![[World Trade center suposed face of Devil in the smoke, photo by Mark Phillips]](FaceinSmokeWTC3.jpg)
photo by © Mark Phillips
8:46 to 10:29 AM: At least 100 people (some accounts say as many
as 250), primarily in the North Tower, 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. 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.
8:49:34 AM: The first news and radio organizations report an
explosion or incident at the World Trade Center. CNN breaks into a commercial
at 8:49. CNN headlines first read "World Trade Center disaster." Carol
Lin, who was the first anchor to break the news of the attacks, said: "Yeah.
This just in. You're looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there.
That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning
that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously
calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened, but
clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there on
the south end of the island of Manhattan. That is once again, a picture
of one of the towers of the World Trade Center." Later, Sean Murtagh, CNN
vice-president of finance, in an on-air phone call, said from his office
in the CNN New York bureau that a large passenger commercial jet hit the
World Trade Center. Murtagh was the first network employee on the air.
The first email bulletins of breaking news from CNN and MSNBC report "fire
at tower of World Trade Center". Both CNN and MSNBC's websites receive
such heavy traffic, that many servers collapse. BBC News' website is active
and shows a picture of the North Tower on fire. Minutes later, email news
bulletins revise the reports of fire to a plane crash.
8:51 AM: A flight controller at the FAA's New York Center notices
that Flight 175 had changed its transponder code twice four minutes earlier;
he tries to contact the flight.
8:51 to 8:54 AM (approx.): Hijacking begins on Flight 77.
8:53 AM: The F-15s at Otis Air Force Base are airborne. Still
lacking an intercept vector to Flight 11 (and not aware that it has already
been crashed), they are sent to military controlled airspace off Long Island
and ordered to remain in a holding pattern until between 9:09 and 9:13.
8:54 AM: Flight 77 deviates from its assigned course to Los Angeles,
turning south over Ohio. Two minutes later, its transponder is turned off.
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 do not hear it; others ignore it and evacuate anyway; others
congregate in common areas like the 78th floor sky lobby.
8:55 AM: President George W. Bush is at Emma E. Booker Elementary
School in Sarasota, Florida, as part of a scheduled visit to promote education
and the Bush administration education policies when Presidential Advisor
Karl Rove tells him that a small, twin-engine plane had crashed into the
World Trade Center. The president speaks to National Security Advisor Condoleezza
Rice at the White House; she reports that it was a commercial aircraft.
9:03:13 AM: United Airlines flight 175 (another
Boeing 767) 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. Some mistakenly
believe that a second explosion has occurred in the North Tower due to the
North Tower's obstruction of the South Tower from certain camera angles.
They were unaware that a second plane had struck the South Tower. A massive
evacuation begins in the South Tower below its impact zone. One of the
stairwells in the South Tower remains unblocked from the top to the bottom
of the tower, but filled with smoke. This led many people to mistakenly
go upwards towards the roof for a rooftop rescue that never came. CNN's
headline now reads "Second plane crashes into World Trade Center."
![[World Trade center on fire 9-11]](CHAOS.JPG)
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 stated
later that he decided 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. ABC reports later that the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the New
York-area airports, asked the FAA for permission to close down the New
York Center airspace.
9:15 AM (approximately): President Bush leaves the classroom
in which he has been reading with students, and enters another, commandeered
by the Secret Service. It contains a telephone, a television showing the
news coverage, and several senior staff members. The president speaks to
Vice President Dick Cheney, Dr. Rice, New York Governor George Pataki,
and FBI Director Robert Mueller, and prepares brief remarks[2].
9:18 AM: CNN makes reference to foul play for the first time,
stating the FBI was investigating a report of plane hijacking. CNN headline:
"AP: Plane was hijacked before crashed".
9:23 AM: Flight 93 receives warning message text from United
Airlines flight dispatcher: "Beware any cockpit intrusion- Two a/c [aircraft]
hit World Trade Center."
9:29 AM: 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,
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.
9:33 to 9:34 AM: 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 International Airport.
9:37 AM: Based on a report that Flight 77 had turned again and
was circling back, Vice President Cheney is evacuated from the White House
to an underground tunnel leading to a security bunker.
9:37:46 AM: American Airlines flight 77 (Boeing
757) 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 at 9:25 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. 125 people are killed.
![[9-11 Pentagon plane impact site]](AAPentagonFiretrucksWPost.jpg)
9:41 AM: CNN's Breaking News bulletin reads "Reports 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 take off, and all aircraft in flight are
ordered to land at the nearest airport as soon as practical. All international
flights headed for the U.S. are redirected to Canada. Transport Canada,
the Canadian transportation agency, follows the American lead and closes
down their airspace. The FAA announces that civilian flights are suspended
until at least noon September 12, while Transport Canada gives similar
orders, but until further notice, to take in diverted U.S.-bound international
flights, launching the agency's "Operation Yellow Ribbon." The groundings
last until September 14. 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 newspapers
(including The New York Times) mistakenly print that this is the first
time flights have been suspended. This was also the first time commercial
flights in Canada have been stopped.
9:48 AM: The U.S. Capitol and West Wing of the White
House are evacuated.
![[View of the WTC and the Statue of Liberty]](9-11_Statue_of_Liberty_and_WTC.jpg)
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, 55 minutes 51 seconds after the impact of Flight 175. Its destruction
is viewed and heard by a vast television and radio audience. As the roar
of the collapse goes silent, tremendous gray-white clouds of pulverized
concrete and gypsum rush through the streets. Most observers think a new
explosion or impact has produced smoke and debris that now obscures the
South Tower. When the wind finally clears the immediate space, it is plain
to see that the tower is gone.
10:03 AM: United Airlines flight 93 (Boeing 757)
crashes southeast of Pittsburgh in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. Some
accounts say that the time was 10:06 or 10:10 AM. The first reports from
the police indicate that no one on board survived. A passenger reached
officials on his cell phone from the plane's rest room, repeatedly claiming
that the plane was hijacked and that the call was not a hoax. 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. One passenger told his wife that one person
had already been stabbed to death by the hijackers. It is likely that the
resistance led to the plane crashing before it reached its
intended target. A black box recording , retrieved and later played
to relatives of the victims, supports this scenario, and it further suggests
that the passengers succeeded in entering the cockpit.
10:10 AM: Part of the Pentagon collapses.
10:11 AM: Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, home to the
North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) is sealed against attack
for the first time.
10:13 AM: Thousands are evacuated from the United
Nations headquarters.
10:10 to 10:15 AM (approximately): Vice President Cheney,
unaware that Flight 93 has crashed, authorizes fighter aircraft to engage
the inbound plane, reported to be 80 miles (129 km) from Washington, based
not on radar (from which it has disappeared) but speed and trajectory projections.
![[September 11 from space: Manhattan spreads a large smoke plume]](September_11_from_space.jpg)
10:28 AM: the northern tower of the World Trade
Center collapses from the top down, after burning approximately 103 minutes
in a fire caused by the impact of American Airlines flight 11. The fact
that the northern tower withstood much longer than the southern one is
later attributed to three facts: the region of impact was higher, the speed
of the airplane was lower, and the affected floors had their fire proofing
upgraded. The evacuated Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is destroyed
by falling debris. The collapse is registered as a 2.3 magnitude quake
on seismographs.
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.
10:39 AM: another hijacked jumbo jet is claimed
to be headed for Washington, D.C. F15s are scrambled and patrol the airspace
above Washington, D.C. while other fighter jets sweep the airspace above
New York City. According to (unconfirmed) rumors they have orders 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
and New York has been started. The UN headquarters are already empty. A
few minutes later, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani orders an evacuation of
lower Manhattan.
10:50 AM: five stories of the Pentagon collapse due to
the fire.
10:53 AM: New York's primary elections are canceled.
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.
11:53 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 made 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."
12:01 PM (approx.): Fourteen people, including twelve firefighters,
who were in a section of a stairwell in the North Tower that held together
during the collapse, climb the stairs to the top of the Ground Zero rubble
field.
12:02 PM: the Taliban government of Afghanistan
denounces the attacks.
12:04 PM: Los Angeles International Airport, the
intended destination of American Airlines flight 11 and flight 77, as well
as United Airlines flight 175, is shut down.
12:15 PM: San Francisco International Airport, the
intended destination of United Airlines flight 93, is shut down.
1:00 PM: approx. 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.
1:27 PM Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, D.C.,
declares a state of emergency; the National Guard arrives on site.
2:39 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."
2:50 PM: President Bush arrives at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
to convene a National Security Council teleconference via the US Statcom
bunker.
3:00 PM (approx.): Pasquale Buzzelli, who lost consciousness
in a North Tower stairway during the collapse, awakens to find himself
lying atop the debris with only a fractured foot.
4:25 PM: The New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and
the American Stock Exchange report that they will remain closed Wednesday
September 12.
4:36 PM: President Bush departs Offutt Air Force Base on Air
Force One to return to Washington, D.C.
5:20 PM: 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story building
that had sustained what was originally thought to be light damage in the
fall of the twin towers and was earlier reported on fire, collapses. The
building contained New York's emergency operations center, operated by
the NYC Office of Emergency Management, originally intended to respond
to disasters such as the September 11 terrorist attacks.
6:00 PM: Explosions and tracer fire are reported
in Kabul, 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.
6:00 PM: The last of the aircraft headed for the U.S. to land
at a Canadian airport lands at Vancouver International, since it was over
the Pacific.
6:54 PM: President Bush arrives at the White House.
7:30 PM: U.S. Government denies any responsibility
for reported explosions in Kabul.
8:00 PM (approx.): Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno,
who was in an underground corridor between the two towers, is found alive
in the rubble.
8:30 PM: President Bush addresses the nation from the
White House. Among his phrases: "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,"
and "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."
9:00 PM: President Bush meets 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."
11:00 PM: There are reports (later proved wrong)
of survivors buried in rubble in New York making cell phone calls. Only
two more survivors will be pulled from the rubble on September 12.
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Before 3:15 AM: Boston Herald reports that at least five Arab
men have been identified as suspects. Two of them were brothers, and one
a trained pilot. Their passports have been traced to the United Arab Emirates.
A car, rented in Portland, Maine, has been seized from the Logan Airport
garage, containing flight training manuals in Arabic. According to CNN,
FBI can neither confirm nor deny this. The men had been in a fight with
a man shortly before take-off; this man later recalled the incident and
called the police.
Before 3:50 AM: Jerusalem Post reports that Osama Bin
Laden has given a speech denying all connections to the attacks, which
he called admirable.
10:00 AM: Congress reconvenes.
10:53 AM: President George W. Bush holds a cabinet meeting, saying
that the attacks "were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war."
12:30 PM (approximately): Genelle Guzman-McMillan is pulled from
the rubble of the north tower of the World Trade Center, and is the last
person pulled out of the buildings' collapse zones alive.
5:00 PM: Attorney General John Ashcroft announces
that some of the hijackers were pilots trained in the U.S.
7:00 PM: Candlelight vigils are held in Washington
Square, Union Square, Central Park, and various other locations in New
York City.
Thursday, September 13, 2001
![[September 13, 2001: A New York City firefighter looks up at what remains of the South Tower.]](WTC-remnant.jpg)
The data recorder from United Airlines flight 93 is recovered.
Before 1:00 AM: German police raid an apartment in Hamburg, apparently
at the behest of the FBI, believed to have been used by suspect passengers
on the airline flight list. It is believed to be the first police action
outside the U.S. connected with the attack. Two people are taken into provisional
custody, one is an airport worker. Both were later released, but re-arrested
in late 2002.
It is announced that Ahmed Shah Massoud, a military leader of the Northern
Alliance, died on September 9 from wounds received during a Taliban suicide
attack.
On the orders of Elizabeth II, the 'Star-Spangled Banner' is played
during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. This unprecedented
act was witnessed by a huge crowd, many singing along.
At the orders of Vladimir Putin, Russia observes a moment's silence
at noontime (Moscow time) with flags placed at half-staff throughout Russia
"in memory of terrorist acts' victims" .
Fighting back tears, President Bush vows that America will "lead the
world to victory" over terrorism in a struggle he termed the first war
of the 21st century.