Another account of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking of a United Airlines jet and its subsequent crash in Somerset County, A&E's "Flight 93" (9 p.m. Monday) is a harrowing, tremendously sad thriller that's utterly unnecessary.

Discovery Channel's September premiere of "The Flight That Fought Back" was as close as we're likely to get to a definitive account. It mixed dramatic re-creations with documentary-style interviews with families of Flight 93's passengers and crew. Most importantly, it got the details right. A&E's "Flight 93" doesn't seem to make much of an effort.

		'Flight 93' When: 9 p.m. Monday, A&E. Starring: Jeffrey Nordling.

As movies about doomed heroes often do, "Flight 93" begins with one of the victims, co-pilot LeRoy Homer, kissing his wife goodbye for what he thinks will be just another day of flying the friendly skies. Those skies turn deadly once terrorists, first glimpsed shaving their chests, board four flights at East Coast airports.

Where "The Flight That Fought Back" stuck closely to events solely on Flight 93, A&E's film also checks in with flight controllers, airline operations centers and a White House bunker.

Directed by Peter Markle ("Faith of My Fathers") from a script by Nevin Schreiner ("Deep Family Secrets"), "Flight 93" is a pastiche of familiar hallmarks from the disaster and thriller genres. It's no surprise the movie begins with a score whose urgency brings to mind "24" or ends with elegiac music that's reminiscent of James Horner's score from "Titanic."

Where the movie blows it is in the details: Sometimes the plane looks like it belongs to United Airlines, sometimes it doesn't. Usually it's a 757, but in one shot from above as the plane is cleared for takeoff, it's not a 757 that's getting ready to soar. And two people can easily walk side-by-side down the aisle of the plane, which is not realistic.

A&E says it received support from family members of some of the passengers, but I can't imagine they'll be happy with one specific moment: In the frenzy of bursting into the cockpit seconds before the crash, one passenger (possibly Tom Burnett, although it's hard to tell given the shaky footage) is depicted as bleeding from his abdomen, presumably stabbed during the struggle with a hijacker before entering the cockpit. That's not something that's been publicly revealed in government releases to date, although screenwriter Schreiner said one of the passengers can be heard saying "I'm injured" in a still-unreleased cockpit audio recording.

The special effects, too, are lackluster. When the terrorist pilot rocks the plane back and forth, the actors playing passengers hurl their bodies one way and then another, like the cast of the original "Star Trek."

Exterior shots of the plane look fake -- in one, the plane resembles a child's toy -- and the blue sky out the cockpit window screams, "Cheap, tacky effect!"

Casting-wise, the film is a mixed bag. Passenger Mark Bingham's mother may not be a doppelganger for the real Alice Hoglan, but the actress playing her gets the voice right. On the other hand, actress Gwynyth Walsh (perhaps best known for her recurring role as a Klingon on "Star Trek: The Next Generation") doesn't much resemble Esther Heymann, stepmother of Flight 93 passenger Honor Elizabeth Wainio.

One touch that worked well was showing Deena Burnett's (Kendall Cross) attempts to call authorities after she first gets a call from her husband, Tom (Jeffrey Nordling), and her mounting frustration when she gets transferred from one line to another. That's an entirely relatable feeling. And the scene of Todd Beamer (Brennan Elliott) reciting the Lord's Prayer over the phone with a telephone operator in Chicago is a veritable tearjerker.

Maybe in 10 or 20 years, a reminder of Flight 93 will be necessary, but America didn't need the three Amy Fisher TV movies that were produced in 1992-93, and there's no need for multiple Flight 93 movies now. But we're not done yet: A theatrical release of yet another version of the same story (from Universal Pictures) will be on the silver screen later this year.