Chubb brings symbolic 9/11 flag ‘home’
The flag that became a symbol for America after the World Trade Centre 9/11 terrorist attack was yesterday returned to the site by insurance firm Chubb.
Evan Greenberg, Chubb’s chief executive officer, said: “The raising of this American flag was a powerful symbol of hope, strength and resilience at one of the most trying moments in our nation’s history.
“As we prepare again to pay tribute to those who were lost, this flag is a timely reminder of the spirit of our heroes and the resolve of a great city and a great nation.
“Chubb is honoured to donate the flag to its new, permanent and proper home in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.”
Firefighters raised the flag taken from a yacht berthed at the nearby World Financial Centre over the ruins of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, after both were hit by hijacked jets, killing thousands of people in the towers, in the jets and on the ground.
The photograph of the event was used worldwide, but the flag disappeared only hours after it was hoisted.
Chubb insured the yacht and the owners later made a claim based on the “significant” value of the now-historic flag.
What was thought to be the original flag toured the world, but later investigations found it to be larger than the one in the iconic photograph.
The whereabouts of the original was unknown until two years ago, when a mystery man handed it into a fire station in Everett, Washington State — nearly 3,000 miles away from New York.
He told firefighters that a widow of a 9/11 victim gave the flag to a worker at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who later gave it to him.
The flag was subjected to a battery of tests and analysis of dust in the fabric, which matched the site, and photographs proved it was the 9/11 flag.
As Chubb had paid the claim, it was the legal owner of the flag and the company, with the help of the original owner, donated it to the museum set up to honour the victims of the attack.
Bermudians Boyd Gatton and Rhondelle Tankard died in the New York attacks, as did former Saltus Grammar School pupil Robert Higley, a US citizen who grew up in Bermuda.
A hijacked jet hit the US defence complex in Washington, the Pentagon, while another plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower its hijackers.
Ace Ltd took over Chubb last year in a deal worth more than $28 billion and the combined company, which has offices in Bermuda, took the Chubb name.