U.S. Military Response During The September 11 Attacks - Flight 93

Flight 93

At 9:28, FAA Cleveland Center controller John Werth heard "sounds of possible screaming" coming from Flight 93 and noticed that the plane had descended 700 feet, transponder turned off. At the time, Werth knew that some passenger jets were missing and that one had hit a World Trade Center tower in New York. At 9:32, he heard a voice saying "We have a bomb on board" and told his supervisor who then notified FAA Headquarters. At 9:36, FAA Cleveland called FAA Command Center at Herndon to ask whether the military had been notified - FAA Command Center told Cleveland that "FAA personnel well above them in the chain of command had to make the decision to seek military assistance and were working on the issue". At 9:49, the decision about whether to call the military had still not been made, and no one from the FAA did call them until 10:07, four minutes after Flight 93 had crashed near Shanksville, PA. Werth later commented:

Within three or four minutes, probably, of when it happened, I asked if the military was advised yet. Had anybody called the military? They said, "don't worry, that's been taken care of," which I think to them meant they had called the command center in Washington."

Dennis Fritz, director of the municipal airport in Johnstown, Pa., said the FAA called him several times as the plane approached his city, and even warned him to evacuate the tower for fear the jet would crash into it.

Had Flight 93 made it to DC, National Guard pilots Lt. Col. Marc H. Sasseville and Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney were prepared to ram their unarmed F-16 fighters into it, perhaps giving their lives in the process.