Flight 93

Sunday we drove over to the field where Flight 93 crashed on 9/11.  It is only about 8 miles from here, and people we've spoken too tell us about where they were when it happened and how they reacted, just as we in New York do about the WTC.

They hope to have a huge monument and park ready for the 10th anniversary, based on donations.  The National Park Service seems to be somehow in charge now.  The fellow who owns the land where the plane fell, as I understand it, donated that spot.  However, they need more for the monument and many here are incensed that he now wants 10 million for the additional acres.  They figure the government will come up with the cash.

The site now is just a platform with some small "monuments"  for those who died (40 I think), and a screen where people hang mementos.  Off in the distance is the large field where they are now interred with the remains of the plane.

I was glad that when we were there, a local fellow (volunteer fireman) was giving a talk on what happened, accompanied by photos.  He was very believable and I think the conspiracy theories are just that.  According to him people from miles around heard and saw the plane, which turned upside down and was flying very close to the ground before it hit.  He said that the passengers had decided to bring it down over an area with little population.  He said there are records of cell phone calls to loved ones and also the transcript from the plane recorder, which had not burned up.  The plane was pretty well destroyed by the immense amount of fuel and the impact.  It made a huge crater and they spent two weeks excavating it.  They got some plane fragments and also DNA for all on board.  The local coroner wanted the crater covered up, like a grave site.  I personally think that may have been a mistake, as it does not give one a sense of what happened there.

The original plan for the memorial structure was considered to be like a crescent by one family of a victim, and said it was Arab or Muslim, so they scratched that.  There is to be a huge wind chime on the top of a hill nearby (made of many wind chimes of different tones).  The wind blows most of the time at that location as we are in a mountainous region, so they expect the music to be like the voices or whatever.  But the same family mentioned above says that chimes are Muslim and are fighting this too.  So there you go.