September 11 2001
The timeline:
7:59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with registration number N334AA, carrying 76 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and 11 crew members, departs 14 minutes late from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport. Five hijackers are on board. Hijacker and ringleader Mohamed Atta would pilot the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
8:14: United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, with registration number N612UA carrying 56 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and 9 crew members, departs 14 minutes late from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport. Five hijackers are on board. Lead hijacker-pilot Marwan al-Shehhi would pilot the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
8:14: Flight 11 is hijacked over Central Massachusetts, turning first northwest, then south heading straight to New York.
8:19: Betty Ong, a flight attendant on Flight 11, alerts an American Airlines reservations center in Cary, North Carolina, to the hijacking via an airphone.
8:20: American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with registration number N644AA with 58 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and 6 crew members, departs 10 minutes late from Washington Dulles International Airport, for Los Angeles International Airport. Five hijackers are on board. Lead hijacker-pilot Hani Hanjour will pilot the plane into the West side of the Pentagon.
8:42: United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 with registration number N591UA with 37 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and 7 crew members, departs 42 minutes late from Newark International Airport (later Newark Liberty International Airport), bound for San Francisco International Airport. Four hijackers are on board. Lead hijacker-pilot is Ziad Jarrah. At this time, Flight 175 is being hijacked and Flight 11 is about to descend to New York and is 4 minutes away from crashing.
8:42–8:46 (approx.): Flight 175 is hijacked above northwest New Jersey, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of New York City, continuing southwest briefly before turning back to the northeast. At this time estimate, Flight 11 is about to descend over New York and is just minutes away from crashing.
8:46:40: Flight 11 crashes into the north face of the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99. All passengers aboard are instantly killed with an unknown number inside the building. The aircraft enters the tower on impact
8:51–8:54 (approx.): Flight 77 is hijacked above southern Ohio, turning to the southeast. The transponder is turned off by hijacker-pilot Hani Hanjour.
9:03:11: Flight 175 crashes into the south face of the South Tower (2 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 77 and 85. All passengers and crew are killed together with an unknown number inside the building. Parts of the plane, including the starboard engine, leave the building from its east and north sides, falling to the ground six blocks away.
9:28: Flight 93 is hijacked above northern Ohio, turning to the southeast.
9:29: The FDNY’s Citywide Tour Commander issues a total recall of the Department, ordering all off-duty firefighters in New York City to report to their fire stations.
9:29: President Bush makes his first public statements about the attacks, in front of an audience of about 200 teachers and students at the elementary school. He states that he will be going back to Washington. “Today, we’ve had a national tragedy,” he starts. “Two airplanes… have crashed… into the World Trade Center… in an apparent terrorist attack on our country,” and leads a moment of silence.
9:37:46: Flight 77 crashes into the western side of the Pentagon. All 58 passengers and crew were killed aboard the aircraft, as well as an additional 125 (including emergency workers) on the ground. The crash starts a violent fire.
9:45: United States airspace is shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration; all operating aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport, and international flights are not permitted into the airspace.
9:57: The passengers aboard Flight 93 begin a revolt, planned by Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, and others, moving against the hijackers in an attempt to take back the plane.
9:58:59: The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 56 minutes after the impact of Flight 175. Impact speed of the plane is considered one of the likely factors of the shorter amount of time between impact and collapse than that of the North Tower.
10:03:11: Flight 93 is crashed by its hijackers as a result of fighting in the cockpit 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Later reports indicate that passengers had learned about the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes and were resisting the hijackers. The 9/11 Commission believed that Flight 93’s target was either the United States Capitol building or the White House in Washington, D.C. but Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims that the United States Capitol was the main target.
10:15: All five stories of the Pentagon on the West side where American 77 crashed collapse due to the fire started by the crash.
10:28:25: The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 1 hour and 42 minutes after the impact of Flight 11. The Marriott Hotel, located at the base of the two towers, is also destroyed.
5:20:33 p.m.: The 47 story 7 World Trade Center collapses after debris from the collapse of WTC 1 hitting it earlier in the day cause fires that eventually weaken the core columns.
I remember I was listening to Howard Stern when Flight 11 hit the North Tower. Stern’s studio was at 800 3rd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, about 5 miles from the lower Manhattan location of the World Trade Center and he stayed on air long past his usual end time. I was shocked and angered.
Share your memories of the events of the day in the comments.
