United Airlines flight attendants receive inadequate security training to deal with terrorist and ultimately have to take it on themselves to protect the passengers, a stewardess said in a podcast posted on the National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s Web site.
In the podcast, four flight attendants explain that even though their security training has improved since 9/11, the lack of on-board security sometimes forces them to use impromptu devices.
“We don’t know what wine bottle were broken open and tried to be used as defense tools,” said one of the flight attendants in the five-minute podcast, “we don’t know what ice-crack mallets would have been used.”
This podcast is the latest addition to the currently 14 podcasts on the museum’s Web site. The W.T.C. museum is not scheduled to open until 2011 and plans to continue to update its site in the meantime. Other podcasts tell the story of man who survived the collapse of the South Tower, as well as the story of a firefighter who recalls the collapse of the North Tower.
The four United Airlines stewardesses crafted a memory quilt using retired airline uniforms and dedicated it to the families of the nine flight attendants who were aboard Flight 175, which originated in Boston and slammed into the South Tower shortly after the North Tower impact.
The black and white quilt, which resembles an oversized chessboard, features the cross-stitched names off all United Airlines flight personnel who died on that plane.
“It sets them apart as first responders,” said on of the attendants about the quilt, “as the first uniformed people who died that day.”
The quilt has been donated to National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
The museum’s website also comprises oral interviews and video testimonies, which are updated every month..
Other artifacts that have been donated to the museum include five collaborative art projects made by children who lost a parent or close relative in the attacks, and a folded American flag and earth-filled mahogany memorial urn from the mayor’s office.
The podcast can be found at https://www.national911memorial.org.
–Sebastian Kahnert
