September 11
9/11 DAY
Phones rang across the United States and the rest of the world on this day in
2001, “Turn on the TV!” It was 8:48 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time. A passenger jet had just crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Flames and smoke billowed from
the tower. It was now 9:06. This was no accident. Another plane just hit the World
Trade Center’s South Tower. New York was under attack and this time it wasn’t King
Kong. This was real.News bulletins came fast and furious. These were passenger jets, fully fueled: American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston on its way to LA with 92 people aboard and United Flight 175, same itinerary, with 65 onboard. More news bulletins: 9:43 a.m. The Pentagon had just been hit by another jet airliner, American Flight 77 leaving Washington for Los Angeles with 64 people aboard. In the next 12 minutes, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. Sirens screamed. People were running, screaming, jumping out of the towers. Then the North Tower crumbled like a deck of cards. Gray, choking clouds filled the streets of New York City’s lower West end, covering people, cars and buildings with debris, fireballs of airplane fuel, desks, computers, paper, and ash. More news bulletins: Nineteen minutes before the North Tower collapsed, a fourth jet airliner, United Flight 93 with 44 people aboard, on its way to San Francisco from Newark had crashed in a field in Shanksville, PA, some 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 
Terrorists had struck on U.S. soil. Air traffic to and from U.S. airports
was halted. The horror was being played over and over on every
TV channel and on faces around the world. It wouldn’t go away and neither
would the tears and the fears.19 Muslim militants, all men, all in their 20s and 30s, members of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, had hijacked at least four planes all in the name of their religion: Islam. Almost 3,000 people died at Ground Zero, including 385+ firefighters and police who valiantly attempted to save the thousands in the WTC towers. 
One jet destroyed a section of the Pentagon, killing 189 people.
On Flight 93, the brave souls aboard tried to regain control from their
hijackers. Was their plane headed for the White House? They were determined
not to let this happen. Their plane crashed in a field. There were no
survivors.19 Islamic religious fanatics of Middle Eastern descent wanted to destroy what Americans stand for. They died in vain. But, the people they murdered did not. Americans vowed to fight for the inalienable right to live in a democracy. The battle cry of the United States against terrorists became, “Let’s roll!” (Todd Beamer’s last words as heard by an Airfone operator minutes before Flight 93 crashed.) |
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