SEPT. 11 ATTACKS Capitol plaque to honor Flight 93 passengers, crew

The ill-fated flight was bound to San Francisco.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A plaque bearing the names of the 40 passengers and crew who died on United Airlines Flight 93, the only hijacked airplane on Sept. 11 that didn't take a life on the ground, would be placed in the U.S. Capitol complex under a resolution passed by senators on Monday.
The resolution, sponsored by Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., calls for Congressional leaders to choose by 2006 a place in the Capitol that would be named in honor of the flight and bear a plaque honoring those who died on board.
United Airlines Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it made a sudden turn near Cleveland. People on board made calls from cellular phones, telling loved ones and others they planned to attack their hijackers after learning of the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The official 9/11 Commission report, released in July, said the hijackers crashed the airplane in a reclaimed mine field, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.
Conrad said he pushed for the resolution because he felt there was little recognition of the passengers' actions in Washington.
"The Capitol was the likely target of the plane ... there should be some recognition. These people displayed remarkable courage, and it just gnawed at me that there is not recognition of them in the Capitol complex itself," Conrad said, speaking from Grand Forks, N.D., on Tuesday.
"When you read the story of what these people did to find out on their cell phones from family members that other planes had been turned into flying bombs and they were likely headed toward the same fate and to take action to try to recapture the plane and prevent the disaster, that is real courage and that is heroism and it is an inspiration to all of us," Conrad said.
The National Park Service is leading a 15-member advisory commission designing a permanent memorial to be placed at the crash site near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pa.
President Bush has ordered that the design be completed and delivered to the Interior Department and Congress by next year.
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