United Airlines Flight 93 — 9/11 hijacked passenger flight, attempted to hit the US Capitol or the White House
The only 9/11 hijacked flight that failed to reach its target, after passengers overpowered hijackers and forced a crash in Pennsylvania.
Key Facts
- Date
- September 11, 2001
- Passengers and crew aboard
- 44
- Intended target
- U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.
- Crash site distance from D.C.
- 130 miles (210 km) northwest of Washington
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 757-200
- Number of hijackers
- 4
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Al-Qaeda coordinated the September 11 attacks, dispatching four trained hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, a Newark-to-San Francisco Boeing 757-200. A 42-minute departure delay allowed passengers to learn via phone calls about the earlier World Trade Center and Pentagon strikes, giving them crucial knowledge that their hijacking was part of a coordinated suicide mission.
Forty-six minutes into the flight, the hijackers killed a passenger, seized the cockpit, and pilot Ziad Jarrah redirected the aircraft toward Washington, D.C. Knowing their fate, passengers voted to resist and launched a counterattack. During the struggle, Jarrah nosedived the aircraft into a field near Shanksville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at approximately 10:03 a.m., killing all 44 people aboard.
The Capitol Building was spared from attack, making Flight 93 the only hijacked plane on September 11 that did not reach its intended target. A temporary memorial was erected near the crash site shortly after the attacks, and a permanent Flight 93 National Memorial was dedicated on September 10, 2011, with a visitor center opened four years later.