SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Gordon Felt knew his brother was sitting directly in front of two of the terrorists who hijacked United Airlines Flight 93.
But it “never really hit me,” Felt said, until he walked through the new visitors center at the Flight 93 National Memorial. There it was, the seating chart with his sibling’s name: Edward Felt, first class, second row.
“It kind of came crashing back,” said Felt, whose brother took part in a passenger revolt that brought the plane down in a Pennsylvania field. “Those feelings that were always there — the emotion, the anger, the sense of loss — really are drawn back to the surface.”
On a hill overlooking the crash site, the $26 million visitors center will open to the public today, one day before the annual 9/11 observances in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington. Victims’ family members got a tour Wednesday.
The center uses photos, video, artifacts and interactive displays to tell the story of Flight 93, the only jetliner among the four commandeered by terrorists that failed to reach its intended target on Sept. 11, 2001. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one slammed into the Pentagon outside Washington. More than 3,000 people died.
The center’s 10 exhibits are laid out chronologically, with visitors learning how the 33 passengers and seven crew members voted to charge the cockpit and then fought to get control of the plane, whose hijackers are believed to have wanted to crash it into the U.S. Capitol.
“You are seeing an incredible story of heroism,” said Felt, president of Families of Flight 93.
One video traces the aircraft’s erratic movements in real time, fading to black at the moment of impact.
On a handset, visitors can listen to recordings of voice messages that two passengers and a flight attendant left for family members just before the plane went down.
“I’m on United 93 and it’s been hijacked by terrorists who say they have a bomb,” says passenger Linda Gronlund, calling her sister Elsa. “Apparently they have flown a couple of planes into the World Trade Center already, and it looks like they’re going to take this one down as well.”
She breaks down sobbing: “Mostly I just wanted to say I love you and I’m going to miss you.”
