Truth behind 9/11

Timeline

• 7:59 am – American Airlines Flight 11, a B-767 with 92 people aboard, takes off from Boston's Logan International Airport to Los Angeles.

• 8:14 am – United Airlines Flight 175, a B-767 with 65 people aboard, takes off from Boston; it is also headed to Los Angeles.

• 8:19 am – Flight attendants aboard Flight 11 alert ground personnel that the plane has been hijacked; American Airlines notifies the FBI.

• 8:20 am – American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. The B-757 is headed to Los Angeles with 64 people aboard.

• 8:24 am – One of the Hijacker's makes the first of two accidental transmissions from Flight 11 to ground control (in an attempt to communicate with the plane's cabin).

• 8:40 am – The Federal Aviation Administration alerts NORAD and the Northeast Air Defense Sector about the suspected hijacking of Flight 11. In response, The latter scrambles two fighter planes located at Cape Cod's Otis Air National Guard Base to tail Flight 11; they aren't even in the air yet when Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower.

• 8:41 am – United Airlines Flight 93, a B-757 with 44 people aboard, takes off from Newark International Airport to San Francisco. scheduled to depart at 8:00 am, around the time of the other hijacked flights.

• 8:46 am – the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 crash the plane into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building.

• 8:47 am – Within seconds, NYPD and FDNY forces dispatch units to the World Trade Center, at this time Port Authority and Police Department officers on site begin immediate evacuation of the North Tower.

• 8:50 am – White House Chief of Staff alerts President Bush that a plane has hit the World Trade Center; the president is visiting an elementary school at the time.

• 9:02 am – After initially instructing tenants of the South Tower to remain in the building, Port Authority officials broadcast orders to evacuate both towers via the public address system; it's estimated 10,000 to 14,000 people are already in the process of evacuating.

• 9:03 am – Hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 75-85 of the South Tower, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside.

• 9:08 am – The FAA bans all takeoff flights going to New York City or through the airspace around the city.

• 9:21 am – The Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels in the New York City area.

• 9:24 am – The FAA notified NEADS of the hijacking of Flight 77 after passengers and crew aboard alert family members on the ground.

• 9:31 am – Speaking from Florida, President Bush calls the event in New York City an "apparent terrorist attack on our country."

• 9:37 am – Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing 59 aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building. The names of these victims are now immortalized outside the Pentagon.

• 9:42 am – For the first time in history, the FAA grounds all flights over and bound for the continental United States. Some 3,300 commercial flights and 1,200 private planes are guided to airports in Canada and the United States.

• 9:45 am – escalating rumors of other attacks place the White House and U.S. Capitol buildings under an evacuation.

• 9:59 am – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

• 10:07 am – After passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked Flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they over take the Hijackers on their plane and crash it in a field killing themselves and the attackers in the process. It's known that the passengers crashed Flight 93 because the Hijackers would have crashed it into the White House.

• 10:28 am – The North Tower collapsed, 102 minutes after being struck.

• 11 am – Mayor of New York calls for the evacuation of Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street, including more than 1 million residents and tourists as efforts continued throughout the day to search for survivors at both tower sites.

• 1:00 pm – From a U.S. Air Force base in Louisiana, President Bush announces that U.S. military forces are on high alert worldwide.

• 2:51 pm – The U.S. Navy sends guided missile destroyers to New York and Washington, D.C.

• 5:20 pm – The North Tower collapses after burning for hours; the building had been evacuated in the morning, and there are no casualties, but the collapse forces rescue workers to flee for their lives.

• 6:58 pm – President Bush returns to the White House after stops at military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska.

• 8:30 pm – President Bush declares war on Terrorism.