President Donald Trump paid tribute on Sept. 11, to the “band of brave patriots” aboard a Sept. 11 flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field 17 years ago, praising the passengers and crew members who sent the message that the nation would “never, ever submit to tyranny.”
The president and first lady Melania joined an observance at the Sept. 11 memorial in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the jetliners crashed to the ground after 40 passengers and crew members realized hijackers had taken control and tried to storm the cockpit.
Calling it “the moment when America fought back,” Trump said the fallen “took control of their destiny and changed the course of history.”
“A piece of America’s heart is buried on these grounds, but in its place has grown a new resolve to live our lives with the same grace and courage as the heroes of Flight 93,” Trump said. “This field is now a monument to American defiance. This memorial is now a message to the world: America will never, ever submit to tyranny,” the president said.
Nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11 when other airplanes were flown into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in an attack planned by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Nearly a decade later, bin Laden was killed in May 2011 during a United States military operation.
Trump, a New York native, made his first visit as president to the Shanksville site and paid tribute to the many lives that were lost that day.
