US jury hears 9/11 cockpit tape

The jury deciding whether Zacarias Moussaoui should die heard the dramatic cockpit recording yesterday of passengers struggling to thwart hijackers in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

In the last five minutes of United Flight 93, a passenger could be heard urging others to storm the cockpit and take on the hijackers because "if we don't we die".

It was the first time the 30-minute cockpit recording was played in public and the jury was transfixed by the words of both the hijackers who were believed to be aiming for the US Capitol in Washington and the passengers who tried to stop them.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema decided the recording would only be played in court and not publicly released, though a transcript was made available. Federal prosecutors, who had requested it be heard, finished presenting evidence later in the day. The defence will begin today.

Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member and only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks, has pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy. The jury is deciding whether he should spend his life in prison or be executed.

Moussaoui showed little emotion in the courtroom, and sat back in his chair and stared at a screen where the transcript of the tape was shown.

The tape began with a man believed to be Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker who became the plane's pilot, announcing: "This is the captain, please sit down, we have a bomb on board."

What sounded like a struggle followed with the hijackers yelling "Sit down. Sit down," and "In the name of Allah the merciful." Unidentified crew members shouted "No, no, no," and "Please, please, please don't hurt me. I don't want to die."

About six minutes after the cockpit struggle began, one of the hijackers said, "Everything is fine. I've finished."

During the flight some of the passengers learned via cell phone calls that three other planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Believing they were part of a fourth such plot, some of them stormed the cockpit to fight the hijackers.

The recorded struggle began when the passengers apparently rolled food carts down the aisle to try to force open the door.

In Arabic someone says, "Is there something? A fight?" Another hijacker responds, "Yeah."

"Roll it," someone outside the cockpit yelled, apparently referring to the cart. "In the cockpit. If we don't we die," another voice said.

The pilot began rocking the plane from side to side and one of the hijackers yelled orders to cut off the oxygen. "Allah is the greatest" someone yelled right before the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.