September 11, 2001 is a day commemorated in the United States as the day we will “never forget,” a Tuesday in which al Queda leader Osama bin Laden had 19 men hijack four US airplanes heading toward the west coast, causing the most devastating, and deadliest terrorist attack ever seen on American soil.
Eighteen years later, we commemorate as to never forget all the innocent people who were killed. On 9/11, a total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, near Washington D.C., and just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.” – Sandy Dahl, wife of pilot of Flight 93 Jason Dahl.
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were hijacked and intentionally crashed into the South and North Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, which accounted for 2,753 deaths. Both planes were fully loaded with fuel, taking off from Boston with their destination landings in Los Angeles.
Of those perished in New York City, 343 were NYC firefighters, 37 Port Authority officers, and 23 were members of the NYC Police. According to the medical examiner’s office, as of July 2019, 1,644 (60%) of all the 2,753 World Trade Center victims’ remains have been positively identified.
In Arlington, Virginia, American Airlines Flight 77, which was traveling from Dulles, Virginia, to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon, at 9:37 a.m. ET, and in the aftermath, 184 people were found dead. United Airlines Flight 93, which was traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to San Fransisco, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m., leaving all 40 passengers and crew members deceased. It’s believed that the terrorists on this plane meant for the aircraft to crash elsewhere, but the people on board fought against the hi-jackers, and thwarted them from reaching their intended target.
September 11: A Day of Remembrance
GettyA National Park Service officer at the Wall of Names
The amount of lives lost on September 11, is almost incomprehensible. Americans can remember exactly the time and place they were at 8:46 a.m. ET, when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, 9:03 a.m. ET, when the South Tower was hit. The “9/11 jumpers,” the victims who chose to jump out on of the windows from the Twin Towers, and the fearless search and rescue teams, New York City’s first responders who risked their lives to help others in peril.
“Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11.” – President Obama in a 2011 radio address.
Merely looking at the catastrophic and heartbreaking photos from 9/11, these images are powerful enough to bring back all the emotions and memories of that dark day in American history.
On September 11, 2011, The National September 11 Memorial & Museum finished construction, and stands in downtown Manhattan as beautiful memorial to honor the victims. There’s also the Wall of Names from the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, which was established on September 11, 2002, and the Pentagon Memorial, which opened in Arlington on September 11, 2008.
David Huber and Nicole Lozare of Arlington, Virginia, pay their respect to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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