On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 encumbered with 20,000 gallons of jet stimulate crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The collision left a cavernous, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, immediately killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the migration of the tower and its double got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what primarily emerged to be a freak accident.
Then, 18 minutes after the first plane strike, a second Boeing 767–United Airlines Flight 175–emerged out of the sky, turned piercingly toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower near the 60th floor. The crash caused a massive blast that showered burning rubbish over adjacent buildings and the streets below. America was beneath assault.
The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and numerous other Arab nations. Reportedly investment by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization, they were supposedly acting in revenge for America's support of Israel, its association in the Persian Gulf War and its continued military incidence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken soaring lessons at American profitable flight schools.
Others had slipped into the country in the months previous to September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the process. The 19 terrorists effortlessly smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and timber four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were encumbered with fuel for the long transcontinental expedition. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists requisition the four planes and took the controls, transforming ordinary traveler jets into guided arsenal.
As millions watched the events recitation in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C., and criticize into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a overwhelming inferno that led to the structural crumple of a portion of the massive concrete building. All told, 125 military workers and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, down with all 64 people aboard the airliner.
