September 11, 2001: The day that changed America

Twenty years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States was the target of a coordinated and carefully prepared attack by the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda, which struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. near Washington, embodiments of the country’s economic and military power.

These attacks, the deadliest in history with nearly 3,000 dead, were carried out by 19 hijackers, who hijacked four airliners that had left East Coast airports – Boston, Washington and Newark – bound for California.

Two devices successively struck the twin towers, reduced to ashes in less than two hours, a third ripped open the Pentagon. A fourth aircraft – presumably aimed at the Capitol, the seat of Congress, or the White House – crashed in a wooded area of ​​Shanksville, Pa., After a passenger counterattack. No one on the four planes survived.

Here are the highlights of a day that rocked the world’s leading power and changed the course of history, as established by the Congressional Commission of Inquiry into the Bombings and the New York Memorial Museum of the Victims .

8:46 a.m.

American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles with 92 people on board – including five hijackers – hits the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC). It opens a gigantic breach in the upper floors which ignite.

9:03 a.m.

United Airlines flight 175, also a Boeing 767 connecting Boston to Los Angeles, with 65 people on board and therefore five terrorists, in turn crashed against the upper floors of the south tower.

9:05 a.m., Sarasota, Florida

September 11, 2001

Archive photo, REUTERS

President George W. Bush starts reading a story to children in elementary school. “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack, ”his chief of staff whispered in his ear.

9:25 a.m.

The civil aviation authorities, the FAA, announce the closure of American airspace and ban any take-off.

9:30 a.m.

George W. Bush announces to the students that he is returning to Washington because of an “apparent terrorist attack”.

9:37 a.m.

American Airlines Flight No. 77, a Boeing 757 flying from Washington-Dulles to Los Angeles with 64 people on board including five pirates, crashes into the west facade of the Pentagon.

9:42 a.m.

The FAA orders all airplanes in flight to land as soon as possible.

9:59 a.m.

The south tower of the WTC collapses in a deluge of fire, steel and dust. The violence is such that no trace of DNA has been found for hundreds of victims.

10:03 a.m., Shanksville, PA

United Airlines Flight 93, from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco with 44 people on board, including four pirates, crashes in Shanksville, a wooded area in western Pennsylvania. Some passengers, informed by cell phone of what was happening in New York, resisted the terrorists.

10:28 a.m.

The north tower of the WTC collapsed, 102 minutes after being hit. The southern tip of Manhattan is covered in a cloud of ash and debris.

1:04 p.m., Louisiana

George W. Bush, who was evacuated from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, places the armed forces on “maximum alert” and promises to “track down and punish the cowards responsible” for the attacks. The president will then be transferred to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before returning to the White House in the evening.

1:27 p.m., Washington

The mayor Anthony williams declares a state of emergency in the federal capital.

8:30 p.m.

George W. Bush speaks to Americans; he denounces “deliberate terrorist acts”. He promises to track down those responsible and warns that Washington will make “no distinction” between terrorists and those who harbor them.



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