Flight 93 National Memorial
Flight 93 National Memorial is located in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. The memorial was built in memory of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, which was abducted during attacks of September 11, 2001.
The memorial was erected in memory of the passengers who stopped the terrorists from reaching their target. The temporary memorial for victims of the plane crash was erected soon after the crash.
Of the four aircraft hijacked on 9-11-2001, only Flight 93 failed to reach the target of terrorists’ purpose. This probably was the Capitol building of the United States in Washington. Some of the passengers on the plane and part of the crew managed to telephone and to hear about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Passengers decided to attack the terrorists and to take control of the airplane. As a result, the aircraft crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. All on board died - Forty people, including thirty-three passengers and seven crew men. The four terrorists who tried to hijack the airplane died too.
Of the four planes that were hijacked on the eighteenth day of September by the Al-Qaeda terrorists, two struck the World Trade Center, and the other - the Pentagon. The total number of victims of the four plane crashes on 11- September- 2001 amounted to three thousand. It was the deadliest attack on American soil by foreigners.
Flight 93 was a Boeing 757, whose capacity was two hundred and eighty passengers. Terrorists targeted the domestic flights, which have fewer passengers and have a weaker response after an attack. Terrorists targeted the flights for which the aircraft had a full tank to achieve maximum destructive effect.
The four aircraft flew almost at the same time - the terrorists had intended to surprise targets by simultaneous attacks of different locations. Terrorists sought to fulfil a suicide mission.
On the 11- September- 2001, United 93 was the only delayed flight to take off. Four minutes after Flight 93 took off, the first hijacked plane - Flight 11 - hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Then a second hijacked plane, Flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.
The third aircraft - Flight 77 - crashed into the Pentagon. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all aircraft to land at nearest airport. Four thousand five hundred aircraft landed without incident. This is the first time in the history of aviation in the United States, when such an order is given. Flight 93 was the only one who did not respond to the order.
The terrorists managed to seize the aircraft cockpit and turned southeast toward Washington. All passengers and crew were pushed to the back of the plane and they were ordered to keep silent. After using the phone, they learned the terrible news about the plane crashes. That is when the passengers and crew on Flight 93 decided to attack terrorists.
As a result, the terrorists began to fly the airplane so it pitched left and right, up and down and finally it broke the speed of five hundred sixty-three miles per hour. This was not to allow passengers and crew to regain control on the airplane. When it hit the ground, the seven thousand gallons of jet fuel exploded and none of the people on the plane survived.
