Sep 11, 2008 3:51 pm US/Eastern
Flight 93 Victims Honored With Memorial Service
SHANKSVILLE (KDKA/AP) ―
On this September 11th, people all across the country are pausing to remember the solemn anniversary of the seventh year since the terror attacks in 2001.
Ceremonies are taking place today at Ground Zero in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. as well as in Shanksville, Somerset County.
On Wednesday evening, several people gathered near the United Airlines Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville to remember the victims on that hijacked flight.
People held hands, said prayers and sang. Then, at sunset, they helped lower and fold a Flight 93 Memorial Flag. The same flag flies every year on September 10th and 11th.
Today, a service was held at the temporary memorial near the crash site. It started at 9:55 a.m. to mark the time the plane came down seven years ago.
Under cloudy skies and a whipping wind - a stark contrast to the calm, sunny weather of Sept. 11, 2001 - family members and government officials gathered and hundreds of spectators looked on.
The names of the victims were read aloud with two bell tolls chiming for each in a memorial service at the temporary Flight 93 memorial.
"Forty ordinary people decided to do the extraordinary, that they would give their lives so others could live," said Kenneth Wainstein, homeland security adviser to President Bush. "It's for all of us here today to carry that flame going forward and keep it burning brightly."
Flight 93 was the fourth aircraft that crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. It plummeted from the sky after passengers apparently stormed the cockpit to stop the hijackers.
"We have to go forward and we've got to think positive and try to go forward, just the best we can," Jerry Bingham, father of Mark Bingham, a passenger on the flight. "It'll never be out of our minds, never. That day – it was such a horrific day."
Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, spoke of the progress being made to build a permanent memorial, which is to open on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Money is being raised and land purchased.
Felt's brother Edward was a passenger on Flight 93. He called 911 from a lavatory, reached a Pennsylvania emergency dispatcher and said he was on a plane that had been hijacked.
The temporary memorial includes a parking area and a fence where visitors have hung mementos. The planned permanent memorial will be built in three phases, with the first being finished by Sept. 11, 2011.
The initial phase will allow visitors to get close to the crash site on a plaza that extends along the edge of it. A ceremonial wall and drop-off will separate visitors from the crash site.
Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain was in attendance at the ceremony. Gov. Ed Rendell was also there.
No one should forget the heroism of that day, McCain said. The passengers and crew "understood the threat and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives," he said.
Stay with KDKA for continuing coverage.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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