Families ask for cockpit recording

SAN FRANCISCO - Passengers killed in the hijack crash of United Airlines Flight 93 have become heroes of the September 11 attacks - everyday Americans who apparently sacrificed themselves to stop another plane being used as a weapon of terror.

But family members of some of the 45 victims want more details, asking the FBI to release the cockpit voice recording of the plane's final minutes.

"I lie awake at night wondering what he thought and what he felt and what his experience was," Deena Burnett, whose husband, Thomas, was among those on board the plane, said yesterday.

United's Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco crashed in a Pennsylvania field, apparently brought down by a passenger revolt.

The Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have declined to release even an edited transcript of Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder, saying that it is evidence in a criminal investigation.

But Burnett and at least one other family member say they deserve to hear the recording.

- REUTERS

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