United Plane Crashes Near Pittsburgh

Sept. 11, 2001 — -- A United Airlines flight believed to have been hijacked crashed today southeast of Pittsburgh, presumably killing all 45 passengers and crew.

United Airlines Flight 93 was headed from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, before crashing at around 10:20 a.m. ET near the small Somerset County airport, about 8 miles from Jennerstown. Officials involved in the rescue operation have said it does not appear there are any survivors.

Government sources told ABCNEWS that during the flight, a passenger called 911 from a cell phone to report that the plane had been hijacked.

According to The Associated Press, the man told officials, "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!"

Emergency dispatcher Glenn Cramer said the man on board reported the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him."

Information from the company Flight Explorer, which tracks the path of planes using Federal Aviation Administration data, showed the plane taking a hard turn south near Cleveland — meaning the hijacking presumably took place at that point — and then heading in the direction of Washington.

ABCNEWS has learned that shortly before changing directions, someone in the cockpit radioed in and asked the FAA for a new flight plan, with a final destination of Washington.

An FBI official said the crash "appears" to be an act of terrorism, but Pentagon officials firmly denied to ABCNEWS rumors that the U.S. military shot down the aircraft to prevent it from being crashed into Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, or another government facility.

Adm. Craig Quigley told reporters the cause of the accident "was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft."

Terrorist hijackings are believed to be responsible for the plane crashes this morning that demolished the World Trade Center in New York and caused part of the Pentagon in Washington to collapse.