Events Timeline on 9/11
It was 14 years ago on this day that our nation was attacked by terrorists on 9/11. The History Website put together a timeline of the events as they happened on that fateful day for our generation. The timeline is listed in Central Time.
• 6:59 am – American Airlines Flight 11 with 92 people aboard departs from Boston’s Logan International Airport en route to Los Angeles.
• 7:14 am – United Airlines Flight 175 with 65 people aboard departs from Boston, also en route to Los Angeles.
• 7:19 am – Flight attendants aboard Flight 11 alert ground personnel that their plane has been hijacked; American Airlines notifies the FBI.
• 7:20 am – American Airlines Flight 77 departs from Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C., it is headed to Los Angeles with 64 people aboard.
• 7:40 am – The FAA alerts the North American Aerospace Defense Command concerning the suspected hijacking of Flight 11. Two fighter planes based at Cape Cod’s Otis Air National Guard Base are scrambled to locate and tail Flight 11; they are not yet in the air when Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower.
• 7:41 am – United Airlines Flight 93 with 44 people aboard departs from Newark International Airport en route to San Francisco.
• 7:46 am – Flight 11 crashes into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
• 7:47 am – 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.
• 7:50 am – White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card alerts President George W. Bushthat a plane has hit the World Trade Center; the president is visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Floridaat the time.
• 8:03 am – Hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center
• 8:24 am – The FAA notifies NORAD of the suspected hijacking of Flight 77 after some passengers and crew aboard are able to alert family members on the ground.
• 8:31 am – Speaking from Florida, President Bush calls the events in New York City an “apparent terrorist attack on our country.”
• 8:37 am – Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagonin Washington, D.C., killing 59 aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building.
• 8:42 am – The FAA grounds all flights over or bound for the continental United States. Some 3,300 commercial flights and 1,200 private planes are guided to airports in Canada and the United States over the next two-and-a-half hours.
• 8:59 am – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
• 9:07 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 mount an attempt to retake the plane. In response, hijackers deliberately crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
• 9:28 am – The World Trade Center’s North Tower collapses, 102 minutes after being struck by Flight 11.
• 12 pm – From a U.S. Air Force base in Louisiana, President Bush announces that U.S. military forces are on high alert worldwide.
• 4:20 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.
• 5:58 pm – President Bush returns to the White House after stops at military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska.
• 7:30 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.”