SHANKSVILLE — As United Airlines Flight 93 soared to its doom in western Pennsylvania, people trapped aboard the hijacked aircraft reached for phones, making final, desperate calls, either for help or simply hoping to say goodbye to loved ones.

The mother of passenger Mark Bingham, 31, said she hoped his actions may have stopped an even greater disaster. The plane was the only one of four hijacked craft that did not reach its destination, crashing instead into a field.

“We know Mark was a very active and take-charge guy, he was a large man,” Alice Hoglan, whose son called her from the plane told “Good Morning America” today. “We’re hoping that Mark had a chance to perhaps work with other passengers to thwart the intent of the hijackers.”

Minutes before the Boeing 757 slammed into a field some 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh about 10 a.m. Tuesday, at least three calls went out from people on board detailing the dire circumstances in which they found themselves — victims of the fourth and final in a string of closely timed terrorist attacks which stunned New York City, Washington and the nation.

This was an excerpt from a front-page story on Sept. 12, 2001.