At 9.22am a sonic boom - caused by supersonic flight - was picked up by an earthquake monitoring station in southern Pennsylvania, 60 miles from Shanksville.
UA93 was identified as a hijack at 9.16am. At 9.35am three F-16s were ordered to "protect the White House at all costs" when it turned towards the capital. At 10.06am it crashed at Shanksville, less than 10mins flying time from Washington. -Daily Mirror (9/13/02) "Witnesses reported seeing military aircraft <http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/957912/detail.html> in the air just after the crash, and there were rumors that Flight 93 was shot down." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01) "A C-130 military cargo plane <http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916otherjetnat5p5.asp> was also within 25 miles of the passenger jet when it crashed, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said yesterday, but was not diverted." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)
Contradictions
Officials: Flight 93 Not Shot Down - Fighter jets too far away to intercept it <http://www.newsday.com/ny-usjets152367640sep15.story>
"U.S. fighter-jets couldn't have had any involvement in the crash of a hijacked airliner in Pennsylvania because the closest airborne jets at the time were over the Washington area, more than 100 miles away, a defense official said Friday.
In fact, military commanders were never notified of the need to intercept hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned abruptly from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S. military jets in the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., director of the Air National Guard.
That means the U.S. fighter-jets in the air closest to the site at Shanksville, Pa., in the southwestern part of the state actually were over Washington, those sent up to defend the airspace over the nation's capital, Weaver said.
The Pentagon has sought to knock down persistent rumors that the Pennsylvania flight was shot down or intercepted by U.S. fighter-jets and driven down.
The Pentagon's top spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said Thursday that military officials had "triple-checked" and could state categorically that the United States didn't shoot down the plane. He couldn't say whether any U.S. military planes ever had the doomed plane in sight.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the sky nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble, Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)
Mysterious Small White Jet Was Seen
<http://www.netjets.com/NewFleets/large/GV-SP/GV-SP.asp> <http://www.netjets.com/NewFleets/large/GV-SP/GV-SP.asp>
NetJets Gulfstream VSP
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side."
<http://www.netjets.com/NewFleets/large/GV/GV.asp> <http://www.netjets.com/NewFleets/large/GV/GV.asp>
NetJets Gulfstream V
"Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings."
<http://www.netjets.com/news/gallery/aircraft/060_Falcon2000.asp> <http://www.netjets.com/news/gallery/aircraft/060_Falcon2000.asp>
NetJets Falcon 2000
"The FBI's later explanation for the white jet was that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet...Susan Mcelwain says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she saw."
Military versions and similar looking aircraft:
<http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=87> <http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=87>
"The unmarked military-style jet swooped down at high speed through the valley, twice circled the smoldering black scar where Flight 93 had careered into the ground just seconds earlier and then hurtled off over the horizon.
At least six eyewitnesses saw the mysterious aircraft <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12192317&method=full&siteid=50143> on the morning of September 11 last year. But the US authorities deny it ever existed.
What was the white jet doing there and why won't they admit to its presence? Why did other witnesses see smoke and flames trailing from Flight 93 as it fell from the sky, indicating a possible explosion aboard?
Or - and this is proving to be the most uncomfortable question of all - in the moments before the airliner piled into the black, spongy earth at 575mph did an American fighter pilot have to do the unthinkable and shoot down a US civil airliner?
Susan Mcelwain, 51, who lives two miles from the site, knows what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.
"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real fast, but hardly made any sound.
"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialled 911 and told them what happened.
"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93.
I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the very moment it came down.
"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look.
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around.
"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.
"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head.
Cont ...