New Temporary Flight 93 Memorial Open

Visitors heading to see the site near Shanksville where Flight 93 crashed during the 2001 terror attacks will now be directed to a new temporary memorial. A temporary memorial overlooking the crash site was erected not long after the attacks of September 11th 2001. Construction on the permanent memorial has forced the National Park Service to shut that location and open a new temporary memorial to the west of the impact zone. Flight 93 Site Manager for the National Park Service Jeff Reinbold says the new location is historic in its own right. It is where the FBI and State Police set up a command post during the investigation, it is where the families were first taken after the crash and it is where the media was first allowed to view the crash site meaning it is from that vantage point where the first images of the impact zone were captured and sent around the globe. Flight 93 was traveling from Newark to San Francisco when it became one of 4 planes taken over by hijackers. Passengers tried to wrest control of the plan from the hijackers and it crashed into an abandon strip mine in Somerset County. Over the years visitors have left thousands of mementos at the temporary memorial. Some of those items will be part of a new temporary display chronicling the events of that day and the investigation that followed. Other items have been placed in storage.
Reinbold says the biggest difference visitors need to keep in mind is that the new temporary memorial will not be open around the clock like the first temporary memorial was. The park service will staff the site from 9am-7pm each day. He says anyone planning a visit should first check the web page to make sure there are no other closures due to construction. That same web site will also soon host a construction webcam.
The permanent memorial is expected to be finished in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorists’ attacks.