A new documentary on The History Channel details what happened in those last minutes of Flight 93 when passengers broke into the cockpit in a vain effort to wrest control of the aircraft from hijackers. Using new technology and employing an audio forensic expert, producers of 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93, were able to reconstruct cockpit recordings previously unheard.
The History Channel will debut another new documentary on Friday night about the attack on the Pentagon.
The story of Flight 93 has passed from news to history to legend in our lifetime. The otherworldly courage of the passengers, the heartfelt messages of love to wives and family, and the desperate search for the aircraft by both the FAA and the U.S. military who knew it was up there, knew it was headed for Washington, D.C., and were frantic in trying to locate it — have all become part of our national story.
The producers used new evidence in making the documentary, including declassified evidence and audio enhancements.
The documentary on Flight 93 uses previously classified streams of evidence to piece together what really happened on board, including voicemails, air traffic control transmissions and first-person testimony ad well as top-secret audio recording. The Pentagon documentary uses raw eyewitness accounts to illuminate what happened at the government building that day.
“9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93” is produced for History by Naked Television. Simon Andreae serves as executive producer for Naked Television. Dolores Gavin and Jim Pasquarella serve as executive producers for History.
Investigators are virtually certain that the plane was headed for the U.S. Capitol building. The blow to American morale and prestige that would have followed the destruction of the Capitol — a feat that no other enemy had ever been able to achieve — would have been severe.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden will visit the memorial to Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, today.
The annual event held there is co-hosted by the National Park Service, which is planning an abbreviated ceremony amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A White House spokesman said the commander-in-chief and first lady Melania Trump would visit the site “to honor and remember the lives lost” on Sept. 11, 2001.
The president is expected to speak during the memorial ceremony, though it is unclear if his 2020 rival will be seated nearby watching or if their same-day visits will overlap at all.
The Biden campaign has announced the candidate will visit the memorial in the afternoon. While Trump is in Shanksville in the morning, Vice President Mike Pence will attend the commemoration in New York City.
The field in Shanksville where Flight 93 crashed is managed by the National Park Service. It’s immaculately kept. A very dignified and understated memorial marks the hole in the ground where the plane came down.
The passengers live on in the memories of those they loved and who still love them. It’s been 19 years, but for them, and many of us, it seems like yesterday. They will never be forgotten.
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