In the last minutes before United Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field on September 11, a passenger urged others to help storm the cockpit and take on the hijackers because "if we don't we die," a jury heard on Wednesday.

Smoke rises from the debris of United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, September 12, 2001. The jury deciding whether Zacarias Moussaoui should die heard the dramatic cockpit recording on Wednesday of passengers struggling to thwart hijackers in flight 93. [Reuters/File]

The cockpit recording of the chaotic final 30 minutes of the flight and the futile attempt to take back control of the plane was played for the first time in public to a jury deciding whether September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui should be executed.

Moussaoui showed little emotion as the courtroom listened spellbound to the hijackers who were believed to be aiming the plane at the US Capitol or the White House in Washington and the passengers who tried to stop them.

They heard the yelling and the crashing, banging sounds of the struggle, and a plea from an unidentified crew member: "Please, please, please don't hurt me. I don't want to die."

Moussaoui sat back in his chair and stared at a screen which showed a visual depiction of the some key gauges in the cockpit and their movement as the plane neared the ground.

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.

During the flight some passengers learned via 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 similar plot, some of them agreed to fight the hijackers.

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that 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 defense will begin on Thursday.

Spellbinding Tape

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

After the announcement, the hijackers appeared to be struggling with pilots, and a female flight attendant.

The hijackers yelled "sit, sit, sit down, sit down" and "In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate."

Unidentified crew members shouted "No, no, no, no" and "Please, please, please don't hurt me. I don't want to die."

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

Then the Boeing 757, which was en route to San Francisco from Newark, New Jersey, with 33 passengers, seven crew and four hijackers on board was turned around to head east.

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