40 who died in Pennsylvania in 9-11 attack remembered
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — The 40 passengers and crew members of a plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania after it was hijacked during the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago have been honoured with a reading of names and tolling of bells.
About 1,000 surviving family members, dignitaries and citizen visitors attended the annual service at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. The site, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is where the United Airlines flight crashed as passengers staged a rebellion and stormed the cockpit. They fought back against four Muslim hijackers who, along with others, crashed three other hijacked passenger airliners into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. the same morning. Ceremonies on Sunday also honoured nearly 3,000 killed in those attacks.
For the first time, the Shanksville ceremony was held on the grounds outside the visitor centre that opened last year rather than at the marble wall that runs along the crash site.
Frances Foster, 47, and Ken Austin, 48, both of Mercer, Pennsylvania, said the centre vividly chronicles the events of the day.