Attack On World Trade Centre
The September 11, 2001 attacksconsisted .jpg)
of a series of coordinated terrorist suicide attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States on September 11, 2001. The victims were predominantly civilians.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. The hijackers crashed two of the airliners (United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward. A nearby church and the rest of the World Trade Center complex's 7 buildings were also destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
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A third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. 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; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,973 people died; another 24 are missing and presumed dead.
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of a series of coordinated terrorist suicide attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States on September 11, 2001. The victims were predominantly civilians.On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. The hijackers crashed two of the airliners (United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward. A nearby church and the rest of the World Trade Center complex's 7 buildings were also destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
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A third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. 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; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,973 people died; another 24 are missing and presumed dead.
The Attacks
Four 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) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms). 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 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
* American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223 wide-body aircraft, crashed into the north 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).
* United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222,crashed into 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.
* American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223,[7] crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
* United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222,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.
Lloyd England's taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.
Lloyd England's taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.
During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service. 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
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. 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.
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). The 9/11 Panel reported that captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."
The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. 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.
Fatalities
Fatalities (Not including the 19 hijackers)
New York City World Trade Center 2,602 died and another 24
Total 2,973 died and another 24 remain listed as missing.
There were 2,973 fatalities: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers.An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.
World Trade Center - 1366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed.
As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows. Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, however; no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality, the roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.
Collection of photographs of those killed (except for 92 victims) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Prosecution exhibit from
the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
Collection of photographs of those killed (except for 92 victims) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Approximately 400 rescue workers, most of them of the FDNY, died when the towers collapsed.
According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.
The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4. The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79.
As the suburbs around New York City learned of the destruction so close to home, many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Many children in schools of Maryland, those nearest to DC, were sent home. Scarsdale, New York schools closed for the day. In Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, hundreds of school children had direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total
population, than any other Connecticut towns. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. Almost all the fatalities were civilians, except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.
Damage
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, two New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Two additional buildings were later condemned: the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway due to extensive damage in the attacks. These buildings are both (as of September 2006) slated for deconstruction.
Communications equipment, such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers, were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.
Survivors
According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.
See also: Survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks
The hijackers
See also: Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks
Nineteen Arab men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.
The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. Unlike many stereotypes of hijackers or terrorists, most of the attackers were educated and came from well-to-do backgrounds.
Other potential hijackers
27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks, only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th hijacker:
* Ramzi Binalshibh allegedly meant to take part in the attacks, but he was repeatedly denied a visa for entry into the U.S.
FACE OF EVIL(hijacker)* Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi Arabian citizen, may also have been planning to join the hijackers, but U.S. Immigration authorities at Orlando International Airport refused his entry into the U.S. in August 2001. He was later captured in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the U.S. military prison known as Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
* Zacarias Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters. Plans to include Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had doubts about his reliability. He was arrested on August 16, 2001, about four weeks before the attacks, ostensibly for an immigration violation, but FBI agents suspected he had violent intentions after receiving flight training earlier that year. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to hijack planes, and to involvement with al-Qaeda, but he denies foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. Moussaoui, at his sentencing hearing in March 2006, claimed that, upon the personal directive of Osama bin Laden, he and Richard Reid were due to hijack a fifth plane and fly it into the White House.
His defense lawyers dismissed this as fantasy on the part of Moussaoui, saying that he was not an operative in al Qaeda, but only a "hanger-on." In a video tape released in May 2006, Osama bin Laden claimed that Moussaoui had "no connection whatsoever with the events of September 11" and that he knows this because "I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers" who carried out the attacks. On May 3, 2006, a federal jury rejected the death penalty and sentenced Moussaoui to 6 life terms in prison without parole.
At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center." Maltbie had refused to act on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer.
Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive force of the falling twin towers
Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive force of the falling twin towers
Other al-Qaeda members who may have attempted, but were unable, to take part in the attacks include Saeed al-Ghamdi (not to be confused with the successful hijacker of the same name), Mushabib al-Hamlan, Zakariyah Essabar, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Tawfiq bin Attash. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the attack's mastermind, wanted to remove at least one member—Khalid al-Mihdhar—from the operation, but he was overruled by Osama bin Laden.
Responsibility
Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, mid-day. Emergency
vehicles of the first responders have been destroyed, and fires can be seen in the immediate area.
Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, mid-day. Emergency vehicles of the first responders have been destroyed, and fires can be seen in the immediate area.
Damage and fires at Ground Zero on September 11.
Damage and fires at Ground Zero on September 11.
Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Few had made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic descent on the flights. Mohamed Atta's luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto American Airlines Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies.
On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. The FBI investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a Fatwa signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by many as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts.
Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted involvement in the incidents. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide.
In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. The tape was broadcast on various news networks from December 13, 2001
.
On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he stated "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.
Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."
In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera, on October 30, 2004, bin Laden said he had personally directed the 19 hijackers. Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.
Taken from the bin Laden video of 27 December 2001
Taken from the bin Laden video of 27 December 2001
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that, "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown". To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks.
In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operations details. They are: Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abu Turab Al-Urduni and Mohammed Atef.
On September 26, 2005, the Spain's high court directed by judge Baltazar Garzon sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years of imprisonment for conspiracy on the 9/11 attacks and as part of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. At the same time, another 17 Al Qaeda members were sentenced to penalties of between 6 and 12 years. On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced the Abu Dahdah penalty to 12 years because it considered that his participation in the conspiracy was not proven.
Victims And Survivors
New York City
According to the 9/11 Commisson, approximately 16,400 to 18,800 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. Among the survivors were:
* The vast majority of the employees of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 2,500 employees in 2 WTC and 1,000 in 5 WTC
* 103 of 172 employees of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., a securities company
* 617 of 618 employees of Lehman Brothers (floors 38-40 of WTC 1)
* 1875 of 1914 employees of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Only 14 people escaped from the impact zone (floors 78 to 84) of the South Tower after it was hit (including Stanley Praimnath), and 4 people from floors above it. They escaped down Stairway "A," the only stairwell that had been left intact (though somewhat obstructed with broken drywall, and filled with smoke in one area). No one was able to escape from above the point of impact in the North Tower after it was hit, as all stairways and elevator shafts on those floors were destroyed.
Of the estimated 200 to 300 people trapped in the towers' stalled elevators, 22 managed to escape: 16 people from four elevators in the North Tower and six people from two elevators in the South Tower. Perhaps the most amazing escape was that of six people trapped in an express elevator on the 50th floor of the North Tower. There was no elevator bank on that particular floor. After prying open the inner doors, window washer Jan Demczur cut through three layers of drywall with a squeegee to free himself and 5 others, then broke through a wall of tiles into a 50th-floor bathroom. All six escaped the tower five minutes before it collapsed.
Only 20 people survived from the debris after the collapse of the towers:
Fourteen people, including a dozen firefighters, a Port Authority policeman, and civilian secretary Josephine Harris, 59, were in Stairway "B" on the 1st through 6th floors of the North Tower when it collapsed. The firemen had stopped to help escort Josephine from the building at the time of the collapse. They crawled out and were then escorted alive from an air pocket in the debris. The fourteen survivors from stairway B in the North tower include:
(spellings uncertain)
* Firefighter Mickey Kross (Engine Company 16)
* Battalion Chief Rich Picciotto (11th Battalion)
* Firefighter Billy Butler (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Tommy Falco (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Ryan Williams (Engine 39)
* Captain Jay Jonas (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Rob Bacon (Engine 39)
* Firefighter Jeff Coniglio (Engine 39)
* Firefighter Jim Efthimiaddes (Engine 39)
* Officer Dave Lim (Port Authority Police K-9 Unit)
* Firefighter Michael Meldrum (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Sal D'Agostino (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Matt Komorowski (Ladder 6)
* Josephine Harris (civilian)
Source: "Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center", by Dennis Smith
Updated Source: "Last Man Down: The Firemans Story", by Richard Picciotto with Daniel Paisner
First Union Bank employee Tom Canavan, 42, and an unidentified young man were in the underground shopping mall beneath the South Tower when it collapsed. They were able to climb to the surface minutes before the North Tower collapsed.
Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin, 48, and Will Jimeno, 33, were in a corridor in the underground shopping mall beneath the North Tower when it collapsed. They were pulled out by rescue workers.
Pasquale Buzzelli, 32, a structural engineer at the Port Authority, was in
Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. After losing consciousness, he awoke on the surface, on top of a pile of rubble, and was carried away with minor injuries. (He had recalled it being the 22nd floor, but Genelle McMillan, who also survived, said she was with him, and she recalled it being the 13th floor)
Genelle Guzman McMillan, 30, a secretary at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. She survived in an air pocket for 27 hours before she was rescued. She is famous for being the last person pulled alive from the rubble.
Five people, some of whom were firefighters, were reported to have been rescued on September 13, 2001, 50 hours after being trapped under debris in an SUV. However, they had in fact been rescued on September 11.
By September 21, 2001, it was reported that 6,291 people had been treated at area hospitals including rescue workers.
Bellevue Hospital treated about 250 people, admitting 33. Injuries included broken bones and bruises; newer patients coming in with post-traumatic stress. A number of the patients were emergency workers: 82 firefighters and 38 police officers.
The burn unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital received 17 victims, with burns over 14 to 90 percent of their bodies. Three were released, five died, two were taken off of critical status, and seven remained in critical status as of September 16, 2001.
The 92 acre (370,000 m²) complex known as Battery Park City, with 9000 residents in 20 buildings, was evacuated immediately following the attack. Though people were allowed to return two weeks later, occupancy remained as low as 31 percent in some of the buildings. A major landlord, the LeFrak Organization, did not charge rent during the forced evacuation, and offered a month's respite from rent in the most damaged buildings. Many of the residents were too traumatized by the events to want to remain.
Four 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) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms). 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 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
* American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223 wide-body aircraft, crashed into the north 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).
* United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222,crashed into 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.* American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223,[7] crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
* United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222,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.
Lloyd England's taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.
Lloyd England's taxicab was hit by a lightpole as American Airlines Flight 77 passed over Washington Boulevard and crashed into the Pentagon.
During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service. 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
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. 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.
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). The 9/11 Panel reported that captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. 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.
Fatalities
Fatalities (Not including the 19 hijackers)
New York City World Trade Center 2,602 died and another 24
Total 2,973 died and another 24 remain listed as missing.
There were 2,973 fatalities: 246 on the four planes (no one on board any of the hijacked aircraft survived), 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers.An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.
World Trade Center - 1366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed.
As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows. Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, however; no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality, the roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.
Collection of photographs of those killed (except for 92 victims) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Prosecution exhibit from
the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.Collection of photographs of those killed (except for 92 victims) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Prosecution exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Approximately 400 rescue workers, most of them of the FDNY, died when the towers collapsed.
According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.
The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4. The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79.
As the suburbs around New York City learned of the destruction so close to home, many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Many children in schools of Maryland, those nearest to DC, were sent home. Scarsdale, New York schools closed for the day. In Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, hundreds of school children had direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total
population, than any other Connecticut towns. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. Almost all the fatalities were civilians, except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.Damage
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel, two New York City Subway stations, and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church were destroyed or badly damaged. In total, in Manhattan, 25 buildings were damaged and all seven buildings of the World Trade Center Complex had to be razed. Two additional buildings were later condemned: the Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex, due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway due to extensive damage in the attacks. These buildings are both (as of September 2006) slated for deconstruction.
Communications equipment, such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers, were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.
Survivors
According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.
See also: Survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks
The hijackers
See also: Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks
Nineteen Arab men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.
The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. Unlike many stereotypes of hijackers or terrorists, most of the attackers were educated and came from well-to-do backgrounds.
Other potential hijackers 27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks, only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th hijacker:
* Ramzi Binalshibh allegedly meant to take part in the attacks, but he was repeatedly denied a visa for entry into the U.S.FACE OF EVIL(hijacker)* Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi Arabian citizen, may also have been planning to join the hijackers, but U.S. Immigration authorities at Orlando International Airport refused his entry into the U.S. in August 2001. He was later captured in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the U.S. military prison known as Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
* Zacarias Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters. Plans to include Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had doubts about his reliability. He was arrested on August 16, 2001, about four weeks before the attacks, ostensibly for an immigration violation, but FBI agents suspected he had violent intentions after receiving flight training earlier that year. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiring to hijack planes, and to involvement with al-Qaeda, but he denies foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. Moussaoui, at his sentencing hearing in March 2006, claimed that, upon the personal directive of Osama bin Laden, he and Richard Reid were due to hijack a fifth plane and fly it into the White House.
His defense lawyers dismissed this as fantasy on the part of Moussaoui, saying that he was not an operative in al Qaeda, but only a "hanger-on." In a video tape released in May 2006, Osama bin Laden claimed that Moussaoui had "no connection whatsoever with the events of September 11" and that he knows this because "I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers" who carried out the attacks. On May 3, 2006, a federal jury rejected the death penalty and sentenced Moussaoui to 6 life terms in prison without parole.
At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center." Maltbie had refused to act on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer.
Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive force of the falling twin towers
Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive force of the falling twin towers
Other al-Qaeda members who may have attempted, but were unable, to take part in the attacks include Saeed al-Ghamdi (not to be confused with the successful hijacker of the same name), Mushabib al-Hamlan, Zakariyah Essabar, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Tawfiq bin Attash. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the attack's mastermind, wanted to remove at least one member—Khalid al-Mihdhar—from the operation, but he was overruled by Osama bin Laden.
Responsibility
Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, mid-day. Emergency
vehicles of the first responders have been destroyed, and fires can be seen in the immediate area.Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, mid-day. Emergency vehicles of the first responders have been destroyed, and fires can be seen in the immediate area.
Damage and fires at Ground Zero on September 11.
Damage and fires at Ground Zero on September 11.
Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Few had made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic descent on the flights. Mohamed Atta's luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto American Airlines Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies.
On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. The FBI investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a Fatwa signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by many as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts.
Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted involvement in the incidents. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide.
In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. The tape was broadcast on various news networks from December 13, 2001
.On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he stated "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.
Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."
In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera, on October 30, 2004, bin Laden said he had personally directed the 19 hijackers. Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.
Taken from the bin Laden video of 27 December 2001
Taken from the bin Laden video of 27 December 2001
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that, "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown". To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks.
In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operations details. They are: Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abu Turab Al-Urduni and Mohammed Atef.
On September 26, 2005, the Spain's high court directed by judge Baltazar Garzon sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years of imprisonment for conspiracy on the 9/11 attacks and as part of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. At the same time, another 17 Al Qaeda members were sentenced to penalties of between 6 and 12 years. On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced the Abu Dahdah penalty to 12 years because it considered that his participation in the conspiracy was not proven.
Victims And Survivors
New York City
According to the 9/11 Commisson, approximately 16,400 to 18,800 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. Among the survivors were:
* The vast majority of the employees of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 2,500 employees in 2 WTC and 1,000 in 5 WTC
* 103 of 172 employees of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., a securities company
* 617 of 618 employees of Lehman Brothers (floors 38-40 of WTC 1)
* 1875 of 1914 employees of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Only 14 people escaped from the impact zone (floors 78 to 84) of the South Tower after it was hit (including Stanley Praimnath), and 4 people from floors above it. They escaped down Stairway "A," the only stairwell that had been left intact (though somewhat obstructed with broken drywall, and filled with smoke in one area). No one was able to escape from above the point of impact in the North Tower after it was hit, as all stairways and elevator shafts on those floors were destroyed.
Of the estimated 200 to 300 people trapped in the towers' stalled elevators, 22 managed to escape: 16 people from four elevators in the North Tower and six people from two elevators in the South Tower. Perhaps the most amazing escape was that of six people trapped in an express elevator on the 50th floor of the North Tower. There was no elevator bank on that particular floor. After prying open the inner doors, window washer Jan Demczur cut through three layers of drywall with a squeegee to free himself and 5 others, then broke through a wall of tiles into a 50th-floor bathroom. All six escaped the tower five minutes before it collapsed.
Only 20 people survived from the debris after the collapse of the towers:
Fourteen people, including a dozen firefighters, a Port Authority policeman, and civilian secretary Josephine Harris, 59, were in Stairway "B" on the 1st through 6th floors of the North Tower when it collapsed. The firemen had stopped to help escort Josephine from the building at the time of the collapse. They crawled out and were then escorted alive from an air pocket in the debris. The fourteen survivors from stairway B in the North tower include:
(spellings uncertain)
* Firefighter Mickey Kross (Engine Company 16)
* Battalion Chief Rich Picciotto (11th Battalion)
* Firefighter Billy Butler (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Tommy Falco (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Ryan Williams (Engine 39)
* Captain Jay Jonas (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Rob Bacon (Engine 39)
* Firefighter Jeff Coniglio (Engine 39)
* Firefighter Jim Efthimiaddes (Engine 39)
* Officer Dave Lim (Port Authority Police K-9 Unit)
* Firefighter Michael Meldrum (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Sal D'Agostino (Ladder 6)
* Firefighter Matt Komorowski (Ladder 6)
* Josephine Harris (civilian)
Source: "Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center", by Dennis Smith
Updated Source: "Last Man Down: The Firemans Story", by Richard Picciotto with Daniel Paisner
First Union Bank employee Tom Canavan, 42, and an unidentified young man were in the underground shopping mall beneath the South Tower when it collapsed. They were able to climb to the surface minutes before the North Tower collapsed.
Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin, 48, and Will Jimeno, 33, were in a corridor in the underground shopping mall beneath the North Tower when it collapsed. They were pulled out by rescue workers.
Pasquale Buzzelli, 32, a structural engineer at the Port Authority, was in
Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. After losing consciousness, he awoke on the surface, on top of a pile of rubble, and was carried away with minor injuries. (He had recalled it being the 22nd floor, but Genelle McMillan, who also survived, said she was with him, and she recalled it being the 13th floor)Genelle Guzman McMillan, 30, a secretary at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. She survived in an air pocket for 27 hours before she was rescued. She is famous for being the last person pulled alive from the rubble.
Five people, some of whom were firefighters, were reported to have been rescued on September 13, 2001, 50 hours after being trapped under debris in an SUV. However, they had in fact been rescued on September 11.
By September 21, 2001, it was reported that 6,291 people had been treated at area hospitals including rescue workers.
Bellevue Hospital treated about 250 people, admitting 33. Injuries included broken bones and bruises; newer patients coming in with post-traumatic stress. A number of the patients were emergency workers: 82 firefighters and 38 police officers.
The burn unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital received 17 victims, with burns over 14 to 90 percent of their bodies. Three were released, five died, two were taken off of critical status, and seven remained in critical status as of September 16, 2001.
The 92 acre (370,000 m²) complex known as Battery Park City, with 9000 residents in 20 buildings, was evacuated immediately following the attack. Though people were allowed to return two weeks later, occupancy remained as low as 31 percent in some of the buildings. A major landlord, the LeFrak Organization, did not charge rent during the forced evacuation, and offered a month's respite from rent in the most damaged buildings. Many of the residents were too traumatized by the events to want to remain.