I saw the Ground Zero site while it was still smoldering and have visited the 9-11 Memorial Museum in New York. But this summer, I visited the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA and it was the timeline there that really put things in perspective.
At 9:37 am, the hijackers notified the passengers that they were being hijacked and a bomb was on board. People secretly used the phones in their seats (in the era before cell phones) to call loved ones and report the issue. Through this, they learned it wasn’t a hijacking-for-ransom as expected but rather part of a larger plot. So, at 9:44 am they began planning to storm the cockpit, using whatever they had at their disposal to overtake the terrorists, including hot water used for coffee.
At 9:55 am came the famous “Let’s Roll” charge as a group of brave volunteers stormed the cockpit.
When the hijackers saw the passengers enter, they inverted the plane to prevent it from being overtaken. At 10:03 am, the plane crashed — upside down — at 563 miles per hour — carrying 5500 gallons of jet fuel.
It was 20 flight minutes from Washington, DC.
Take a close look at how condensed that timeline is. These passengers had 25 minutes to develop and execute a plan as they knew their lives were likely ending. There is a time for planning and a time for action and fortunately, they acted, saving hundreds in the District of Columbia who would have died had the plane hit its intended target instead of landing in an isolated field. National heroes.
Never forget September 11, 2001.
