Americans are looking back on the horror and legacy of 9/11, gathering Monday at memorials, firehouses, city halls and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, started off like any other day. The morning was sunny and clear in both New York City and Washington, DC. Around 17,000 people commuted to their jobs at the World Trade Center in addition to students and workers going to school and the workplace, respectively.
The world had transformed by the end of the day. Nearly 3,000 people had died in the greatest terrorist attack to ever hit the United States, and history had abruptly taken a very different and brutal turn.
Here’s a look at how the day’s events unfolded.
An American Airlines aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 in the morning. There were 11 crew members and 76 passengers on board; they were all instantly dead. Some others thought that this was an accident in the moments that followed.
A second plane struck the South Tower at 9:03 in the morning. It was evident at this time that this was not an accident. Al-Qaeda radicals were carrying out a terrorist strike while using numerous stolen aircraft as launch pads.
Also read: 22 years on, 9/11 conspiracies still cast a long shadow
At 9:59am, after burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower collapsed. At 10:28am, the North Tower collapsed as well. As the towers fell, an enormous cloud of dust and ash flooded the surrounding streets, chasing pedestrians as they fled. In total, 2,753 people died in the New York City attacks.
The Pentagon’s west wall was struck by a third plane at 9:37 a.m. in Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington, DC. Both the 125 persons inside the building and all 64 passengers on the plane perished in the crash.
The collision created a fire that required many days to put out and caused part of the building to collapse. 106 individuals were injured in total, 106 of whom were among the building’s survivors who were severely burned.
A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, met a different fate. According to the 9/11 Commission Report issued years later, passengers managed to overpower the hijackers on this plane and stopped them from reaching their target.
In total, the 11 September attacks killed 2,977 people at the time.
There were 19 attackers in total – split between four planes.
Four were trained pilots and each accompanied by three to five “muscle hijackers” who overwhelmed passengers and crew while they took control of their respective aircrafts.
The group, who came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Egypt, were chosen by al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan in 2000 before undergoing training at various camps across the country.
9/11 also inspired a thirst for vengeance in many Americans. In order to justify fresh conflicts in Iraq, which had no relation to the attacks, and Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda had its base of operations, the Bush administration cited 9/11. The globe is still struggling with the effects twenty years later.
