Sarah McLachlan Sings at Memorial for United 93 Victims

A day before the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Grammy-winner Sarah McLachlan sang a touching tribute in front of more than 4,000 people at the crash site for United Flight 93.

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The singer honored the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who died after crashing in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, with her Grammy-awarded song, “I Will Remember You” and "Angel."

It is believed that the hijackers aboard the flight intended to crash the plane into the capitol building in Washington, D.C., according to the Associated Press. But the plane “never made it because of the determination and valor of the passengers and crew of Flight 93. That plane crashed in this field, less than 20 minutes by air” from the Capitol, said Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both spoke at the ceremony. Clinton compared the passengers’ actions to those defending the Alamo in Texas or the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago, people who knew they were going to die but fought anyway. The contrast, he pointed out, is that those fighters were soldiers, while the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 were “ordinary people given no time at all to decide and they did the right thing,” Clinton said. “And 2,500 years from now, I hope and pray to God that people will still remember this.”

During the ceremony, the names of the 40 crash victims were read aloud as bells tolled in their honor.