Remembering 9/11: Ceremonies Scaled Back Due to Pandemic

Americans across the nation will commemorate the 9/11 terror attacks on Friday morning, although the public ceremonies will be scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In New York City, where two commercial jets were flown into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, ceremonies will be held at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza and a corner near the World Trade Center. Unlike previous years, relatives will forgo the in-person reading of the names of family members killed in the terrorist attack. Recorded readings of the names made by 9/11 family members will be used instead. Vice President Mike Pence is expected at both of those remembrances in New York.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden plan to attend a truncated ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania that is closed to the public. The Pentagon will also hold a ceremony in honor of the 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people on the plane and 125 people in the Pentagon. The event is also closed to the public.

Americans are being encouraged to participate in remembering 9/11

Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization best known for placing veterans’ wreaths on the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, is asking every American to stand outside and wave a flag on Friday morning for one minute to commemorate the lives lost during the terrorist attack:

• 8:46 a.m. ET – When American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into the northern facade of the World Trade Center's North Tower
• 9:03 a.m. ET – When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the southern facade of the South Tower
• 9:37 a.m. ET – When American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the western side of the Pentagon
• 10:03 a.m. ET – When United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania