FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL TRIP

[Golddollar]

If it seemed that I was strangely silent yesterday, it was because I was on a bus trip to visit the Flight 93 Memorial outside Shanksville, PA, which is near Somerset, PA. A group in the local Catholic church organized the trip and the group leader invited me to sign up for it.

We went to the Memorial grounds and Visitor's Center set up by the US Park Service and then went out to a little reactivated chapel out in the country that has become a memorial for the United Airline flight crew. I am sure that we could have spent a lot more time.

I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can get them on the computer and review them. If you can get a chance, go and take a day so that you can take everything in.

NOTE: As this is a US Park Service facility, you cannot take any firearms into the buildings.

 

[PeterJ]

I was there shortly after the event and to see it today is a truly remarkable transformation. The flight path recreated on the ground and all the pictures, mementos and recordings make it a must see. This country does memorials like no other.

 

[Golddollar]

As I said, I now have pictures to show from the Flight 93 Memorial. The first exhibit coming in is the Tower of Voices that is being built. It will contain 40 wind chimes to represent the 40 passengers and crew on the flight.

The Visitors Exhibit contains a multitude of exhibits and history regarding September 11, 2011. One amazing exhibit is a lit board of the outline of the United States, with lights showing the location of all of the aircraft in the air when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all aircraft to land at the nearest airport.

The dark walkway, as PeterJ stated, marks the flight path of Flight 93, and is engraved with the time line of the events of 9/11 prior to the crash of Flight 93. The dark walkway terminates at a viewing platform from where the point of the crash can be seen.

 

[Golddollar]

The emergency personnel from the Borough of Shanksville, PA were among the first responders. In the Visitors Center is a signed fireman's coat from the Shanksville Fire Department.

Our bus took us down to the Memorial Plaza where we were able to get closer to the impact point of the plane. In the very middle of the picture is a large sandstone boulder marking the exact point of impact of Flight 93.

 

[Golddollar]

After lunch, the bus took us to a reactivated chapel out in the country that was established as a memorial for the Flight 93 flight crew. United Airlines, working with a local priest, reactivated the chapel after years of being used as a seed dispensary. The bell in the tower came from a local antique dealer, who turned down numerous offers from the priest to buy the bell, before donating the bell for the memorial.

The memorial contains many artifacts, one of which represents a story I had never heard until yesterday. Inside the memorial is a United Airlines beverage cart, an exact duplicate of the beverage cart carried on Flight 93. The passengers and remaining flight crew on Flight 93 rammed the beverage cart on the cockpit door in an attempt to retake the plane. One of the passengers was a pilot who was going to retake the controls. They were very close to breaching the cockpit before the terrorist at the controls took the plane to the ground.

I hope that I have done justice for what I was able to see yesterday. All I can say that if you have any chance to visit the Flight 93 Memorial, go see it.

 

[Golddollar]

Here are my pictures that I took on my trip to the Flight 93 Memorial 2 years ago.

 

[robrossk]

Thanks for sharing. I was there several years ago before the new visitor center, etc. what a very somber place.