

The 2,200-acre memorial to those who fought back against the four Islamic terrorist hijackers is expansive, allowing for a two-mile walk to contemplate the historic counterattack. The power of their choice to defend their lives echoes in the bare trees.įlight 93’s memorial, funded and run by the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and a private charity, is uniquely American. Visiting America’s Flight 93 National Memorial recreates the revolt by that brave band of united Americans. What lingers in that field 20 years later is an eerie, vast stillness.

The Boeing 757 jet crashed into a western Pennsylvania field 11 seconds after 10:03 a.m., emitting black smoke which was first reported to the FAA by the same plane that had seen American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon. In the exact minute that the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed, according to the government’s bipartisan 9/11 Commission report, one of the insurgent voices on United 93 can be heard saying: “Let’s get them!” Four minutes later, as unarmed passengers and crew charged with a food cart and broke into the cockpit, sounds of hand-to-hand combat to take control of the hijacked plane at 5,000 feet can be heard as the cockpit voice recorder captured loud thumps, crashes, shouts and breaking plates and glass. This is what telephone operator Lisa Jefferson, who’d been on the phone with United Air Lines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer, says she heard at 9:55 a.m.
