{"id":223818,"date":"2026-09-11T17:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-world-is-changing-today-locals-remember-sept-11-latrobebulletinnews-com\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:25:28","slug":"the-world-is-changing-today-locals-remember-sept-11-latrobebulletinnews-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-world-is-changing-today-locals-remember-sept-11-latrobebulletinnews-com\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The world is changing today\u2019: Locals remember Sept. 11 – latrobebulletinnews.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Partly cloudy. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable.
<\/i> Updated: September 11, 2026 @ 1:05 pm<\/small>
Peggy Shepler (front), Linda Norris, Kathy Giesey (back) and Kim Shaffer sign condolence books after the 9\/11 attacks. The books, donated by J. Paul McCracken and Snyder funeral homes, would be sent to the mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as United Airlines, American Airlines and rescue workers at the sites of the terrorist attacks.
Charles Noel, Kim Noel Dominick and Hilary Noel display a quilt made by Kim\u2019s grandmother, Agnes Noel. It was originally intended to honor President John F. Kennedy after his assassination, but the family displayed it shortly after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks to show their patriotism.
Area businesses displayed messages of patriotism and grief following 9\/11.
Ligonier community members attended a Heritage United Methodist Church prayer service for the victims of the 9\/11 attacks.
Gabe Monzo spoke to security guards on Sept. 11, 2001, during a lockdown at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity Township.
Ligonier Scouts were among hundreds who attended a Sept. 16, 2001, candlelight vigil for the victims of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

AND BELLA MARKOVITZ
Peggy Shepler (front), Linda Norris, Kathy Giesey (back) and Kim Shaffer sign condolence books after the 9\/11 attacks. The books, donated by J. Paul McCracken and Snyder funeral homes, would be sent to the mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as United Airlines, American Airlines and rescue workers at the sites of the terrorist attacks.
Charles Noel, Kim Noel Dominick and Hilary Noel display a quilt made by Kim\u2019s grandmother, Agnes Noel. It was originally intended to honor President John F. Kennedy after his assassination, but the family displayed it shortly after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks to show their patriotism.
Area businesses displayed messages of patriotism and grief following 9\/11.
Ligonier community members attended a Heritage United Methodist Church prayer service for the victims of the 9\/11 attacks.
Gabe Monzo spoke to security guards on Sept. 11, 2001, during a lockdown at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity Township.
Ligonier Scouts were among hundreds who attended a Sept. 16, 2001, candlelight vigil for the victims of 9\/11.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a Westmoreland County Airport Authority meeting ground to a halt.
Gabe Monzo, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport\u2019s manager, watched as a maintenance supervisor burst in to say an airplane hit the World Trade Center.
\u201cNobody thought a whole lot about it other than it might have been an air traffic control situation,\u201d Monzo said.
The meeting continued. Later, that maintenance supervisor brought another update: a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
Immediately, the meeting stopped, and airport officials rushed to figure out what was happening.
They quickly learned that nearby Flight 93 had likely been hijacked, and they prepared for the worst.
The airport called an Alert 3, typically reserved for an airplane crash, which brought mutual aid companies and first responders to the airport. Soon, around 140 first responders were at the airport.
\u201cWe were all scared to death. Nobody knew what to expect. Nobody knew when the next ball would drop, and what the situation might be,\u201d Monzo said.
When they learned of the Flight 93 crash, half of them went to assist before turning around when it was clear there wouldn\u2019t be survivors.
Monzo said they started sending people home around 4 p.m.
At the time, no airport personnel had IDs. State police planned to stop anyone without credentials from entering the Unity Township airport, so airport officials borrowed equipment from the township to make IDs. They were the first IDs the staff ever had.
\u201cIt was pretty quiet for the next few days. The only one that was flying was the state police helicopter,\u201d Monzo said. \u201cIt was pretty eerie.\u201d
The day of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bulletin ran a photo of the smoking World Trade Center with an Associated Press story headlined \u201cUS Under Attack.\u201d
Marie McCandless, then-Bulletin editor, wrote the headline herself.
\u201cI never thought I had to write a headline that the U.S. was under attack,\u201d McCandless said. \u201cIt was just completely out of the realm of possibility.\u201d
Embedded halfway in the story was a small box titled \u201cLockdown At Local Airport,\u201d detailing how Arnold Palmer Regional Airport went into lockdown in the wake of the attacks.
Bulletin reporter Mandi Moranelli was in the airport authority meeting to cover it when the lockdown began, McCandless said.
The next day, the Bulletin\u2019s front page was flooded with local news, including additional details on the airport shutdown.
This time, the photo on the front page was local: Monzo speaking to security guards on Sept. 11 during the lockdown.
Greater Latrobe, Derry Area and Ligonier Valley students remained in classes on Sept. 11, but after-school activities were canceled. St. Vincent College also kept students in class, although University of Pittsburgh\u2019s Greensburg campus closed for the day.
Kennametal also shut down, according to Chuck Glazer, the public relations coordinator who spoke to the Bulletin after the attacks.
Pat Mahanes, who was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Kennametal on 9\/11, told the Bulletin he will never forget what he saw that day \u2014 not just on television, but right over the Kennametal building.
That day, Mahanes saw a Kennametal lawyer watching the news in a conference room after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Mahanes\u2019 first thought was that the pilot may have had a medical emergency. Then the second plane hit.
\u201cThe world is changing today,\u201d Mahanes told the lawyer.
After an hour or two, Mahanes said, the state police told him to evacuate the roughly 750 people inside the Kennametal facility, which is right across from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, because a plane went off its planned course and wasn\u2019t communicating with authorities. The police were worried Kennametal could be a target, Mahanes said.
Mahanes told everyone to evacuate. About 25 minutes later, he left his office and walked through the different buildings in the Kennametal complex, checking to see if anyone was left but finding no one.
He went out to the parking lot \u2014 no cars remained except for his own. As he marveled at the swift evacuation, a deafening sound drew near.
Mahanes said he looked up and saw an airplane fly over one of the Kennametal buildings so low it looked like it almost touched the roof.
\u201cIt was so low I could read all the numbers and the letters on the plane, and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018This thing obviously is going to come down somewhere close,\u2019\u201d he said.
By the next day, Mahanes had learned the fate of Flight 93 and believed that was the plane he saw, he said.
In a timeline of the events of Sept. 11, the National Park Service detailed a pilot\u2019s account of seeing a large plane at 8,000 feet near Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.
Mahanes has since visited the Flight 93 memorial, he said, where the accounts of passengers communicating with loved ones and their determination to disrupt the hijacking made for an emotional experience.
On the Sept. 12 Bulletin front page, the Latrobe United Methodist Church announced a prayer service \u201cin response to the devastating and terrible terroristic events.\u201d
Greater Latrobe Ministerial Association President the Rev. Jeffrey Schock said, \u201cAll of our facilities of faith are havens of hope and help when tragedies such as these arise.\u201d
In the days and weeks that followed, the Bulletin chronicled memorial services and community efforts to support those affected by the attacks.
For Monzo, the dedication of the first responders who came to the airport that day has stayed with him.
\u201cThey didn\u2019t know what was going to happen. Nobody did,\u201d he said, \u201cThey\u2019re all heroes.\u201d
He praised the commitment of volunteer first responders, then and now.
\u201cPeople sometimes take for granted the volunteers that we have in our region and the people that are willing to come out and do the work that needs to be done,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t ever take that for granted because these are people that are willing to do the job.\u201d
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