(The Center Square) - Terror struck America on Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four Boeing jets and turned them into missiles, killing almost 3,000 people.
The hijackers arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas with cash and travelers checks they got in the Middle East. They enrolled in flight schools.
Here’s what happened on that morning of 9/11, minute by minute. Details are from sources such as the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Miller Center, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. the World Economic Forum and the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks.
5:45 a.m. Hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari pass through a security screening at Portland International Airport in Maine and take a commuter flight to Boston Logan International Airport.
6 a.m. Polls open in New York City for the primary election.
6:45 a.m. Atta and Omari arrive at the Boston airport. Atta, Omari, Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri and Waleed al Shehri board American Airlines Flight 11. At another terminal at the airport, Marwan al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohand al Shehri, Ahmed al Ghamdi, and Hamza al Ghamdi board United Airlines Flight 175, on a Boeing 767 piloted by Captain Victor Saracini and First Officer Michael Horrocks.
7:15 a.m. Khalid al Mihdhar and Majed Moqed checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight 77 at Dulles International Airport in the Washington, D.C. area. The plane was a Boeing 757, and the pilots were Capt. Charles F. Burlingame and First Officer David Charlebois.
7:35 a.m. Hani Hanjour and two brothers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Salem al Hazmi, came to the same counter.
7:59 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11, which was on a Boeing 767 piloted by Capt. John Ogonowski and First Officer Thomas McGuinnes, leaves Boston for Los Angeles. Aboard are 76 passengers, 11 crew members and five hijackers.
8:14 a.m. Terrorists hijack Flight 11 over Massachusetts, using knives, Mace and the threat of a bomb.
8:15 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 leaves Boston for Los Angeles with 51 passengers, nine crew members and five men who hijack the plane during its takeoff. The flight is on a Boeing 767 piloted by Capt. Victor Saracini and First Officer Michael Horrocks.
8:19 a.m. Betty Ann Ong, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, uses an inflight phone to contact the airlines’ ground personnel and report the hijacking. She tells them the cockpit can’t be reached and that two flight attendants were stabbed. The call happens shortly after a hijacker stabs passenger Daniel Lewin, who's sitting in front of the hijacker in first class, where two hijackers are also sitting. Lewin is believed to be the first person killed on 9/11.
8:20 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 leaves Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles with 58 passengers and six crew members. The hijacking happens as the plane takes off.
8:21 a.m. Hijackers turn off an American Airlines Flight transponder, which is what permits traffic control to identify a plane and its flight path.
8:24 a.m. Hijacker Mohamed Atta tries to communicate with the passengers and crew on American Airlines Flight 11, but presses the wrong number and unknowingly gives information about the attacks to air traffic control. Minutes later, Atta inadvertently contacts ground control again.
8:30 a.m. About 80 people come to the World Trade Center to attend a financial technology conference on the North Tower’s 106th floor. There are also 72 restaurant staff members preparing for the conference and breakfast service.
8:32 a.m. Flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, who’s on Flight 11, reports the hijacking to a friend on the ground - a manager of Boston Logan International Airport. During the last minutes of her life, Sweeney provides her friend with details about the hijackers.
8:37 a.m. The U.S. Air Force’s Northeast Air Defense Sector gets an alert from the Boston Air Traffic Control Center, which hears hijacker Mohamed Atta’s transmissions.
8:42 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, leaves Newark International Airport in New Jersey for San Francisco with seven crew members, 33 passengers and four hijackers. The pilots are Capt. Jason Dahl and First Officer LeRoy Homer Jr.
8:46 a.m. Terrorists controlling Flight 11 crash the American Airlines jet into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Everyone on the plane and hundreds inside the tower die instantly. At the same time, firefighters, police and paramedics rush to the tower, where an evacuation of survivors has begun.
8:50 a.m. Before President George W. Bush enters a second-grade classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., he's told about a plane crashing into the North Tower. Bush and his advisers assume the crash is an accident.
8:50-8:54 a.m. Five hijackers take control of Flight 77 above southern Ohio.
8:51 a.m. Hijackers take control of United Airlines Flight 175.
8:52 a.m. A flight attendant, believed to be Robert John Fangman, is on Flight 175. Fangman reaches a United Airlines operator in San Francisco and reports the hijacking.
8:55 a.m. The South Tower at the World Trade Center is declared secure. A Port Authority fire safety employee goes on the public address system and tells people there is no need to evacuate.
8:59 a.m. Port Authority Police Department Sgt. Al DeVona orders both towers evacuated.
9:03 a.m. Terrorists controlling Flight 175 crash the United Airlines jet into the South Tower. As that happens, the New York City Police Department increases its deployment to almost 2,000 officers, and the New York City Fire Department deploys several hundred additional firefighters to the World Trade Center.
9:05 a.m. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at the police department’s command post near the World Trade Center.
9:05 a.m. At the school in Florida, second-graders are reading aloud from the book "The Pet Goat" as President George Bush sits and listens. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card walks over, leans down and whispers to Bush, "A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack." Bush stays in his seat and continues to listen to the children read for several minutes. After the reading ends, Bush walks into another room to make phone calls and brief staff. He later explains he didn't want to create a panic among the students and media in the classroom.
9:28 a.m. Four hijackers take control of United Airlines Flight 93 above northern Ohio.
9:30 a.m. A Secret Service agent’s report of possible additional hijacked planes leads to the evacuation of the U.S. Office of Emergency Management’s headquarters at 7 World Trade Center.
9:30 a.m. At the school in Sarasota, Fla., President Bush delivers televised remarks and calls the attacks a "national tragedy." He reports he spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Gov. George Pataki, FBI Director Robert Mueller III and other officials.
9:35 a.m. Bush and his staff leave the elementary school for the drive to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport.
9:36 a.m. Vice President Dick Cheney is brought by Secret Service agents to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center below the White House.
9:37 a.m. Hijackers crash American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. All 64 people on the plane are killed. The crash and a fire it caused cost the lives of 125 military and civilian personnel on the ground.
9:42 a.m. All civilian flights in U.S. airspace are grounded by the FAA.
9:45 a.m. Evacuations are started at the U.S. Capitol, where both houses are in session.
9:54 a.m. Air Force One departs with President Bush and his advisers from Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. The president prefers to return to Washington, D.C., but his staff suggests Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana as a secure location.
9:59 a.m. As Americans across the nation watch in horror on TV, the World Trade Center’s South Tower collapses within 10 seconds after burning for 56 minutes. More than 800 civilians and first responders die.
10:03 a.m. Passengers and flight crew fight hijackers and take control of the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93. During the struggle, the Boeing jet crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pa., instead of what is believed to have been the hijackers' target: the Capitol. At the moment of the crash, the plane was 20 minutes away by air from Washington, D.C.
10:28 a.m. The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, after burning for 1 hour and 42 minutes. Also destroyed is the Marriott hotel at the base of the towers. More than 1,600 people are killed.
10:50 a.m. At the Pentagon, a fire caused by the jet crash causes five stories on the western side to collapse.
11:02 a.m. Mayor Giuliani orders evacuation of lower Manhattan.
11:45 a.m. Air Force Once lands at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
12:16 p.m. The last commercial plane above the continental U.S. lands. Airspace is now completely closed.
2:50 p.m. Air Force One lands at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. That evening, Air Force One lands at Andrews Air Force Base, and Bush and his advisers leave by helicopter to the White House.
Commented