Moussaoui jurors hear recording of last moments of doomed Flight 93

IN the final minutes of doomed United Air Lines Flight 93, on September 11, 2001, hijackers try to shake off passengers trying to take control of the plane as it flies over Pennsylvania.

Amid groans and sounds of a struggle, a voice says: "I am injured." A hijacker asks: "Shall we finish it off?"

Moments later, the plane hurtles out of control to the ground, according to a cockpit voice recording played for a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, yesterday by federal prosecutors seeking the execution of Zacarias Moussaoui.

The prosecutors figuratively placed the jury aboard the flight for its last heart-wrenching moments.

The US government rested its case yesterday after the judge rejected a prosecutors' request to display a running presentation of the names and photos of all the victims of September 11.

Prosecutors were instead allowed to show one large poster with the pictures of all but 92 of the victims.

There were three victim-impact witnesses who gave testimony following the broadcast of the Flight 93 tape in the courtroom.

During the government's playing of the recording, a voice is heard from the cockpit, possibly that of a flight crew member, saying: "Please don't hurt me. Oh God!" A few seconds later, somebody says, three times: "I don't want to die."

But then, amid sounds of a struggle, a hijacker asks: "There is something, a fight?" The response is: "Yeah." The last sound heard as the plane nears the ground: "Allah is the greatest." Then silence.

The flight, one of four hijacked on September 11, 2001, crashed in a Pennsylvania field as passengers tried to retake it. The cockpit voice recording had not been played publicly before.

It was played to culminate the prosecution's case before the jury that will weigh whether to recommend the death sentence for Moussaoui, an admitted terrorist conspirator.

The recording began at 9.31am with a hijacker's voice clearly stating: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain ... we have a bomb on board, so sit."

For the next few minutes, passengers are repeatedly told, in English: "Don't move," "Shut up" "Sit," and "down down down". The hijackers alternated between Arabic and English.

As the tape proceeded, it became clear that the passengers were gaining the upper hand.

A voice of a hijacker, presumably inside the cockpit, says: "They want to get in." The voice continues: "Hold from within."

At 10am, there is a voice that says: "I am injured."

Sounds of a struggle can be heard. At that point, the plane appears to go out of control. There are sounds of the hijackers trying to shake off the passengers.

As the jury heard the recording, prosecutors played a video presentation that simultaneously showed the flight path and speed in a mock-up similar to a flight simulator.

At 10.02am, a hijacker says: "Give it to me. Give it to me." At 10.03am the plane dives amid crashing sounds and the tape stops.

The jury deciding Moussaoui's fate has already declared him eligible for the death penalty by determining that his actions caused at least one death on September 11. He pleaded guilty in April 2005 to conspiring with al-Qaida to hijack aircraft and fly them into buildings.

Even though he was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks, the jury ruled that lies told by Moussaoui to federal agents a month before the attacks kept them from identifying and stopping some of the hijackers.

Now they must decide whether Moussaoui deserves execution or life in prison.

Defence lawyers have argued that the jury should spare Moussaoui's life because of his limited role in the attacks, evidence that he is mentally ill and because his execution would only play into his dream of martyrdom.