Not many people flew in the United States yesterday. But Elaine Lafferty found herself on a United Airlines flight into Newark, the airport from which the ill-fated Flight 93 departed one year ago
Dawn is breaking over the eastern US on September 11th. Sunlight peeks through the windows of United Airlines Flight 71 as we prepare to land in Newark, an airport just outside New York City.
For the second time during the five-hour journey from Los Angeles, a flight attendant speaks on the PA system to the half-full aircraft.
"Ladies and gentlemen, again we thank you for flying with us today. We again ask that you take a moment to think of those who lost their lives last year. Thank you for your support. And thank you for your trust in us this day." In Los Angeles airport last evening, passenger traffic was fairly spare.
People boarding planes stopped and looked at each other as if to say: "So you think it's OK to fly today, too?" With the nation on orange alert for new terrorist attacks, tensions were running high.
All United Airlines employees were wearing red, white and blue ribbons to commemorate their fallen colleagues. United and American Airlines were the two carriers of choice for the hijackers. But United has fallen on hard financial times in the last year and is seriously considering bankruptcy.
United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco was the fourth aircraft to be hijacked last September 11th. It had taken off about 40 minutes late with 40 passengers and crew aboard. That delay would prove critical. Because by the time it was hijacked at 9.28 a.m, two planes had already crashed into the World Trade Centre and one into the Pentagon. In all more than two dozen phone calls were made from Flight 93 to loved ones. Learning of the other aircrafts' destinies, a group of passengers decided to storm the cockpit.
"We have no choice," one of the passengers told an airphone operator. He then asked her to pray for them.
What actually happened in the final minutes of that flight will never be known. What is known is that the hijackers never got the plane to their intended destination in Washington DC.
At 10:03 a.m., travelling at 575 m.p.h., the 120-tonne airliner crashed into a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Everyone aboard was killed.
While all Americans are mourning the day here, it is New Yorkers who are feeling it most acutely. Their city has been affected the most. But lest anyone think the attention is limited to the east coast, several thousand people gathered in that grassy Pennsylvania field to remember the passengers and crew hailed as heroes for struggling to take back their hijacked plane.
A bell tolled 40 times in Shanksville, once for each victim of United Flight 93. The tolling, accompanied by the reading of each victim's name, led up to the moment that the plane crashed at 10:06 a.m. last September 11th.
It followed a moment of silence for world peace and a fly-over by four military aircraft.
Relatives and friends came to western Pennsylvania to take part in the ceremony, which began at 9:30 a.m. with a performance by the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra.
More than 500 toured the site privately on Tuesday, including Alice Hoglan, whose son, Mark Bingham, died in the crash. "It helps me a lot to know it's such a beautiful place," said Ms Hoglan, "The most important thing to me is that we do not forget," said Hamilton Peterson of Bethesda, Maryland, whose father and stepmother were killed.
The Homeland Security Director, Mr Tom Ridge, who was governor of Pennsylvania last year, spoke during the ceremony. President Bush and Mrs Laura Bush arrived in silence and laid a wreath without speaking publicly. After the ceremony Mr Bush met families privately at the crash site, which remains enclosed behind a metal fence.
On Tuesday, 13 buses carried the family and friends to the site, and preparations for yesterday's ceremony were halted to give the mourners a measure of privacy. Reporters were barred from the site for the two-hour event.
Around the country, many were observing the day quietly, spending time with their families.
"You know, I'm just going to have dinner with my wife," said Jerry Fabricatore, who lives in New Jersey.
Others remembered what they were doing and who they were with last September 11th and were planning quiet reunions. Some were planning to not watch television at all. And almost everyone was looking forward to the ending of the day.