Political leaders solemnly commemorated Flight 93, the plane that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, honoring the passengers whose heroic revolt against hijackers prevented the flight from reaching Washington, D.C.
The afternoon remembrance ceremony Friday memorialized the 25th anniversary of the 33 passengers and seven crew members who died in the rural area after taking back the hijacked plane.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that those 40 people “embodied the essence of our American spirit: true courage, a belief in one another and a commitment to something greater than oneself.”
“Their heroism inspired a nation and brought people together. Their call of ’let’s roll’ became the mantra of a grieving nation,” he said, referring to the final recorded words of passenger Todd Beamer aboard the flight.
After terrorists stormed the cockpit, disabled the autopilot and turned the San Francisco-bound plane back toward the East Coast, the passengers and crew voted to fight back, diverting the plane away from the hijackers’ intended destination.
Gordon Felt, whose brother Edward Porter Felt was a passenger on Flight 93, said the passengers and crew “fought the first battle of the long war, and they won it.”
Flight 93 was the only hijacked aircraft that day that failed to reach its intended target.
“They lost their lives. Yet at the end of our generation’s darkest hour, our flag was still flying proudly, defiantly atop the Capitol building in Washington,” he said.
Twenty-five years ago, the ground was torn and mangled, Mr. Felt said, but now “a nation has built, and it built this place the way the 40 themselves had acted: strangers from every background, drawn together, made stronger by their differences.”
What used to be just an ordinary open strip mine field in rural Pennsylvania is now hallowed ground, thanks to 40 “incredibly brave passengers and crew members,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Paul Murdoch, architect of the 2,200-acre Flight 93 National Memorial, said the place of remembrance should be quiet in reverence and solemnity, while instilling pride and humility.
“We want to restore life here, to heal the land, and to nourish our souls,” he said. “But more than restoring health, the memorial should be radiant in loving memory of the passengers and crew who gave their lives on Flight 93.”
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