The 9/11 Tragedy

Credit to: Wikipedia.
The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States.[1]

On that morning, nineteen terrorists[2] affiliated with al-Qaeda[3] hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a member who had undergone some pilot training. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings.[4] The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers;[5] that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Aside from the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks with another 24 missing and presumed dead; the number of immediate victims totaled 2,998, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians. The dead included nationals from over 80 different countries.[6] In addition, the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse.[7]

Contents [hide]
1 The attacks
1.1 Fatalities
1.2 Damage
1.3 Survivors
2 The attackers and their motivation
2.1 The hijackers
2.2 Other potential hijackers
2.2.1 Zacarias Moussaoui
2.2.2 Potential hijackers denied entry into U.S.
2.2.3 Other names of potential hijackers
2.3 Osama bin Laden
2.4 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
2.5 Other al-Qaeda members
2.6 Motive
2.6.1 Statements by others
3 Reactions
3.1 International reaction
3.2 Public response
3.3 Muslim American reaction
3.4 Conspiracy theories
4 U.S. Government response
4.1 Rescue, recovery, and compensation
4.2 Immediate national response
4.3 The War on Terrorism
4.4 Domestic response
4.5 Investigations
4.5.1 9/11 Commission
4.5.2 Collapse of the World Trade Center
4.5.3 Internal review of the CIA
5 Long-term effects
5.1 Economic aftermath
5.2 Health effects
6 Memorials
7 See also
8 References
9 Books
10 External links
10.1 Multimedia
10.2 Memorials

The attacks
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks
Timeline
Planning
September 11, 2001
Rest of September
October
Beyond October
First Anniversary
Victims
Survivors
Foreign casualties
Hijacked airliners
American Airlines Flight 11
United Airlines Flight 175
American Airlines Flight 77
United Airlines Flight 93
Sites of destruction
World Trade Center
The Pentagon
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Effects and aftermath
World political effects
World economic effects
Detentions
Airport security
Closings and cancellations
Conspiracy theories
Post 9/11
Audiovisual entertainment
Impact on popular culture
Local health
Response
Military response
Government response
Rescue and recovery effort
Financial assistance
Operation Yellow Ribbon
Memorials and services
Perpetrators
Responsibility
Organizers
Miscellaneous
Communication
WTC collapse
Slogans and terms
Inquiries
U.S. Congressional Inquiry
9/11 Commission Report
PENTTBOM Inquiry
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Main article: September 11, 2001 timeline for the day of the attacks

A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade CenterFour commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters).[8] Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth, whose ultimate target was probably either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200[9] wide-body aircraft, crashed into the northern side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC), hitting at the 94-98th floors.[10]
United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767-200,[11] crashed into the 78-85th floors of the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.[12]
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200,[13] crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
United Airlines Flight 93, another Boeing 757-200,[14] crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.[15]
Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south tower (WTC 2) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The north tower (WTC 1) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. A third building, 7 World Trade Center (WTC 7), while not directly damaged by either aircraft, was struck by debris from WTC 1 around 10:30am. The southwest corner was damaged from floors 8 to 18, and there was some damage to the edge of the roof parapet. Between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., fires were observed on many floors, ranging from floor 7 up to floor 30. The building collapsed at 5:21 p.m. that day. [16]

The NIST launched investigations into the cause of collapse for the three buildings, subsequently expanding the investigation to include questions over measures to prevent progressive collapse, such as fire resistance design and retrofitting of structural steel.[17] The report into WTC 1 and WTC 2 was concluded in October 2005[18] and the investigation into WTC 7 is ongoing.[19]

Tommy Dunn, a firefighter on the scene described the collapse of the tower. "I looked up and I could very clearly see that the entire top section of the tower had begun to collapse and was falling down on us. … The best I can compare it to is when you were a kid and you were in the water and you ducked down, down, down and let a wave come over your head. That's what the debris was like. It was spread so far that you were not gonna outrun this."[20]

During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service and mobile phones.[21][22] They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane.

The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.[23]

Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.[24] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.[25]

A taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.[26]On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with Yosri Fouda, an al Jazeera journalist, that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol,[27] which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."[28]

The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days;[29] aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day.[30] One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Harry S Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C.[31] This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number of newspapers published that day. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.[32]

Chairman Rudman of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Committee released in a press statement that it was not necessary to activate the EAS due to near immediate coverage by News Media. Rudman kept the 34 main Emergency Alert System stations on high alert if needed, but as time passed, using the EAS was no longer necessary.[33]