PITTSBURGH — A federal judge has sided with the U.S. government in ruling that a company does not have the right to mine coal beneath the Flight 93 National Memorial.

A Johnstown newspaper says U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose last week said Svonavec of Somerset failed to demonstrate that it had the right to mine under the memorial site.

“I find that the record evidence is insufficient to establish that, at the time of the taking on Sept. 2, 2009, defendant Svonavec possessed the right to mine coal underlying any part of the subject property other than the eight acres previously identified by the parties,” Ambrose said.

The company owned about 276 acres taken by the government through eminent domain, including six acres where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

United Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was diverted by hijackers with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The official 9/11 Commission report concluded that the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to wrest control of the cockpit.