Investigators early yesterday sifted through debris of a hijacked United Airlines jetliner possibly targeting Washington that crashed near this western Pennsylvania town, killing all 45 people aboard, officials said.
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 38 passengers, five flight attendants, and two pilots, went down at 10:06am Tuesday in a wooded area 105km southeast of Pittsburgh, two hours after it took off from Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco.
The plane was one of four airliners commandeered by air pirates in a deadly terrorist operation that also targeted the Word Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
Some reports said investigators believed the pirates who hijacked United Flight 93 were trying to crash into either Camp David -- the presidential retreat in Maryland, located 135km from the crash site -- or the Capitol Building, the seat of the US Congress, in Washington.
Local media reports said at least two passengers had telephoned from the plane.
"We are being hijacked! We are being hijacked," one man yelled as he phoned 911 dispatchers.
A California man identified as Tom Burnett reportedly called his wife and told her that somebody aboard the plane had been stabbed.
"We're all going to die, but three of us are going to do something," he told her. "I love you honey."
"There's not a lot to see, small debris, a crater with a lot of little debris," said a state police spokesman Frank Morgan. All 45 people aboard the jetliner were presumed dead.
"It was two miles away, but it shook everything," said Bruce Grine, a Shanksville resident. "It shook the windows. We saw smoke, then the smell. Then somebody came running up the street and said a plane crashed."
Pennsylvania state police officials, who have cordoned off the crash site, were assisting the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration in the investigation.
"United Airlines has confirmed one of its flights has crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 aircraft, is the flight number involved," the airline earlier said in a statement.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
RSS