Thread by @jbhenchman

Never forget

(all times Eastern)

1/

6:00 am – Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari fly from Portland, Maine to Boston Logan International Airport. They land at 6:45.

2/

6:52 am – Marwan al-Shehhi calls Atta from another terminal at Logan to confirm everything is set.

3/

7:18 am & 7:35 am – Majed Moqed and Nawaf al Hazmi separately set off the metal detector while going through security at Dulles International Airport. Screeners wand them but fail to resolve what set off the alarm (likely knives or box cutters) before allowing them through.

4/

7:59 am – American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with 92 people aboard, takes off from Boston’s Logan International Airport en route to Los Angeles. Atta and al-Omari are on board, with 3 other hijackers. The flight is 14 minutes late.

5/

8:14 am – United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 with 65 people aboard, takes off from Boston; it is also headed to Los Angeles. Five hijackers are on board.

6/

8:19 am – Flight attendant Betty Ong aboard Flight 11 alert ground personnel via airphone (seatback telephones common on planes at the time) that the plane has been hijacked, with someone stabbed and the use of mace or pepper spray; American Airlines notifies the FBI.

7/

(She is violating then-existing protocol which directed flight attendants to only communicate with the cockpit during a suspected hijacking. Until 9/11, hijackings generally involved the passengers being held as hostage until the hostage takers' demands are met.)

8/

8:20 am – American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. The Boeing 757 is headed to Los Angeles with 64 people aboard. Among them are three 11-year-old children and their chaperones who have been selected to...

9/

...participate a National Geographic Society-sponsored educational trip to the Channel Islands off California. Also on board are Hani Hanjour and four other hijackers.

10/

8:24 am – Hijacker Mohammed Atta makes the first of two accidental transmissions to ground control (apparently trying to speak to the plane’s cabin): "We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport."



11/

8:37 am – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alerts North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) about the suspected hijacking of Flight 11.

12/

NORAD's radar network at the time faces outward from the United States, so it must rely on civilian radar to track planes within the country.

13/

8:41 am – United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 with 44 people (including 4 hijackers, one fewer than the other flights), takes off from Newark International Airport to San Francisco. It had been scheduled to depart at 8:00am, around the time of the other hijacked flights.

14/

Before boarding, hijacker Ziad Jarrah calls his girlfriend, tells her "I love you" three times and hangs up. He has mailed her a note that says (in German): "I did what I had to" and "It is a great honor and you will see the result, and everyone will be celebrating."

15/

8:42 am – Flight 175 is hijacked. The pilots and air traffic control had been discussing Flight 11. Ten minutes later, a flight attendant calls United Airlines in Chicago to report both pilots have been killed, a flight attendant stabbed, and hijackers were flying the plane.

16/

8:44 am – Flight attendant Amy Sweeney aboard Flight 11 via airphone to the American Airlines control center: "Something is wrong. I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings.... Oh my God, we are way too low."

The call ends with a burst of very loud, sustained static.

17/

8:46 am – Mohammed Atta and the other hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 crash the plane into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 466 mph, killing everyone on board and countless hundreds inside the building.

17/

All three stairwells are severed and jet fuel spreads a fire on the building's support columns. Jet fuel fireballs travel down elevator and stair shafts to multiple floors and the ground floor lobby.

18/

Filmmaker Jules Naudet, recording a documentary on the FDNY, hears the plane and turns his camera toward WTC North and captures the only known complete footage of the impact. (Video: )

19/

8:47 am – Within seconds, NYPD and FDNY forces dispatch units to the World Trade Center, while Port Authority Police Department officers on site begin immediate evacuation of the North Tower.

20/

Over the next two hours, 100 to 250 people trapped on the burning upper floors jump or fall to their deaths trying to escape the building.

(Esquire piece on the famous and disturbing AP photo of a falling man: esquire.com/.../a48031/the…)

21/

8:48 am – Local radio and television coverage of the World Trade Center begins. CNN begins coverage a minute later: "This just in. You are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and...."

(Video: )

22/

"...we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center."

Initial speculation is an accident, similar to when a small plane crashed into the 78th-80th floors of the Empire State Building in dense fog in 1945.

23/

8:50 am – White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card alerts President George W. Bush that a plane has hit the World Trade Center; the president is visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida at the time.

24/

8:52 am – Victoria Cross Kelly, deputy director of the PATH rapid transit system, halts all inbound trains from New Jersey to the station under the World Trade Center. Kelly had seen commuters still arriving at the station. This action likely saved thousands of lives.

25/

8:53 am – NEADS orders two F-15 fighters into the air from Otis Air National Guard Base. Without specific orders, they proceed to their default, a holding position off the Atlantic coast.

26/

8:54 am – Flight 77 is hijacked. It begins to turn south over Ohio and then east. Two minutes later the transponder is turned off, and distracted by Flight 175, flight controllers don't notice its turn, losing the plane for 36 minutes.

27/

8:55 am – South Tower public address system advises against evacuation: "Building Two is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building Two. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may use the reentry doors and the elevators to return to your office."

28/

8:57 am – FDNY orders both World Trade Center towers evacuated but the information is not relayed to 911 operators, many of whom advise callers in the buildings to stay put.

29/

8:58 am – Flight 175 turns toward New York City.

Passenger Peter Hanson to his father: "It's getting bad, Dad. A stewardess was stabbed. They seem to have knives and Mace. They said they have a bomb. It's getting very bad on the plane. Passengers are throwing up and..."

30/

"...and getting sick. The plane is making jerky movements. I don't think the pilot is flying the plane. I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it'll be very fast. My God, my God."

31/

The call ends abruptly, as Lee Hanson hears a woman scream. Hanson rushes to his television and turns it on.

32/

8:59 am – Flight 175 passenger Brian Sweeney leaves an answering machine message for his wife: "I want you to know that I absolutely love you... I'll see you when you get here. I want you to know that I totally love you. Bye, babe, hope I will call you."

33/

9:00 am – American Airlines cancels all takeoffs in the northeast United States.

34/

9:02 am – Port Authority officials use the public address system to announce evacuation of both towers; an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 people are already in the process of evacuating.

35/

9:03 am – Hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 77-85 of the WTC’s South Tower at 590 mph, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building. Two of the building's three stairwells are severed.

36/

Millions see the impact on live television.

(ABC live video:
Other videos: )

37/

9:05 am – White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupts President Bush's visit to elementary school students to whisper in his ear: "A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack."

Bush continues reading from a story book to not alarm the students.

38/

9:08 am – After conferring air traffic controllers share that the hijacker was overheard saying they have planes (plural), the FAA bans all takeoffs of flights going to New York City or through the airspace around the city.

39/

9:11 am – PATH evacuates its damaged and smoke-filled station under the World Trade Center and sends its last train west to New Jersey.

Service would not resume until November 23, 2003, led by that same train.

40/

9:13 am – The two F-15 fighters are ordered to patrol position over Manhattan, which they reach 12 minutes later.

41/

9:17 am – 32-year-old Melissa Doi, trapped on the 83rd floor of the South Tower with five people, dials 911: "We're on the floor and we can't breathe, And it's very, very, very hot... Can you stay on the line with me, please? I feel like I'm dying."

42/

Doi remains on the line for 24 minutes until she dies from fire or smoke: "Tell my mother that I love her and that she's the best mom in the whole world."

The recording will later be played for the jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial.

(Excerpt: )

43/

9:19 am – On his own initiative, United Airlines flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger begins sending messages one by one to flights: "Beware any cockpit intrusion, two ac hit World Trade Center."

44/

The message is sent to Flight 93 at 9:23 and received at 9:24. A puzzled Captain Jason Dahl replies: "Ed, confirm latest mssg plz —Jason." Ballinger, sending messages to other flights, does not reply for 4 minutes.

45/

9:24 am – The FAA notifies NEADS of the suspected hijacking of Flight 77 after two onboard are able to alert family members on the ground.

One of them is Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, who tells her husband in two calls that the hijackers have...

46/

...knives and box cutters, have herded the passengers in the back of the plane, and the plane is heading northeast. Barbara Olson had postponed her trip until today so she could wake up with her husband, as today is his birthday.

47/

After the first call is disconnected, Ted Olson tries unsuccessfully to reach his boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft.

48/

9:25 am – Conference begins in the White House Situation Room.

49/

9:26 am – FAA bans takeoff of all civilian aircraft in the United States.

50/

9:28 am – Flight 93 hijacked. Hijacker pilot Ziad Jarrah to the passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen: here the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining seating. We have a bomb on board. So sit."

(Audio: )

51/

9:30 am – Two fighters jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are ordered to launch, but without specific orders, they also proceed to default position over the Atlantic coast.

52/

9:31 am – Speaking from Florida, President Bush calls the events in New York City an “apparent terrorist attack on our country.”

53/

9:32 am – Several hundred people gather on the 105th floor of the South Tower trying to get to the roof but find the doors are locked. A window washer has a key but the 22nd floor security desk must also buzz open the door; that system has been severed by the attack.

54/

(New York fire code requires roof doors be able to open in an emergency, but the Port Authority that owns the Towers is a government entity and exempt from the code.) While 28 people were rescued by NYPD helicopters from the North Tower's roof in the 1993 WTC bombing...

55/

...the Port Authority (backed by the FDNY, who is concerned about directing people both upstairs and downstairs in an evacuation) has removed the scenario from its disaster planning.

Rescue officials on the scene have already ruled out a rooftop rescue attempt.

56/

9:34 am – The Flight 93 autopilot is suddenly disabled. On the audio, hijackers shout at someone to stop. Until she herself died in 2012, the widow of Captain Jason Dahl was convinced her husband, dying in the cockpit, did this to attempt to sabotage the hijackers' plans.

57/

9:34 am – Dulles and Reagan tower controllers alert the Secret Service that Flight 77 is heading east toward Washington and not responding to messages.

58/

The plane loops clockwise 330 degrees over northern Virginia as it descends to 2,200 feet, ending up pointed northeast toward the Pentagon and Washington beyond. The hijacker pilot speeds the plane to maximum throttle.

59/

9:36 am – Vice President Cheney is hustled into the underground bunker at the White House.

60/

9:37 am – Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagon at the first floor at 530 mph, killing 59 aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building.

61/

Within eight-tenths of a second, the plane penetrates 310 feet into three of the building's five rings and unleashes a fireball 200 feet high.

62/

Several lamp posts are clipped by the plane, and the approach and impact is captured by two frames of a surveillance video as well as seen by witnesses on nearby roads.

(Animation and video: )

63/

9:37 am – A woman being held hostage in the Flight 93 cockpit pleads for her life, followed by a hijacker saying in Arabic, "That's it." Sound of a struggle, then she goes silent. Then the hijacker to another hijacker, in Arabic: "Everything is fine. I finished."

64/

Now over Cleveland, the hijackers turn the plane southeast toward Washington.

65/

9:38 am – The jet fighters launched from Langley are ordered to fly 150 miles back to Washington immediately, the controller telling them to proceed ASAP no matter "how many windows you break."

66/

9:40 am – CNN reports fire at the Pentagon. The tall plume of black smoke is readily visible across the river in Washington.

(Video: )

67/

9:41 am – Boston air traffic control warns the military that Delta 1989, Boston to Las Vegas, might be hijacked. It is not and ultimately lands safely in Cleveland.

68/

9:42 am – All civilian aircraft over the United States ordered to land at the nearest airport.

Canada also shuts down its airspace but permits 255 U.S.-bound international flights to land at their airports ("Operation Yellow Ribbon").

69/

9:43 am – Amid escalating rumors of other attacks, the White House and U.S. Capitol building are evacuated (along with numerous other high-profile buildings, landmarks, and public spaces across the country).

70/

Capitol Police and Secret Service tell people to run, causing an exodus from Capitol Hill.

71/

9:45 am – CNN erroneously reports fire on the National Mall (likely people seeing the smoke from the Pentagon).

72/

9:49 am - NORAD orders all military pilots nationwide to battle stations.

73/

9:53 am – CNN confirms that a plane hit the Pentagon.

74/

9:54 am – 46-year-old Kevin Cosgrove calls 911 from the 105th floor of the South Tower, where he is trapped with five others in an office filling with smoke. After the first plane hit the North Tower, he helped others evacuate and called his wife to say he was safe.

75/

But he did not himself escape before the second plane hit the South Tower and it became too late. At one moment, he says, "We're not ready to die... Tell God to blow the wind from the west." He is explaining where they are in the building...

76/

..."We're overlooking the Financial Center. Three of us. Two broken windows. Oh God. Oh--" - when the call cuts off amid loud crashing sounds.

77/

9:57 am – After passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked Flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they hold a vote and decide to storm the cockpit to try to retake the plane.

78/

A GTE customer service agent on the phone with passenger Todd Beamer recites the 23rd Psalm with him and then hears him say to others: "Are you ready? Let's roll."

Passenger Jeremy Glick says to his wife on the phone before hanging up: "We're going to rush the hijackers."

79/

Flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw to her husband: "Everyone is running up to first class. I have to go. Bye."

Passenger Honor Wainio to her stepmother: "They're breaking into the cockpit. I have to go. I love you."

80/

9:58 am – Flight 93's flight voice data recorder records pounding and crashing against the cockpit door, as well as shouting in English.

81/

9:59 am – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, in less than ten seconds.

(Video: )

82/

9:59 am – Flight 93 passengers are using something, probably a beverage cart, as a battering ram against the cockpit door.

Jarrah tells his fellow hijackers to hold the door.

83/

10:01 am – Flight 93's hijackers roll the plane side-to-side and up-and-down, attempting to defeat the passenger revolt.

Jarrah chants "Allah is the greatest" in Arabic as they do so.

84/

10:02 am – Vice President Cheney is informed of an inbound aircraft (Flight 93).

85/

10:03 am – About to be overpowered, the Flight 93 hijackers deliberately crash the plane into a field near the town of Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at 583 mph, killing all 40 passengers and crew aboard. The impact is 130 miles from Washington.

86/

(It is not conclusively confirmed whether their target was the White House or the Capitol. Osama bin Laden wanted to destroy the White House but other planners preferred the Capitol. A conversation with Atta suggested the White House was primary, and the Capitol secondary.)

87/

10:07 am – The Langley fighters reach position over Washington, but hold far above the city, at 20,000 feet.

88/

10:13 am – United Nations building evacuated.

89/

10:14 am – Not yet aware that Flight 93 has crashed, and told it is 80 miles away and closing, Vice President Cheney authorizes shootdown of hijacked aircraft. President Bush confirms the order at 10:18 am.

90/

10:15 am – Floors above the Pentagon impact site collapse. (The Pentagon is five stories high.) The fire reaches 2,000°F and will not be fully extinguished until September 13.

91/

10:15 am – CNN erroneously reports an explosion on Capitol Hill.

10:23 am – AP erroneously reports car bomb explosion at the State Department.

92/

10:23 am – Approximate time that Flight 93 would have arrived over Washington had the passenger revolt not occurred.

93/

10:28 am – The World Trade Center’s North Tower collapses, 102 minutes after being struck by Flight 11.

(Video: )

94/

10:31 am – A combat air patrol is established over Washington. Pilots Marc Sasseville and Heather Penney Garcia are in the air from Andrews Air Force Base so rapidly they have no ammunition; they have mentally prepared themselves to ram their plane into a hijacked plane.

95/

10:49 am – Fox News adds a permanent news ticker at the bottom of its screen. CNN follows at 11:11 and MSNBC at 2pm. On-screen news tickers had been used occasionally before but became permanent mainstays after this.

(Fox News video: )

96/

10:53 am – United States moves to DEFCON 3.

97/

11:02 am – New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani calls for the evacuation of Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street, including more than 1 million residents, workers and tourists, as efforts continue throughout the afternoon to search for survivors at the WTC site.

98/

Thousands of rescue workers and 400 rescue dogs pull 20 survivors out of the rubble over the next day.

At 12:30pm on Sept. 12, Port Authority employee Genelle Guzman-McMillan is the last person rescued alive after being trapped in the rubble for 27 hours.

99/

12:15 pm - Last of 4,500 civilian aircraft over the United States lands.

(Animation: )

100/

12:30 pm (9pm local time) – Taliban Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil holds a press conference in Kabul's ruined Intercontinental Hotel.

Afghanistan is already tense after news that long-standing resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated...

101/

...(by al-Qaeda) on September 9. Muttawakil condemns the 9/11 attacks, denies Taliban involvement, and says the government will not surrender Osama bin Laden.

102/

(NPR article: npr.org/sections/paral…)

1:00pm – From a U.S. Air Force base in Louisiana, President Bush announces that U.S. military forces are on high alert worldwide.

(Video: )

103/

2:51 pm – The U.S. Navy dispatches missile destroyers to New York and Washington, D.C.

104/

5:20 pm – The 47-story Seven World Trade Center collapses after burning for hours; the building had been evacuated in the morning, and there are no casualties, though the collapse forces rescue workers to flee for their lives.

(Simulation: )

105/

6:42 pm – Defense Secretary Rumsfeld announces that the Pentagon will be open for business the next day, after rejecting a proposal to relocate defense command to backup "Site R" in Pennsylvania.

106/

6:54 pm – President Bush returns to the White House after stops at military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska.

107/

8:30 pm – President Bush addresses the nation, calling the attacks “evil, despicable acts of terror” and declaring that America, its friends and allies would “stand together to win the war against terrorism.”

(Video: )

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