"I only hope that if I am ever faced with a challenge like this, that I will respond with a fraction of the courage they did."
I am a private pilot, I met a fellow who flew with one of the pilots killed that day actually. I fly out of an airport where those sick monsters took some lessons. I keep wondering what if it were me? If they could have been stopped before they nosed the jet over, could I have saved the plane? A few weeks before 9/11 I got to sit in the jumpseat of a Quantas 747 for landing because I was a private pilot. Those days are gone. I dont think here is a single one of us that doesnt wonder what we would have done if it were us. Those people were amazing. They saved so many, they saved our nation from more horror that day.
I think they knew that. I know they knew that.
I hope they did. If they didn't, they do now.
They did more than just save our nation from more horror. They became heroes on a day which was intended to be our most humiliating hour. The terrorists probably thought that nose-diving the plane into the ground would bring them honor because they had killed Americans. Quite the opposite became true. These American citizens, these heroes, told us we could fight back against terrorists and prevail.