he sent the message to Flight93 at 09:23. Ballinger received a routine ACARS message from Flight93 at 09:21. At 9:22, after learning of the events at the World Trade Center, LeRoy Homer's wife, Melody Homer, had an ACARS message sent to her husband in the cockpit asking if he was all right. At 09:24, Flight93 received Ballinger's ACARS warning, "Beware any cockpit intrusiontwo a/c [aircraft] hit World Trade Center". At 9:26, pilot Jason Dahl, apparently puzzled by the message, responded, "Ed, confirm latest mssg plz -- Jason". At 09:27:25, the flight crew responded to routine radio traffic from air traffic control. This was the last communication made by the flight crew before the plane was hijacked. Hijacking The hijacking began at 09:28. By this time, Flights 11 and 175 had already crashed into the World Trade Center and Flight77 was within nine minutes of striking the Pentagon. The hijackers on those flights had waited no more than thirty minutes to commandeer the aircraft, most likely striking after the seat belt sign had been turned off and cabin service had begun. It is unknown why the hijackers on Flight93 waited 46 minutes to begin their assault. The evidence is that they attacked the pilots by at least 09:28:05, because the flight dived dramatically at that point680 feet in thirty seconds. Cockpit transmissions and recordings At 09:28:17, the aircraft made a communication to the Cleveland controller and the pilots of aircraft in the vicinity, "of unintelligible sounds of possible screaming or a struggle". A Cleveland Air Traffic Controller replied, "Somebody call Cleveland?" but received no reply. Thirty-five seconds later, the aircraft made another transmission. In both calls, a man was shouting, "Mayday! Mayday! Get out of here! Get out of here! Get out of here!" When Melody Homer and Sandy Dahl, Jason Dahl's wife, listened to the tape, Melody identified First Officer LeRoy Homer as the man who was shouting. The aircraft dropped in half a minute before the hijackers stabilized it. Of the four aircraft hijacked, Flight93 was the only aircraft that broadcast a distress call. It is likely that because the pilots had been warned of the World Trade Center hijackings and to beware of a cockpit intrusion, when they came under attack, they keyed the microphone so the struggle might be overheard by air traffic control. Cleveland Center air traffic controller John Werth believed it was not just a