In honor of the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Discovery Channel, 18, will show a documentary about the heroes of United Airlines Flight 93 who fought the hijackers attempting to crash the plane into the White House.
The 90-minute film, “The Flight that Fought Back,” will air Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern time on both Discovery and Discovery en Espanol. Interviews with family and friends of victims, as well as recordings from the flight itself, are included in the presentation.
“Ninety percent of what you see is documentary,” Jill Bondurant, Discovery Channel publicist, said. “It is based on fact, on what happened on the flight, what families knew from conversations on the phone that day.”
The documentary tells the story of how the passengers and crew discovered the terrorists and in 30 minutes, stopped them from crashing the plain. Ball State University senior John Ciciura said he might “check it out” to find out more information about the terrorist attacks.
“I don’t think we even heard about all of that when it happened, and I kept the TV on all day,” Ciciura said.
The specific story of Flight 93 is important to the Discovery Channel, Bondurant said, because one of their district managers, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, was killed onboard.
Wainio was the regional manager for New York and New Jersey. As a tribute to her, Bondurant said Discovery Channel set up a scholarship at Towson University where she graduated.
“The events of 9/11 are a part of history that touched each and every one of us, directly affecting the way we live our lives today,” Jane Root, Discovery Channel executive vice president, said.
Four years after the attacks, the nation is in the middle of another crisis because of the destruction Hurricane Katrina caused along the Gulf Coast.
Telecommunications professor Stephen Bell said the documentary could have an effect on more people than it probably would have without the current crisis.
“The timing is certainly interesting -- coming when the nation is facing a new crisis,” Bell said. “It could have more impact than normal because it will show people fighting back at a time when many Americans are feeling helpless because of Katrina and the events in Iraq.”
Bondurant said she thinks the documentary will be appealing to college students, and the message of the film is especially important.
“One of the most important messages to come out of this film is the idea of coming together,” she said. “It was young and old, grandparents and children, even a college student onboard, and it was group effort to fight back against the terrorists. They sacrificed their lives to save countless others in our national capital.”
Senior public relations major Sarah Tassone said she was “shocked it was coming out” when she recently saw a preview for the documentary.
“Not that the Discovery Channel is not well known, but it’s something low-key doing such a big thing,” she said.
Students, however, will watch the show, Tassone said.
“It’s such a major phenomenon that happened in our lifetime, but there are still a lot of details we still don’t know about,” Tassone said
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