Continuing on Route 30 - Lincoln Highway - west we saw our first sign for the Flight 93 Memorial. We hadn't even contemplated that we would be near Shanksville on this trip so when we saw the sign and it was on our way we made the stop.
Quoting from the National Memorial brochure:
"Flight 93 National Memorial is the nation's permanent memorial to the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93. It is their final resting place and their remains are still present. The crash site, open only to family members, is bordered by the Memorial Plaza and Hemlock Grove beyond."
40 names are inscribed on that wall, one per panel, on the Memorial Plaza.
"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 - 13 people placed 37 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."
"Recovered from the crash site, the cockpit voice recorder captured shouts, thumps, crashes, and breaking glass and plates. 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 counter attack, Flight 93 crashed into this field."
Walkway open to family members only to access crash site.
"The crash site is 18 minutes flying time from Washington, DC. The action of unarmed passengers and crew thwarted and defeated the terrorists' plan."
Close up of final resting place of the aircraft and hemlocks beyond.
This young woman was from my home state: Maryland.
May she rest in peace for her heroism and sacrifice.
