- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)
- The FBI has turned down family requests that it release the cockpit voice
recording from an airliner hijacked on Sept. 11 that crashed in a Pennsylvania
field, saying the horror captured on the tape would do little to assuage
their grief.
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- ``(FBI) Director (Robert) Mueller has personally listened
to the recording from the hijacked flight and advised that the FBI will
not be releasing the tape at this time,'' FBI spokesman John Collingwood
said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher that the congresswoman's office
released on Thursday.
-
- ``While we empathize with the grieving families, we do
not believe that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will
console them in any way,'' Collingwood said.
-
- Tauscher, a California Democrat, had written to the FBI
on behalf of Deena Burnett, whose husband Thomas was among those aboard
the plane when it was hijacked on Sept. 11.
-
- Unlike three other passenger jets hijacked that day that
crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, United Flight 93
crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, apparently brought down amid a passenger
revolt against the hijackers.
-
- Burnett and several other relatives of Flight 93 passengers
have asked the government to release the cockpit voice recorder, saying
they hoped it would reveal what really happened during the final minutes
before the plane crashed, killing all 45 people aboard.
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- The Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
declined to release even an edited transcript of Flight 93's cockpit voice
recorder, saying that it is evidence in a criminal investigation.
-
- The FBI's Collingwood repeated that the tape was being
held as evidence, and said Mueller believed that the families would gain
nothing from listening to the tape.
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- ``While we share your interest in providing Mrs. Burnett
with peace of mind, we do not believe that any of the victim's families
would find comfort in the recording,'' Collingwood said. ``Furthermore,
the voices are, for the most part, indistinguishable.''
-
- A number of other recordings, made by other aircraft
and air traffic control, have surfaced that appear to support the belief
that passengers clashed with the hijackers in the final minutes of the
flight.
-
- Collingwood said that while the FBI would not accede
to the families' request for the tape, ``we hope that they will take comfort
in knowing that all of America embraces the passengers and flight crew
of Flight 93 as heroes.''
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