9/11 Remembrance Ceremony Returns To Arlington In 2023

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County held a ceremony Monday morning to remember the lives lost at the Pentagon in Arlington and at the World Trade Center 22 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001.

The remembrance ceremony outside the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center was attended by members of the Fairfax County fire and police departments, as well as local elected officials. At the end of the ceremony, the Arlington County Combine Public Safety Honor Guard laid a wreath at the flag poles in the plaza outside the government center.

More than 2,700 people died at the World Trade Center on 9/11, including the passengers of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Forty-four people died on United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

When the attackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the southwest corner of the Pentagon on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, 184 people were killed — 64 who were on the plane and 125 people in the building. The 184 people killed in the terrorist act ranged in age from 3 to 73 years old, Arlington County Fire Department Captain David Santini said at Monday's remembrance ceremony.

"As we pause each year on this anniversary to remember, their families are reminded of their loss every day," he said.

As soon as the plane crashed into the Pentagon, members of the Arlington County Fire Department and Arlington County Police Department, along with other first responders, "went to work to care for the injured, control the fire, manage the hazardous materials and deal with the collapse of the building," Santini said.

The American Airlines Boeing 757-200 took off 10 minutes behind schedule at 8:20 a.m. from Dulles International Airport with a crew of six and 58 passengers, including the attackers. At 9:32 a.m., air traffic controllers at Dulles found an unidentified aircraft traveling east at a high rate of speed and notified their colleagues at Reagan National Airport.

At 9:34 a.m., flight 77 was five miles west-southwest of the Pentagon and took a sharp turn and quick descent and dove toward the Pentagon, eventually flying low above Columbia Pike in Arlington before slamming into the U.S. military headquarters at 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds more people who responded to the attacks in Arlington and New York City have died from cancer and other illnesses associated with their rescue and recovery efforts, Santini said. Among them, Arlington County Police Officer Harvey Snook died on Jan. 14, 2016, as the result of cancer contracted while working in the recovery efforts at the Pentagon following the Sept. 11 attack.

"We should never forget those who initially survived but still later made the ultimate sacrifice," Santini said.

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