On the 24th anniversary of 9/11 attacks, interest in the Flight 93 National Memorial remains strong

United Flight 93 crashed in a rural Stonycreek field Sept. 11, 2001, with 40 passengers and crew members aboard after being hijacked by terrorists in coordinated attacks.

By RENATTA SIGNORINI
TribLive

As the Flight 93 memorial prepares for the 24th observance of the 9/11 attack today, National Park Service leaders note interest in the site remains high.

Between 2021 and 2024, the Somerset County memorial saw an average annual visitation of just under 375,000 people, according to National Park Service statistics.

That’s about two and a half times as many average annual visitors — about 142,000 — between 2007 and 2010, years before the permanent memorial was finished.

“The numbers are rising, and I still think that the story of Flight 93 has yet to be told,” site superintendent Stephen Clark said.

United Flight 93 crashed in a rural Stonycreek field Sept. 11, 2001, with 40 passengers and crew members aboard after being hijacked by terrorists in coordinated attacks. Those aboard fought back to take over control of the aircraft after learning other hijacked planes crashed into high profile targets in New York City and outside of Washington, D.C.

The 40 heroes will be remembered today during the 24th annual Moment of Remembrance. Flight 93 was the only plane hijacked that day that did not reach its intended target, believed to be the U.S. Capitol.

Clark is expecting strong interest in the memorial next year for the 25th observance, which will be on a Friday. About 15,000 people visited over the 20th anniversary weekend of Sept. 11, 2021, when the annual remembrance ceremony was held on a Saturday.

For the month of September 2021, the 20th anniversary of the plane crash, almost 94,000 people visited the site. Ten years prior, just over 70,000 people visited through the month.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to come to the memorial and interact with family members, other members of the public,” he said.

Annual visitation peaked in 2021 with close to 425,000 people, followed by more than 410,000 visitors in 2019. In 2024, just under 350,000 people entered the park.

Temporary memorials popped up almost immediately after the crash, but it would be years before planning, design and construction efforts culminated in today’s sprawling site off Route 30. The first features, including the Memorial Plaza, park entrance and roads, were dedicated on Sept. 10, 2011.

Four years later, the visitor center was dedicated, followed by the Tower of Voices in September 2018.

Education effort

Donna Gibson, executive director of the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, wants to encourage younger people to be part of those numbers. The organization this year expanded its free Teach to Remember 9/11 program by offering livestreams all week with rangers for students around the world to access.

The Friends group also has scholarships to help schools provide their students with field trips to the memorial. Gibson said that gets about 10,000 students to the site annually.

“That number has not decreased at all,” she said.

Other fundraisers the group hosts have seen strong participation, she said, including Saturday’s Heroes’ Walk, which was sold out with almost 200 people registered.

New York City Police Officer Austin Glickman visited the memorial last month to do interviews and record videos posted to social media. Clark was astounded at how popular the videos were — at least two got more than 1 million views on TikTok.

He said social media can be a way to drive visitation in the future and help more, and younger, people learn about what happened in that field and the spirit of unity and togetherness the country felt afterward.