Description: This collection of flight attendant Lorraine Bay's artifacts recovered from the wreckage of United Airlines Flight 93 includes a personal logbook and an in-flight procedures manual.
Context: The crew of Flight 93 gathered on the morning of September 11, an hour before the scheduled departure, for a routine meeting to discuss the flight. In addition to reviewing the flight plan and the passenger manifest, the flight attendants decided which section of the plane they would service during the flight. Lorraine Bay, a veteran flight attendant with 37 years of experience, would be working in first class. Bay was among the seven crew members and 33 passengers killed when Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Description: This collection of New York Fire Department (FDNY) equipment recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center includes a door and tail light panel from a crushed fire truck, two axe heads, and two firefighter’s pry bars.
Context: When the first hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center, the New York Fire Department immediately responded. Officers set up a command center in the lobby of the north tower and bravely rushed up the stairs to rescue the trapped occupants and put out the raging fires. When the towers collapsed, numerous trucks were crushed, and 343 members of the New York Fire Department were killed.
This door is from a FDNY rescue pumper truck destroyed in the World Trade Center collapse. The truck belonged to Squad One of Brooklyn, part of FDNY’s Special Operations Command, an elite group of firefighters who respond to unique fire and emergency situations. Squad One lost 12 members on Septmeber 11.
Description: This damaged floor marker, labeled “Stairwell C, Floor 102,” was recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center.
Context: In a high-rise building, many people ignore the stairs until an emergency. For those below the impact zones in the World Trade Center, the stairs proved to be a lifeline to safety—about 20,000 people escaped the building. Above the impact zone in the north tower (floors 94 through 98), there was no hope as all three stairwells were blocked by fire and debris. Above the impact zone in the south tower (floors 78 through 84), those who did not evacuate immediately in the 17 minutes after the north tower crash had an extremely limited chance to escape through one partially blocked stairwell. Many believe that building improvements and training procedures following the 1993 bombing helped save many lives on September 11.
These floor signs hung on the exterior of the elevator door frames in the World Trade Center. The 31st Floor indicator is rectangular and painted black with the number and Braille equivalent in raised silver. It was recovered from the debris at the Staten Island recovery site at Fresh Kills.
Description: This badly damaged American flag was found by a recovery worker in the World Trade Center debris at the Staten Island recovery site.
Context: The dominant symbol to emerge from the September 11 tragedy was the American flag. Raised over the World Trade Center ruins and hung from the damaged Pentagon, the flag became a powerful symbol of patriotism, survival, and resilience. Many Americans, who at one time had rejected overt displays of patriotism, returned to flying the flag at home, at work, even from their cars. The shared symbolism of the meaning of the flag helped unite Americans in a time of crisis. Only a few American flags from the World Trade Center survived the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Description: This briefcase recovered from the World Trade Center wreckage belonged to Lisa Lefler, an Aon Risk Services employee.
Context: World Trade Center workers had varied experiences on September 11. While about 2,200 office workers were killed, over 20,000 managed to escape the Twin Towers.
When the first plane struck the north tower, Lisa Lefler, an Aon Risk Services executive, immediately evacuated her 103rd-floor office in the south tower. In her haste she left her briefcase behind. Seventeen minutes after the north tower was hit the south tower was struck, cutting off the escape path above the 78th floor. Fifty-six minutes later, the entire building collapsed, killing 175 of Lefler's fellow Aon employees.
Several days later, Boyd Harden, a rescue worker at Ground Zero, found the briefcase in the debris and returned it to Lefler.