About 13,000 visitors from all 50 states and 19 countries made a pilgrimage in June to the field in Somerset County where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
"It's indicative of what this place continues to mean to people," said Donna Glessner, vice chairwoman of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission and coordinator of the ambassadors of the Flight 93 temporary memorial.
Next week, the jury that will select the winning design for a permanent memorial will visit Somerset, said Jeff Reinbold, planner and project manager of the Flight 93 permanent memorial.
Five finalists have been culled from more than 1,000 submissions. The winning design will be announced Sept. 7. Construction of the memorial at the crash site is expected to take a couple of years.
About 2,000 people from 32 states and Canada visited the public design competition last month at the Shops at Georgian Place in Somerset, Glessner said.
Foreign visitors came from England, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Canada, Ireland, Liberia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Mexico, Thailand, Australia, Scotland, Austria, Sweden, Brazil, France and Denmark, she said.
Flight 93 was the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11. It was westbound when it turned back over Cleveland and headed southeast over Pennsylvania. Authorities believe the hijackers planned to crash the plane into a target in the Washington, D.C., area. Passengers overpowered the hijackers and the plane crashed on idled mine land owned by PBS Coals.
Forty passengers and crew members were killed in the crash.
"There's always been a lot of international interest. Many people make it a point to come here," Glessner said.
The volunteer ambassadors of the Flight 93 temporary memorial count by hand the number of people who come to the crash site each day.
Interest in the site is highest during the summer, Glessner said. Last year, 21,000 people visited the site in July. In August, 22,000 visitors were counted and in September, 21,000.
The exhibition at the Shops at Georgian Place will close Aug. 3 while the jury reviews the designs. It will reopen Aug. 4, Reinbold said.
In Washington, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster held a hearing Tuesday on establishing a permanent Flight 93 Memorial in the U.S. Capitol. Shuster, of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.
H.Con.Res 129 authorizes the establishment of a permanent memorial in the Capitol, recognizing the heroes of Flight 93.
The Senate has introduced a similar bill, S.Con.Res 26, sponsored by Sens. Kent Conrad, of North Dakota, and Rick Santorum, of Penn Hills, Allegheny County.
