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According to the 9/11 Commission Report, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in an open field in Pennsylvania as a result of
an attempted cockpit invasion. Nevertheless, there have been claims that it was actually shot down by US fighter jets.
This idea is promoted by author David Ray Griffin in his book The New Pearl Harbor, who cites Paul Thompson. Thompson
notes that a half-ton piece of engine was reportedly found over a mile away: the Philadelphia Daily News called this fact
"intriguing" because "the heat-seeking, air-to-air Sidewinder missiles aboard an F-16 would likely target one
of the Boeing 757's two large engines.". Other debris from Flight 93 was found up to eight miles from the crash site,
and there are also some eyewitness reports of debris falling from the sky like confetti.However, Popular Mechanics argued
that debris exploding away and landing far from the crash scene is not a unique occurrence in commercial airline accidents.
Thompson also examined a number of mainstream media reports and says that fighter jets were actually much closer to Flight
93 at the time of the crash than stated in the official record.He mentions witnesses who noticed a small white jet near the
impact site soon after the crash.However, government agencies such as the FBI assert this was a Dassault Falcon business jet
asked to descend to an altitude of around 1500 ft to survey the impact.Ben Sliney, who was the FAA operation manager on September
11, 2001, says no military aircraft were near Flight 93.Thompson has questioned whether it is plausible that the military
did not know about Flight 93 being off-course and out of contact, and suggests that his claim shows that they were aware and
had sent jets to investigate and possibly shoot it down.
Jim Hoffman notes a three-minute discrepancy in the cockpit voice recording immediately prior to the flight's crash.The
cockpit voice recorder transcripts end at 10:03 a.m., but Cleveland Air Traffic Control reported that Flight 93 went out of
radar contact at 10:06 a.m., and FAA radar records also note a time of 10:06 a.m. Seismologists record an impact at 10:06:05
a.m., +/- a couple of seconds.Despite this, the 9/11 Commission Report concluded that the crash occurred at 10:03 a.m.
Conspiracy theorists also seized on a quote by the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, in which he referenced Flight
93 as "the plane they shot down over Pennsylvania." A Pentagon official later said that Rumsfeld had misspoken.
Some internet videos, such as Loose Change, speculate that Flight 93 safely landed in Ohio, and a substituted plane was
involved in the crash in Pennsylvania.Often cited is a preliminary news report that Flight 93 landed at a Cleveland airport;it
was later learned that Delta Flight 1989 was the plane confused with Flight 93, and the report was retracted as inaccurate.
Several websites within the 9/11 Truth Movement refute this claim, citing the wreckage at the scene, eyewitness testimony,
and the difficulty of secretly substituting one plane for another.
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