SHANKSVILLE - The flight-data recorder from ill-fated United Flight 93 was unearthed in a blackened crater Thursday afternoon, possibly providing clues to a crash that scattered debris as far as eight miles away.
 Investigators said the recorder was found at 4:20 p.m. and immediately was whisked to Washington, where it will be analyzed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
 “We are hoping it will have some information as to what occurred in the plane prior to it crashing,” said Bill Crowley, FBI special agent, less than an hour after the find.
 The data recorder measures information including air speed and altitude, and may contain vital evidence in a crash that killed 45 people as part of a terrorist strike that left thousands in Washington and New York dead.
 Officials have guessed that Flight 93, which took off for a cross-country flight from Newark, N.J., also was headed to Washington. The plane’s recorder was the first to be found from four hijacked jets used in Tuesday’s attacks.
 A voice recorder still has not been recovered, with hundreds of federal and state officials continuing to scour a sprawling crime scene just off of Lambertsville Road, Stonycreek Township. 
 But CNN has reported obtaining a partial transcript of chatter from the plane recorded by air traffic controllers as the jetliner approached Cleveland. According to excerpts, a fight apparently ensued and the hijackers in the end appeared to have wrested control of the craft.
 “We’re still looking for the other box and will keep looking until we find it,” said FBI Special Agent Linda Vizi in a telephone interview from her Pittsburgh office.
 Vizi said she did not know how long analysis of the data recorder would take.
 Investigators also disclosed Thursday that debris from the shattered plane had been discovered at Indian Lake, two miles from the crash crater, and in New Baltimore, eight miles away from where the plane slammed into a grassy field.
 The find immediately fueled speculation that structural problems, or possibly even an explosion, had damaged the Boeing 757 before it hit the ground.
 Some Indian Lake residents reported seeing “sparkling confetti” or hearing sounds like “acorns hitting the house” around the time of the crash.
 “Every piece that we picked up was charred,” said Indian Lake Mayor Barry Lichty, whose neighbors spotted debris in their yards. 
 “We found a few small pieces of sheet metal,” Lichty said in a telephone interview. “They were about the size of bolts.”
 At nearby Indian Lake Marina, employees took FBI agents out on boats and helped collect debris that washed up on shore including “parts of the plane and papers - just little pieces,” said Tom Spinelli, a marina service technician.
 “A lot of California information on it, like phone numbers,” Spinelli said in a telephone interview. “We thought we saw pieces of bone - they took it with them.”
 Federal officials still could not rule out the presence of a bomb aboard the flight, but they quickly added that an explosion and winds could have carried debris long distances.
 Officials also said no military planes or other aircraft had played a part in the jetliner’s demise, though two planes were within 25 miles of the United Airlines flight Tuesday morning.
 “Not only is it plausible that debris from this crash could be in those locations, it is probable,” Crowley said Thursday afternoon.
 One expert in aviation disasters agreed.
 “Debris fields can scatter over miles,” said Craig Conroy, who authored the two-volume manual “Effective Aviation Crisis Management” and likened Tuesday’s crash to a vehicle moving at 1,000 mph hitting a brick wall.
 “If it’s a light piece of material, it becomes a projectile,” Conroy said in a telephone interview from his home in Gibsonia, Allegheny County. “It can get into the wind currents and be carried.”
 As teams of agents combed through the site Thursday, a group that includes archaeologists and anthropologists began to recover human remains as fragmented as the plane itself.
 “We must be meticulous in the way we approach it,” said Wallace Miller, Somerset County coroner.
 Some remains have been transported to a temporary morgue in the National Guard Armory on Route 281 near Somerset, where workers from across the country will analyze each body part while heavy security keeps watch outside.
 DNA testing, dental records and even X-rays are some tools used to identify victims from the gruesome crash scene.
 “With an impact of this type, it’s going to be very difficult,” Miller said. “It will be quite some time until we’re going to be able to identify who a person might be.”
 Searches at the site for human remains and plane fragments could take as many as five weeks, officials have said.
 Meanwhile in Champion, the American Red Cross is set up to receive families at Seven Springs, as soon as the survivors can get to the area.
 No relatives were expected to arrive before late Thursday because air travel was nearly impossible for much of the day, spokesman Stephen Kerr said at the resort.
 When they arrive, family members will be ushered to a receiving center set up by the Red Cross and United. The Red Cross will provide counseling and information to those in grief. They can stay as long as they need to, Kerr said.
 “We’re there as support if the families need support,” Kerr said. “The Red Cross is often seen as a neutral party.”
 He did not know how many relatives plan to travel to Somerset County, or whether or not they would be willing to speak to the media.
 “You get some, they’re going to want to do it. It’s therapeutic to them,” he said.
 Though a bustling city of reporters, police and volunteers has taken root in the corn fields in Shanksville, the murdered victims of Flight 93 maintained a haunting presence.
 Thursday afternoon, a handful of state workers quietly raised two poles bearing U.S. and Pennsylvania flags flying at half-mast.
 A simple bouquet of yellow flowers was placed between, bearing a handwritten inscription on a sheet of white paper: “God bless you for your heroic actions - Rest in peace.”