Visiting the 9-11 Crash of Flight 93

May 18, 2024

Visiting the 9-11 Crash of Flight 93

I have a friend who I had never met. She is a homemaker who with her husband ran a busy farm in western Pennsylvania, which is now farmed by some of their children.

Carol had been a reader of my newspaper column in The Daily American, a newspaper covering the area where she lives near Somerset, Pa. The column ran for 37 years there (I retired from doing my Another Way column in Dec. 2023). She had written letters to me occasionally which I was always glad to get, but she never sent email responses, because she didn’t use a computer. A few years older than me, we now can text each other on our phones.

She and her husband invited us to visit them and spend the night. This was pretty brave, all things considered, especially since I had to ask if they would tolerate our dog being along. They have a dog too, and the two animals barked at each other, but otherwise got along fine. And our husbands enjoyed meeting and yakking together!

The main reason Carol invited us to their farm home (which was quite popular as an old-fashioned “Bed and Breakfast” for a number of years) was to encourage us to visit Shanksville, a village near their home. Shanksville was the place where Flight 93 went down in the most tragic of ways on September 11, 2001.

If you are old enough to remember that fateful day, plane hijackers had earlier that same day flown jets into the massive World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City, and also torched a major section of the U.S. Pentagon headquartered in Washington D.C., instantly killing thousands, and injuring more. The hijackers present on Flight 93 had intended to hit the U.S. Capitol (many people assume) but the bravery and sacrifice of some 33 people on Flight 93 turned that mission around and took over the airplane from the hijackers. The hijackers had conspired with other al-Qaeda terrorists (a militant organization) in a major planned attack on the U.S.  

The memorial there is heart wrenching, especially listening in on the conversations these passengers had with their families and loved ones. The intentions of the hijackers alerted the passengers of the need to call home. The jet had telephones on each row of seats, so even those without cell phones were able to try and reach out to their families, friends, and authorities. You might be surprised there were only 33 passengers on that huge jet, but in those days jets often flew with empty seats. At the point the passengers called home, no one knew their eventual outcome. But as we listened to the voices of those passengers, and saw tears of some of us at the memorial, many visitors were moved to tears of their own. I finally understood why my friend had been so desirous of us visiting this horrifying history.

Passenger Todd M. Beamer was one of the renowned heroes who took over the plane from the terrorists in order to squelch their mission of reaching Washington D.C. He and everyone else perished as it hit the ground upside down and exploded. A local resident photographed the crash exploding when it went down. Today the “debris field” is where the remains of passengers and crew still lie buried in bits and pieces somewhere in that crash site. The field was investigated for remains for years by the FBI, and the cockpit voice recorder became critical evidence.

Those of us in our 40s and up certainly remember that day. My children remember getting out of school or college classes early as terrified parents picked up school kids early, not knowing how long the attacks would go on, or where.  

This sobering memorial is definitely worth visiting and many high school students in buses were attending the day we were there, in chilly rain. A tower with harsh metal clanging and musical sounds, which is erected in the flight field, represents the desperate and conflicting voices as passengers argued over their options. This National Memorial is free to visit. I would not recommend children under 10 visiting but teenagers and up should be exposed to this difficult time in our nation’s history.

Regardless of what party or political stance you take, the courage of those 33 passengers and crew, will move and speak to most individuals. My eyes are still watering as I write this.

I am grateful to my friend for reaching out encouraging us to come experience this heart moving memorial. Carol wanted to share this history and I do too. God save us all from such horror, but we know so many terrible things are going on right now around the world. May we reach out in love, caring, and resolve whenever and wherever we can.  

Have you visited the Flight 93 Memorial? Comments?

What are your memories and experience surrounding Sept. 11, 2001

I ordered this hardback book available for under $10 and am anxious to read it. Came in my mail today.