Sept. 11, 2001 will go down in history as the worst terrorist attack ever. On that date, both twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed after two 767 jets leaving Boston collided into them. The third jet, a 757 leaving Dulles Airport in Washington, crashed outside the Pentagon. Its target was believed to be the White House. The forth jet, a 757 leaving Newark, crashed outside of Pittsburgh after the retakeing of the airliner by the male passengers of the flight, its target either Camp David or Capitol Hill.

A map of damage caused in New York City is availiable at CNN.com

Timeline of events:
(All times in EST)
(Timeline Courtesy of CNN.com with additions from other news agencies.)

Tuesday September 11, 2001
8:45 a.m.: A hijacked passenger jet, American Flight 11, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire. Point of impact is estimated to be around the 80th floor.

9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Flight 175, crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both buildings are burning. Point of impact to be estimated around the 50th to 60th floors.

9:40 a.m.: The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted. 10 minutes earlier, President Bush makes initial comments on the tradgedy from Florida.

9:43 a.m.: A third hijacked aircraft, American Airlines Flight 77, crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately. Later reports say that this jet was planned to hit the White House.

10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly drifts away from the building.

10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses. United Airlines Flight 93 crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. Later reports reveal that the male population of the passengers may have attempted to retake the flight. More reports reveal that the intended targets of the jet may have been Camp David or Capitol Hill.

10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses from the top down as if it were being peeled apart, releasing a tremendous cloud of debris and smoke. Tower 7 may have caught fire around this time.

10:45 a.m.: All federal office buildings in Washington are evacuated.

11:18 a.m.: American Airlines reports it has lost two aircraft. American Flight 11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard. Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington's Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles, had 58 passengers and six crew members aboard. Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

11:26 a.m.: United Airlines reports that United Flight 93, en route from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, has crashed in Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. The airline also says that it is "deeply concerned" about United Flight 175.

11:59 a.m.: United Airlines confirms that Flight 175, from Boston to Los Angeles, has crashed with 56 passengers and nine crew members aboard. Emergency personnel at the scene say there are no survivors.

1:04 p.m.: President Bush puts the U.S. military on high alert worldwide when he speaks to press at Barksdale Air Force Base.

5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex collapses. The evacuated building is damaged when the twin towers across the street collapse earlier in the day. Other nearby buildings in the area remain ablaze. Those buildings include the WTC Marriot Hotel.

6:54 p.m.: Bush arrives back at the White House from Nebraska. Scheduled to address the nation at 8:30 p.m. Most world governments have expressed their sentiments in the wake of the attack by this time. Explosions reported near Kabul, Afgafastan are linked to rebel groups in that country.

8:30 p.m.: Bush addresses the nation, saying "thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil" and asks for prayers for the families and friends of Tuesday's victims. "These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve," he says. The president says the U.S. government will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed the acts and those who harbor them. He adds that government offices in Washington are reopening for essential personnel Tuesday night and for all workers Wednesday.


Wednesday September 12, 2001:
Early morning: Six firefighters and a police officer are reported rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

5:20 a.m.: Pope John Paul II opens his weekly address with a statement condemning Tuesday's attacks, saying "evil and death will not have the last word."

8:45 a.m.: All European stock markets cease trading for one minute's silence to remember Tuesday's events. US Markets would not open today.

9:05 a.m.: The assistant director of the Washington, D.C., Airport Authority tells CNN that Dulles International and Ronald Reagan National airports will open at 3 p.m. Wednesday only to allow people to pick up their luggage and vehicles. Unclaimed vechicles were seized and towed away.

10 a.m.: US Congress reconvenes. Members of both parties denouncing Tuesday's events.

10:30 a.m.: New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani warns that the death toll would be grim. "The numbers we are working with are in the thousands," Giuliani told reporters at a briefing.

10:50 a.m.: The president labels Tuesday's attacks "acts of war" and says the United States faces a different enemy than ever before in its history. "This will be a monumental struggle of good vs. evil. But good will prevail," Bush says.

10:54 a.m.: CNN first reports that the United States has intercepted two phone calls made after Tuesday's terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, and the conversations were between members of al Qaeda, an organization sponsored by bin Laden. In those conversations, U.S. law enforcement officials say the individuals discussed hitting two U.S. targets.

11:20 a.m.: CNN reports that the FAA will not allow domestic air traffic to resume at noon Wednesday.

11:25 a.m.: A total of nine survivors have been rescued so far in the rubble in New York. Six firefighters, and three police officers.

12:10 p.m.: Officials from Boston's Logan International Airport say the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring all U.S. airports to comply with some emergency safety measures, including banning the sale or use of knives, even plastic ones, at airports; evacuating and sweeping all terminals with K-9 teams; and discontinuing curbside check-in. Furthur reports say that knives are banned from in-flight meals.

1 p.m.: CNN reports that the FBI has taken several people into custody for questioning in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Florida. Authorities also are checking passenger manifests from the crashed airplanes to see if they include anyone who attended flight schools in the United States or who used facilities that have airline simulators.

1:20 p.m.: CNN reports that officials of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic rulers of Afghanistan, are appealing to the United States not to attack the country. The country is where suspected Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden is based.

2:15 p.m.: Philip Purcell, chairman and chief executive officer of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley, says "a vast majority" of the 3,500 staff members who worked in two of the World Trade Center buildings, including one of the twin towers, got out safely after hijackers crashed two planes into the towers.

2:20 p.m.: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says that airline flights diverted after Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon are authorized to finish their journeys Wednesday but all other planes remain grounded. Only passengers on the original flights could reboard and only after new security measures were put in place. Airlines also can move empty airplanes, Mineta said.

2:57 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that the White House says that there was "reasonable and credible information" to believe that the White House and Air Force One were possible targets of the terrorist attacks. The White House says this is why the president did not immediately return to Washington on Tuesday. The White House also says the plane that crashed into the Pentagon may have been destined originally for the White House.

3:40 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the four planes involved in Tuesday's events were hijacked by between three and six individuals per aircraft. They were armed with knives and box cutters and in some cases made bomb threats. Ashcroft says a number of suspected hijackers were trained as pilots in the United States, and he characterized the investigation as perhaps the most massive one ever undertaken in U.S. history.

4 p.m.: White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the president called European heads of state, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin to rally an international coalition to fight terrorism. At the same time, NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels, Belgium, approve the invocation of NATO's self-defense charter (Section #5) if Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the United States prove to have been directed from abroad. NATO's charter says that an armed attack against one of the organization's members is considered an attack against all of them. The United States, therefore, can invoke that section of the charter and count on the support of its NATO allies in mounting military operations.

4:50 p.m.: The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are not expected to open before Friday. The markets could open as early as Friday but will open no later than Monday, according to market officials.

5:20 p.m.: Rescue workers and journalists are evacuated from the devastated area around the World Trade Center due to a partial collapse of the nearby One Liberty Plaza. The 54-story building houses the Nasdaq stock market's new headquarters. Tower 5 collapses later and all rescue and press are evacuated due to the continuing threat that a hotel and one other building may collapse.

6 p.m.: President Bush visits the Pentagon and thanks rescue workers for their efforts. During his visit, a massive U.S. flag is draped over the side of the damaged building. "Coming here, makes me sad, on the one hand. It also makes me angry," he says. "Our country, however, will not be cowed by terrorists, by people who don't share the same values we share."

A US flag was also placed on what is beleived to be what was left of the TV and communications tower that was on the North Tower. A US Flag was planned to be placed at the crash site of Flight 77 in Pennsylvania. Over 4,300 have been injured, including rescue and recovery personal.

Death Toll:

World Trade Center NY: 2749
Pentagon, Washington, DC: 189
Pennsylvania: 40


All of our wishes and hopes go to all of the affected families and friends. I will try to keep this site up to date on a regular basis. I ask that everyone stay strong and never lose hope.

ICQ.com had set up a website where you can light a virtual candle. Unfortunately, with the new tragedy of the Columbia, that site has been replaced with candles in memorial for the Columbia. Over 1,021,000 people from all over the world lit a candle in memory of the 9/11 tragedy.

Click to return to the USS Wasaga @ 13th Fleet.