(Clipped from AP Wire, all rights etc, to them, yadda yadda)
SEPTEMBER 12, 16:44 EDT
Passengers May Have Thwarted Hijackers
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
Associated Press Writer
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) Just before United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, a passenger telephoned his wife, told her the plane had been hijacked and said he and some others were going to ``do something about it.''
Authorities have not said whether passengers struggled with the hijackers and whether that sent the airliner carrying 45 people into a western Pennsylvania field instead of a high-profile target. Elsewhere, hijacked planes hit New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Tuesday.
As investigators pieced together the events leading to the crashes, loved ones and others speculated Wednesday that the passengers or crew on Flight 93 might have thwarted the hijackers.
``It sure wasn't going to go down in rural Pennsylvania. This wasn't the target; the target was Washington, D.C.,'' said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. ``Somebody made a heroic effort to keep the plane from hitting a populated area.''
``I would conclude there was a struggle and a heroic individual decided `I'm going to die anyway, I might as well bring the plane down here.'''
At least one phone call made from the doomed plane suggested that might be what happened.
Thomas Burnett told his wife, Deena, that ``a group of us are going to do something,'' she said. Burnett learned of the World Trade Center attacks during the four phone calls he made to his wife, and calmly told her that he and other passengers would try to take action against the hijackers.
``He thought he was going to be home. He was going to solve this problem,'' Deena Burnett told reporters at her home in San Ramon, Calif., Wednesday.
The plane crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh after first flying near Cleveland and then turning around. The plane was said to be flying erratically and losing altitude.
The FBI would not comment on speculation about a struggle on board.
U.S. officials have said on condition of anonymity that the Secret Service feared the hijackers may have been headed for Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland about 85 miles from the crash site.