New York, September 11th
For my book report I read “New York, September 11th” which describes the events that happened on 9/11. 9/11 was a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York and Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. The attacks killed almost 3,000 people and caused at least 10 billion dollars in property and infrastructure damage. In Boston’s Logan Airport, American Airlines flight 11 left at 7:59 A.M. flying to Los Angeles with a crew of 11 and 81 passengers aboard the plane including the five hijackers.
Less than an hour into the flight the hijackers turned the plane around and flew it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 A.M. “America is under attack. These were the words spoken by White House chief of staff, Andrew Card to President George W. Bush as he sat in a Florida elementary classroom. Even with the terrorist attacks, he remained seated and read out loud with the kids for at least 8 more minutes. He did nothing to show his fear." After the students were done reading he put his plans into action. Shortly after flight 11 left Boston, United Airlines Flight 175 left Logan Airport at 8:14 a.m. heading to Los Angeles with 65 people aboard the plane including five hijackers.
After entering New Jersey the plane was turned around and heading towards New York. The hijackers flew the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. The North American Aerospace Defense Command would normally order escort aircraft to approach and follow an aircraft that was confirmed to be hijacked, but on 9/11 they weren’t notified in time to reach the hijacked planes, instead they were not in the air until after flight 11 had hit the North Tower. "As terrorists seized control of four airplanes on Sept. 11th, 2001, Ben Sliney, chief of air-traffic-control operations at the FAA's command center gave the order to ground 4,000-plus planes across the nation to efficiently find the hijacked planes, while also redirecting any planes in the sky to the nearest airport."
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths after choosing to escape the suffocating smoke, dust, the flames and the steel-bending heat in the highest floors of the World Trade Center. The fall was said to take about 10 seconds, plummeting at around 125 miles per hour. They were instantly killed on impact. The collapse of the twin towers destroyed the rest of the complex, and debris from the collapsing towers severely damaged or destroyed more than a dozen other adjacent and nearby structures. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am, and at 10:28 am the North Tower collapsed.
The days after the attacks millions of vigils and memorials were held around the world. One of the first major memorials was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights outlining the Twin Towers. Many others memorials have been held throughout the past years - the pentagon memorial, a plaque of all the people who died during the attacks, and a museum under where the twin towers once were.
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