Ready or not, the worlds of arts and entertainment are now training their Panavision lenses on the devastating events of September 11, 2001. The National Geographic Channel’s Inside 9/11 has already aired to ratings success. This fall, several motion pictures with 9/11 themes will hit the nation’s multiplexes. But first, the Discovery Channel’s The Flight That Fought Back, a 90-minute documentary will air commercial-free, Sunday, September 11, 9 P.M., Eastern and Pacific times.

Produced by London-based Brooks Lapping Productions, and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, The Flight That Fought Back reconstructs one of history’s most infamous flights in almost-real time. Utilizing rarely heard flight and phone recordings, interviews with the family and friends of passengers and crew, as well as mostly tasteful reenactments, The Flight That Fought Back is a respectful, if emotionally tepid, tribute to the heroes of United Airlines’ doomed Flight #93.

For those with short or overtaxed memories, United Airlines’ Flight #93 was one of the four planes hijacked to carry out 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Three of Flight 93’s passengers had a different idea. Gay San Franciscan Mark Bingham, and two other passengers, plotted to storm the cockpit, and foil the attack mission.

Their story went something like this: delayed 42 minutes due to Newark city construction work and runway gridlock, Flight #93, a Boeing 757, took off from Newark International Airport, bound for San Francisco, at 8:42 A.M., September 11, 2001. It was a beautiful morning, full of promise and sunshine. The aircraft carried 33 passengers and a crew of seven, many of them homeward bound. By the time the flight was cleared for take off, the three other planes used in the 9/11 attacks were already airborne.

At first, the flight, as well as the morning, proceeded normally, with passengers settling into their seats, and food and beverage service beginning.

However, at 9:24, the plane received a cryptic message from a United Airlines’ flight dispatcher, “Beware of cockpit intrusion.” Unknown to passengers and crew, both towers of the World Trade Center had already been hit. Four minutes later, armed hijackers were in control of Flight 93, telling everyone that they had a bomb. Passenger Thomas Burnett telephoned his wife, Deena, at home, telling her of the hijacking.

Scant minutes later, during a second call, Deena informed her husband of the World Trade Center attacks.

Within a minute of Burnett’s second call, Flight 93 reversed course and headed east. Experts believe the hijackers intended to crash the plane into the Capitol Building or the White House. 9:41: In D.C., American Airlines Flight 77 has just crashed into the west wing of The Pentagon. Aboard Flight 93, Mark Bingham telephones his mother, Alice Hoglan, with news of the hijacking. Five minutes after the 9:40 Pentagon attack, Thomas Burnett calls Deena for a third time. He reveals that passengers and crew are plotting to regain control of the plane.

By 9:57, the passengers and crew are ready to roll. Armed with boiling water, galley knives, and a heavy serving cart, they storm toward the cockpit. Hoping to throw the citizen soldiers off balance, the hijacker pilot rolls the plane to the left and right.

His efforts to halt the assault fail. Most probably, the passengers and the hijackers fight it out inside the cockpit. We don’t know for certain. The cockpit voice recorder captures the hijackers yelling, “Pull it down!” and “Allah be praised!” A minute later, Flight 93 crashes into an empty field near Shanksville, PA. There are no survivors. The heroic passengers and crew have aborted a deadly attack, most probably saving many lives but sacrificing their own.

Two days later, Reverend Jerry Falwell told the world, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternate lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.” Pat Robertson, who has spent a lifetime putting his foot in his self-righteous mouth added, “I totally concur….”

That any American still listens to these fanatic pseudo-Christians reflects poorly on America, and Christendom.

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