25 ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ณ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ 9/11: ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ต๐ถ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐
At 8:46am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.
Seventeen minutes later, another hijacked aircraft struck the South Tower.
By 9:37am, a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon, while a fourth was heading towards Washington before passengers and crew members fought to regain control of the aircraft.
At 10:03am, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
By the end of the day, 2,977 people were dead.
The attacks exposed vulnerabilities in Americaโs aviation security, intelligence-sharing, emergency-response and national-security systems and triggered a sweeping restructuring of the countryโs homeland security architecture.
Twenty-five years later, the US House Committee on Homeland Security has revisited that day, examining the progress made since the attacks and identifying more than 20 areas where it says further action is required.
Here is how the attacks unfolded โ and how they changed the United States.
The September 11 attacks were the culmination of years of planning.
According to the House committeeโs report, planning began as early as 1999, when Osama bin Laden met with conspirators in Afghanistan to discuss using commercial aircraft as weapons and identify potential targets.
In April 1999, hijackers began obtaining visas to enter the United States, while several prepared for the operation while living in Germany.
Throughout 2001, the hijackers enrolled in flight schools and conducted surveillance of cross-country flights to identify aircraft that could be used in the plot.
Several of the hijackers were cited for traffic violations while in the US, but law enforcement did not observe terrorism-related indications.
On the morning of September 11, the hijackers passed through security screening at airports in Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey.
The committee said eight were selected for random screening and two were flagged as suspicious, but none was prevented from boarding.
The morning of September 11
5:45am: Two hijackers underwent security screening at Portland International Jetport in Maine before travelling to Boston Logan International Airport, where they joined three other hijackers and boarded American Airlines Flight 11.
Five other hijackers later underwent security screening at Washington Dulles International Airport before boarding American Airlines Flight 77.
7:59am: Flight 11 departed Boston Logan International Airport with 11 crew members, 76 passengers and five hijackers aboard.
8:15am: United Airlines Flight 175 departed Boston Logan with nine crew members, 51 passengers and five hijackers.
8:19am: Crew members aboard Flight 11 notified ground personnel that the aircraft had been hijacked.
8:20am: American Airlines Flight 77 departed Washington Dulles with six crew members, 53 passengers and five hijackers.
8:24am: Hijackers aboard Flight 11 inadvertently transmitted a message to air traffic control instead of the aircraftโs public-address system: โWe have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you will be okay.โ
8:30am: Employees began arriving at the World Trade Center.
8:37am: Boston air traffic control alerted the US Air Forceโs Northeast Air Defense Sector after the hijacking transmission. Air National Guard fighter jets at Otis Air Force Base were mobilised to identify and track Flight 11.
8:42am: United Airlines Flight 93 departed Newark International Airport with seven crew members, 33 passengers and four hijackers.
8:46am: Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
First responders immediately began rescue operations.
8:50am: President George W. Bush was informed that a small plane had struck the North Tower. At that point, the crash was believed to have been an accident.
8:52am: Crew members aboard Flight 175 notified a United Airlines operator in San Francisco that their aircraft had been hijacked.
8:55am: The Port Authority declared the South Tower secure.
8:59am: Port Authority police ordered the evacuation of the North and South towers.
9:02am: An evacuation order was broadcast in the South Tower.
9:03am: Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.
More first responders were mobilised, while a request was made to shut down the airspace over New York City.
9:05am: President Bush was informed that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
The scale and nature of the attack were becoming clear.
9:12am: Crew and passengers aboard Flight 77 began notifying family members that the aircraft had been hijacked.
9:36am: Vice President Dick Cheney was evacuated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
9:37am: Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
9:42am: The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights.
9:45am: The White House and US Capitol began evacuations.
9:58am: Passengers aboard Flight 93 began makiโฆ
