The attacks
A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade CenterMain article: September 11, 2001 timeline for the day of the attacks
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) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms).[4] Three of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center North and South towers and the Pentagon, the fourth crash landed.
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223[5], wide-body aircraft crashed into the north side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, or 12:46:30 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222[6], crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223[7], crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222[8], 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), with parts and debris found up to eight miles away. The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.
During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls from the flights. They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane. A total of 19 hijackers were later identified by the FBI, four on United 93 and five each on the other three flights.
The hijackers reportedly took control of the aircraft by using box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools. But 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.[9] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the Commission Report the bombs were probably fake.
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 similiarly 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). The 9/11 Panel reported that captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. 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.
See also: Communication during the September 11, 2001 attacks
Fatalities
There were 2,973 fatalities: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived[17]), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. [18]Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers.[19] An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.[11]
World Trade Center - 1366 people 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 later.[20]
As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at and 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.
An estimated 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.[21] In addition, some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue. No rescue plan existed for such an eventuality. Fleeing occupants instead encountered locked access doors upon reaching the roof. In any case, thick smoke and intense heat prevented rescue helicopters from landing.[22]
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. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93-101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Approximately 400 rescue workers, most of them of the FDNY, died when the towers collapsed.
According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."[23] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.
The fatalities included 8 children, 5 on American 77 of ages 3, 8, and 11, 3 of ages 2, 3, and 4 on United 175.[24] The youngest victims were two 3 year-old children on Flight 175, the oldest was an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79. [25]
As the suburbs around New York City learned of the destruction so close to home, many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Scarsdale, New York schools closed for the day. In Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, hundreds of school children had direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total population, than any other Connecticut towns. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. Almost all the fatalities were civilians, except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.
The captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski, is said to have been killed by hijackers before the impact. There were a number of reports, some contradictory, from callers aboard the hijacked aircraft that suggest the hijackers killed several people aboard the planes before impact.[26]
Damage
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, two New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Two additional buildings were later condemned: the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway due to extensive damage in the attacks. These buildings are both (as of September 2006) slated for deconstruction). [1]
Communications equipment such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.[27]
Survivors
According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, by evacuation before the towers collapsed.
See also: Survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks
A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade CenterMain article: September 11, 2001 timeline for the day of the attacks
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) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms).[4] Three of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center North and South towers and the Pentagon, the fourth crash landed.
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223[5], wide-body aircraft crashed into the north side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, or 12:46:30 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222[6], crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223[7], crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222[8], 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), with parts and debris found up to eight miles away. The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.
During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls from the flights. They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane. A total of 19 hijackers were later identified by the FBI, four on United 93 and five each on the other three flights.
The hijackers reportedly took control of the aircraft by using box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools. But 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.[9] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the Commission Report the bombs were probably fake.
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 similiarly 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). The 9/11 Panel reported that captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. 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.
See also: Communication during the September 11, 2001 attacks
Fatalities
There were 2,973 fatalities: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived[17]), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. [18]Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers.[19] An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.[11]
World Trade Center - 1366 people 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 later.[20]
As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at and 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.
An estimated 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.[21] In addition, some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue. No rescue plan existed for such an eventuality. Fleeing occupants instead encountered locked access doors upon reaching the roof. In any case, thick smoke and intense heat prevented rescue helicopters from landing.[22]
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. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93-101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Approximately 400 rescue workers, most of them of the FDNY, died when the towers collapsed.
According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."[23] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.
The fatalities included 8 children, 5 on American 77 of ages 3, 8, and 11, 3 of ages 2, 3, and 4 on United 175.[24] The youngest victims were two 3 year-old children on Flight 175, the oldest was an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79. [25]
As the suburbs around New York City learned of the destruction so close to home, many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Scarsdale, New York schools closed for the day. In Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, hundreds of school children had direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total population, than any other Connecticut towns. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. Almost all the fatalities were civilians, except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.
The captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski, is said to have been killed by hijackers before the impact. There were a number of reports, some contradictory, from callers aboard the hijacked aircraft that suggest the hijackers killed several people aboard the planes before impact.[26]
Damage
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, two New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Two additional buildings were later condemned: the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway due to extensive damage in the attacks. These buildings are both (as of September 2006) slated for deconstruction). [1]
Communications equipment such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.[27]
Survivors
According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, by evacuation before the towers collapsed.
See also: Survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks
