SAN DIEGO -- A 10News reporter working in Pennsylvania who was one of the first reporters at the United Flight 93 crash site shared his experience with 10News.

10News reporter Joe Little was working in the Johnstown, Pa. market for an ABC/Fox affiliate when the 9/11 attacks occurred.

He was working less than four miles away from where Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pa.

Little said he and a photographer arrived on the crash scene within 30 minutes and were able to walk right up to the crater.

He said there was nothing there other than a crater, some smoke and a few charred trees.

In follow up reports from the crash site, Little reported, "The recovery of evidence is difficult because the parts scattered throughout the area are no larger than a briefcase."

Little's accounts of that day were later included in a book entitled "Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11".

Experts believed terrorists who hijacked Flight 93 were headed towards Washington, D.C. The passengers on Flight 93 were immediately hailed as heroes. One of them, Todd Beamer, was reportedly overheard on a phone call saying, "Let's roll" before he and others stormed the hijackers.

"Some heroic individual brought this plane down and how they avoided hitting a structure is beyond me," said then-U.S. Rep. John Murtha.

Then-First Lady Laura Bush said, "We're the ones who are grateful to their loved ones for the heroism that they showed in those last moments of their lives."

"Your loved ones made the sacrifice to make sure that no others were killed in this siege of terrorism," said then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. Forty-four people were killed when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. When American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, 184 people were killed

In New York, 2,753 were killed after the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. That number includes three later deaths from respiratory disease that have since been linked to illnesses caused by the towers' collapse.

In the days and years following 9/11, the country and the military embraced Beamer's call to action, which encouraged Americans to pick themselves up and "roll."