- Echoing reports made immediately after the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks, several eyewitnesses claim in a report by London's
Daily Mirror that they saw a "military-type" plane flying around
United Airlines Flight 93 when the hijacked passenger jet crashed in rural
Pennsylvania -- prompting the unthinkable question of whether the U.S.
military shot down the plane.
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- Although the evident onboard struggle between hijackers
and passengers - immortalized by the courageous "Let's roll"
call to action by Todd Beamer - became one of the enduring memories of
that disastrous day, the actual cause of Flight 93's crash, of the four
hijacked jumbo jets, remains the most unclear.
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- The Mirror report quotes multiple residents in and around
Shanksville, Pa., describing the crash as they saw it, several claiming
to have seen a second plane - an unmarked military-style jet. According
to the report:
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- * Susan Mcelwain, 51, living just two miles from
the crash site, says she saw a white plane directly overhead. "It
came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50 ft. above my mini-van. It was
so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real fast, but hardly made
any sound," she said. "Then it disappeared behind some trees.
A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball
rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really
shook. So I dialed 911 and told them what happened."
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- Mcelwain, who said that at the time she was unaware of
the other three plane crashes, added, "It was only when I got home
and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93."
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- It was when she heard authorities deny the existence
of the other plane that she became concerned, said Mcelwain, noting: "The
plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and
must have been there at the very moment it came down. There's no way I
imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was
white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that
look.
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- "It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back
like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side.
I haven't found one like it on the Internet. It definitely wasn't one of
those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was
no plane around.
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- "Then they changed their story and tried to say
it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000 ft. up.
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- "But I saw it and it was there before the crash
and it was 40 ft. above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here
did."
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- * Lee Purbaugh, 32, who according to the Mirror
was "the only person to see the last seconds of Flight 93" as
it came down on former strip-mining land, also says he saw the white jet.
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- "I heard this real loud noise coming over my head,"
he told the Mirror. "I looked up and it was Flight 93, barely 50 ft.
above me. It was coming down in a 45 degree and rocking from side to side.
Then the nose suddenly dipped and it just crashed into the ground. There
was this big fireball and then a huge cloud of smoke."
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- At the time, Purbaugh was working at the Rollock Inc.
scrap yard on a ridge overlooking the crash site less than half a mile
away.
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- Did he see another plane? asked the Mirror. "Yes,
there was another plane. I didn't get a good look," said Lee, "but
it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over
the horizon."
-
- * Tom Spinelli, 28, working at Indian Lake Marina
a mile and a half away, echoes the other witnesses: "I saw the white
plane. It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for
something. I saw it before and after the crash."
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- The report cites other disturbing evidence at odds with
the official scenario that passengers overpowered the four highjackers
and forced the plane down, preventing it from crashing into a presumed
high-profile intended target like the White House or the Capitol. For instance,
the Mirror reports some witnesses' claims that they could see smoke and
flames coming out of Flight 93 as it fell, indicating a possible onboard
explosion. Far more disturbing is the question of whether a U.S. fighter
pilot shot down the jumbo jet to stop its being used as a giant missile,
as the other three hijacked planes had been that morning.
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- Of course, well founded uncertainly as to just what happened
to Flight 93 is nothing new. Just three days after the worst terrorist
attack in American history, on Sept. 14, 2001, The (Bergen County, N.J.)
Record newspaper reported that five eyewitnesses reported seeing a second
plane at the Flight 93 crash site.
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- "In separate interviews," reported the Record,
"five residents who live and work less than four miles from the crash
site said they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of
the crash of the Boeing 757 that took off from Newark two hours earlier
Tuesday morning."
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- One of the witnesses early on was Susan Mcelwain. Two
others were Dennis Decker and Rick Chaney, who were at work making wooden
pallets when they heard an explosion and came running outside to watch
a large mushroom cloud spreading over the ridge.
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- "As soon as we looked up, we saw a mid-sized jet
flying low and fast," Decker told the Record. "It appeared to
make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out.
" Describing the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near
the tail and painted white with no identifying markings, Decker said, "If
you were here to see it, you'd have no doubt. It was a jet plane, and it
had to be flying real close when that 757 went down."
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- "If I was the FBI," he added, "I'd find
out who was driving that plane."
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- That same day, reported the Record, FBI Special Agent
William Crowley said investigators could not rule out that a second plane
was nearby during the crash. He later said he had misspoken, dismissing
rumors that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it could
strike a target in Washington, D.C.
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- Although government officials insist there was never
any pursuit of Flight 93, they were informed the flight was suspected of
having been hijacked at 9:16 am, fully 50 minutes before the plane came
down.
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- The Daily Mirror cites other factors bolstering the case
for a possible shootdown of UA Flight 93:
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- * "The U.S. government insists the plane exploded
on impact, yet a one-ton section of the engine was found over a mile away
and other light debris was found scattered over eight miles away.
- * "Passenger Edward Felt made an emergency
call from the plane. He spoke of an explosion and seeing some white smoke.
The supervisor who took the call has been gagged by the FBI.
- * "UA93 was identified as a hijack at 9:16
am. At 9:35 am three F-16s were ordered to 'protect the White House at
all costs' when it turned towards the capital. At 10:06 am it crashed at
Shanksville, less than 10 minutes flying time from Washington.
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- * "Sources claim the last thing heard on the
cockpit voice recorder is the sound of wind - suggesting the plane had
been holed.
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- * "The FBI insists there was no military plane
in the area, but at 9:22 am a sonic boom - caused by a supersonic jet -
was picked up by an earthquake monitor in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles
away from Shanksville."
- 'A horrendous decision'
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- On the Sept. 16, 2001, edition of NBC's "Meet the
Press," Vice President Dick Cheney, while not addressing Flight 93
specifically, spoke clearly to the administration's clear policy regarding
shooting down hijacked jets.
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- Vice President Cheney: "Well, the -- I suppose
the toughest decision was this question of whether or not we would intercept
incoming commercial aircraft."
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- NBC's Tim Russert: "And you decided?"
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- Cheney: "We decided
to do it. We'd, in effect, put a flying combat air patrol up over the city;
F-16s with an AWACS, which is an airborne radar system, and tanker support
so they could stay up a long time...
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- "It doesn't do any good to put up a combat air patrol
if you don't give them instructions to act, if, in fact, they feel it's
appropriate."
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- Russert: "So if the
United States government became aware that a hijacked commercial airline[r]
was destined for the White House or the Capitol, we would take the plane
down?"
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- Cheney: "Yes. The president
made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert ... as a last
resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out. Now, people say, you
know, that's a horrendous decision to make. Well, it is. You've got an
airplane full of American citizens, civilians, captured by ... terrorists,
headed and are you going to, in fact, shoot it down, obviously, and kill
all those Americans on board?
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- "... It's a presidential-level decision, and the
president made, I think, exactly the right call in this case, to say, I
wished we'd had combat air patrol up over New York.'"
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- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30682
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