United said 45 people were aboard Flight 93
from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco. The fate of the passengers was not
immediately announced. The Boeing 757 crashed north of Somerset County
airport, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The crash was one of four reported Tuesday by United and American
Airlines. United said a second jet crashed at an undisclosed location.
American Airlines initially said two of its planes crashed into the
World Trade Center in New York but later said that was unconfirmed.
In Pennsylvania, an emergency dispatcher received a cell phone
call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was a passenger locked in a
bathroom aboard United Flight 93, said dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer
in neighboring Westmoreland County. The man repeatedly told officials
the call was not a hoax.
"We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!" Cramer quoted the man from a transcript of the call.
The man told dispatchers the plane "was going down. He heard
some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we
lost contact with him," Cramer said.
According to Somerset County dispatchers, Flight 93 crashed about 10 a.m. about 8 miles east of Jennerstown.
United said Flight 93 left Newark, N.J., at 8:01 a.m. with 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants.
Because of the attacks in New York, the Federal Aviation
Administration had ordered all departing flights canceled nationwide,
and any planes already in the air were to land a the nearest airport.
The Pennsylvania crash came after the order was issued.
United Advancing Families Of Flight 93 $25,000 For Immediate Expenses
A spokeswoman for United Airlines says the company is advancing $25,000 to the families of passengers on Flight 93.
United Airlines spokeswoman Jenna Ludgate says the airline is advancing the money to meet the families' immediate needs.
A passenger list has not been released,
pending notification of the victims' families. San Francisco
International Airport spokesman Ron Wilson says many of the passengers
were headed to Sacramento and Fresno.
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