On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists in an organized attack against the United States hijacked four commercial airliners. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City — one at 8:46 am and the second at 9:03 am. A third plane was purposely flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia at 9:37 am. A fourth plane — United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 bound for San Francisco from Newark, was delayed 25 minutes before takeoff.
Shortly before 9:30 am, after 46 minutes of flying, hijackers incapacitated the captain and first officer as Flight 93 flew over eastern Ohio. Hijackers, believing they were communicating to Flight 93’s passengers, inadvertently contacted the tower at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, who alerted authorities that terrorists had gained control of the aircraft. As Flight 93 passengers contacted loved ones on the ground, they learned what had happened in New York and Virginia.
In total, thirteen people aboard placed 37 calls to family, friends, and authorities to report the hijacking. When they learned that their flight was part of the planned attack, passengers and crew made a collective decision, by vote, to rush the terrorists and try and retake the plane. At 9:57 am, they began their attack. The cockpit voice recorder, which was discovered at a depth of 25 feet at the crash site, captured the sounds of that struggle.
The 9/11 Commission reported that while the terrorists remained in control of the plane, they must have judged that the passengers and crew were seconds from overpowering them. At 10:03 am, just six minutes later, Flight 93 crashed, upside-down, at 563 miles per hour in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. It’s important to note that the crash site is only 18 minutes flying time from the US Capitol, the terrorists’ presumed target.
“A common field one day. A field of honor forever.” Those words, taken from the Flight 93 National Memorial mission statement are etched in glass overlooking the Memorial Plaza and Crash Site at the Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. No longer a scarred landscape after nearly 20 years, the field is filled with high grasses and wild flowers and 60-foot-tall hemlock trees, creating a peaceful setting to reflect on the heroism of those who lost their lives there.
Established by President George W. Bush in September 2002, the Flight 93 National Memorial was developed based on the mission that “all who visit this place remember the collective acts of courage and sacrifice of the passengers and crew, revere this hallowed ground as the final resting place of those heroes and reflect on the power of individuals who choose to make a difference.”
At the entrance to the Memorial, the Tower of Voices — a 93-foot tall musical instrument that will eventually hold 40 wind chimes, pays homage to the victims of Flight 93. The Memorial grounds span roughly 2,200 acres, and include a Visitor Center complex on the hill above the crash site where the story of that fateful flight is retold with words, photographs, audio and video recordings, and artifacts.
The Memorial Plaza is a one-mile drive down Ring Road from the Visitor Center Complex. The Memorial Plaza includes interpretive panels that provide an overview of the story, as well as a cell phone tour that gives a more in-depth exploration.
On your walk from the Memorial Plaza to the Wall of Names that lists each passenger and crewmember individually, you will walk along the boundary of the approximate location of impact, which is marked by a 17-ton sandstone boulder. Beyond the boulder lies the debris field. The Memorial Plaza also features a timeline of the other attacks that fateful day, delineated on the black granite pathway. There are two scenic walking trails that are a part of the Memorial. The 2.4-mile Allée walkway takes visitors across the wetlands via the Wetlands Bridge and down to the Memorial Plaza. The shorter .7-mile Western Overlook Trail leads from the Wall of Names to the Learning Center.
The Memorial is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, approximately 20 miles from Somerset, PA. The site was designated a National Memorial in 2002 and funded as part of a public-private partnership that included Families of Flight 93, Friends of Flight 93, the National Park Foundation, and the National Park Service. It’s roughly an hour and a half from Pittsburgh and two hours and forty minutes from Cleveland. There is no admission fee to visit Flight 93 National Memorial. For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/flni
