When is 911 attack

On September 11, , at a. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing —United Airlines Flight —appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower near the 60th floor.

The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and onto the streets below. It immediately became clear that America was under attack. The hijackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools.

The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four early-morning flights bound for California , chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming ordinary passenger jets into guided missiles. Jet fuel from the Boeing caused a devastating inferno that led to the structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building, which is the headquarters of the U.

Department of Defense. All told, military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airliner. Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of miles per hour and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel.

At a. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10, others were treated for injuries, many severe. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection.

One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr. I love you, honey. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of miles per hour, crashing in a rural field near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania at a.

All 44 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House , the U. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard. Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D. At the World Trade Center, 2, died after the two planes slammed into the twin towers.

That figure includes firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors.

At the Pentagon, people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building. On Flight 93 , 44 people died when the plane crash-landed in Pennsylvania. Bush , who was in Florida at the time of the attacks and had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House.

These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. In a reference to the eventual U. Within two months, U. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks, remained at large until May 2, , when he was finally tracked down and killed by U.

In June , then-President Barack Obama announced the beginning of large-scale troop withdrawals from Afghanistan; it took until August for all U. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 25, By clicking the "I accept" button, you consent to the use of these cookies. For Americans and people watching around the world, September 11, , is a day that will never be forgotten. Thousands of civilians had lost their lives and were seriously injured, and the entire country was in collective shock, still trying to make sense of how a coordinated act of terrorism of that magnitude was allowed to take place on American soil.

Even though the attacks took place in the era just before mobile phones had viable cameras, there are countless images and videos of the event. The timeline visualization above is a high-level record of what happened that morning during the three hours when everything changed.

Here is a summary of the planes involved in the incident:. These four flights play a central role in what unfolded that morning. In the early hours of September 11, , a collection of 19 would-be hijackers made their way through security at airports in Boston, Newark, and Washington, DC.

Our three-hour timeline begins just before 8am, as the first plane involved in the attack leaves the tarmac just outside of Boston. There are five hijackers on board. All 92 people on board are killed.

All 65 people on board are killed. There are four hijackers on board. All 64 people on board are killed. Later reports indicate that passengers had learned about the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes and were resisting the hijackers.

All 44 people on board are killed in the crash. The Marriott Hotel at the base of the two towers is also destroyed. Two decades is a long time in the world of technology and media.

Within three minutes, news of the attack hit the Associated Press newswire, and moments after that, most major networks cut away from scheduled programming to cover the story. Less than 10 minutes after the impact, President Bush—who was attending an event at a Florida elementary school—was informed of the crash which at that point was characterized as an accident. Because media outlets were able to cover the incident so quickly, millions of people witnessed the second plane striking the South Tower in real-time a mere 17 minutes after the first impact.

This was a defining moment as millions of people around the world experience the events precisely as they unfolded. The still-young internet was strained that day. Cities represent humanity's greatest achievements - and greatest challenges. The World Economic Forum supports a number of projects designed to make cities cleaner, greener and more inclusive. These include hosting the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization , which gathers bright ideas from around the world to inspire city leaders, and running the Future of Urban Development and Services initiative.

The latter focuses on how themes such as the circular economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be harnessed to create better cities. The Pentagon has been repaired, and a shiny, story World Trade Center now punctuates the skyline of Lower Manhattan, but not all wounds have healed.

Many others are living with the absence of the nearly 3, loved-ones who died during the attacks. When DHS began operations in , it was the largest U.