Flight 93 Crash Sight

[Davemuzz]

We had some friends in town visiting this week. So they wanted to visit the flight 93 crash site. So, armed with an excellent digital camera off we went.

I know I'm not the best writer, and this is a bit "choppy" but I will do my best to convey what the story teller of flight 93 told us.

This time there was a gentleman (volunteer) who did a presentation of the events that occurred on that day. He explained that flight 93, which originated from New Jersey was destine for a cross country flight. In fact, all of the flights that day were cross country flights, that had very few passengers, and the planes were fully loaded with fuel. The highjackers planned this so the crash impact would make the maximum explosion damage, and with very few passengers aboard, they could control them easier.

However, flight 93 out of NJ was delayed about 30 minutes while they were sitting at the tarmac because of other planes in front of them. The highjackers had planned that all flights were to take off at the same time. So, when the first two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, and the third into the Pentagon, Flight 93 was 30 minutes behind schedule.

The passengers on flight 93 were no dummies. They had all been corralled to the back of the plane, but while there they were on their cell phones and the plane cell phones and had learned of the other crashes. This is when Todd Beamer and 4 or 5 other passengers, mostly former athletes at the college level, decided that sitting and waiting to die wasn’t an option.

About a mile to the right of the crash site is a junk yard. On that day the employees of the junk yard employees were there doing there usually duties when the plane flew directly above them. The plane was flying at a speed of 580 miles per hour and was completely upside down, and was approximately 100 yards above them. The highjackers, knowing they were now being attacked by the passengers, were tipping the plane left and right up and down in an attempt to throw there “attackers” and injure them to prevent them from overtaking the cockpit. From the “black box” it can be surmised that there was a struggle to gain control of the plane, and the highjackers, realizing they had failed, decided to crash the plane.

From the eyewitness accounts and the data from the plane's black box recorder it was determined that there was no pilot on this planet that could have taken the plane out of the dive it was on when it passed over the junk yard.

Transcripts from the plane indicate that the first class stewardess was pleading for her life, but the highjacker ended her life shortly after they took over the plane.

When the plane hit the ground, it actually left only a small 20 foot deep “V” grove in the ground. The fuel that exploded consumed the available oxygen so there was no residual fire on the ground or the woods. The trees were singed. The trees that were there when the plane crashed have been cut down. You can see that from the photos as the remaining trees have the trunks exposed. The trees that were there had tiny bits of plane and body parts in them and were “scoured” to recover those parts. The largest plane part recovered was as big as the hood of a car.

When the plane hit the ground, it actually “dove” into the ground, causing the ground to lift up in the air, and then come back down onto the plane. When they excavated the site, they found plane and body parts 40 feet below the lowest part of the crash.
They excavated the site and thru dental records and fingerprints recovered and identified all of the passengers’ remains, including the highjackers. The area was then declared a cemetery, and fenced off. The only people allowed inside the fenced in area are the relatives of the deceased. It is in fact holy ground.

All those passengers who died on that fateful day on all those flights are Heroes. As much of a hero as our military men and women who fight and die.

If you ever have a chance to visit this place you should do so. It will make you sad, it will make you angry; it will make you proud that there are people, ordinary as those who were on that plane, who chose to step up and prevent this plane from crashing into the White House or the Capitol, and they gave their lives up doing it.

[magooch]

Those folks were heroes in every sense of the word.  One can only imagine how many lives they saved by their action.  They had to know that they were toast, but it still took guts to do what they did.

[EVOC ONE]

A buddy and I accidentally happened across the site three months after it happened.  We were in the area looking for local gun shops when after looking at a PA road map realized we were close to Shanksville.  There were only couple makeshift directional signs leading to the area at that time.  The site consisted only of a small gravel parking area and two sections of chain link fence covered with mementos.  The actual crash site was not fenced in, but there was a large American flag at/near the location where the plane went down. 

At that time the events of 911 were fresh in everyone's mind.  There were many cards, letters and other items attached to both sides of the fence sections and on the ground around them.  I recall reading a letter from the nephew of one of the pilots.  The day we were there was sunny, but cold and blustery.  There were not many people there at the time we visited. Perhaps a dozen, if that many.  No one walked into the field from the parking lot.  There was nothing to prevent them from doing so and the volunteer attendants were not there yet.  Each visitor would walk to the edge of the gravel lot, facing the crash site and stand there. 

It was a very emotional visit.  My Buddy and I really didn't engage in conversation during the visit.  We just pointed out a particular memento to be sure the other didn't miss it.  Others who were speaking, did so very softly, much as someone would in a funeral home.

A couple years later, my wife and daughter asked me to take them there.  Reluctantly, I drove them there.  By this time the volunteer attendants were on duty and the original parking lot was enlarged and bordered with guard rails.  A second lot was also added across the lane.  There were several monuments, flag poles and the sections of chain link fencing had been increased, as shown in the above picture.  However, the benches had not yet been placed there.

I walked into the first lot and noticed there were Sharpie pens tied to the guard rails and visitors had virtually covered every area of the rails with messages.  I approached the monument dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.  That was it for me.  I told my family I would wait for them in the car.  It was emotional enough to visit once, but twice was one time too many.  It was very emotional for my wife and daughter, as well.  My wife said once was enough.  She would not want to return.  My daughter had visited the World Trade Center site prior to this day and my wife was considering doing so.  After the day at Shanksville, she said she did not want to go to New York.

My daughter spoke to one of the attendants, who had a photo album containing various information and photo's.  It seems there was a amateur photographer in the area at the time of the crash.  When the plane crash he snapped a photo of the fireball, which my daughter described as looking very much like the photo's of the atomic bomb mushrooms over Japan.  Another photo showed several of the fire and rescue persons standing around edge of the crater dressed in various types of rescue gear. They were all looking into the hole.  My daughter commented that the expressions on some of their their faces were of confusion.  It was as if they were thinking, "We're here.  Ready to do something.  But what do we do?"

One observation I made was that upon leaving the area.  The lane continues down the bottom of a hill and through a section of the woods in the photo.  As I remember it, just beyond the woods, on a hill, sits a farm house that faces the crash site.  I remember thinking, my God I hope the residents were not outdoors or happen to have heard the plane approaching and rushed to look and witnessed the crash. 

I think that out of respect for those who gallantly lost their lives on that plane, those who can visit the site should consider doing so.  But, in a way, I wish that I had not.  At least not the second time.

 

 

[Davemuzz]

Ecov One,

I certainly understand your emotion when you approached the site. I was in New York not long after the attack and could not bring my self to go to the WTC site. Two years later I was back in NY and went to the site. It was quite an experience. I understand that you could not talk to your buddy while you were there, and I understand that you could not look a second time.

As the Volunteer told the story, when the plane hit the ground, the ground shook as if it were an earthquake. The woman who took the picture of the "mushroom cloud" photo was approximately 3 miles to the left of the field in my photo. She heard the explosion, felt the ground shake and looked out her window and saw the cloud. She had enough sense to grab a camera and take the picture. The FBI took her picture to analyze it and authenticate it. Their analysis showed it had bits of paper and aluminum in the cloud so it was in fact, real. It took the FBI 3 years to give her back her photo.


So, stop by these memorials if you have a chance. Remember these people who gave their all

Dave

[LONGTOM]

I agree that this is a very important place and should be kept as such to honor those who gave their lives.
That is why they are making it a memorial park.

What I would like to know is why is the government buying up so much land for this.
I would think a hundred or two acres would be enough but they are taking way more than that by way of emanate domain.
Are they trying to turn this into a tourist attraction?
Many of the people who live near the site didn't want to sell their land but the government is forcing them to.

This isn't right!
Why so many acres.
Just big government pushing their might on the little guy once again!



LONGTOM