Embedded Files
By: Arianna Farabaugh
What happened on September 11, 2001?
September 11, 2001 is a day when the world changed forever. On this day, 19 terrorists associated with the group Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Al Qaeda was a radical Muslim organization dedicated to the elimination of a Western presence in Arab Countries. Al Qaeda’s operation was called the “Planned Planes Operation” they were supposed to crash 10 different planes into American landmarks, but they did not have enough money for 10 so the plan went down to 4 planes. These attacks were driven by Osama Bin Laden.
The World Trade Center
September 11, 2001, at 8:46 am on a regular Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 suddenly crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact of the plane left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper. This impact instantly killed hundreds of people and trapped hundreds of more people in the higher floors above the impact. As they started evacuating in the North Tower, its twin (The South Tower) got underway. As television cameras broadcasted live images of what happened, people believed at the time that this was a horrific accident. Then at 9:03 a.m., only 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767, United Airlines Flight 175 appeared in the sky out of nowhere, and it turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced right into the South Tower near the 60th floor. The impact left a massive explosion that made burning debris shower over the surrounding buildings and onto the streets below. It immediately became clear that America was under attack.
The Pentagon Attack
As millions watched the events unfold in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington,D.C. Not long after the plane crashed into the west side of the Pentagon Military headquarters at 9:45 a.m.The Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 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.S. Department of Defense. All of the 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airline.
The Collapsing of the Twin Towers
Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S, the horror in New York took a turn for the worse. When the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust, smoke filled up the streets of Lower Manhattan. Then at 10:30 a.m., the North Building of the Twin Towers collapsed. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 others were treated for injuries, and many of them were severely injured.
Flight 93
Meanwhile, United Flight 93 was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Just because the plane had an 25 minute delay for taking off, passengers on board learned about the events in New York City and Washington. They heard about the events over their cell phones and Airphone 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 to take over the plane again. The terrorists were locked in the cockpit, so the passengers started to use a beverage cart to try an get through. The terrorist flying the plane started to move the plane side to side and up and down to try and throw the passengers around. Then one of the terrorists yelled “Put it down!” You can hear the passengers screaming “NO!” The plane ended up going on its side and crashing into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All on board were killed instantly.
USC II
At Northern Cambria High School, Ms. Dillon's 9th grade USC II class is talking about 9/11. First we talked about Flight 93, and we talked about the group that was behind September 11 (Al Qaeda) and the person that was in charge was Osama Bin Laden. Then we talked about how the passengers tried to fight back, but the terrorists ended up turning the plane side was and crashing it in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then we watched a documentary about the Twin Towers. In the documentary, it showed us that at first, the firefighters were only going out to check a gas leak and they heard a plane fly low, and that's when they saw the first plane hit. The firefighters responded quickly to try and get everyone out of the first tower. When they were in they first tower they heard a big bang and it turned out to be the second tower getting hit. The chiefs from multiple fire departments started sending their people up to try and put out the fire, not long after the first tower collapsed. Not even an hour later the second tower collapsed. In class we did study guides for the slideshow for Flight 93, and a movie study guide for the documentary.
Sources:
"September 11 Attacks" History.com Editors, "This is the day the whole world changed forever" (February 17, 2010) https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/9-11-attacks#world-trade-center September 14, 2022
"Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11" Pew Research center Hannah Hartig and Carroll Doherty,(September 2, 2022) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/09/02/two-decades-later-the-enduring-legacy-of-9-11/ September 15,2022
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