The Deadliest Attack In American History: 9/11
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty ImagesNearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.
It took less than two hours for Sept. 11, 2001, to become one of the deadliest days in American history. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 tore into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. To many on the ground, it appeared at first like a tragic accident.
In reality, five Al Qaeda terrorists had hijacked the Los Angeles-bound plane and flew it to lower Manhattan. With the world watching, United Airlines Flight 175 followed at 9:03 a.m., crashing into the South Tower. Thirty-four minutes later, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
The unimaginable happened at 9:59 a.m. as the South Tower collapsed into its own footprint. Meanwhile, over Pennsylvania, passengers on United Flight 93 were attempting to regain control of the plane from hijackers when it crashed in a field near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m.
Then, at 10:28 a.m., the North Tower of the World Trade Center fell.
Wikimedia CommonsThe two 110-story Twin Towers collapsed into their own footprint.
In a matter of 102 minutes, the two most iconic towers of the World Trade Center collapsed, the Pentagon was attacked, and passengers on flight 93 had stopped their plane from reaching its target, widely believed to have been the U.S. Capitol building. In total, 2,977 people were killed in the September 11th attacks.
One of the deadliest days in American history — and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the Sept. 11 attacks would yield hundreds of thousands of more deaths due to the respiratory illnesses suffered by first responders and the resultant wars in the Middle East.
And to this day, more than 40 percent of those who died in America on 9/11 remain officially unidentified.
