America under attack-9/11/01

This large rock in a peaceful field in Pennsylvania marks the final resting place of the seven crew members and 33 passengers of Flight 93. Bound for San Francisco, the plane was hijacked by terrorists who intended to divert the flight to Washington, D.C., most likely aiming for the U.S. Capitol building.



Today Bob and I, along with our oldest grandson, whose 13th birthday was the day of the attack, drove to Altoona, Pennsylvania to place flowers on family graves and on the way home stopped for another visit to this site near Somerset, Pennsylvania. A brochure I picked up at the memorial gives this information:

September 11, 2001, morning: Four commercial airliners are hijacked by al Queda terrorists in a planned attack against the United States. Two are flown into the World Trade Center's twin towers, in New York City. A third is flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 bound from Newark, New Jersey for San Francisco, California, is delayed for 25 inutes before its scheduled takeoff.

After 46 minutes flying, when over eastern Ohio, hijackers in first class attack at 9:28 am, incapacitating the captain and first officer. Hijackers turn Flight 93 southeast, headed for Washington, D.C., most likely the U.S. Capitol.

Just before 10 am the plane is seen flying low and erratically over southwestern Pennsylvania. At 10:03 it crashes, upside-down, at 563 miles per hour into this Somerset County field. There are no survivors. All 33 passengers, seven crew, and four hijackers are killed.

What happened on board Flight 93---why it crashed here and why it did not strike its target---revealed itself as a story of heroic action. When the terrorist-hijackers took over the plane, passengers and crew began phoning family, friends, and authorities to report the hijacking. Their calls...told them of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Their plane, they now realized, was part of a planned attack. Passengers and crew then made a collective decision, by vote, to rush the terrorists and try to retake the plane....The 9/11 Commission reported that the hijackers, although remaining in control of the plane, must have judged that the passengers and crew were mere seconds from overcoming them. To continued sounds of the counterattack, Flight 93 crashed into this field....The crash site is 18 minutes flying time from Washington, D.C. The action of unarmed passengers and crew thwarted and defeated the terorists' plan.

I have visited this site before and even blipped it, but this being Memorial Day weekend, today's visit was a special one for remembering those American heroes.