Features

LOS ANGELES – An American flag carried in honor of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks arrived here Sunday, concluding a 3,872-mile cross-country trip that symbolically completed the journey of the four California-bound jetliners destroyed by terrorists. 

“This is the symbolic arrival of Flight 11,” said Edward Herrera of Bakersfield, whose sister-in-law Betty Ong was a flight attendant on the plane. “It’s a spiritual arrival of those people here in Los Angeles.” 

Herrera was among those finishing the journey Sunday afternoon, walking the final mile through light mist to Dockweiler State Beach adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport exactly two months after the attacks. 

The participants bore aloft an American flag that was recently returned from Iraq, where a pilot with an Air National Guard fighter wing carried it in the cockpit of his F-16. Their journey culminated in an oceanside ceremony where flags from all 50 states were also displayed. 

An estimated 4,000 runners participated in the journey that began a month ago in Boston, taking turns carrying the flag around the clock through New York, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix before arriving in Los Angeles. 

Many of the runners were employees of American and United Airlines, or friends and relatives of crew members who died in the attacks. They traced the routes of two of the hijacked jets, American Flight 11 and United Flight 175, which took off from Boston’s Logan International Airport bound for Los Angeles before they were flown into the World Trade Center. 

The run was meant to show resolve and support for victims and relatives, and to raise money for attack-related charities. 

“This is not a memorial service. This is a message to the country that we have been challenged but we will persevere,” said Todd Wissing, a first officer with American Airlines who helped organize the run and who carried the flag 140 miles during its voyage west. 

Kay Collman of Yorkville, Ill., was also among the runners. Her son Jeff Collman was a flight attendant on Flight 11. 

“This is a final tribute to them. It just feels wonderful to be walking this mile in tribute to him,” Collman said as she walked the final yards to the beach.