9/11 Widower Speaks Out On Remains Being Dumped In Landfill | News

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Anger and disappointment for families of 9/11 victims on news that small, unidentified portions of their loved ones remains were incinerated and dumped in a landfill.

We already knew that partial remains of some troops were dumped. Now buried on page 6 of an independent report just out from the Pentagon word that partial remains of some 9/11 victims were dumped too.

 READ: The full report here

The remains were from the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash scenes, horrifying, fiery attacks that left rescue workers struggling to recover remains.

For the first time, the military is admitting that small pieces of unidentified remains processed at Dover Air Force Base were cremated, then processed by a contractor as medical waste, the ashes dumped in a landfill.

"That's totally unacceptable," says Abe Scott, who lost his wife Janice in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. News that some small part of her might have ended up in a landfill only adds to his lingering pain. "It's a terrible reset that's almost destroyed my healing process."

Pentagon leaders say they stopped dumping remains in 2008.

Air Force officials say they're only now learning that 9/11 victims remains may have ended up in the dump, along with the partial remains of some 274 servicemembers.

"We certainly have our regret at the handling of these remains in a less than ideal, some would say inappropriate, manner," said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

Some unidentified 9/11 remains were interred in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery.

It's unclear why these remains were dumped instead.

Scott wants the Pentagon to try and recover what it can from the landfill. "And have a burial fitting to those who were killed on 9/11."

But at this point, the top civilian and military leaders of the Air Force say they have no plans to look back at what happened to the 9/11 remains. They say they're focused on fixing mortuary services at Dover for the future.

Written and reported by Bruce Leshan

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