Conspiracy or coincidence? Flight 93 memorial attacked over crescent shape

Leonard Doyle
London Independent
Saturday, April 5, 2008

United Airlines Flight 93 came in low and fast over this poor Appalachian community, passing directly over a scrapyard where one of the few witnesses to the disaster said the plane was at a tilt and low enough to "count the rivets".

Burnished into the nation's collective memory of 11 September 2001 is the heroism of Flight 93's passengers, who overwhelmed the hijackers and forced them to ditch the plane rather than let them attempt an attack on the US Capitol building 150 miles away.

But disagreement and rancour has dogged efforts to commemorate the 40 victims of terrorism on this Pennsylvania hillside. Seven and a half years after the tragedy, several family members of those who perished say that the planned memorial is in the shape of an Islamic crescent and points directlytowards Mecca.

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They complain that a planned "Tower of Voices," a 93ft tall structure that will hold 40 chimes representing the victims of terrorism, is in fact a "minaret".

Tom Burnett, whose son Tom Jnr died in the crash, said of the design that it is "aesthetically wonderful," but "a lot of it contains Islamic symbols". He added: "We ought to just throw the design out and start anew because it really dishonours those who died."

Mr Burnett represents only a minority of the families of Flight 93 but he is not alone in his concerns about the planned memorial, which is not expected to be built until 2010. To the dismay of many, an active community has grown up – online and in the locality – with the sole aim of blocking the memorial in its current form.

The controversy has caused no end of annoyance to local businesses, some of which stand to reap rich financial rewards as the numbers of visitors to the crash memorial grows over time. Already nearly half a million people come to the temporary site.

The straight facts of what happened to Flight 93 are by now widely accepted. The plane hurtled into a reclaimed coal strip mine at 10.03am on 11 September 2001. One witness, Karl Landis, said the plane "rolled slightly to the left and appeared to hit the ground at almost a 90-degree angle".

Full article here.

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