Flight 93: First in the Fight on 9/11 | History Traveler Episode 163

our history is punctuated with certain moments that are so impactful that if we happen to be alive whenever they occur it leaves an impression on us that that we'll always remember we'll always know exactly where we were and what we were doing whenever they happened for my grandparents generation that would have been december 7th 1941 the attack on pearl harbor and for my parents generation it would have been something like the assassination of john f kennedy or the moon landing for my generation that moment was september 11 2001 where on a tuesday morning 19 hijackers took over four different commercial airliners flew two of them into the north and south towers of the world trade center one into the pentagon and one that went down where i am today in a field just outside of the town of shanksville pennsylvania so [Music] i am going into this feeling wholly inadequate to be honest uh i know that i'm not going to have the right words there's going to be things that i wish i would have said that i don't say it will be things that i wish i would have said better so hopefully people will be willing to to grant me a little bit of grace on this one if i don't meet expectations i'm here just to to experience this place and i hope that people can value the the experience along with me now the first place that we're going to go is a pretty impactful memorial in the gateway to the memorial complex here you will find this the tower of voices this is a monument that stands 93 feet tall and contains 40 large wind chimes that symbolize the 40 brave passengers and crew that were aboard flight 93 the morning of september 11th so whenever the the wind is blowing it'll activate the chimes [Music] and you can hear hear music to kind of symbolize the the voices of these men and women who made their calls as the plane was being hijacked and spoke to their loved ones in their final moments [Music] where i'm standing now is the visitor center and interpretive center here at the flight 93 memorial and what they've done here is simultaneously haunting and beautiful so this black granite path that you see before you and the corridor in the distance lays out the path that flight 93 took in its final moments and as you walk forward well you can see 8 46 am one world trade center american airlines flight 11 and then if we continue on down this path 903 am to world trade center united airlines flight 175 and then as we go further along following the same path of flight 93 well we get to 9 37 a.m at the pentagon with american airlines flight 77 and as we continue on we get closer and closer to the final resting place of the fourth commercial airliner flight 93. [Music] so here is an overlook where we are looking at the flight path of flight 93 and here i like how they've interpreted this it says a common field one day a field of honor forever so as we go to this overlook now straight off in the distance in that distant field is the crash site of flight 93. so we're going to go ahead and make our way down there [Music] i just got down here to the crash site and debris field and they have some interpretive signage here that really helps us to understand uh just what happened on september 11th so uh the the first two flights that were hijacked by the terrorists were flown into the world trade center the third one was flown in to the pentagon and the fourth one was going to be targeting the capitol building supposedly at washington dc so with the first two attacks the terrorists are attacking our economy with the second they're attacking our military and with the fourth they were going to be attacking our government now the idea of the terrorist was to all take off at about the same time well flight 93 was delayed so instead of leaving around 8 or 801 or 802 uh flight 93 ended up departing at 8 42. what's crazy is that the first plane struck the north tower of the world trade center at 8 46 a.m if this flight would have been four or five minutes later they may have seen this flight crash into the world trade center so the one thing that flight 93 had that the other three flights didn't have was time so as they were following this flight path where you can see you know they have the the second plane hits the south tower right around 9 28 is probably when the terrorists took over flight 93 well then they make a turn right here around this point where they're getting over ohio members of the crew and of the the passengers were making calls and at 9 37 flight 77 strikes the pentagon at this point everyone on flight 93 knew what was going on and they hatched a plan to take over the plane there was one pilot he wasn't a commercial airline pilot uh but he had a pilot's license and uh the passengers and crew start start the fight to take the plane back and at 1003 it crashed at 563 miles per hour right here in this field that i'm standing by i'm moving out now into the area approaching the crash site and the debris field so if you look here to the left of me you see this slanted black granite wall well that marks the divide between where we are and where the debris field would have been and then the crash site is just ahead [Music] this is the wall of names this contains the names of each and every passenger and crew member on flight 93 and if we move over here a little bit there in the distance on top of the hill well you can see the flight path overlook where we were earlier so flight 93 would have come right through here and would have come right over the top of our heads at 563 miles an hour coming in at a 40 degree angle and would have crashed in that field just in the distance [Music] on the other end of the field where the crash site is there was a little grove of hemlock trees that were charred and burned well they have this gate here on the final stretch of flight 93's path and it's made out of hemlock and it has 40 unique cuts in it [Music] here's something pretty amazing that they've done with this wall of names that is really moving at a distance whenever you are looking straight on well this looks like one straight unified wall but as you move closer you see that each individual has their own panel but whenever you step back they're all unified together each one of these names represents a life and each one had a story here is the name of hilda marson at 79 years old hilda was the eldest passenger on flight 93 in addition she was an immigrant from germany and had come to the united states through ellis island i hope that i don't mispronounce this but this is the name of toshiya kugi from osaka japan he was 20 years old and was over on the united in the united states on a two-week vacation he really wanted to learn english so that he could come back and go to an american university and you can see some writing here in japanese i can't read japanese but i'm assuming that's his name uh flight 93 was the first leg of his journey home here's the name of diora bowdley diora was the youngest person on flight 93 she had come out to new jersey to hang out with some friends and was getting ready to head back home to california she was supposed to be on a later flight but managed to get a spot on an earlier flight on flight 93. todd beamer todd was the father of two and his wife was pregnant with their third lauren grancolas and this one is a little bit different because in faded etching next to her name it says an unborn child my gosh that is just heartbreaking [Music] whenever you come to the flight 93 memorial well there's a giant stone that marks the exact point where flight 93 crashed and as i've been walking through here it's been kind of interesting right out here at the crash site been watching doe and a couple fawns feeding so in a place that some might associate with death and loss we have new life [Music] [Music] now in the days after 9 11 there was a story of one of the passengers that became known to all of us that's the story of todd beamer todd beamer placed a call on a sky phone and connected with a phone operator in chicago who talked to todd and got information as the passengers and crew members of flight 93 were making their plans and uh todd was a man of faith and as flight 93 was making it's uh its approach to its final destination he asked the phone operator to pray with him and to recite the 23rd psalm and i don't know if you've noticed or if you can even tell from from the terrain here but we're kind of down in a bowl there's a rise up here where flight 93 came over and we're down in this bottom and the words that he would have recited come from psalm 23 and says the lord is my shepherd i shall not be in want he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me you prepare a table for me in the presence of mine enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i shall dwell in the house of the lord forever with that todd beamer uttered the now famous words let's roll and the heroes of flight 93 right here took down the plane that was destined to head to washington dc and became the first frontline fighters on the war on terror [Music] there's much to reflect on coming to this place bravery sacrifice freedom patriotism me personally the one thing that i've been thinking about as i've walked these grounds is that death comes to us all and whenever my time comes i hope that i'm able to approach it with uh with the confidence of somebody like todd beamer or the the bravery of the other crew members and passengers of flight 93 it's been 20 years it's time that i'm filming this since september 11th which means that any school-aged child or adolescent has no memory of what happened here so it's incumbent on us to to pass those stories down just like stories of the past were handed down to us but uh if you ever get an opportunity come to this place [Music] you

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 229,696

Rating: 4.9424629 out of 5

Keywords: history, history traveler, history travel, travel, pennsylvania, flight 93, flight 93 memorial, 9/11, september 11th, patriot's day, america, todd beamer, mark bingham, twin towers, nyc, world trade center, heroes, shanksville pennsylvania, 9/11 memorial, 9/11 documentary, flight 93 crash, flight 93 crash site

Id: EBIKMdTPaU4

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021