Remembering September 11, 2001

This marks 24 years since the terrorist attacks on our country. September 11, 2001, was such an unforgettable day that it left some type of mark on every American’s heart, whether directly impacted by the attacks or not. 

Some of us watched it unfold on television, some saw the events firsthand, and some lost loved ones. But while many of us have no immediate connection to the tragedy, we still share a kinship that keeps September 11th near to our hearts.

The attacks themselves lasted less than two hours; the first hijacking commenced at approximately 8:14 am, and the final hijacked plane crashed at 10:03 am.

Events of September 11, 2001

5:01 a.m.: Ziad Jarrah in Newark calls Marwan al-Shehhi in Boston; this call was most likely to confirm the hijackers were ready to carry out the attacks.

6:00: Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari travel on Colgan Air Flight 5930 from Portland International Jetport in Maine to Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts from where they will board American Airlines Flight 11.

6:00: Polls open for the New York City mayoral primaries, as well as other local elections.[1]

6:31: President George W. Bush goes for an early-morning jog around the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort in Longboat Key, Florida, where he and his staff had spent the night.[6]

6:45: Atta and al-Omari arrive at Logan International Airport.

6:52: Al-Shehhi calls Atta from another terminal at Logan to confirm that the plans for the attacks are set.

7:04–7:40: Jarrah and his hijacking team arrive at Newark International Airport (now Newark Liberty International Airport) and check in for United Airlines Flight 93.

7:15: Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqed arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport and check-in for American Airlines Flight 77.

7:18: al-Mihdhar and Moqed arrive at the security checkpoint at Washington Dulles International Airport. Both set off alarms and are consequently given a more thorough search.

7:23–7:28: Al-Shehhi and his hijacking team board Flight 175.

7:35–7:40: Atta and his hijacking team board Flight 11.

7:35: Hani Hanjour arrives at the security checkpoint at Washington Dulles International Airport. He passes through the checkpoint without raising suspicion or triggering any alarms.

7:39–7:48: Jarrah and his hijacking team board Flight 93.

7:40: Flight 11 is pushed back from Gate B32 at Logan International Airport.

7:50: Hanjour and his four fellow hijackers board Flight 77.

7:58: United Airlines Flight 175 is pushed back from Gate C19 at Logan International Airport.

7:59: American Airlines Flight 11, 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.

8:00: President Bush had his daily intelligence briefing. The material is routine, mainly concerning the Al-Aqsa Intifada and other Israeli-Palestinian issues. He calls Condoleezza Rice about one item, but there is no mention in the report of Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda, nor are there any final warnings about the terrorist plot now actively in motion. The briefing lasts about twenty minutes, after which he says goodbye to the resort staff and departs in his motorcade. As the President's scheduled event is considered a garden-variety trip to promote his education agenda, accompanied by low-level aides and reporters, Chief of Staff Andrew Card remarks to him, "It should be an easy day."

8:01: United Airlines Flight 93 is pushed back from Gate A17 at Newark International Airport.

8:09: Flight 77 is pushed back from Gate D26 at Dulles International Airport.

8:13–8:20:] Flight 11 is hijacked. Waleed and Wail al-Shehri rise from seats 2A and 2B and stab flight attendants Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui. Atta rises from seat 8D and approaches the cockpit. Passenger Daniel Lewin rises from seat 9B and tries to stop Atta but is fatally stabbed by hijacker Satam al-Suqami, who sat in 10B. The hijackers also sprayed Mace in the first and business class cabins, forcing everyone in those sections to vacate to the back of the airplane. Flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney reports being shown a bomb by one of the hijackers.

8:13:35: Flight 11 has its last routine communication with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (hereinafter "Boston Center").

Boston Center: American 11, turn twenty degrees right.

American Airlines Flight 11: Turning right, American 11.

8:13:52: Boston Center Sector 46 controller Pete Zalewski instructs Flight 11 to climb to 35,000 feet twice but receives no reply. He informs the Athens Sector controller that the flight is "NORDO" (no radio). Boston Center continues to attempt to re-establish contact with the flight without success.

8:14: United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 56 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and nine 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.

One of them, most likely al-Shehhi, communicated with Mohamed Atta shortly before American Airlines Flight 11's takeoff.

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: "[I'm] number 3 in the back. The cockpit is not answering, somebody's stabbed in business class—and I think there's Mace—that we can't breathe—I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked." She then tells of the stabbings of two flight attendants.[10]

8:20: American Airlines Flight 77 with 58 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and six 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.

8:20: Boston Center flight controllers decide that Flight 11 has probably been hijacked.

8:21: Flight 11's transponder signal is turned off, but the flight can still be tracked via primary radar by Boston Center; prior to the 9/11 Commission's report, news organizations reported this time as 8:13 or immediately thereafter.

8:24: A radio transmission comes from Flight 11: "Eh..... We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport." It is believed that Atta mistakenly held a button directing his voice to the radio rather than to the plane's cabin as he intended. A few seconds later, a second transmission is received, in which Atta says "Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet."

8:26:30: Flight 11 makes a 100-degree turn to the south, following the Hudson River toward New York City.

8:29:24: Boston Center alerts the neighboring Cleveland and New York ARTCCs regarding Flight 11. The flight's position is estimated to be fifteen miles southwest of Albany. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is not yet alerted.

8:33: Flight 175 reaches its assigned cruising altitude of 31,000 feet.

8:33:59: A third transmission from Atta onboard Flight 11: "Nobody move, please. We are going back to the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves."

8:34: Boston Center traffic manager Dan Bueno notifies the tower controller at Otis Air National Guard Base at Cape Cod of the hijacking of Flight 11. The controller directs Bueno to contact Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), the northeast sector of NORAD. The controller then notifies Otis Operations Center that a call from NEADS might be coming. Two F-15 pilots begin to suit up.

8:37: Flight 175 confirms sighting of hijacked Flight 11 to flight controllers, 10 miles to its south.

8:37:30: Flight 11 begins a rapid descent at 3,200 feet per minute, starting from an altitude of 29,000 feet. This descent continues until the moment of impact with the North Tower. Half a minute later, having descended one thousand feet, the flight makes a slight southward turn.

8:37:52: Boston Center control notifies NEADS of the hijacking of Flight 11, the first notification received by NORAD of a hijacking that morning. The controller requests military help to intercept the jetliner. As NEADS is running a training exercise at that point, it inquires as to the veracity of the request, with Boston Center responding that it is "not an exercise, not a test."

8:42: United Airlines Flight 93 with 37 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and seven 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 four minutes away from crashing.

8:42–8:46 (approx.): Flight 175 is hijacked above northwest New Jersey, about 60 miles 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: 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.

8:50–8:54 (approx.): Flight 77 is hijacked above southern Ohio, turning to the southeast. The transponder is turned off by hijacker-pilot Hani Hanjour.

9:03: 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: 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. No one in the President's traveling party has any information during this time that other aircraft were hijacked or missing.

9:32: A radio transmission from Flight 93 is overheard by flight controllers at Cleveland: "Ladies and gentlemen, here is the captain, please sit down. Keep remaining [sic] sitting. We have a bomb on board. So sit."

9:32: Controllers at the Dulles Terminal Radar Approach Control in Virginia observe "a primary radar target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed", referring to Flight 77.

9:33–9:34: A tower supervisor at Reagan National Airport tells Secret Service operations center at the White House that "an aircraft is coming at you and not talking with us," referring to Flight 77. The White House is about to be evacuated when the tower reports that Flight 77 has turned and is approaching Reagan National Airport.

9:34: The FAA's Command Center relays information concerning Flight 93 to FAA headquarters.

9:35: The President's motorcade departs from the elementary school, bound for Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport and Air Force One.

9:35: Flight 93 reverses direction over northeast Ohio and starts flying eastwards.

9:35: Based on a report that Flight 77 had turned again and was circling back toward the District of Columbia, the Secret Service orders the immediate evacuation of the Vice President from the White House.

9:36: Cleveland advises the FAA Command Center that it is still tracking Flight 93 and inquires whether someone had requested the military to launch fighter aircraft to intercept the aircraft.

9:37: Vice President Cheney enters a tunnel leading to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, located under the White House East Wing.

9:37: 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.

9:42: Senior FAA traffic manager Ben Sliney issues the execution order for SCATANA grounding all air traffic over the United States and diverting any incoming international traffic to alternate destinations.

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.

9:59: 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: Flight 93 is crashed by its hijackers as a result of fighting in the cockpit 80 miles 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 collapsed due to the fire started by the crash.

10:28: 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.[1][3]

10:35: Air Force One, carrying the President, turns for Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.

10:37: Associated Press reports that officials at the Somerset County Airport confirm that a large plane has crashed in western Pennsylvania. 

10:39: Another hijacked airliner is claimed to be headed for Washington, D.C. Fighter jets 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. Eventually, the aircraft is revealed to be a medevac helicopter on its way to the Pentagon.

10:41: NBC News confirms that a plane has "gone down" in Somerset County. The earlier unconfirmed statements about an incident at the State Department in Washington, D.C. are reported as false.

12:04 p.m.: Los Angeles International Airport, the intended destination of Flights 11, 77, and 175, is shut down.

12:15: San Francisco International Airport, the intended destination of Flight 93, is shut down.

12:15 (approximately): The airspace over the 48 contiguous United States is clear of all commercial and private flights.

4:00: National news outlets report that high officials in the federal intelligence community are stating that Osama bin Laden is suspect number one.

5:20: 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story building, collapses after fires started inside the building.

8:30: U.S. President George W. Bush addresses the country from the White House in Washington, D.C. Among his statements:

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.

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.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts...we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”

Today, there are three memorial sites to honor the lives lost that day. 

9/11 Memorial & Museum is located in New York City. This memorial and museum is the country’s principal institution dedicated to exploring 9/11, documenting its impact, and examining its ongoing significance. Located at the World Trade Center in New York City, the museum tells the story of 9/11 through media, narratives, and a collection of monumental and authentic artifacts, presenting visitors with personal stories of loss, recovery, and hope.

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial is located in Washington, D.C. The two-acre memorial site includes benches honoring each victim and an expansive Memorial Gateway.

Flight 93 National Memorial is located in Shanksville, PA. The plane's crash site has been turned into a national park, with a Memorial Plaza, visitor center, and the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot-tall musical instrument holding 40 wind chimes, representing the 40 passengers and crew onboard the airplane.

After a nearly decade-long manhunt, on May 2, 2011, 23 US Navy SEALS descended on Osama bin Laden’s compound hideout in Pakistan. Along with four others, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, bin Laden, was killed.