WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- The Pentagon said mistakenly discarded remains from the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks did not include any victims from the airliner crash in Pennsylvania.
Earlier reports said the incinerated material that wound up in a landfill came from the crash at the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa. However the chief of staff for the U.S. Air Force, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said Wednesday that none of the remains came from the Pennsylvania site.
Schwartz told reporters it was his understanding that the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base actually had not processed any Shanksville remains and only handled remains from the Pentagon crash site, The New York Times said.
Relatives of Flight 93's victims had been stunned by a report this week that unidentified remains from the Pentagon and Shanksville had been cremated and disposed of by a private contractor. A spokeswoman for the families said Tuesday they had been assured by the local coroner that no remains had been turned over to the Dover mortuary.
Even Schwartz said the Air Force had been caught off guard by the report from an independent committee, saying Tuesday the media and members of Congress had seen it before he had.
The Times said the Air Force would decide in a few weeks whether there would be any shakeup of the leadership at Dover, which is a first stop for the bodies of U.S. troops killed overseas.
