Attack on America

At approximately 8:46 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying about 10,000 gallons of jet fuel, crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact tears a gaping hole across floors 93 through 99 of the 110-story skyscraper, killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more on the floors above.

As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcast live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 17 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767—United Airlines Flight 175—appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

The hijackers were 19 al Qaeda terrorists, 15 of whom were from Saudi Arabia. The others were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon. The attacks were orchestrated by al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, who cited America’s support of Israel, its military involvement in the Middle East and its continued military presence in Saudi Arabia among his grievances against the United States. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the “muscle” in the operation.

On September 11, the terrorists easily smuggled box cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the hijackers commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the passenger jets into guided missiles.

As millions watched in horror at the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 approached the Washington, D.C., area and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:37 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 59 passengers and crew aboard the airliner.

More than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The impact of United Airlines Flight 175 damaged the tower’s structural columns and dislodged fireproofing, while the resulting fires weakened the steel structure. At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed.

Close to 3,000 people died in and around the World Trade Center, including 343 members of the New York City Fire Department, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers, many of whom were working to evacuate the buildings and rescue office workers trapped on higher floors. Only 16 people who were inside the North Tower’s Stairwell B survived its collapse, while no one inside the South Tower survived its collapse.

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane—United Airlines Flight 93—was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed before takeoff, passengers and crew members on board learned of events in New York and Washington via Airfone and cellphone calls to the ground. After learning what had happened to the other hijacked planes, passengers and surviving crew members planned to fight back. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett Jr., told his wife over the phone that “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.” Another passenger—Todd Beamer—was heard saying “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll” over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were “Everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”

The passengers and crew members fought the four hijackers and are believed to have tried to breach the cockpit using a fire extinguisher. The plane then rolled onto its back and plunged toward the ground at more than 500 mph, crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. All 44 people aboard were killed. The hijackers’ intended target was likely either the U.S. Capitol or the White House in Washington, D.C.

At approximately 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 8:30 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” He also declared: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to remove the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan and disrupt al Qaeda’s operations there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011.