Tower chimes ‘voices’ of Flight 93
SHANKSVILLE, PA. >> The heroism of airline passengers and crew who died when hijackers crashed their plane into a Pennsylvania field was remembered Sunday with the dedication of a concrete-and-steel tower that will ring with wind chimes for every one of them at the spot where they fell to earth.
Relatives of the 40 people killed during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, helped ring eight of what will eventually be 40 aluminum chimes at the Flight 93 National Memorial site, and former Gov. Tom Ridge said the Tower of Voices will be “an everlasting concert by our heroes.”
The dedication occurred nearly 17 years after passengers on the hijacked flight from New Jersey to California fought back against a band of terrorists who then crashed the jetliner into a rural field. Officials concluded the terrorists were aiming the Boeing 757 toward Washington, to be used as an enormous airborne weapon.
It was “the day that lives were lost so that other lives were saved. And heroes were made over the skies of Shanksville,” said Ridge, who served as the first secretary of the Homeland Security Department when it was created after 9/11.
The roughly 93-foot structure represents the final phase of the Flight 93 National Memorial. Each chime generates a distinctive sound, and rows of trees that ring the site symbolize sound waves.
“Together their voices will ring out into perpetuity, with this beautiful Somerset County, Pennsylvania, wind,” park Superintendent Stephen Clark said.
The national park at a the crash site, about 2 miles north of Shanksville, also includes a memorial plaza, dedicated on the 10th anniversary in 2011, and a visitor’s center that opened three years ago.
As a cold, driving rain pelted the hills, memorial architect Paul Murdoch spoke of the plan, which uses the wind to activate the chimes. The remaining chimes are expected to be installed in the coming weeks. Members of the families of Flight 93 passengers and other representatives stand under the 93-foot tall Tower of Voices after its dedication in Shanksville, Pa., on Sunday.