Just before the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, New York paid a spectacular tribute to the 2,977 people killed in the attacks. On the night of Wednesday, September 9, 2,977 drones lit up the sky above New York Harbor before forming the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, which disappeared a quarter of a century ago. Each drone symbolically represented one of the victims.
2,977 drones to represent the 2,977 victims
Named 2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor, the installation revealed the silhouette of the North and South Towers at their architectural scale during the night. The drones gradually assembled in the sky until they reconstructed the vertical outlines of the two skyscrapers that once dominated southern Manhattan.
The choice of 2,977 drones is not arbitrary. It exactly corresponds to the human toll of the September 11, 2001 attacks, excluding the terrorists: 2,753 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. The victims were from more than 90 countries.
The attacks began at 8:46 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Both buildings then collapsed, the South Tower at 9:59 a.m. and the North Tower at 10:28 a.m.
The Twin Towers reappear alongside the “Tribute in Light”
The drone show was organized alongside the famous Tribute in Light, the two powerful beams of light projected annually into the Manhattan sky in memory of the destroyed towers. For this special edition, the 2,977 points of light gave a much more precise shape to the vanished buildings for a few minutes.
The installation’s soundtrack notably included On the Transmigration of Souls by American composer John Adams, a work written after the attacks in tribute to the victims. Compositions by Philip Glass and Max Richter also accompanied the presentation.
Victims’ families and first responders involved in the project
The project was designed with relatives of victims, survivors, and first responders present during the attacks. Among them was Tim Brown, an FDNY firefighter deployed to the World Trade Center in 1993 and again on September 11, 2001. Three of his colleagues who died in the towers’ collapse were symbolically represented in the sky.
Regarding these three drones, he summarized the tribute in a few words: “Three of the 2,977 lights are theirs.”
The installation was directed by Addison Mehr and produced with Sky Elements Drone Shows. Federal and municipal authorizations as well as security measures were coordinated by IDEKO. The project was funded by private funds and in-kind contributions, with no public money.
New York prepares for the 25th anniversary of September 11
This show preceded by two days the ceremonies on Friday, September 11, 2026, which will mark exactly 25 years since the Al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93.
As every year, the victims’ names will be read during the ceremony held at the September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero. The 25th anniversary takes on a particular significance this year as New York has also just released over 170,000 documents concerning health risks related to dust and contaminated air after the towers’ collapse. These documents notably reveal what New York authorities knew about the air toxicity after September 11.
25 years after the attacks, the Twin Towers thus reappeared for a few minutes in the New York sky. 2,977 drones, 2,977 lights, to individually recall the 2,977 lives lost on September 11, 2001.
