Trump pays tribute to Flight 93 heroes

– President Donald Trump this week praised the men and women of United Flight 93 for saving countless lives when they struggled with hijackers on September 11, 2001, and called the field where the plane went down a monument to “American defiance.”

Commemorating the 17th anniversary of the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York and struck the Penta- gon outside Washington, Trump said the nation shared the grief of the family members whose loved ones were lost that day.

“We grieve together for every mother and father, sister and brother, son and daughter, who was stolen from us at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and here in this Pennsylvania field,” Trump said.

Commemorations also took place in New York and Washington to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda, in which nearly 3 000 people were killed.

Flight 93 was heading to San Francisco from Newark, New Jersey, when passengers stormed the cockpit and sought to take control from the hijackers. All were killed when the plane crashed in a field, preventing what was thought to be another planned target in Washington.