There’s nothing much funny to be said about the Flight 93 National Memorial. On the morning of September 11, 2001, on this beautiful patch of Pennsylvania land, a United Airlines Boeing 757 bound for San Francisco, crashed here, in a Somerset County field.
The memorial tells the story of the 33 passengers and seven crew members who died, fighting four hijackers who planned to crash into the US Capitol. The plane was only 18 minutes away from Washington, DC, when it went down.
On that morning, the plane leaves Newark, New Jersey, after a 25 minute delay. After 46 minutes of flying, at 9:28 am, the hijackers strike. Thirteen people on board would then place 37 phone calls, learning of the other three attacks, on the two World Trade Center towers in New York City and The Pentagon in Washington, DC.
As a result of the calls, they now knew their plane was part of the diabolical plan. It was then that passengers and crew made a decision, by vote, to fight back. The plane crashed here, at 563 miles per hour, at 10:03 am, killing all on board.
The memorial is a tribute to the heroism of those 40 souls, who undoubtedly saved countless lives. You can see archival news footage from that fateful day, and listen to the actual calls they made to loved ones. The experience moves me to tears, even after 20 years, about a day I will never forget.
