SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A new $26 million visitor complex is expected to draw a larger than normal crowd to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania for the 14th anniversary observance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The complex opened Wednesday to the media and the families of the 33 passengers and seven crew members aboard the United Airlines flight that crashed in a field when some victims revolted against their hijackers. The center opened to the public on Thursday, and was expected to draw large crowds for Friday's anniversary and the weekend.
The National Park Service is expecting about 5,000 people.
For the first time the Flight 93 observance ceremony will not be held at the memorial wall itself, but rather on a hill where the visitor center is located overlooking the crash site.
NBC News Chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski will be the keynote speaker. He was in his office when he reported an explosion at the Pentagon that day, which turned out to be another hijacked airliner, American Airlines Flight 77, crashing into the building.
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco when al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists took control, with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The 9/11 Commission concluded the hijackers downed the plane in southwestern Pennsylvania as the passengers and crew members revolted. Two other hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center in New York.
As in past years, the victims' names will be read as a bell tolls solemnly until just after 10 a.m., when Flight 93 nosedived into the former strip mine about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
A Memorial Plaza near the plane crash site consists of a white stone wall that traces the doomed plane's flight path, with each victim's name engraved on a separate panel. There are still plans for a 93-foot-tall tower with 40 wind chimes near the national park's entrance.