‘Doesn’t Get Much More Symbolic Than That.’ Bald Eagle Lands on Fire Truck During 9/11 Ceremony

A moment of striking serendipity was captured in a now viral video Tuesday when a bald eagle landed atop a Minnesota fire truck that was part of a ceremony commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The video shows the eagle perched at the end of a fire truck aerial that was being used to suspend an American flag along a highway in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids.

“Isn’t that unbelievable?” said Andover Fire Chief Jerry Streich, who caught the video footage and shared it on the Andover fire department’s Facebook page. “Phenomenal.”

The video has been viewed more than two million times.

“There’s no better symbol to represent America today than a flag but then for an eagle to land on a fire truck holding a flag, I mean, it doesn’t get much more symbolic than that,” said Streich told Minnesota-based KARE-TV.

“I had to look at it a few times,” he said. “And then I thought, I need to videotape this!”

Across the country, Americans held somber ceremonies to mark the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, where four hijacked planes were used to kill nearly 3,000 people, the deadliest terror attack on American soil.