LACONIA — The first of what will undoubtedly be many motion pictures about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 is set to premiere soon and that's a movie Mike Moyer wants to see.

The Laconia Police captain was one of several Lakes Region residents who were interviewed by The Citizen in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when terrorists hijacked four commercial jetliners. Two of the planes slammed into the towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, eventually causing both to collapse, while a third plane struck the Pentagon.

Passengers aboard the fourth plane, learning of their possible fate by communicating with family and friends via cell phones, stormed the cockpit and struggled with the hijackers until the craft went down in a field in Shanksville, Pa.

The story of that plane is being told in "United 93" which goes into nationwide release Friday and which has already garnered critical acclaim, including "two thumbs up" from reviewers Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper.

"My understanding is that it's done in good taste," said Moyer of United 93. "I am personally not offended by the movies (about 9/11) especially this one. I think it's something that no one should ever forget."

Sept. 11, 2001 is a date that Moyer will always remember.

"I was working as the shift supervisor in my patrol van and I was just turning from Union Avenue onto Arch Street and the 9 a.m. news came on the radio. It was CBS News which was reporting that a small Piper two-seater had hit the World Trade Center," a place that Moyer that visited a number of times before, most recently in March 2001 when his class at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. took a field trip into New York.

"I thought 'wow, a small piper plane, it must have caused some damage,' not knowing it was a big airliner. They led with that story, they had very little information. I went back to the station and started watching the news and the second plane hit. I recall it was a beautiful day, in the 70s with low humidity, just a perfect day, and I remember we started getting calls just after noontime reporting suspicious activity."

The day was "certainly a defining moment in my life," said Moyer, who two days later traveled to Baltimore, Md. with his wife Robin to see his beloved Red Sox take on the Orioles.

But Major League Baseball canceled all games that week and the couple decided to visit friends in Arlington, Va. instead. On the way there, they passed the Pentagon.

"I have photos of it still smoldering. And the smell, it's something I will never forget. We were 100 yards from where the plane came in. They had re-opened that section of the highway and it was just one big, black hole. But it was the smell, the stench of the burned petrol, it was something else."

Moyer expects to enjoy United 93 because "it has the support of most if not all of the families of the victims," and because the movie's producers are contributing 10 percent of proceeds to a "United 93" memorial fund.

He was less certain, however, about Oliver Stone's film "World Trade Center" which opens on Aug. 11. Stone, he said, can "sometimes do a good movie, but sometimes he can be a conspiracy theorist" as Moyer believes was the case with "JFK," which dealt with the assassination of President John Kennedy.

"I think (United 93) will respect what happened that day instead of having any disrespect. It's important so that people never forget and if this is what it takes to remind people, then fine."

Belmont resident Stephen K. Brown, who is the director of flight education at Daniel Webster College, said 9/11 remains an emotional subject, but he said that within the aviation industry, "I haven't heard anybody talk negatively about it."

Brown, who is a certified airline transport pilot teaching at a college that prepares students to become commercial airline pilots and air traffic controllers, said the terrorist attacks were "a significant event for all of us involved in aviation because it was something where we were doing what we love, and it was used in a dangerous, harsh format and it had an impact."

That impact has been seen in changes to cockpit access and cockpit doors and the formation of the Transportation Security Administration. Additionally, every flight instructor in the country now has to go through annual safety and security training.

Sept. 11 also saw the diminution of the United States as the world leader in aviation training.

"For Daniel Webster College it has not had a significant impact because we are college-oriented, but other flight schools in the southeast have closed down and some of the larger academies that are out there have closed their doors or consolidated."'

Asked about what good came from 9-11 and what was learned, Brown to the first question replied that "it's kind of hard to see."

To the second question, "one of the things that we learned, was that for whatever reasons, people wanted to do some harm and they would find a way to do it."