyzed with fear too frightened to think straight let alone form any kind of plan but it didn't okay so at this point the passengers were very obviously Whispering among themselves exchanging information and making multiple phone calls and it really wasn't long perhaps 15 minutes or so after the hijackers Took over the plane before the suggestion to take action was floated we don't know who exactly suggested the idea but we do know that it was a group of five men who would initially give the plan serious contemplation Tom Bernett Mark Bingham Todd Beamer Jeremy Glick and

a fifth unknown passenger who many believe to be Lun what's particularly strange about all of this is that the two hijackers responsible for keeping the passengers under control stood there And watched it happen of all the questions about Flight 93 like why the hijackers waited 46 minutes to an their attack rather than the half an hour or less we saw on the other planes this one feels the most glaringly nonsensical even if the hijackers didn't anticipate a delay significant enough for passengers to learn of the already successful attacks yet another oversight given neck had the

highest delay rate out of any airport in the United States By 941 an aar's message would have reminded the hijackers that this was very public knowledge so what do they think the passengers were talking about of course you might say that the hijackers were simply relying on fear a combination of their initial attack a fake bomb and an in Cabin announcement to maintain control but one of those the in Cabin announcements hadn't worked and the other the threat of explosion was now being seriously questioned TSA was LAX but it wasn't that LAX and anyway why

would they blow up a plane they clearly had much bigger plans for nobody really has an explanation for this Behavior it most likely just comes down to some kind of bias hardwired into the human brain that stops us from seeing what's right in front front of us when we're under pressure who knows what we do know is that just like many others that day it seemed that the hijackers lacked imagination with regards to what Human beings are capable of and that error would prove to be catastrophic from around 938 about 10 minutes or so into

the hijack the plan's Maneuvers were becoming increasingly erratic it was around this point that a plan of attack began to really take shape if they were going to do this they'd need the biggest and strongest on the plane and they'd need to act quickly and just on that former point they weren't exactly lacking for Choice there Was an astounding amount of athletic prowess on board and not just hobbyists either there were martial art Champions wrestlers weightlifters and more of the four men we know were directly involved in the attack all of them were over 6

ft and 200 lb and had been standout athletes at one point or another Mark bingum in particular was really not somebody you'd want to go toe-to-toe with anywhere let alone in an enclosed space 35 ,000 ft in the sky had this not Been the case I don't think the group would have been quite so Swift in their decision making but it seems that by 9:40 at least a plan of attack had been formulated because Todd still on the phone with Lisa told her about it listen we're going to do something I don't think we're going

to get out of this thing I'm going to have to go out on faith Lisa hearing this and trying her hardest to remain composed said are you sure that's what you want to do Todd to Which Todd replied this what we have to do shortly after this at 9:45 Tom made his third call to Dena she told him about the Pentagon and he relayed the news to passengers okay okay and what else can you tell me five planes have been hijacked they believe all of them are commercial planes do you know who's involved he asked

no she answered well what is the probability of them having a bomb on board he paused I don't think They have one I think they're just telling us that for crowd control Tom then asked DEA if she called the authorities she told him that she had but that they didn't know anything about his plane if Tom and all the other passengers were getting the sense that they were on their own it's because they were by this point a nationwide ground stop of all departures had been ordered and Senor managers all the way up to the

faa's headquarters Were well aware of the situation with flight 93 having successfully located the plane on primary radar staff at both the faa's command center and and its headquarters knew they should probably contact the military I mean just listen to this call made at 949 Jeff away to talk about United 93 uh do we want to think about the scrambling aircraft oh God I don't know uh that's a decision somebody's Going to have to make probably in the next 10 minutes and I'm sure you know how this is about to go for reasons that are

not entirely clear the decision was never actually made and the FAA failed to contact the military and there was another horror reality to deal with too at some point somebody had spotted the plane's Pilots Leroy and Jason who' presumably been moved outside of the cockpit with all passengers now aware of the plan to overpower the hijackers this Fact must have been a real sticking point because if they were successful who was going to fly the plane well as fate would have it both a qualified pilot Donald green and a former air traffic controller Andrew Garcia

just so happened to be among the passengers while Donald was only licensed to fly a single engine not aing 757 with a bit of help from ground control his chances of safely Landing the plane were actually pretty decent this fact likely Galvanized any passengers on the fence into action because there was a chance a small one but a chance nonetheless to actually take back control and safely land the plane and it's around here that they did something that I think given the circumstances is remarkable this group of complete strangers put aside their anger Their Fear

and they put their plan to a vote I doubt the decision was unanimous nor do I think that anybody was on the Understanding that it was a foolproof plan not even close but the decision was nonetheless made the time to act was now Tuesday 9:47 a.m. hi baby I'm baby you have to listen to me carefully I'm on a plane that's been hi back I'm on the plane I'm calling from the plane want to tell you I love you please tell my children that I love them very much and I'm so sorry babe um I

don't know what to say there's three guys they hij back the plane I'm trying to be calm We're turned around and I've heard that there's planes that's been been flown into the World Trade Center I hope to be able to see your face again baby I love you bye end of message from this point around 9:45 the evidence showed that there was a flurry of calls made by passengers to their loved ones at the same time they worked together to flesh out the specifics they quietly grabbed anything they could flight attendants prepared hot water the

back Of the plane was searched for anything useful Jeremy still on the phone to his wife Liz told her about the plan and asked her what she thought she hesitated asking a few more questions but she knew that this was his only choice so she gave him a blessing well he replied guess we better go get our butter knives from breakfast then preparing himself for what was to come Todd asked Lisa to recite the Lord's Prayer and at 9:54 Tom made his Fourth and Final Call he and Dena talked a bit about his parents about

their girls and then after a long pause he said we're waiting until we're over a rural area we're going to take back the plane Dina protested but Tom held his ground we can't wait for the authorities I don't know what they could do anyway it's up to us Dana became Frantic don't worry Dana we're going to do something and then he hung up at 9:57 Lisa still on the other end of the line listened as Todd turned to a nearby passenger and said are you ready okay let's [Music] roll while it's true that the system

designed to protect passengers had failed that day it's also true that our Kind are stubborn Beyond Comprehension and while we are perfectly capable of recognizing that the odds are minute that doesn't stop us from trying anyway over the next 6 minutes the passengers on flight 93 fought like hell I can't imagine what it must have felt like even in their state of desperation to have carried out such an act we don't know who led the charge nor how many passengers were involved but what we do know without a shadow of a Doubt is that any

hijackers that were outside that cockpit stood very little chance inside the cockpit the words is there something a fight can be made out now realizing what was happening the pilot immediately put the plane into a rapid Ascent while this no doubt slowed the group down by now nothing could stop them at 9:58 and 57 seconds the CVR picked up one of the hijackers saying they want to get in there hold the door hold from the inside hold from the Inside hold and then perhaps realizing just how many passengers were involved in the Revolt one of

the hijackers is heard saying there are some guys all those guys a few seconds later an American male voice could be heard screaming let's get them and then for 46 seconds a series of loud noises were recorded before one of the hijackers in the cockpit now coming to terms with what was about to happen could be hard saying The words there is nothing 86 we have the traffic below 56 865 Center Roger and I have a question for you if you can look off your left side almost to uh your uh make it your 9:00

almost your 8:00 we have a I believe it is a uh Boeing 757 can you see him up there sir and tell me an altitude if that's able we've got him uh what altitude does it appear to be he's at 7 he's probably 75 8,000 5,000 ft sir okay he's descending he's getting closer To our altitude we Haven been sight yet 56 8655 as you stay away from that aircraft go north fast as you can it looks like he's rocking his Wings by keep rocking back and forth unbelievably Cleveland Center still tracking flight 93 had

radioed a nearby private aircraft to try and confirm the plane's altitude that pilot watched on in horror as this huge 75 7 rocked its wings back and forth as we now know he was witnessing a Last ditch attempt by the hijackers to throw the passengers off and keep them out of the cockpit and it failed at 10:01 just outside of the cockpit door a male voice could clearly be heard shouting roll it presumably referring to a trolley being used as a battering ram just under half a minute later there was an agreement between the hijackers

it was over there's nothing more to be done their plan had Failed the plane was pitched down to a 45° angle outside the passengers continued to break into the cockpit and it seems that at 1 minute 10 they were successful but it was just too [Music] late up up up [Music] how they're so lucky not to have been over there uh there must be thousands of Such stories here this morning Peter of those that were the lucky ones thank you Bill please stay in touch as often as you can it's now 10 minutes to 11:

Eastern time 10 minutes to to uh East in uh 2 minutes to 8 in in the west uh and I'm just going to add to the chaos and the trauma of the day by saying that a large plane has now crashed uh just north or should I say just but crashed about 10:00 in the last 15 minutes north of Somerset County Airport uh about 80 Mi southeast of Pittsburgh at 103 United Airlines blight 93 crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania at 580 mph about 20 minutes flying time from Washington DC the sounds of the

passenger Counterattack could be heard right up to the end it is a miracle and I don't use that word lightly that no additional lives were lost who knows what could have happened had the passengers acted just a few minutes Later it's also tempting to wonder whether or not things could have ended differently had the message gotten to the pilot sooner and who knows maybe they could have but the truth is we'll never know what we do know for sure is that once the hijackers had made the decision to put the plane down there was little

more the passengers could do the body of the plane was almost upside down by the time it had crashed Still while they might not have been able to save themselves the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 undoubtedly saved the lives of many on the ground and while that intention was never explicitly stated if you listen carefully to some of the passenger's words I strongly suspect that stopping the plane from getting to its Target was the primary objective for more of the passengers than I think we realize whether they chose to let other people On the

plane or their loved ones know that it's why they waited until they were over a less crowded area it's why Todd was clear to Lisa about his probable fate that day it's why some of the passengers phones in their hands chose not to even make calls in the first place it's now believed that the hijacker target for Flight 93 was the capital building although for a Time military officials maintained that Flight 93 would have been intercepted before reaching its goal a later analysis by the 9/11 commission has all but disproved this see the milit Terry

wouldn't find out about Flight 93 from the FAA until 10:07 4 minutes after its crash according to the report it's highly unlikely that fighters who were still being given negative clearance to shoot down commercial aircraft at that time would have been able to intercept the plane even if they'd known about it And you know it's tempting to feel frustrated with this but on the contrary the defense of us airspace on 911 wasn't conducted in accord with pre-existing training and protocols was improvised by civilians who had never dealt with a hijacked aircraft that attempted to disappear

and by a military unprepared for the transformation of a commercial aircraft into a weapon of mass destruction still in many ways the Passenger's response emphatic and human where so much else was slow and bureaucratic was probably the only act that substantially abated the damage that day many lives were lost but many were saved I won't pretend this isn't an intensely complicated story that merits far more dissection than I can cover in an hour or so so I'll borrow the words from Robert spolski who put this complexity far better than I ever could We are a

miserably violent species the single most complicated thing about that is at the same time we're the most altruistic most Cooperative most empathetic species on Earth and I'll also add to that that we seem to have this unparalleled capacity for getting the two the wrong way round one person violence is others altruism I have no doubt that the four hijackers who boarded United Airlines Flight 93 that day imagined in their Hearts that they were going to witness a great Act of bravery and they did it just wasn't their own [Music] [Music] so how does it make

you feel reading Aaron's diary knowing that you would end up dead just a few months after you were there I was grateful I didn't die but every one of his journal entries makes me [Music] cry and it's it happened to others too they were just lucky enough not today so I've been working on something that I think you may be interested in it's a story I've wanted to tell for a while now it's about a smart funny kid who in March of 94 was sent to a camp that was designed to change a pattern of

behavior that was starting to worry his parents 30 days later his body was airlifted into a Mor I've always thought There was more to this story so I went out there and I started asking questions not back I was kidnapped in Vegas it was terrifying I had no idea what was going on I really featuring original interviews from those that were there my new three poot podcast uncovers a very strange and very dark world and it puts our treatment of kids right under the microscope by carefully tracing the history and philosophy behind the Cult-like camps

that did what they did on an almost industrial scale in the name of good oldfashioned discipline and of course becoming filthy rich in the process now this podcast is only available on nebul and frankly it wouldn't be possible without them this is not made for the YouTube algorithm it's an honest unfiltered look at a story that will stay with you long after you finish it told just the way it should be and that's what nebula is all About out it's a streaming platform that's both Creator built and Creator owned where you can watch exclusive content

from some of your favorite creators like Neo's beautifully produced series under exposure which brings to life a wide range of topics not necessarily suitable for the YouTube algorithm or real life laws series modern conflicts which details everything you need to know about the conflicts that have shaped our modern Times including a very comprehensive look at the events leading up to 911 which I watched while researching this video and let me just say I cannot recommend this series enough that's not even really scratching the surface there really is something for everyone and at six bucks a

month it really is one of the best ways to support your favorite creators and right now you can get 40% off with the link nebula.com there is so much more to come from this Channel so check out nebula if you can and I will see you guys in the next one [Music]