Sept. 11 Remembrance Set In Manchester

MANCHESTER, NJ — Manchester Township officials will mark the 24th anniversary of the the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Thursday morning.

The ceremony is set for 10 a.m. at the back entrance to Town Hall on Colonial Drive near the town's 9/11 monument.

It honors the memories of the victims who died in the attacks, including Cira Marie Patti of Manchester, along with the first responders who heroically came to the rescue.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the suicide attacks carried out by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida, when two planes were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and one that was crashed at the Pentagon. A fourth plane, United Flight 93, was brought down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a final act of heroism by passengers who realized their flight had been hijacked.

At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died, including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers, according to History.com. At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building. On United Flight 93, 44 people died when the passengers who realized the plane had been hijacked caused it to crash in Pennsylvania before it could reach its intended target.