NATIONAL BRIEFING / WASHINGTON, D.C.
It was a day of thank-yous and thoughts of what could have been, as family members of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 visited Capitol Hill to honor those who perished aboard the plane eight years ago.
Two days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the families were on hand for the unveiling of a large bronze plaque at the Capitol that pays tribute to the people who died when the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field in the midst of the attacks.
Their sacrifice “not only saved countless lives, but may have saved the U.S. Capitol from destruction,” the plaque says.
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when hijackers took it over with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The official 9/11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to wrest control of the cockpit.
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