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Control tower supervisor shares 9/11 details in Peters Township library program

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 6 min read
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On a late summer day nearly 18 years ago, Mahlon Fuller headed to his job as watch supervisor of the control tower and radar room at Pittsburgh International Airport.

“I clearly recall driving to the airport with a blue, blue sky, never seen the sky bluer in Montana or Wyoming,” he said. “And I remember very clearly saying to myself, ‘What a great day it is to be alive.'”

About Mahlon Fuller

On Sept. 11, 2001, Mahlon Fuller was the watch supervisor of the control tower and radar room at Pittsburgh International Airport.

In the aftermath of 9/11, he was repeatedly drawn to the United 93 crash site in Somerset County to mourn, learn and try to understand the events of the day.

After speaking at a fundraising event for the Flight 93 National Memorial, and as he learned more about the capabilities of the passengers aboard the aircraft, he began to share their story.

A founding member of Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, Fuller served on the board and continues to tell the story of the flight’s 40 heroes, with all donations for the benefit of the memorial.

Within a few hours of his arrival on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into a wall of the Pentagon.

A fourth airplane crashed in a field in Somerset County, taking the lives of what Fuller calls the heroes of United Airlines Flight 93, the subject of an April 11 presentation he gave at Peters Township Public Library.

“They were 40 ordinary people who were strangers to each other, just like on most flights, except, of course, if they travel together,” he told the capacity audience. “The pilot and the co-pilot met each other for the first time that morning. The five flight attendants were casual acquaintances.”

The crew members and passengers who survived the flight’s initial takeover decided they weren’t going to stand by idly, attempting to seize control from the terrorists before the Boeing 757 went down at 10:03 a.m. As such, they averted what could have been a greater loss of life.

“It has been determined beyond almost any doubt that the United States Capitol building was, in fact, the target,” Fuller said.

Flight 93 took off at 8:42 a.m. from Newark, N.J., bound for San Francisco, with a light roster of passengers.

“In the last 35 minutes of their lives, they made 37 phone calls. They learned the nation was under attack. They knew if they did nothing, they would die. They made a plan, and they voted. They actually voted on it,” Fuller said.

Passengers and crew of Flight 93

Christian Adams, Lorraine G. Bay, Todd M. Beamer, Alan Anthony Beaven, Mark Bingham, Deora Frances Bodley, Sandy Waugh Bradshaw, Marion R. Britton, Thomas E. Burnett Jr., William Joseph Cashman, Georgine Ross Corrigan, Patricia Cushing, Jason M. Dahl, Joseph DeLuca, Patrick Joseph Driscoll, Edward Porter Felt, Jane C. Folger, Colleen L. Fraser, Andrew (Sonny) Garcia, Jeremy Logan Glick, Kristin Osterholm White Gould, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, Donald Freeman Greene, Wanda Anita Green, Linda Gronlund, Richard J. Guadagno, LeRoy Homer, Toshiya Kuge, CeeCee Ross Lyles, Hilda Marcin, Waleska Martinez, Nicole Carol Miller, Louis J. Nacke II, Donald Arthur Peterson, Jean Hoadley Peterson, Mark David Rothenberg, Christine Ann Snyder, John Talignani, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Deborah Jacobs Welsh.

For more information about them, visit www.flight93friends.org/explore-learn/passengers.

“They armed themselves with what they could, including boiling water from the galley to throw on the terrorists. They waited until they were over a rural area to avoid further loss of life. And then those ordinary people who sat down as strangers stood up as one.”

One of the calls, made by passenger Todd Beamer, was to Pittsburgh International Airport, where he reached a telephone supervisor named Lisa Jefferson.

“He told her that the plane had been hijacked by three men with knives and what would appear to be a bomb,” Fuller said. “Todd spoke of his family and his love for his children and his wife, and asked her to tell them if he didn’t make it, which she did.”

“They said the Lord’s Prayer together,” Fuller added. “He said, ‘A few of us passengers are getting together. I think we’re going to jump the guy with the bomb. He cut the conversation short with: ‘Are you ready? Let’s roll.'”

By then, Fuller had evacuated the control tower after radar showed that Flight 93 had appeared to be headed straight for it.

“I was the last person to leave, because we had several folks in wheelchairs that I wanted to check on to make sure they had been removed from the quarters. I got back to their offices, and they were gone,” he recalled.

“The radar recording revealed that United 93 passed over the airport,” Fuller said. “I think by the time I got outside, the plane had already crossed over us. We never saw a thing. We were looking to the northwest, which is where it was coming from. We never saw any light glinting off the fuselage. It’s hard to believe.”

Fuller followed his library presentation by visiting Peters Township Middle School the following day.

“The more I speak at high schools and colleges, the more I realize that today’s youth has no connection with and no understanding of 9/11,” he said. “How did we permit that to happen? How can we fix that?”

He suggested visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoneycreek Township, a drive of less than two hours from where he was speaking. And he recommended sharing personal stories from that day.

“All of you have a 9/11 story,” Fuller said. “Sit down with the young people in your lives. Tell them about your day, and go to the larger story of what happened to the country and the world.”

For more information, visit www.flight93friends.org.

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