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by Phil Hirschkorn
and David Mattingly
CNN.com
UAL FLIGHT 93 LANDED
SAFELY AT CLEVELAND HOPKINS AIRPORT, by 9News Staff
Senator John
McCain, left, and Mark Bingham's mother, Alice Hoglan, at the memorial
service held at Wheeler Auditorium in honor of her son.
Peg Skorpinski
photo
PRINCETON, New
Jersey (CNN) -- Relatives of the 40 passengers and crew members killed
when a hijacked plane crashed into a rural Pennsylvania field September
11 said Thursday the cockpit voice recording offers further proof that
those on board acted heroically -- fighting back against hijackers who
commandeered United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco.
"It does indeed confirm our loved ones died as heroes," said Alice
Hoglan, whose son, Mark Bingham, 31, a businessman and rugby player, was
aboard the flight that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
"It was excruciating. It was wonderful," said Hoglan, who flew in from
California to hear the tape.
The FBI played the 31-minute recording in closed sessions Thursday
inside a Princeton, New Jersey, hotel, first for the families of the two
pilots and five flight attendants and later for the families of the 33
passengers.
None of the fight crew's families -- all of whom were represented --
commented on the experience. Only a handful of some 70 passengers'
relatives did.
"The whole thing was stressful," said Derrill Bodley, a music teacher
who lost his 20-year-old daughter, Deora, a college junior headed home
from visiting friends.
"I am just here to honor my daughter's last moments, and to be as close
to her as I could be," he said.
The families listened to the tape through headphones while transcripts,
including English translations of Arabic words, were displayed on
screens. The recording, which was played twice at each session, was
muffled especially by the noisy rush of air, relatives said.
The Department of Justice footed the travel and hotel bill for as many
as two relatives of each victim. Each family was permitted to send four
people.
The government offered on-site counseling and spent time interviewing
relatives to assess victim impact.
U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novak,
prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia, were also on hand.
They exhorted families not to describe the tapes' contents because they
will be played as evidence in the terrorism conspiracy trial of Zacarias
Moussaoui, a 33-year-old Frenchman who prosecutors believe may have been
the intended fifth hijacker aboard Flight 93.
Moussaoui, who underwent pilot training in the United States and
allegedly trained in al Qaeda camps inside Afghanistan, was incarcerated
in Minnesota on immigration charges a month before the attacks.
Flight 93 was the fourth commercial jetliner hijacked by Islamic
militants affiliated with al Qaeda on September 11, about half an hour
after the second plane struck the second World Trade Center tower, and
only minutes before a third plane struck the Pentagon.
News of the unfolding terrorist plot reached Flight 93 passengers when
they were able to make outgoing cell phone calls. Numerous relatives who
received calls have reported that their loved ones resolved to take
control of their plane.
"These were clearly people who were informed of the unthinkable,
digested it, and acted upon it in no time at all," said Hamilton
Peterson, whose father, Donald, 66, a retiree, died in the crash with
his second wife.
"If anything, I consider it another Normandy. I think this sends a
message to the world that the American spirit is alive and kicking,"
Peterson said.
All commercial airliners are equipped with a cockpit voice recorder that
runs in a 30-minute loop, erasing each previous half hour of
conversation. The CVR's purpose is to provide investigators a record of
everything pilots say in the last half hour preceding a crash.
Access to CVRs is usually restricted to government crash investigators
and parties suing over plane crashes. But the FBI agreed to make an
exception in this case.
None of the relatives who discussed the tape would characterize the
ultimate confrontation between the passengers and the hijackers.
Deena
Burnett, widow of passenger Tom Burnett, said she "found more peace and
comfort than I expected" when she heard the tape.
Deena Burnett, who
lost her husband, Tom, 38, a business executive, in the flight, said the
voices of the hijackers were not calm, and that it was easy to
distinguish when the Arab hijackers and the Americans were speaking.
She was listening for Tom's voice. He had called her four times from the
plane, telling her the passengers were planning to do something.
"I found more peace and comfort than I expected," Burnett said.
Kenny Nacke and Paula Nacke Jacobs drove from Maryland because their
older brother Lou, 42, died on the flight en route to a business
meeting.
"I am proud in a very sad way. I would rather have our brother with us
than he be portrayed as a hero," said Jacobs.
"I wish they were here to tell their own story," she said.
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