From BBC News · · 1m 20s
The field where Flight 93 came down
Josh Shapiro on the passengers who stormed a cockpit and turned a weapon back into an empty field.
In brief
Josh Shapiro on the passengers who stormed a cockpit and turned a weapon back into an empty field. Ordinary people, with no training and no warning, chose to act instead of freeze, and that choice saved lives on the ground. Originally reported by BBC News.
A field in Pennsylvania
Twenty-five years on, Governor Josh Shapiro spoke at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown, where the hijacked plane came down in empty ground.
They stormed the cockpit
Passengers fought their way toward the hijackers mid-flight. The plane crashed into a field instead of reaching whatever target it was aimed at.
Powerful and painful
Shapiro called the memorial site a reminder of a dark chapter in the American story, one the country keeps returning to rather than filing away.
“a "powerful and painful" reminder of a "dark chapter"”
Ordinary people, extraordinary act
Shapiro described the passengers as heroes who had no preparation for the morning they woke up to.
“ordinary Americans who did an extraordinary thing”
Fear did not decide
They were civilians who found themselves on the frontline of a war without warning, and they refused to let the fear run the decision.
“They did not let that fear control them.”
Countless lives saved
By bringing the plane down early, the passengers kept it away from its intended target. Shapiro said their actions saved countless lives.
The takeaway
Ordinary people, with no training and no warning, chose to act instead of freeze, and that choice saved lives on the ground.
