well i was in 6th grade and i did not know about it until after we were done taking the I-STEP because the teachers did not want it to upset us. It was a tuesday. I do remember that.
The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States.
On that morning, nineteen terrorists[1] affiliated with al-Qaeda[2] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a member who had undergone some pilot training. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings.[3] The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers;[4] that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Aside from the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks, and the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to WTC dust.[5] Another 24 people are missing and presumed dead, bringing the total number of victims to 2,998, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians. The dead included nationals from over 80 different countries.[6]
Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters).[7] Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth, whose ultimate target was probably either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200[8] wide-body aircraft, crashed into the northern side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC), hitting at the 94-98th floors.[9]
United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200,[10] crashed into the 78-85th floors of the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.[11]
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200,[12] crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200,[13] crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.[14]
Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The north tower (1 WTC) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. A third building, 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) collapsed at 5:20 p.m. as a result of debris damage from 1 WTC and subsequent fire.[15][16]
Tommy Dunn, a firefighter on the scene described the collapse of the tower. "I looked up and I could very clearly see that the entire top section of the tower had begun to collapse and was falling down on us. … The best I can compare it to is when you were a kid and you were in the water and you ducked down, down, down and let a wave come over your head. That's what the debris was like. It was spread so far that you were not gonna outrun this."[17]
During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service and mobile phones.[18][19] They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane.
The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.[20]
Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.[21] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.[22
On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with an Al Jazeera journalist that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol,[24] which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."[25]
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days;[26] aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day.[27] One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Harry S Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C.[28] This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number of newspapers published that day. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.[29]
Chairman Rudman of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Committee released in a press statement that it was not necessary to activate the EAS due to near immediate coverage by News Media. Rudman kept the 34 main PEP stations on high alert if needed, but as time passed, using the EAS was no longer necessary.[30]
Fatalities
Fatalities (excluding hijackers)
New York City World Trade Center 2,603 died and another 24 remain listed as missing[31][32]
American 11 88[33]
United 175 59[34]
Arlington Pentagon 125[35]
American 77 59[36]
Shanksville United 93 40[37]
Total 2,974 died and another 24 remain listed as missing.
There were 2,974 fatalities, not including the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (no one on board of the hijacked aircrafts survived),[38] 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.[39] Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was the highest ranking military official killed at the Pentagon.[40] John P. O'Neill was a former assistant director of the FBI who assisted in the capture of Ramzi Yousef and was the head of security at the World Trade Center when he was killed trying to rescue people from the South Tower.[41] An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.[32]
1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC). According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed.[42] As many as 600 people were killed instantly or were trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed. At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.[43] To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows.[44] Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, but no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality. The roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.[45]
A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene lost their lives as they attempted to implement rescue and fire suppression efforts. The New York City Fire Department lost 341 firefighters and 2 FDNY Paramedics. The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers. Private EMS units lost 8 additional EMTs and paramedics.[46][47]
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer.[48] Marsh Inc., located imme