On the morning of September 11, 2001, First officer LeRoy Homer Jr. gets dressed in his F.A.A. official uniform, kisses his wife and leaves for work. Passengers board United Airlines Flight 93 at Newark Liberty International Airport, including Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Lauren Grandcolas, Donald Greene, Nicole Miller, and Honor Elizabeth Wainio. Four al-Qaeda terrorists Ziad Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Haznawi and Ahmed al-Nami, also board the flight. The plane takes off, bound for San Francisco, California.
In the air, the hijackers make their move; after a passenger is fatally stabbed and the "bomb" is revealed causing mass panic among passengers, the hijackers stab a flight attendant knocking her unconscious before wrestling their way into the cockpit and attack the pilots. Struggling with the hijackers, Homer courageously sends out a mayday call before he and Captain Jason Dahl are knocked unconscious. Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Aboard United 93, the passengers learn from family members via airphone of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon; they decide to take action organizing a revolt against the hijackers. Their plan is empowered with the knowledge that passenger Don Greene has experience in flying.
The group pins their hopes on Greene being able at least to control the plane. After passengers arm themselves, pray, and make final phone calls to loved ones, Todd Beamer says, "Let's Roll!". They start their counter-attack, running down the aisle with a food cart. Jarrah shakes the plane violently to throw the passengers off balance, but nonetheless they continue their assault, overpowering Ahmed al-Nami, who is outside the cockpit. After boiling water is thrown at him, al-Nami is killed by Mark Bingham with a blow to the head with the hot water container. Seeing the passengers getting nearer, al-Ghamdi, Ziad and al-Haznawi prepare to crash the plane, knowing they'll never reach their intended target. The passengers manage to breach the cockpit with the food cart. As the passengers wrestle with al-Haznawi and al-Ghamdi to get in the cockpit, al-Haznawi and al-Ghamdi tell Jarrah to simply crash the plane, rather than to carry on with the rest of their mission. Flight 93 narrowly misses a barn and a private aircraft as Jarrah puts it into a nosedive, just as the passengers finally gain entrance into the cockpit. The plane inverts, crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and killing everyone on board. Air Traffic Control can be seen and heard desperately calling for any response from Flight 93. Emergency workers then come by to investigate the crash area (denoted by the crater). Soon, time passes and the crater disappears.
The following does not include those people that portray the families or controllers in the film:
Jeffrey Nordling as Tom Burnett
Colin Glazer as Jeremy Glick
Brennan Elliot as Todd Beamer
Ty Olsson as Mark Bingham
Jacqueline Ann Steuart as Lauren Grandcolas
Laura Mennell as Elizabeth Wainio
Barry W. Levy as Captain Jason Dahl
Biski Gugushe as First Officer LeRoy Homer Jr.
Dominic Rains as Ziad Jarrah
chronicles the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93 during the September 11 attacks