September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda-trained terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners. The hijackers crashed two of the jets into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and crashed the third jet into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. Passengers and crew battled the hijackers for control of the fourth jet, and it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, short of reaching the hijackers' intended target in Washington, D.C.

The attacks caused the subsequent collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers, damaged the Pentagon, and killed approximately 3,000 people. Included in the death toll were hundreds of firefighters and rescue personnel who responded to the crashes at the World Trade Center site and who were in the process of rescuing those inside when the buildings collapsed.

The hijacking of American Airlines flight 11. The terrorist action began when five terrorists hijacked American Airlines flight 11, a Boeing 767 aircraft carrying 92 people that departed Boston bound for Los Angeles at 8:00 a.m. The FBI subsequently identified the hijackers as Satam M.A. al-Suqami, Waleed M. al-Shehri, Wail M. al-Shehri; Mohamed Atta, and Abdulaziz Alomari. The hijackers flew American Airlines flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 a.m.

The hijacking of United Airlines flight 175. Five terrorists hijacked United Airlines flight 175, a Boeing 767 aircraft that departed Boston for Los Angeles at 8:14 a.m. with 65 people on board. The FBI subsequently identified the hijackers as Marwan al-Shehhi, Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan al-Qadi Banihammad, Ahmed Alghamdi, and Mohand al-Shehri. The hijackers piloted United Airlines flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., 17 minutes after the crash of American Airlines flight 11 into the North Tower.

The hijacking of American Airlines flight 77. Five terrorists hijacked American Airlines flight 77, a Boeing 757 carrying 64 people that took off from Washington Dulles Airport bound for Los Angeles at 8:21 a.m. The FBI subsequently identified the hijackers as Khalid Almihdhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaf Alhazmi, Salem Alhazmi, and Hani Hanjour. The terrorists crashed the plane into the Pentagon at 9:43 a.m. The crash into the Pentagonexactly 60 years to the day after construction began on the buildingkilled more than one hundred personnel working in the building's outer rings, as well as the people aboard the aircraft. The portion of the Pentagon damaged by the crash had recently been strengthened and remodeled to heighten physical security, and Pentagon officials credit those measures with saving many lives.

The hijacking of United Airlines flight 93. Four terrorists hijacked United Airlines flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 44 people that took off from Newark bound for San Francisco at 8:41 a.m. The FBI subsequently identified the hijackers as Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi, Ahmed Alnami, and Ziad Samir Jarrah. Passengers, made aware of the hijackers' intentions during cell phone calls to family and authorities, attempted to overpower the hijackers. Minutes prior to the crash of the aircraft, a passenger on the flight used his cell phone to call an emergency operator in Pennsylvania to report that the plane had been hijacked and that passengers and crewmembers were planning to attempt to retake the plane. At the cost of their own lives, the passengers and crew thwarted the hijackers' plans to crash the plane into a Washington area target. At 10:07 a.m. the aircraft crashed into a field southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board. Intelligence developed from subsequently captured al-Qaeda terrorists indicated that the terrorists planned to crash the plane into either the U.S. Capitol or White House.





Please post what you think.Please thank the topic. These are still such hard times for all of those who lost. My friends dad took a picture of the towers 1 hour before this terrible thing happened. He got lucky, he had a meeting a 10:00, but it got canceled. I pray for the family's who lost someone dear to them.

God Bless America