New York loses September 11 flag

The American flag that was raised by three firefighters over the wreckage of the World Trade Centre, one of the most enduring images of September 11, has disappeared.

After it was removed from the site during clean up, the flag flew on US ships serving in the war in Afghanistan. Then, in March, it was returned to New York officials.

But the flag that city officials preserved measures 5 feet by 8 feet. The flag the firefighters raised on September 11 measured 4 feet by 6 feet, according to its original owners.

“It’s just a really awkward and difficult situation,” said Lark-Marie Anton, a spokeswoman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “What it represents is really what’s important.”

Bloomberg has asked city fire officials to investigate what happened to the flag. Officials say they are unaware of anyone claiming to possess the original.

The flag came from a yacht, the Star of America, that was in a Hudson River marina near the World Trade Centre on the day of the attack.

Firefighter Dan McWilliams took it from the yacht and walked back to Ground Zero, where he and two colleagues, George Johnson and Bill Eisengrein, raised it on a slanted pole.

The scene was captured by local newspaper photographer Thomas Franklin, and distributed worldwide.

The discrepancy about the flag size was discovered when the yacht owners, Shirley Dreifus and her husband, Spiros Kopelakis, borrowed the flag for an event on board the Star of America.

The couple had been preparing to formally donate the flag to the city when they said they noticed the flag was too big to be theirs.