WASHINGTON -- Passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers but never actually made it into the cockpit, the Sept. 11 commission concluded. The assertion, included in the panel's dramatic summary of the harrowing flight, contradicts the firmly held belief by some victims' families that passengers breached the cockpit and fought with hijackers inside during their final moments over western Pennsylvania. In phone calls from the plane, four passengers said they and others planned to fight the hijackers after learning of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York earlier that morning. With the words "Let's roll," passengers rushed down the airliner's narrow aisle to try to overwhelm the hijackers. Relying on the cockpit recorder and flight data, the commission said terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah violently rocked the jet's wings and told another hijacker to block the door. With the sounds of fighting outside the cockpit, Jarrah asked, "Is that it• Shall we finish it off?" Another hijacker, who wasn't identified, replied, "No, not yet. When they all come, we finish it off." Jarrah then began pitching the nose of the plane up and down to throw passengers off balance. Seconds later, a passenger who wasn't identified yelled, "In the cockpit! If we don't, we die!" And 16 seconds afterward, another passenger yelled, "Roll it!" Investigators previously have said they believe passengers tried to use a food cart to break the cockpit door. Jarrah said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!", and he asked his fellow hijacker, "Is that it• I mean, shall we put it down?" The other hijacker answered, "Yes, put it in, and pull it down." Roughly 90 seconds later, the jet rolled onto its back and crashed into a field near Shanksville, Somerset County, at more than 580 mph, killing everyone aboard. The commission concluded that the hijackers remained at the controls of the plane, "but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them." The commission said the hijackers' destination was Washington. It praised the courage of the passengers and said their struggle "saved the lives of countless others, and may have saved either the Capitol or the White House from destruction." The Associated Press reported last year that the government's theory about Flight 93 -- described by FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional investigators in closed testimony -- also concluded that passengers grappled with terrorists but never actually got into the cockpit. United Flight 93's final flight 8:42 a.m.: Flight 93, bound for San Francisco, takes off from Newark Airport. 9:28 a.m.: A Cleveland controller and pilots of aircraft in the vicinity hear a radio transmission "of unintelligible sounds or possible screaming or a struggle from an unknown origin." The controller notices that Flight 93 had descended some 700 feet but the controller is unable to get a response from the plane. 9:32 a.m.: Another radio transmission comes over the frequency, saying "Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board." The controller notifies his supervisor. 9:34 a.m.: FAA headquarters receives word of the hijacking. 9:34 a.m. to 9:38 a.m.: Flight 93 is observed climbing, and controllers move other planes out of its way. It begins to reverse course and head toward Washington. 9:39 a.m.: Another radio transmission from the plane refers to a purported bomb on board. 9:41 a.m.: Cleveland loses Flight 93's transponder signal. 9:42 a.m.: The FAA Command Center learns from television news reports that a plane has struck the Pentagon. The FAA orders all FAA facilities to order air traffic to land at the nearest airport. 9:46 a.m.: The Command Center tells FAA headquarters that Flight 93 is "29 minutes out of Washington." 10:01 a.m.: FAA Command Center tells headquarters that another aircraft has seen Flight 93 "waving his wings," gyrations that were apparently a result of the struggle between the hijackers and passengers. 10:03:11 a.m.: United 93 crashes in Pennsylvania, 125 miles from Washington. 10:17 a.m.: FAA Command Center advises headquarters that Flight 93 has crashed.

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