Flight 93 Families Seek Funding

Family members of those who died on United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed into an abandon strip mine in Somerset County September 11th 2001 are seeking more federal money for a 9/11 memorial crash site. Family members will go before Congress today to ask members to approve the $3.7 million for the memorial requested by President Barack Obama in his new budget.

The memorial's first phase, including a wall with the names of the 40 passengers and crew, is set to open on the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11th. The price tag for the memorial is expected to come in at $60 million. Congress has already provided $10 million, Pennsylvania is giving $18.5 million and about $20 million has been raised privately.

Work on the sight has already begun.

Flight 93 Families Upset by Continuing Controversy

Flight 93 families who are working on a memorial say they want to move beyond a controversy over its design. Tom Burnett, the father of one man who died on Flight 93, says the memorial includes an Islamic symbol: a red crescent. Renderings show red maple trees partly outlining a bowl-shaped piece of land at the crash site. The design has since been modified; rather than a "crescent of embrace," it's now called a "circle of embrace." But most Flight 93 family members who participated in the design competition say the criticisms from Burnett are baseless. They say they've consulted religious and design experts who have supported their decision to move ahead with the memorial as planned.

The Flight 93 Memorial Task Force is closing today on close to 1000 acres of land for the project. That's about 75% of the land needed for the memorial.

Tomorrow, the task force will hold a joint meeting with a federal advisory commission. There, they'll provide an update on fundraising for the memorial.