Items and artifacts recovered from the crash of United Flight 93 in Somerset County are now on display at the FBI building in Pittsburgh.
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Chief Investigator Rick Earle recently got an exclusive look at the items and spoke with the FBI and a National Park Service Ranger.
Earle learned that it was all done with great care and reverence
The items were brought to the FBI building on the South Side under a police escort last week.
As they arrived, they were greeted by an honor guard and the playing of the national anthem.
Earle spoke with the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge, Richard Evanchec and Flight 93 National Memorial Park Ranger, Adam Shaffer, at the FBI headquarters on the South Side.
“One of the very first passenger lists from Flight 93 that was given to our victim specialists who were on the ground there,” said Evanchec, as he talked about some of the items on display.
In a glass case at the FBI office in Pittsburgh are a number of items recovered from the crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Somerset County.
There are small metal pieces of the plane and a seat belt.
There are also personal belongings of passengers; some items were recovered at the crash site, and others were donated to the Park Service by family members.
There’s a picture of one of the victims’ cats and a pillow that belonged to another victim.
“This is Deora Bodley’s Social Security card that was found in her wallet as well as the Blockbuster card,” said Shaffer.
There’s also part of a mangled beverage cart, Shaffer suspects, may have been used by passengers to storm the cockpit.
“It’s certainly plausible that it might have been involved with the fight for control of Flight 93,” said Shaffer.
In addition, there are hard hats worn by FBI evidence team members who worked at the site.
These items are all on display, especially for younger agents and employees, some of whom were not even alive when it happened.
“It’s so important that these objects are here today to remind the younger people in our workforce who, you know, really have very faint memories of 9/11 to remind them of what they do every day and why our nation’s asking them to do that, so it’s very powerful to have these exhibits,” said Evanchec.
“It’s really about connecting with the generation that hasn’t had the lived experience from that day,” said Shaffer.
Both the park ranger and the FBI agent have that lived experience.
They say they will never forget that day.
Both were in college at the time, and 9/11 shaped who they are today.
Evanchec, from Plum, was a student at American University in Washington, DC.
He was living in Arlington, Virginia, at the time and looked out his window and saw a plume of smoke after a plane hit the Pentagon.
He knew then what he wanted to do.
“I think it was that very morning that I realized I wanted to, at some point in my career, be part of an effort to make sure something like 9/11 never happened again, and I was able to do that,” said Evanchec.
Evanchec joined the FBI nearly two decades ago, after starting out with the ATF. Today, he runs the Pittsburgh field office.
As for Shaffer, he actually grew up in Shanksville, not far from the crash site.
He was in college that day.
Shaffer said he knew even before 9/11 he wanted to be a park ranger.
He began as an intern at the Flight 93 memorial, before the construction of the permanent memorial.
“That gave me an opportunity to assist in the early days of the creation of the memorial there, and so I’m just fortunate to apply and get accepted by the National Park Service, and here I am 25 years later talking about it,” said Shaffer.
Shaffer is now the Chief of Interpretation and Education at the Flight 93 Memorial.
While acknowledging that even to this day, some of what happened on board the plane is still unknown, one thing is certain from the cockpit voice recorder and more than 30 phone calls made from the plane: the passengers decided to fight back against the hijackers after learning what had already happened in New York and Washington.
Their heroic actions that day likely prevented the plane from reaching the U.S. Capitol or the White House, only 20 or so minutes by air from Shanksville.
“For the last six minutes that this plane is in the air, there’s absolutely a full-on struggle for control of the plane and the aircraft, and that they’re not backing off that, that’s irrefutable,” said Shaffer.
“There’s nothing more American than those few moments, those six minutes that happened over the skies of Western Pa. We may not know the whole story, but we know enough to know that those 40 passengers changed the course of American history, and I’m really, really proud that they did it in these skies, and that we have the Flight 93 National Memorial here outside of Pittsburgh to tell the story,” said Evanchec.
The items will be on display at the FBI building for several weeks, and then returned to the National Park Service for safekeeping.
That exhibit is only for FBI employees, but the public can see a number of similar items and artifacts at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County.
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