‘Hijackers crashed Flight 93’

The government’s findings — laid out deep within the report on the 9/11 attacks that was sent to the Congress last month — aim to resolve one of the enduring mysteries of the deadliest terror attacks in US history: What happened in the final minutes aboard Flight 93? The FBI strenuously maintains that its analysis does not diminish the heroism of passengers who — with the words ‘‘Let’s roll’’ — apparently rushed down the airliner’s narrow aisle to try to overtake the hijackers.

‘‘While no one will ever know exactly what transpired in the final minutes of Flight 93, every shred of evidence indicates this plane crashed because of the heroic actions of the passengers,’’ FBI spokesperson Susan Whitson said on Thursday.

Citing transcripts of the still-secret cockpit recordings, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congressional investigators in a closed briefing last year that minutes before Flight 93 hit the ground, one of the hijackers ‘‘advised Jarrah to crash the plane and end the passengers’ attempt to retake the airplane.’’

Jarrah is thought to have been the terrorist-pilot because only he had a pilot’s licence among the four hijackers.

Mueller’s description comes in a brief passage of the 858-page report to the Congress. Previous statements by FBI and other government officials have been ambiguous about what occurred in the cockpit.

The same cockpit recording was played privately in April 2002 for family members of victims aboard Flight 93. Some family members said later that they were led to believe that passengers used a food cart as a shield and successfully broke into the cockpit.

The FBI has been loath to publicly put forward a contradictory theory out of sensitivity to the families and because of uncertainty about what happened. People who have heard the recording describe it as nearly indecipherable, containing static noises, cockpit alarms and wind interspersed with cries in English and Arabic. Near the end of the tape, sounds can be heard of breaking glass and crashing dishes — lending credence to the theory that passengers used the food cart to rush the jetliner’s narrow aisle.

Separately, the data recorder shows the plane’s wings rocking as the jet flew too low and too fast for safe flight. Intelligence officials believe the likely target for Flight 93 was the White House, based on information from Abu Zubaydah, a senior Al Qaeda terrorist leader in US custody who is believed to have played a key role in organising the 9/11 attacks.

Prosecutors have sought a US judge’s permission to play recordings from Flight 93 during the terrorism trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only defendant in a US case prosecutors have directly tied to the attacks. Moussaoui has been accused of conspiring with the hijackers.