| by Phil Hirschkorn 
		and David MattinglyCNN.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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