American Airlines Flight 11 (AA11) departs Boston headed for Los Angeles.
The Boeing 767 has 81 passengers and 11 crew members.
8:01 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 93 (UAL93) departs Newark headed for San Francisco.
The Boeing 757 has 38 passengers and 7 crew members.
8:10 a.m.
American Airlines Flight 77 (AA77) departs Dulles headed for Los Angeles.
The Boeing 757 has 58 passengers and 6 crew members.
8:14 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 175 (UAL175) departs Boston headed for Los Angeles.
The Boeing 767 has 56 passengers and 9 crew members.
8:27 a.m.
AA11 takes a hard left-hand turn over upstate New York and increases air speed.
UAL175 passes the Mass/Conn border and makes a 30-degree turn left toward N.J.
AA77 flies on a normal flight path over Virginia and into West Virginia.
8:40 a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alerts NORAD that AA11 has been hijacked.
8:43 a.m.
The FAA alerts NORAD that UAL175 has been hijacked.
Two F-15 fighters take off from Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
8:48 a.m.
AA11 crashes into the WTC's North Tower between the 95th and 103rd floor.
On board: When the hijackers took over the aircraft one of the
crew managed to hit a control that allows air traffic controllers
to hear the cockpit conversation. "Don't do anything foolish.
You are not going to get hurt. We have more planes. We
have other planes," a hijacker was heard to say at 08:28.
What gives me NIGHTMARES is the fact that the people
still alive aboard these planes KNEW FOR SOME TIME
that something was very very wrong. AA11 passengers
knew this fact for AT LEAST 21 incredibly long minutes.
.
8:47 a.m.
UAL175 takes a turn toward Atlantic City and later another hard turn toward Manhattan.
AA77 approaches the Ohio/Kentucky border.
9:03 a.m.
UAL93 flies normally at 32,000 feet over Pennsylvania.
AA77 has lost contact with air traffic controllers after a left turn at the Ohio/Kentucky border.
UAL 175 crashes into the WTC's South Tower at about the level of the 80th floor.
On board: Passenger Peter Hanson called his parents in Easton, Connecticut
a short time before the crash and told them hijackers had taken over the
plane and stabbed one of the cabin crew. An unnamed woman flight
attendant called an emergency number from a phone at the back
of the aircraft. She said her colleagues had been stabbed.
.
Every time I look at this image I burst into tears.
I dated an airline pilot once so I
can hear those engines in my head.
.
I don't know about YOU, but it took
ME A SOLID FIVE MINUTES to fully
grasp what it was that I was seeing.
.
.
BECAUSE AIRPLANES
DON'T NORMALLY
FLY INTO BUILDINGS.
.
UAL175 passengers knew something was very very
wrong for AT LEAST 36 incredibly long minutes.
They now estimate that UAL175 was
flying 100mph faster than AA11 when
it crashed into the WTC's South Tower.
9:17 a.m.
The FAA shuts down all New York City area airports.
9:21 a.m.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey orders all bridges and tunnels in the New York area closed.
9:30 a.m.
President Bush, speaking in Sarasota, Florida, says the country has suffered an "apparent terrorist attack."
In Florida, President Bush was reading to children
in a classroom when his chief of staff, Andrew
Card, whispered news of the attacks into his ear.
Then he watched the rest of
it unfold on the television.
Just like everyone else.
9:39 a.m.
UAL93 heads east toward Washington after making a hard turn south near Cleveland.
9:40 a.m.
The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted.
9:43 a.m.
AA77 crashes into a portion of the Pentagon striking a section of the building that housed army offices.
On board: Among the passengers was TV commentator Barbara Olson, wife of US Sol. Gen. Theodore Olson. She called her husband twice. She said the hijackers were armed with knives and she asked him, "What should I tell the pilot to do?" During the second call he told her a plane had crashed into the WTC.
AA77 passengers knew
something was very very
wrong for AT LEAST 40
incredibly long minutes.
.
.
AA77 had among it's passengers a group of individuals
embarking on an educational trip to the Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California,
as part of a program funded by the National Geographic
Society. In addition to three teachers and two representatives
from the National Geographic Society, there were also three
students -- Bernard Brown, Asia Cottom, and Rodney Dickens.
