The World Trade Center - 9/11 Attacks

The date September 11, 2001 was the day the United States was attacked by 19 suicide terrorists. On that day, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners that were heading for California. Each of these airliners had the capacity to hold 24,000 gallons (91,000liters) of jet fuel.

Two of these hijacked airliners were successfully crashed into the World Trade Center's twin towers. One airliner hit the North tower and the other hit the South tower. Another of the four hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth one hit near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The first airline to hit was an American Airlines Flight. The Boeing 767-200 smashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on the northern side. The crash happened at approximately 8:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and it hit the 94th through the 98th floors. Just moments later, the Boeing 767-200, United Airlines Flight 175, crashed into the South Tower at 9:02 a.m. It hit the 78-84th floors.

The next flight to crash was just moments later as well. At 9:37 a.m., Flight 77 from American Airlines, a Boeing 757-200, went straight into the Pentagon. Then the final blow was when a Boeing 757-200, Flight 93 from United Airlines hit just outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which was 150 miles northwest of Washington DC. This plane hit at 10:03 a.m. local time.

There were a total of three buildings that collapsed on 9/11 at the World Trade Center Complex. The South Tower was the first to fall at 9:59 a.m., which burned for 56 minutes. The North Tower fell next after burning for a total of 102 minutes, falling down at 10:28 a.m. The third and final building in this area to go down was 7 World Trade Center. The first two were due to the structural damage caused by the impact as well as the fires and the third was due to debris damage from the twin towers.

The black box was recovered from the United Airlines Flight 93 and it showed that the passengers as well as the crew members had tried to gain control over the plane after they had heard through phone calls that other planes were hijacked in a similar manner. It was also said that one of the hijackers had given the order to roll the plan should it appear that the passengers were going to gain control. Shortly after that was said, the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It was later revealed in an interview with Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was going under the codename "the Faculty of Law."

The events that unfolded on September 11, 2001 will be forever embedded in each of our minds. For more information about other aspects of the 9/11 attacks such as ongoing health issues associated with asbestos and other toxins, please see The World Trade Center - Health Issues.