of Flight 93 The People 9/11: Exhibit Visit

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1 Overview With Flight 93, students have the unique opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the victims of 9/11 by experiencing their individual stories. Often students depersonalize historical events, failing to realize that history is not a collection of facts to master, but rather real people living and making decisions in the moment. Students will engage in activities concerning the lives of the people on Flight 93 and how passengers on the flight might have responded that day. Age Group Grades 9-12, College Level Colorado Grade Level Expectations/High School Social Studies Standards History 1. The historical method of inquiry to ask questions, evaluate primary and secondary sources, critically analyze and interpret data, and develop interpretations defended by evidence from a variety of primary and secondary sources 2. Analyze the key concepts of continuity and change, cause and effect, complexity, unity and diversity over time 3. The significance of ideas as powerful forces throughout history Common Core State Standards (Grades 11-12) English Language Arts: Reading CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. Length of Lesson 30 minutes of prerequisite reading and 40 minutes on site Rationale Students will learn why and how Flight 93 did not arrive at its planned destination. They will learn about the bold, brave citizens that fought and overcame hijackers,helping students make a personal connection with history. Through secondary source analysis, students will engage in activities to connect with the passengers on Flight 93, experiencing history on a moral and factual level. 1 of 5

2 Objectives Upon completion of this lesson, students will be better able to: Explain why historical analysis must include an examination of the lives of individuals involved in an incident and Demonstrate inquiry skills to research one of the lives of a citizen on Flight 93; Materials Paper and pens Computers with Internet access Teacher Reference 1: Flight 93 Source 1: Source 2: Source 3: Included Teacher Reference 1: Flight 93 Preparation The day before your trip to the CELL exhibit, have students visit the three sources above and read the three articles. Ask them to summarize the events in less than one page using Source 1, and look in Source 2 for a specific passenger to focus on for the length of the project. a. Be sure to emphasize Source 3: Flight 93: Forty lives, One Destiny. Remind students that the goal of the lesson is to understand that history is personal. It was not simply a crash, but rather the story of individuals. b. Print extra copies of all three articles, and remind students to bring in their summaries and be ready to present to the class. 2 of 5

3 Lesson 1. Warm-up: Read the following clip from the CELL s exhibit: 10:03 AM September 11, 2001, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United Flight 93 is scheduled to fly from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California. Four terrorists hijack the plane, targeting the U.S. Capitol or the White House. Passengers and crew fight back against the terrorists, ultimately forcing the plane to crash, killing 33 passengers and 7 crew members. Are you guys ready? Okay. Let s roll. Todd Beamer, Passenger on United Flight 93 who attempted to foil the hijacking. a. Ask students to break into groups and list as many details about Flight 93 as they can remember. Give them five minutes to do so. b. Have each group provide one or two details of the day, and be sure to correct and add wherever necessary. c. Come back together as a class and summarize the events that took place on Flight 93 using Teacher Reference Referring to Source 3: Flight 93: Forty Lives, One Destiny, ask each student to work with a partner to discuss the passenger that they have chosen to focus on for the length of the project. 3. Tell students they will have five minutes to learn about each other s passengers and prepare to present on and discuss the personal story of that individual. 4. Using supplemental lesson plans or prior knowledge, lead a class discussion about the events that took place during the September 11, 2001 attack. Be sure to provide information about all the planes that crashed, and have students think about what sort of people were affected and how it could change them personally. 3 of 5

4 Teacher Reference 1: Exhibit Visit Excerpt from Flight 93 on History.com Website Flight 93 Comes Under Attack United Airlines Flight 93, a regularly scheduled early-morning nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, departed at 8:42 a.m., just minutes before the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. The flight s take off had been delayed for nearly 45 minutes due to air traffic at Newark International Airport. The plane carried seven crew members and 33 passengers, less than half its maximum capacity. Also on the flight were four hijackers who had successfully boarded the plane with knives and box cutters. The plane s late departure had disrupted the terrorists timeline for launching their attack; unlike hijackers on the other three planes, they did not attempt to gain control of the aircraft until nearly 40 minutes into the flight. Meanwhile, Ed Ballinger, a flight dispatcher for United Airlines, was taking steps to warn flights of possible cockpit intrusions. At 9:19 Ballinger informed pilots of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Flight 93 received this transmission at 9:23. Captain Jason Dahl responded at 9:26 to request clarification. At roughly 9:28 the terrorists successfully infiltrated the plane s cockpit, and air traffic controllers heard what they believed to be two mayday calls amid sounds of struggle. At 9:32 a hijacker, later identified as Ziad Jarrah, was heard over the flight data recorder, directing the passengers to sit down and stating that there was a bomb aboard the plane. The flight data recorder also shows that Jarrah reset the autopilot, turning the plane around to head back east. Passengers Fight Back Huddled in the back of the plane, the passengers and crew made a series of calls on their cell phones and the in-flight Airfones, informing family members and officials on the ground of the plane s hijacking. When they learned the fate of the three other hijacked flights in New York City and Washington, D.C., the passengers realized that their plane was involved in a larger terrorist plot, and would likely be used to carry out further attacks on U.S. soil. After a brief discussion, a vote was taken and the passengers decided to fight back against their hijackers, informing several people on the ground of their plans. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone, I know we re all going to die. There s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey. Another passenger, Todd Beamer, was heard over an open line saying, Are you guys ready? OK. Let s roll. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were: Everyone is running to first class. I ve got to go. Bye. At 9:57 the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 began their counterattack, as recorded by the cockpit voice recorder. In response, the hijacker piloting the plane began to roll the aircraft, pitching it up and down to throw the charging passengers off balance. Worried that the passengers would soon break through to the cockpit, the hijackers made the decision to crash the plane before reaching their final destination. At 10:02 a voice was recorded saying, Yes. Put it in it, and pull it down. Several other voices chanted Allah is great as the plane s controls were turned hard to the right. The airplane rolled onto its back and plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour. Flight 93 s intended target is not known, but it is believed that the hijackers were targeting the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David Presidential Retreat in Maryland, or several nuclear power plants along the Eastern seaboard. 4 of 5

5 Flight 93: The Shanksville Crash Site The fireball from the plane, which was carrying 7,000 gallons of fuel, scorched hundreds of acres of earth and set the surrounding trees ablaze for hours. The crash site near Shanksville was littered with the wreckage from the fragmented plane, with a debris field scattered nearly eight miles away from the initial points of impact. Despite the devastation, investigators were able to recover both the plane s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, or black box, which was found burrowed more than 25 feet below ground. Though few human remains were recovered at the site, medical examiners were eventually able to positively identify the 33 passengers, seven crew members, and four hijackers aboard Flight 93. Remembering Flight 93 In the weeks following the September 11 attacks, temporary memorials to the victims of United Flight 93 were erected at the Pennsylvania crash site and elsewhere, and in 2002 Congress established the Flight 93 National Memorial to create a permanent tribute to the plane s passengers and crew. The first phase of the memorial was completed in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in September Flight 93, History.com, last modified 2010,accessed March 8, 2014, 5 of 5