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Shouts, moans and murder on Flight 93
Sickening thuds, moans of pain, despairing pleas for mercy and then a final defiant "Allah is the greatest" resounded through a courtroom yesterday before a long silence as the heart-rending cockpit recording of United Airlines Flight 93 was played in public for the first time.In the four years since the September 11 attacks, Flight 93 has entered American mythology because of the heroic attempted fight-back against the hijackers by the passengers and crew. Yesterday, for 31 numbing minutes, the full horror of their ordeal was laid bare, from the last dying screams of one of the staff who pleaded "I don't want to die", to the final battle for control of the cockpit as the plane hurtled into the ground. Amid the rapid interchange and against the backdrop of heavy static it was not always clear what was happening. It was also not always clear who was speaking. But the initial sounds were unmistakeably of the stabbing and probably murder of two members of the flight crew. As the jury listened in stunned silence, prosecutors sought to complete the simulation of the doomed plane's cockpit by displaying video footage of a flight simulator which re-enacted UA 93's rapid descent from its cruising altitude and its final stomach-churning lurches. The tape was the most dramatic testimony yet in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the self-confessed would-be suicide bomber. It opens at 9.31am, about three minutes after the four hijackers made their move, and the very moment the 33 passengers were officially informed of their plight. Rest at link. Posted by: ed 2006-04-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=148204 |