This article is part of the |
| Background history |
| Planning and execution |
| September 11 |
| Rest of September |
| October |
| Aftermath |
All times in New York Time (EDT). This is four hours before UTC.
7:58 AM: American Airlines Flight 11, a fully fueled Boeing 767 carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew, departs from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Shortly before takeoff, Mohammed Atta made a short (less than one minute) phone call to Marwan al-Shehhi. Mohammed Atta was in seat 8D. Satam al-Suqami, who had paid in cash that day, sat in seat 10B. Waleed Alshehri sat in seat 2B. Wail Alshehri sat in seat 2A. Abdulaziz Al-Omari also was on this flight. Atta and Alomari earlier took a flight from Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine to Logan International Airport.
8:00 AM: United Airlines Flight 175, another fully fueled Boeing 767 carrying 56 passengers and 9 crew members, departs from Boston Logan airport, also bound for Los Angeles, California.
8:10 AM: American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 58 passengers and 6 crew departs from Chantilly, Virginia's Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, California.
8:13 AM: American Airlines Flight 11 is hijacked at approximately this time - the first plane taken over.
8:20 AM: Boston center flight controllers decide that flight 11 has probably been hijacked.
8:25 AM: Boston center flight controllers alert other flight control centers regarding flight 11; however, NORAD is not yet alerted.
8:37 AM: United Airlines Flight 175 sights and confirms the sighting of hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 to flight controllers, 10 miles to its south.
8:40 AM: The FAA notifies NORAD about the suspected hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11. ''Some sources indicate that this notification may have occurred as early as 8:31 AM. Whether at 8:40 or 8:31, the delay in time of Boston center talking to NORAD about flight 11 is one point of investigation by the September 11 congressional investigation.
8:42 AM: United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 takes off with 37 passengers and 7 crew members from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey bound for San Francisco, California's San Francisco International Airport, following a 40 minute delay due to congested runways. Its flight path initially takes it close to the World Trade Center. This is also the minute that United Airlines Flight 175 is hijacked.
8:43 AM: The FAA notifies NORAD about the suspected hijacking of United Airlines Flight 175. NORAD, apparently listening to Boston center's transmissions by this time, already knows.
8:46:26 AM: American Airlines Flight 11 crashes with a speed of roughly 490 miles per hour into the north side of the north tower of the World Trade Center, between floors 94 and 98. (Many accounts have given times that range between 8:45 AM and 8:50 AM). Due to the building's structural type, pioneered in the late 1960s to maximize rentable floorspace and featuring lightweight tubular design with no masonry elements in the facade, the jetliner literally enters the tower, mostly intact. It plows to the building core, severing all three gypsum-encased stairwells, dragging combustibles with it. A massive shock wave travels down to the ground and up again. The combustibles as well as the remnants of the aircraft are ignited by the burning fuel. Since the building lacks a traditional full cage frame and depends almost entirely on the strength of a narrow structural core running up the center, the fire at the center of the impact zone is in a position to compromise the integrity of all internal columns. Only two home video cameras are known to have ever recorded the impact of Flight 11. People below the severed stairwells in the north tower start to evacuate; no one above the impact zone is able to.
8:46 AM to 10:29 AM: At least twenty people, primarily in the north tower and trapped by fire and smoke in the upper floors, jump to their deaths. There is some evidence that large central portions of the floor near the impact zone in the north tower collapsed soon after the plane hit, perhaps convincing some people that total collapse was imminent. One person at street level, firefighter Daniel Thomas Suhr, is hit by a jumper and dies. No form of airborne evacuation is attempted as smoke is too dense for a successful landing on the roof of either tower, and New York City lacks helicopters specialized for horizontal rescue.
8:48 AM: The first news and radio organizations report an explosion or incident at the World Trade Center. ABC breaks into regular programming at 8:52. CNN breaks into a commercial at 8:48. CNN headlines first read 'World Trade Center disaster', then 'Plane crashes into World Trade Center tower'.
8:55 AM (approx.): Announcements are made by officials in the still-undamaged South Tower of the World Trade Center that the building is 'secure', and that people may return to their offices, over the building-wide PA system. Some don't hear it; others ignore it and evacuate anyway; others congregate in common areas like the 78th floor sky lobby to discuss their options.
9:02:54 AM: United Airlines Flight 175 crashes with a speed of about 590 miles per hour into the south side of the south tower, banked between floors 78 and 84. By this time, several media organizations are covering the first plane crash; millions see the impact live. Parts of the plane leave the building at its east and north sides, falling to the ground six blocks away. A passenger on the plane, Peter Hanson, had called his father earlier from the plane reporting that hijackers were stabbing flight attendants in order to force the crew to open the cockpit doors. In the seconds after impact some observers, like Bryant Gumbel of CBS, cling to the idea this is some kind of double accident. Others, like WNYW's Jim Ryan and NBC's Matt Lauer, immediately describe it as a terrorist attack. While a massive evacuation begins in the south tower below its impact zone, only a lucky few (by doing heavy moving of gypsum blocking an emergency stairwell) evacuate from above it. CNN's headline now reads 'Second plane crashes into World Trade Center'.
9:03 AM: President George W. Bush enters an Emma E. Booker Elementary School classroom in Sarasota, Florida as part of a scheduled visit to promote education and the Bush administration education policies. Bush is (only) aware that a commercial airline has struck one of the World Trade Center towers and elects to continue his schedule for the moment.
9:04 AM (approximately): The FAA's Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center stops all departures from airports in its jurisdiction (New England and eastern New York State).
9:06 AM: The FAA bans takeoffs of all flights bound to or through the airspace of New York Center from airports in that Center and the three adjacent Centers - Boston, Cleveland, and Washington. This is referred to as a First Tier groundstop and covers the Northeast from North Carolina north and as far west as eastern Michigan.
9:06 AM: After brief introductions to the Booker elementary students, President Bush is about to begin reading with the students when Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupts to whisper to the president, "A second plane hit the other tower, and America's under attack." The president elects to continue the lesson rather than alarm the students.
9:08 AM: The FAA bans all takeoffs nationwide for flights going to or through New York Center airspace.
9:16 AM: President Bush leaves the classroom he has been in since 9:03, and is whisked to another, commandeered by the secret service. It contains a telephone, television showing the news coverage, and several senior staff members. Bush accumulates information and prepares brief remarks.
9:20 AM: CNN's headline makes reference to foul play for the first time: 'AP: FBI investigating report of plane hijacking'. 9:22: 'AP: Plane was hijacked before crashed'.
9:24 AM: The FAA notifies NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector about the suspected hijacking of American Airlines flight 77. The FAA and NORAD establish an open line to discuss American Airlines flight 77 and United Airlines flight 93, which is hijacked at about this time.
9:26 AM: The FAA bans takeoffs of all civilian aircraft regardless of destination - a national groundstop.
9:29 AM: President George W. 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, that "we've had a national tragedy", and leads a moment of silence. After the speech, he is bound for Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and Air Force One.
9:37 AM: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the western side of The Pentagon and starts a violent fire. The section of the Pentagon hit consists mainly of newly renovated, unoccupied offices. Barbara K. Olson had called her husband, Solicitor General Theodore Olson, at the Justice Department twice from the plane to tell him about the hijacking and to report that the passengers and pilots were held in the back of the plane. As bright flames and dark smoke enveloped the west side of America's military nerve center all doubts about the terrorist nature of the attacks are gone. At 9:39, CNN posts 'Report of fire at Pentagon', its first reference to the incident at the Pentagon.
9:45 AM: United States airspace is shut down. No civilian aircraft are allowed to lift off, and all aircraft in flight are ordered to land at the nearest airport as soon as practical. All air traffic headed for the U.S. is redirected to Canada. Later, the FAA announces that civilian flights are suspended until at least noon, September 12. The groundings last until September 14, and there are exemptions for Saudi families who fear retribution if they stay in the United States. Military and medical flights continue. This is the fourth time all commercial flights in the U.S. have been stopped, and the first time a suspension was unplanned. All previous suspensions were military-related (Sky Shield I-III), from 1960 to 1962. Many reporters in the press (including the New York Times) mistakenly print that this is the first time flights have been suspended.
9:45 AM: The White House and the Capitol are closed.
9:50 AM (approximately): the Associated Press reports that American Airlines Flight 11 was apparently hijacked after departure from Boston's Logan Airport. Within an hour this is confirmed for both Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175.
9:57 AM: President Bush leaves Sarasota, Florida on Air Force One. The plane reaches cruising altitude and circles for approximately 40 minutes while the destination of the plane is discussed.
9:59:04 AM: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, to the astonishment of a vast television and radio audience. Accompanied by a massive dust plume which expands across several square miles, some news reporters were caught so off guard by the collapse that they initially believed only a piece of the tower had broken off, or that a second intentional explosion caused the collapse. It is now generally believed that the tower collapse was not directly caused by the jetliner's impact or a secondary explosion. Metal analysis has suggested that the impact of the jets completely blew off fire protection sprayed onto metal girders responsible for holding the weight of the tower; the subsequent high temperature jet fuel and conventional fire weakened the metal enough to cause structural failure of the girders. Both towers made use of external load-bearing mini columns and on one face of each building approximately forty of these were severed by the jetliners. Certainly the severing of these columns weakened the towers' structural integrity, but the fire, burning directly on steel, was most directly responsible for the two towers' eventual collapse; most structural engineers believe that had only the columns been severed, both towers would have remained standing. The World Trade Center tower construction was unique. If concrete had been put into the towers' facades, it might have prevented most of the debris and fuel from reaching the building core. Investigations that may radically change skyscraper design (or result in a radical retreat to full cage construction with high concrete-to-steel ratios as in pre-1960s skyscrapers) are ongoing.
10:03 AM: United Airlines Flight 93 crashes southeast of Pittsburgh in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Other reports say 10:06 or 10:10. According to seismographic data readings the time of impact was 10:06:05, but black box recording and at least one telephone call argues in favor of 10:03. Later reports indicate that passengers speaking on cell phones had learned about the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes and at least three were planning on resisting the hijackers. It is likely that the resistance led to the plane crashing before it reached its intended target.
Reports stated an eyewitness saw a white plane resembling a fighter jet circling the site minutes after the crash. These reports have limited credibility, although fighter jets had been scrambled to defend the Washington D.C. region ealier. These jets, however, stayed within the immediate D.C. area.
10:10 AM: part of the Pentagon collapses.
10:13 AM: Thousands are involved in an evacuation of the United Nations complex in New York.
10:15 AM (approximately): the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is reported to take responsibility for the crashes, but this is denied by a senior officer of the group soon after.
10:28:31 AM: the north tower of the World Trade Center collapses from the top down, as if being peeled apart. Probably due to the destruction of the gypsum-encased stairwells on the impact floors (most skyscraper stairwells are encased in reinforced concrete), no one above the impact zone in the north tower survives. The fact that the north tower stood much longer than the south one is later attributed to three facts: the region of impact was higher (which meant the gravity load on the most damaged area was lighter), the speed of the airplane was lower, and the affected floors had had their fire proofing partially upgraded. Also, the hottest part of the fire in the south tower burned in a corner of the structure, perhaps leading to a more concentrated failure of columns and/or joist trusses. The Marriott Hotel, located at the base of the two towers, is also destroyed.
10:35 AM (approximately): police are reportedly alerted about a bomb in a car outside the State Department in Washington, D.C. Later reports claim that nothing happened at the State Department.
10:35 AM: Air Force One, carrying the president, turns for Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana.
10:39 AM: another hijacked jumbo jet is claimed to be headed for Washington, D.C. F-15ss are scrambled and patrol the airspace above Washington, D.C. while other fighter jets sweep the airspace above New York City. They have orders, first issued by Vice President Cheney and later confirmed by President Bush, to shoot down any potentially dangerous planes that do not comply with orders given to them via radio.
10:45 AM: CNN reports that a mass evacuation of Washington D.C. and New York has been started. The UN headquarters are already empty. A few minutes later, New York's mayor orders an evacuation of lower Manhattan.
10:50 AM: five stories of part of The Pentagon collapse due to the fire.
10:53 AM: New York's primary elections are canceled.
11:15 AM (approximately): reports that the F-15s over Washington had shot something down. There was no later confirmation of these reports.
11:16 AM: American Airlines confirms the loss of its two airplanes.
11:17 AM: United Airlines confirms the loss of Flight 93 and states that it is "deeply concerned" about Flight 175.
11:25 AM: Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida is closed.
11:45 AM: Air Force One, carrying President Bush, lands at Barksdale Air Force Base.
11:53 AM: United Airlines confirms the loss of its two airplanes.
11:55 AM: the border between the U.S. and Mexico is on highest alert, but has not been closed.
12:00 PM (approximately): President Bush arrives at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. He was on a trip in Sarasota Florida to speak about education, but is supposedly now returning to the Capital. He makes a brief and informal initial statement to the effect that terrorism on U.S. soil will not be tolerated, stating that "freedom itself has been attacked and freedom will be protected."
12:02 PM: The Taliban government of Afghanistan denounces the attacks.
12:04 PM: Los Angeles International Airport, the intended destination of Flight 11 , Flight 77 and Flight 175 is shut down.
12:15 PM: San Francisco International Airport, the intended destination of United Airlines flight 93, is shut down.
12:15 PM (approximately): The airspace over the 48 contiguous United States is clear of all commercial and private flights.
1:00 PM (approximately): At The Pentagon, fire crews are still fighting fires. The early response to the attack had been coordinated from the National Military Command Center, but that had to be evacuated when it began to fill with smoke.
1:04 PM: President Bush puts the U.S. military on high alert worldwide. He speaks from Barksdale Air Force Base and leaves for SAC bunker in Nebraska. Later in the day several commentators and journalists, most notably ABC's Peter Jennings, express frustration with Bush's seemingly random wandering. After the arrival in Nebraska Jennings asks the ABC correspondent on the scene exactly where the President is. She answers, "Peter, the President has gone down the rabbit hole".
1:27 PM: Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, D.C, declares a state of emergency; the D.C. National Guard arrives on site.
2:30 PM: Senator John McCain characterizes attack as an "act of war."
2:49 PM: At a press conference New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is asked to estimate the number of casualties at the World Trade Center. He replies, "More than any of us can bear."
4:00 PM: National news outlets report that high officials in the federal intelligence community are stating that Osama Bin Laden is suspect number one.
4:25 PM: The New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and the American Stock Exchange report that they will remain closed Wednesday September 12.
5:20 PM: Salomon Brothers 7, commonly referred to as "7 World Trade Center", a 47 story building which had sustained what was originally thought to be light damage in the fall of the twin towers and was earlier reported on fire, collapses. Structural engineers are puzzled and investigation continues. The building was not designed by the same team responsible for the Twin Towers. The building contained New York's special emergency center, which may well have been intended for such a disaster as September 11.
6:00 PM: Explosions and tracer fire are reported in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan by CNN and the BBC. The Northern Alliance, involved in a civil war with the Taliban government, is later reported to have attacked Kabul's airport with helicopter gunships.
6:00 PM: Iraq announces the attacks are the fruit of "U.S. crimes against humanity" in an official announcement on state television.
6:54 PM: President Bush finally arrives at the White House. Executive authority through much of the day had rested with Vice President Cheney.
7:00 PM: frantic efforts to locate survivors in the rubble that had been the Twin Towers continue. Fleets of ambulances have been lined up to transport the injured to nearby hospitals. They stand empty. 'Ground Zero' is the exclusive domain of the FDNY and NYPD, despite volunteer steel and construction workers who stand ready to move large quantities of debris quickly. Relatives and friends displaying enlarged photographs of the missing printed on home computer printers are flooding downtown. The New York Armory at Lexington Avenue and 26th Street and Union Square Park at 14th Street become centers of vigil.
7:30 PM: U.S. Government denies any responsibility for reported explosions in Kabul.
8:30 PM: President Bush addresses nation from the White House. Among his phrases: "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." For a full transcript , see this White House webpage.
9:00 PM: Bush meets with his full National Security Council, followed roughly half an hour later by a meeting with a smaller group of key advisers. Bush and his advisers have evidence that Osama bin Laden is behind the attacks. CIA Director Tenet says that al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan are essentially one and the same. Bush says, "Tell the Taliban we're finished with them." Washington Post, 1/27/02
11:00 PM: There are reports of survivors buried in the rubble in New York making cell phone calls. These rumors were later proved to be wrong.
11:30 PM: Before going to sleep, Bush writes in his diary. "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today. ... We think it's Osama bin Laden." Washington Post, 1/27/02
Overview
-- Background history
-- Planning and execution
-- September 11
-- Rest of September
-- October
-- AftermathTuesday, September 11, 2001