Jerusalem Post columnist urges Trump to honor Flight 93 heroes
In the United States, Jerusalem Post columnist Joseph D’Ippolito called on President Donald Trump to posthumously award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the 40 passengers and crew members of United Airlines Flight 93. They died on September 11, 2001, while trying to stop a plane hijacked by terrorists. In the author’s view, they deserve the highest U.S. civilian award.
An attempt to regain control of the aircraft
Flight 93 departed Newark for San Francisco at 8:42 a.m. At 9:28 a.m., four Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the Boeing 757. According to the author’s account, they threatened passengers with a bomb, forced them to move to the rear of the aircraft, burst into the cockpit, and stabbed captain Jason Dahl, co-pilot LeRoy Homer Jr., flight attendant Deborah Welsh, and passenger Mark Rothenberg. Welsh and Rothenberg died from their injuries.
When the aircraft was over Ohio and turned eastward, passengers learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center during calls to their relatives. D’Ippolito writes that the presumed target was the Capitol. Passenger Todd Beamer told airphone operator Lisa Jefferson that several people were planning to attack the hijackers and break into the cockpit.
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The plane crash in Pennsylvania
Before the attempted assault, Beamer addressed the other passengers with the words: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll”. According to Alice Hoagland, the mother of passenger Mark Bingham, a recording of the final minutes of the flight captured people moving toward the front of the aircraft and shouting: “Get ’em!”.
According to the columnist, the hijackers began making sharp maneuvers with the aircraft in an attempt to stop the passengers. Eventually, they crashed the Boeing 757 into a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m.; everyone on board was killed. The author notes that the Presidential Medal of Freedom may be awarded for an especially significant contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, and believes that the passengers and crew of Flight 93 meet this criterion.
