Officials stand for a photograph during a ceremony transferring Newark Airport’s Gate A17 sign over to the National Park Service on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Flight 93 departed from Gate A17 on Sept. 11, 2001. The sign is now part of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. © Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
(Newark, NJ) – As of Thursday, it’s been 24 years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11. And while that number is pretty stunning for anyone who lived through the events, it’s also a stark reminder that more and more people not only may “forget” — they didn’t experience that day first hand.
For the surviving family members and many others in and around New York City — it’s impossible to forget. And so, the enduring rallying cry of “Never Forget” holds true for a good portion. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed — a museum pays tribute to the victims. A sign that hung in Newark Airport when September 11th was just another day on the calendar — before everything changed — now hangs in Shanksville.
Earlier this summer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials gathered to officially transfer a sign to the National Park Service — which maintains the The Flight 93 National Memorial. It’s a Gate A17 sign that United Airlines Flight 93 passengers walked under, just before boarding the fateful flight. It had been headed to San Francisco, before a group of hijackers subdued the flight crew.
Famously, spurred on by the words of hero Todd Beamer — who said “let’s roll” — passengers regained control of the flight, prior to its crashing. Almost a quarter century later, with the old Terminal A at Newark closed — Port Authority felt it was time to bring that Gate A17 sign to the memorial.
Adam Shaffer is with the National Memorial and says discussions to bring the sign to Pennsylvania have been ongoing for over three years. National Park Service employee Mike Litterst shares that he’s heard many passengers use the term “bittersweet” to describe their annual gathering.
Much like the Tribute in Light beaming high into the night sky from Lower Manhattan, and the tolling bells that can be heard each 9-11, the Newark Airport gate sign now placed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania is a reminder: we can’t forget. And the scars that endure are a physical reality — ensuring we won’t.
