Ship honoring Flight 93 passengers to be commissioned at Penn’s Landing

A ship commemorating the airline passengers who died in Somerset County, PA on Sept. 11, 2001, will be commissioned at Penn’s Landing on March 1, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation announced.

Passengers of Flight 93 charged their plane’s hijackers, preventing the plane from hitting its intended target. The plane crashed in a Somerset County field.

The USS Somerset, one of three ships commemorating 9/11,  is a 684 foot-long LPD 25, which is the Navy’s ninth amphibious transport dock ship in the San Antonio class. It was made with 22 tons of steel from a crane that stood near the Somerset County crash site, and has flooring made from sugar maple trees grown within close proximity to the site, according to a DRWC press release. It was christened in Louisina in July. After it is commissioned, the ship will be stationed in San Diego.

Commissioning recognizes  a ship is on active duty.

The Somerset will dock at Penn’s Landing, fully equipped with crew and helicopters, sometime before the ceremony, during which the crew will be named, speeches will be given by the captain and other dignitaries, and families who lost relatives in the Somerset County crash will be recognized.

More details are expected as the date gets closer.