Judy Woodruff:
As we commemorate the lasting legacy of the September the 11th, there's been understandably a great deal of attention to the attacks on the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon, but less so for Flight 93, the United Airlines flight on which passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists and thwarted their plans.
It's believed the U.S. Capitol was the intended target for that hijacked plane. But, instead, because of their intervention, the plane went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania.
That site has become an important touchstone for the family and friends of those who died.
William Brangham is back now with a conversation about that memorial and the story of those who perished.
William Brangham:
The Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, is dedicated to the 40 passengers and crew members who brought down that flight and averted potentially a much worse disaster.
There's one part of the memorial that the general public can visit, but there are also many acres that are considered sacred ground, where parts of the plane came down.
Throughout the past two decades, Gordon Felt has been the president of Families of Flight 93. His brother Edward was on that plane. He was a 41-year-old engineer with two daughters when he died.
And Gordon Felt joins me now.
Gordon, thank you very much for being here. I know this is obviously a very difficult time. And this anniversary is certainly something that has captured the nation's attention. And I just wonder how that sits with you and other family members at this time, at this milestone.
Gordon Felt, Families of Flight 93: Well, once again, the eyes of the world are back on Flight 93, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It's an opportunity for us to look back over 20 years, reflect on our losses, reflect on the ripple effect of September 11 and how it continues to create loss and create great strife for us.
But it's also a unique opportunity for us to reach out to a new generation of students and even young teachers to help tell the story of Flight 93, about the heroism, about the sacrifice, the honor that was demonstrated by our loved ones that morning.
Gordon Felt:
Well, there's a couple of important aspects that we want people to take away as they drive out of the Flight 93 National Memorial.
First one, when they're here, we want them to learn the story, the facts of the day, to learn about the individual people, those 40 heroes that were on board that got up that morning. You know, on the morning of September 11, my brother got up and had breakfast with his eldest daughter. They read The Wall Street Journal. That was their habit.
And then he got in a car service to go to Newark Airport and we never saw him again. And all the thousands of people that died that day had similar stories. They just were going about their business.
We want visitors that come to this memorial to realize that it could have been any one of us that day. It didn't make a difference how old you were, how young you were, what your profession was, what the demographics were. That didn't make a difference.
And by remembering the individuals, by saying their names, by learning about those individuals, that makes it personal. We can relate to that. And then, after the personal side, in saying the names and remembering those individuals, it's critical that we also remember what they did collectively.
The passengers and crew members of Flight 93 had 35 minutes; 9:28 was when the hijacking began; 10:03 was when the plane came down here in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
In those 35 minutes, they were able to get information from the ground to understand what was going on, to realize that their plane was also going to be used as a missile, that, unless they did something, those terrorists were going to dictate the terms on how their lives ended.
Under that extraordinary pressure, they were able to actually come up with a plan on how to try to take the plane back. They voted on that plan. They prayed together. And then they acted. They fought to retake that plane. And while we know they lost their lives in the process, they did something extraordinary.
The passengers and crew members of United 93 revealed true heroism that morning. And, for that, we need to remember and honor them.
