PITTSBURGH—The Families of Flight 93 have reached an agreement with a coal mining company to buy 1.5 square miles of land for a national memorial to the people killed on one of the airliners hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the organization said Tuesday.
Financial terms of the purchase from PBS Coals Inc. were not disclosed.
The deal follows an agreement between PBS Coals and the state Department of Environmental Protection for the company to treat drainage from a former surface mine at the site about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Water from the site contains naturally occurring pollutants including high levels of iron.
The families group said proceeds from the sale will be placed into a trust fund to pay for continued operation and maintenance of the water treatment system.
After that, the National Park Service plans to buy the 932 acres—the largest single tract of land needed for the 2,200-acre memorial—from the families group. The federal government would have been unable to take possession of the land before the mine drainage was addressed.
Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on Sept. 11, 2001, when it was diverted by hijackers. Jason Dahl, of Ken Caryl Ranch, Colo., was a co-pilot on the flight.
The plane crashed as passengers apparently tried to rush the cockpit. All 33 passengers and seven crew members died. It was the only one of the four planes hijacked that day that did not reach its intended target, believed to be in Washington.
“This is very significant,” said Patrick White, vice president of Families of Flight 93. “It represents all interested parties, citizens across the country included.”
Land including the crash site itself is part of separate negotiations.
Construction of the $58 million permanent memorial and national park is scheduled to begin by 2009. A ribbon-cutting has been planned for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks. The park will cover 2,200 acres.
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