Heroes of Flight 93 Remembered 25 Years After 9/11
Left 0%
Center 50%
Right 50%
0 left · 1 center · 1 right
What happened
On September 11, 2001, four al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 shortly after it departed Newark, New Jersey. A ground delay allowed the 40 passengers and crew to learn, through phone calls to the ground (37 by one count), of the strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; they then voted to storm the cockpit as the plane turned toward Washington, D.C. They charged the hijackers at 9:57 a.m., after Todd Beamer said "Let's roll," and at 10:03 a.m. the aircraft crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard and stopping it from reaching its likely target, the U.S. Capitol. On September 11, 2026, ceremonies at the Flight 93 National Memorial, which more than 300,000 people visit each year, honored those passengers and crew.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 4 articles
1 of 1 article cites a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 1 of 1
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Gordon Felt and Paul Pisano
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 1
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
- Credits another outlet 0 of 1
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 1
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 12, 00:05 UTC by CBS News, naming its source.
- Not counted 3
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The left-leaning anniversary item never tells readers that Flight 93's passengers fought the hijackers and forced the jet down. Right-leaning coverage is simply more complete on what happened in the air and treats that fight as the reason the plane hit a field. ABC News honors "those who died" and never describes a counterattack. Fox News recounts how a ground delay let passengers learn of the other strikes before they rushed the cockpit. Without that sequence, a reader could treat Shanksville as only another crash site rather than the place a hijacking was stopped.
Left-leaning coverage headlines "the victims." Right-leaning coverage instead names "the heroic passengers," a label that makes the crash an act of resistance rather than only a loss.
What evidence shows which building in Washington the hijackers were trying to hit?
Bottom line
ABC News marked the Flight 93 anniversary as a tribute to the dead and left out the cockpit fight. Fox News is where a reader learns that 40 people aboard rushed the cockpit so the jet would not reach Washington.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Passengers and crew charged the cockpit, and the crash denied the terrorists their target in Washington.
- People aboard Flight 93 made 37 phone calls to loved ones before the crash.
- Todd Beamer, an Oracle account manager, called out Let's roll as passengers charged the cockpit.
- Gordon Felt, whose brother Edward Felt died on the flight, spoke at a National Park Service ceremony at the memorial.
- Forty men and women were aboard Flight 93 as passengers and crew.
- More than 300,000 people visit the Flight 93 National Memorial each year.
The Left View
ABC News framed the 25th anniversary as a remembrance of the victims, with correspondent Stephanie Ramos reporting from Shanksville to honor those who died aboard Flight 93. The network situated that report among other 9/11-day coverage on the terror landscape 25 years later and on Americans turning grief into good, without advancing a partisan or policy argument about the passengers' actions.
The Right View
Sen. McCormick, in Fox News, argued that the passengers "showed America how to stand united" and that their example still "offers lessons not only about who we were then, but also who we must continue to be." He said Americans "must remain vigilant in the face of evil," rejecting "the poisonous idea, voiced by Hasan Piker, that America 'deserved 9/11,'" and that "vigilance must be backed by strength," including "the strongest military in the world" as AI and robotics transform threats. He noted that no one aboard "asked who was a Republican or Democrat," contrasted that with politics that "turns disagreement into enmity," and cited a drop from 70% in 2003 to 39% in Americans who say they are "extremely proud" to be American. He urged visits to the Shanksville memorial and closed that the heroes showed "the clarity to recognize evil, the strength to confront it, the unity to stand together and the courage to put country before self."
Our Take (balanced)
ABC News's strongest emphasis is commemorative: the anniversary is for honoring the victims, as shown by its Shanksville report with no accompanying political program. Sen. McCormick's strongest argument is that those passengers exemplified a unity and courage he says America is losing, supported by their not sorting themselves by party, by the crash that kept the plane from Washington, and by the cited fall from 70% in 2003 to 39% of Americans who are "extremely proud" to be American. The central unresolved tension is whether this anniversary's public meaning is chiefly memorial remembrance of the 40 who died, or chiefly a civic lesson in unity, vigilance against evil, and putting country before self.
4 sources
- WATCH: Remembering the victims of Flight 93 on 9/11
- SEN McCORMICK: The heroic passengers of Flight 93 showed America how to stand united
- How Americans aboard Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville on 9/11 decided to fight terrorists back
- Heroes of Flight 93 remembered for their courage 25 years on from 9/11
More stories
The week's bottom lines, in your inbox
One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.