Friday marked 25 years since Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, after brave passengers and crew members revolted against four al-Qaeda hijackers.
Friday marked 25 years since Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after brave passengers and crew members revolted against four al-Qaeda hijackers.
"It was just hard to believe. I mean it's just unbelievable," said Patti Anewalt, a grief counselor who served as a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Volunteer during 9/11.
The hijackers intended to crash the aircraft into a federal building in Washington, D.C., widely believed to be the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
As the passengers fought to regain control, the terrorists crashed the plane into an empty field at 10:03 a.m. in Stonycreek Township, just outside Shanksville.
The 33 passengers, seven crew members, and four hijackers were killed.
On that day and the days following, multiple agencies responded to investigate. The American Red Cross and Salvation Army responded as well.
Anewalt arrived in Shanksville on the afternoon of Sept. 12, 2001, and stayed for two weeks.
"We were assigned to either outside the morgue where the workers were or the crash site," Anewalt said. "By the time I got there, there was this huge main area with phones and computers and rental cars."
Anewalt's job as a grief counselor with the American Red Cross was to support the families and workers emotionally as they grieved the uncertain, scary time.
"They had markings all over the field of different colors to indicate what they were finding along the way until they found the black box. I remember talking to one worker, and she had driven way around to avoid seeing those markings because it was so upsetting to her," Anewalt explained.
Families were bused to the crash site. Some needed to see it for closure; others declined.
"We had a prayer service on the courthouse steps in Somerset County and invited the families to come, and everybody in the community came. Everybody was mourning," Anewalt said.
Kids watched their parents grieve, and many wrote letters to the workers, volunteers, and families. Letters Anewalt has kept for 25 years.
One letter reads:
"We felt the shake, heard the boom, and saw the cloud of smoke from the heroic people of Flight 93. Not only did your family members wreck the hijacked plane, they saved the community and a school full of children like us."
Anewalt said it's a good reminder on the anniversary of 9/11 to talk to children about what they're seeing and let them know what's on TV or the internet is a recording.
It's not happening in real time.
She said it's better to talk to children and explain what they're seeing than to avoid the topic altogether.
And as the nation grieves and remembers, it's also important to understand, "We don't get over loss. We learn how to live with it. But grief continues throughout our lifetime," Anewalt said.
