Flight 93 National Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial, memorial, visitors complex, and other facilities at the site of the crash of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, near Shanksville, Pa. The grounds, 2,319 acres (939 hectares), largely have been left in a natural state; a boulder marks the area where the impact occurred, and a Wall of Names memorializes the passengers and crew and traces the flight path of the plane. A temporary memorial opened in 2002; the permanent memorial, which was designed and is being constructed in stages in a public-private partnership, opened in 2011.

Heading from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, the plane, with 40 passengers and three crew members, had been taken over by four Al Qaeda hijackers and flown toward Washington, D.C. When they learned that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were under attack, the passengers and crew attempted to overpower the hijackers, who crashed the plane in a rural area, killing all on board. Untold lives were saved at the intended target, believed to be the U.S. Capitol.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. National Park System