On 11 September this year the US and in fact much of the world marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. As we all know, there was also a fourth hijacked aircraft, United Flight 93, most probably assigned to crash into the Capitol where the House and Senate were both in Session. This part of the design of the terrorists never came to pass however. As the result of the heroic acts of her crew and passengers, the plane crashed just 20 minutes by air from the target in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
What a curious twist of fate that we should be talking about a crash that took the lives of 40 passengers and crew as a lucky circumstance… But those 40 people gave their lives so that others, many others, may live.
The crash site is now in fact in the newest national park of the US and the first part of the memorial was dedicated on 10 September 2011 with the attendance of former Presidents Bush and Clinton. The storming of the cockpit by passengers and crew was called by Mr. Bush one of the most courageous acts in US history. President Clinton likened the actions of those on board to the defenders of the Alamo in Texas or the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, all of whom knew that they were going to die yet they fought on to their last breath. The big difference was of course that those heroes were soldiers while the people on Flight 93 were ordinary passengers who however rose to the occasion and fought back against the terrorists, saving the lives of thousands in the process. They had not been prepared for this, they had no time to contemplate, they had no time to decide. They simply did the right thing.
The memorial contains a Wall of Names, a series of slabs containing the names of the heroes perished on Flight 93. Retired and current United Airlines flight attendants joined hands at the memorial following the dedication ceremony, paying tribute to their colleagues and the passengers of Flight 93.
The crew of Flight 93 and the other three aircraft were remembered in various forms all over the US aviation world. Banners with their names hung at airports and in corporate offices.
We stand together. Now and forever.
