Flight 93 National Memorial

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Flight 93 National Memorial

IUCN Category V - Protected Landscape / Seascape

Memorial plaque for Christian Adams, the only German victim

Memorial plaque for Christian Adams, the only German victim

location Somerset County, Pennsylvania , USA
surface 8.9 km²
Geographical location 40 ° 3 '  N , 78 ° 54'  W Coordinates: 40 ° 3 '3 "  N , 78 ° 54' 13"  W
mark
Flight 93 National Memorial
Setup date September 24, 2002
administration National Park Service

The Flight 93 National Memorial (in German: Nationale Gedenkstätte an Flug 93) protects the area of ​​the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 as a ground memorial . It commemorates the 40 victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , who died here. The plane was hijacked by four people on September 11, 2001 and crashed in Stonycreek Township , Pennsylvania , approximately 2 miles north of Shanksville and 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh . A provisional memorial was erected shortly after the accident. A permanent memorial was opened in 2015. The memorial was built according to a modified version of the Crescent of the Embrace design by Paul and Milena Murdoch.

United Airlines Flight 93

→ Main article: United Airlines Flight 93
Of the four airplanes hijacked on September 11, 2001, Flight 93 was the only aircraft that missed its intended destination - possibly the US Capitol or another destination in Washington, DC . Several passengers and crew telephoned during the flight and learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon . They decided to attack the terrorists and take control of the plane. The plane crashed in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, approximately 150 miles northwest of Washington. All 44 people on board were killed, including the four hijackers.

The crash site is west of Skyline Road, about four kilometers south of US Highway 30 ( Lincoln Highway ), about two and a half kilometers west of Indian Lake and about three kilometers north of Shanksville.

Temporary memorial

The crash site was fenced in and has so far only been accessible to the family members of the victims. The makeshift memorial was located on a mountainside and was approximately 460 m from the actual crash site. The memorial consisted of a 40- foot chain-link fence - one foot symbolizing each of the 40 victims. Visitors could attach flags, hats, rosaries or other objects to this fence. These were collected by the National Park Service and stored until the permanent monument was completed.

Next to the fence was a bronze plaque with the names of the passengers and crew. Nearby were flags and a large cross, as well as a small wooden angel for each of the passengers and crew members. Handwritten notices were also attached to the protective fences. In a small building on the site of the memorial, visitors could sign a guest book. The building was looked after by volunteers from the National Park Service . These so-called ambassadors also answered the visitors' questions. In the years since the attacks, around 150,000 visitors have come to the memorial annually.

  • The makeshift memorial in July 2006

  • View of the back of the benches at the makeshift memorial

  • Front of the benches with the names of the passengers and crew

  • Bronze plaque with the names of the passengers and the crew

Permanent memorial

On March 7, 2002, Congressman John Murtha (PA-12) introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to have a Commission drafted a National Memorial that would ultimately be operated by the National Park Service . On April 16, 2002, Senator Arlen Specter (PA) introduced a proposal for the Flight 93 National Memorial Act to the Senate . On September 10, 2002, the law passed both Houses of Congress . The final law specifically excluded the four kidnappers from those to be remembered. When President George W. Bush signed the bill on September 24, 2002, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places . The commission was instructed to submit proposals to the Interior Minister and Congress by September 2005 for the planning, design, construction and long-term management of a permanent memorial.

The National Memorial will extend from Lambertsville Road to US Highway 30. It will cover approximately 8.9 km², 4 km² of which is privately owned but also protected by the Framework Partnership Agreements. The memorial itself is to be a 1.6 km², bowl-shaped area, the surrounding 7.3 km² to a buffer zone. In December 2002 the landowner Tim Lambert donated 24,000 m² to the crash site and started negotiations with the Conservation Fund for a further 6.5 km². The organization of the families of the victims acquired 12,000 m² in summer 2006, which they financed from donations from the income from the film Flug 93 . The organization is also seeking public grants of US $ 10 million to purchase land. In November 2006, the Conservation Fund purchased 0.4 km² as a buffer zone administered by the Pennsylvania Game Commission . The PBS Coals Inc. sold the organization of the families in March 2008 3.6 km².

The Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign is an initiative of the families of the victims, the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission , the Flight 93 Memorial Task Force , the National Park Service , the National Park Foundation, and many representatives from local, state, and national organizations, agencies, and Interest groups as well as private individuals from around the world. Launched in 2006, the public-private initiative seeks to raise $ 30 million from individuals, companies, and foundations to help build the permanent memorial.

On the tenth anniversary of the attacks and the crash, the first phase of the permanent memorial was inaugurated. It consists of an entrance area, driveway and the Memorial Plaza , a vantage point of the actual crash site, which the memorial site has deliberately not built over. At the plaza there is a wall with the names of the 40 victims of the crash engraved on it. The visitor center with the so-called learning location and an elevated circular path around the site were opened on the 14th anniversary of the attacks in September 2015.

  • Entrance area

  • Walkway to the Wall of Names

  • Memorial Plaza and Wall of Names along the flight path of Flight 93

  • Gate to the crash site, which can only be entered by relatives of the victims

  • View of the crash site

  • Notice board with a photo of September 11, 2001, taken immediately after the crash

  • Wall of Names (plaques with the names of the victims). The wall was built to correspond to the approach direction of flight UA93.

  • Memorial plaque for Todd Beamer , one of the leaders of the passenger uprising. His statement Let's roll , which initiated the attack, went into everyday American language.

  • One of several indentations in the wall that delimits the access route to the Wall of Names , in which visitors leave small mementos in memory of the victims.

A planned third construction phase is the Tower of Voices , which is intended as a landmark to indicate the memorial from a distance. In the tower, 40 wind chimes are supposed to echo the voices of the victims. The schedule for this section is open and depends on the financial resources available. A second access road to and from the memorial is to be built from 2015 onwards. The funding for this has been in place since mid-2014. Above all, it is intended to equalize the flow of traffic. In addition, boards will be set up along the road to provide information about the rest of the history of the region.

On September 10, 2015, the Flight 93 National Memorial was completed and opened to family members of the victims.

Architectural competition

Wreath-laying near the crash site of Flight 93 by George W. Bush and his wife Laura on the first anniversary of the hijacking.

First design competition

The commission decided to hold a multi-stage design competition to select the final design for the memorial. This was funded by donations from the Heinz Foundations and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation . The competition began on September 11, 2004. More than a thousand designs were submitted. In February 2005, five finalists were selected for further development and testing. The 15-person jury consisted of family members, design and art professionals, and senior national and local politicians.

On September 7, 2005 the winner was announced; the "The Crescent of Embrace" (German about "half moon of the embrace" ) is the name of a design by a design team led by Paul and Milena Murdoch from Los Angeles.

The design is dominated by a "Tower of Voices", which contains a wind chime for each of the 40 killed. A circular path lined with red maple trees forms a crescent moon and follows the natural bowl shape of the site. Forty groups of red maple, sugar maple and American white oak are to be planted behind this crescent moon. A black slate wall would mark the edge of the crash site where the victims are buried.

Controversy over the draft

This design generated criticism for its name, "Crescent of the Embrace", the crescent shape in general, and also for its orientation. The crescent moon is a symbol of Islam and the terrorists who hijacked the plane were Muslim . They carried out the attack in the name of Islam. It was feared that the memorial could be interpreted by some Muslims as a memorial to the attackers. It was also pointed out that the crescent moon was pointed towards Mecca .

The architects asserted that this was a coincidence and that it was not the intention of the design to refer to Islamic symbols. Some of the victims' families agreed. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has labeled the criticism as anti-Islamic .

Other critics felt that the design was not sufficiently representative.

Modification of the design

Due to the criticism expressed, the architects changed their design. They believe that the central elements can be changed in such a way that the critics are appeased.

The remodeled memorial consists of a large circle, the "Field of Honor" , whose circular path leads to the "Sacred Ground" . The victims of the crash are said to be buried there. A gap in the tree planting is intended to show the plane's path during the crash.

development

Estimated construction costs for the permanent memorial rose to $ 57 million by 2006. Of this, 30 million should be borne by private donations. The US government and the State of Pennsylvania will pay the rest of the costs . By April 2007 only 11 million had been collected, less than hoped for.

In October 2014, a fire in three buildings destroyed the administrative rooms and part of the memorial's collection. Objects from the possession of the victims that were found during the rescue at the crash site, photos of the victims provided by relatives and other objects that relatives had offered for exhibitions were destroyed. In addition, a small portion of the maps, pictures and objects left by visitors at the temporary memorial were destroyed.

All documents about the crash and the official investigation of the crash site as well as the original recordings of telephone calls from the aircraft were preserved. All interviews of the memorial site staff with contemporary witnesses have been preserved either as audio recordings or as transcripts, but around 250 audio recordings were destroyed. The archives about the victims have been preserved. In addition, over 90% of the objects that visitors have left behind.

See also

literature

  • J. William Thompson: From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 2016.

Web links

Commons : Flight 93 National Memorial  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - Design and Construction Updates
  2. ^ New Image of Flight 93 National Memorial Unveiled. (At nps.gov - National Park Service)
  3. ^ Al-Jazeera offers accounts of 9/11 planning , CNN. September 12, 2002. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  4. ↑ a b Curl, Joseph: Visitors flock to Flight 93 crash site . In: The Washington Times , September 10, 2002. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  5. ↑ a b Goldstein, Steve: Memorial to Flight 93 finalized; "The Crescent of Embrace" will honor the passengers and crew who died in Shanksville, Pa., On 9/11. It's "a place to heal." . In: Philadelphia Inquirer , September 8, 2005. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  6. ↑ a b Amy Worden: Flight 93 memorial gets momentum; The purchase of land near Shanksville, Pa., Began with "a first small step" of three acres (English) . In: The Philadelphia Inquirer , September 10, 2006. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  7. ^ Steve Levin: Flight 93 memorial gets a lift (English) . In: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , December 6, 2002. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  8. ↑ 100 acres near Flight 93 memorial is acquired . In: The Philadelphia Inquirer , November 2, 2006. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  9. ↑ Sean D. Hamill: Flight 93 Memorial Effort Gains Over 900 acre (English) . In: The New York Times , March 19, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2008. 
  10. ^ National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - Current Progress
  11. ^ The historical development of the phrase "Let's roll" , English Wikipedia page, accessed on October 19, 2013
  12. ^ National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - Phased Construction
  13. ^ National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - Future Plans
  14. ^ A Long Road to a Place of Peace for Flight 93 Families . In: The New York Times , September 9, 2015. 
  15. ^ Paula Reed Ward: Designer of Flight 93 memorial receptive to changes . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 16, 2005. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
  16. ↑ MIke Rosen: Let's roll, sans crescent , Rocky Mountain News September 22, 2005
  17. ↑ Hamill, Sean D .: Design of a memorial to Flight 93 keeps families sparring (English) . In: The International Herald Tribune , May 5, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  18. ^ The Council on American-Islamic Relations (English) . Archived from the original on May 12, 2006. Retrieved August 23, 2008. 
  19. ↑ ... (English) , Associated Press . August 2008. "" It's a disappointment there is a misinterpretation and a simplistic distortion of this, but if that is a public concern, then that is something we will look to resolve in a way that keeps the essential qualities "" 
  20. ^ Associated Press: Pennsylvania Sept. 11 memorial redesigned . In: Herald Tribune, November 30, 2005
  21. ^ Smith, Sonia: Monuments in the making Across the nation, tributes big, small are under way (English) , The Dallas Morning News. September 11, 2006. 
  22. ↑ Daniel Lovering: Fundraising Short of Goal (English) , The Washington Post . April 28, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2009. 
  23. ^ National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - National Park Service Completes Inventory Following Fire at Flight 93 National Memorial Headquarters , October 24, 2014
  24. ^ National Park Service: Flight 93 National Memorial - National Park Service Releases Investigation Report on Flight 93 Fire , February 6, 2016