A
timeline of the events surrounding the series of terrorist attacks.
7:59 a.m. American Airlines flight 11 takes off
from Boston's Logan International Airport.
8:14 a.m. United Airlines flight 175 takes off from Boston's
Logan International Airport.
8:20 a.m. American Airlines flight 11 stops transmitting IFF
(Identification Friend or Foe) beacon signal while over the Hudson River.
8:20 a.m. American Airlines flight 77 departs Dulles International
Airport near Washington.
8:38 a.m. Boston air traffic center notifies NORAD (North American Aerospace
Defence Command) that American Airlines flight 11 has been hijacked.
8:43 a.m. FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) notifies NORAD that
United Airlines flight 175 has been hijacked.
8:48 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 en route
from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles International with 92 people
on board, slams
into the north tower, 1 World Trade Center.
9:05 a.m. Approximately 18 minutes later, United Airlines Flight
175, also a Boeing 767 en route from Boston to Los Angeles with 65 people
on board, hits the south tower, 2 World Trade Center.
9:21 a.m. New York City Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels
in New York City.
9:24 a.m. President Bush calls the crashes "an apparent terrorist
attack on our country."
9:32 a.m. New York Stock Exchange closed.
9:40 a.m. The FAA orders the entire nationwide air traffic system
shut down. All flights at U.S. airports are stopped.
9:43 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route
from Dulles Airport outside Washington to LAX (Los Angeles airport)
with 58 passengers and six crew members, crashes into
the Pentagon. One of the building's five sides collapses.
9:45 a.m. The White House is evacuated.
9:59 a.m. The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses in a plume
of ash and debris.
10:00 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 en route from
Newark, NJ , to San Francisco with 38 passengers and seven crew
members, crashes just north of the Somerset County Airport, about
80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Shortly before impact, a passenger
called on his cell phone from a locked bathroom : "We are being hijacked,
we are being hijacked!" At this time, there was concern the plane
was headed to Camp David.
10:24 a.m. The FAA reports that all inbound transatlantic flights
are to be diverted to Canada.
10:28 a.m. The World Trade Center's north tower collapses.
12:15 p.m. The United States closes some border crossings with
Canada and Mexico.
1:02 p.m. New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani orders an evacuation of Manhattan
south of Canal Street.
1:04 p.m. In a speech at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana,
President Bush announces that security measures are being taken and
says : "Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and
punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."
1:44 p.m. The Navy dispatches aircraft carriers and guided missile
destroyers to New York and Washington.
1:44 p.m. President Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base for
Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base, home to the U.S. Strategic Command.
4:30 p.m. President Bush leaves Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska
for Washington.
4:45 p.m. The City of New York announces that over 300 firefighters
have been killed and about 100 police officers are missing.
5:20 p.m. Seven World Trade Center, a 47-story tower, collapses from
ancillary damage.