Minute by minute, the evolution of the day that changed the modern history of the USA, and beyond.
7.59
- American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from
Boston's
Logan
to Los Angeles.
95 people on board.
8.14
- United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from the same
airport with 65 people on board, bound for Los Angeles.
8.15
- Flight AA11 does not comply with the regulations of the
flight controllers.
8.15
- Flight AA 77 takes off from Dulles with 64 people on
board, bound for Los Angeles.
8.40
- Boston informs Norad (North American Aerospace
Defense Command) that flight AA11 may have been hijacked.
8.42
- Flight UA93 takes off from Newark to San Francisco with
44 people on board.
++ 8.46
- FIRST IMPACT: Flight AA11 crashes into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.
The Norad orders
the immediate take-off of two F-15s from the base in Falmouth
(Massachusetts).
8.50
- The first fire engine comes to the WTC.
9.00
- President George W. Bush, who is visiting a
school in Sarasota (Florida), is informed that a plane has
hit one of the towers.
++ 9.03
- SECOND IMPACT: Flight UA175 hits the
South
Tower
. The F-15s are still eight minutes away from the WTC.
9.07
- Bush is informed by chief of staff Andrew Card
that "a second plane hit the second tower".
9.21
- Ny authorities close bridges and tunnels.
9.26
- The FAA orders the blocking of all take-offs at
US airports.
9.30
- Bush announces that "America has suffered an apparent
terrorist attack".
9.32
- Wall Street stops operations.
9.37
- Washington
air
traffic
controllers warn that an
unidentified plane is headed for the capital.
++ 9.43
- THE THIRD IMPACT: Flight AA77 hits the Pentagon.
9.45
- The White House is evacuated.
Vice President Dick
Cheney is taken to the armored bunker under the residence.
The FAA
orders the closure of air traffic on the US.
9.55
- Air Force One takes off from Florida with
Bush
on board
, who telephones Cheney and orders the alert of the US
military
forces
around the world.
9.58
- The passengers of flight UA93, informed of what has
happened, launch themselves against the hijackers to take
control of
the
plane.
9.59
- The South Tower collapses in a few seconds.
++ 10.03
- THE FOURTH IMPACT: Flight UA93 crashes in a
Pennsylvania
field
in Shanksville.
10.28
- The North Tower also collapses.
10.45
- Authorities order the evacuation of all
federal buildings in Washington.
11.45
- Bush arrives at Barksdale, Louisiana.
12.36
- Bush speaks to the nation.
"Our freedom
was attacked by a faceless coward (...)".
13.02
- The mayor of Ny Rudy Giuliani orders the evacuation
of Manhattan south of Canal Street.
13.27 - State of emergency in
Washington.
14.50
- Bush travels by plane to the headquarters of
the US Strategic Command in Offut (Nebraska), and then presides over a
videoconference with the National Security Council.
20.30
- The president speaks in unified networks to the nation. "Those
responsible will pay for it. America will not make distinctions between
terrorists and those who host them"