On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 four planes were hijacked by 19 men. These men were all from the Middle East and 24 years of age average. All four of these planes were only seen again on fire after causing catastrophe. Osama Bin Laden was the main suspect the whole time, along with the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
The 110 story North Tower was crashed into by American Airlines flight 11 at 8:48AM. Many witness thought everything was just a misunderstanding, an accident by a pilot that failed to pay attention. Police officers, fire fighters, and first responders rushed to the World Trade Center. Just eighteen short minutes later United Airlines, Flight 175 hit the south tower. Minds changed side quickly from an accident to a terrorist attack, no one knew what to think of it, many were oblivious that anything had even happened yet in New York City, but news spread fast along with smoke, debrief, and horrified thoughts from family members, as the rest of the world turned on their T.V. to see what unfolded next.
Almost an hour later, at 9:40AM American Airlines flight 77 hit the west wall of the Pentagon. At 10:10AM the west wall collapsed. To this day there are still little remains or evidence of the plane that crashed into it.
United Airlines flight 93 was being hijacked, as passenger and crew members received information about what was happening in New York and Washington DC. Many passengers and crew members made calls to loved ones, and decided that they could not let this plane reach its destination. Passengers and crew were successful in not letting it reach the fourth destination, which we now know was planned to be the White House, though the plane crashed in an empty field outside of Pittsburg. Sadly all forty passengers and crew members died, what they did will always be remember as a very heroic act.
The south tower burned for fifty-six minutes, but then fell in ten seconds. Twenty minutes later the north tower came tumbling down. A story tells of a man who was in the north tower lobby after rushing with the crowd down many flights of stairs, he was scared to look to see what lied ahead of him, when he did he saw a firefighter rushing towards them telling them to get back inside as the south tower was about to fall, he was literally two steps from the door outside, where the man in front of him had stepped. That man did not make it, nor did the firefighter. The man stated, “Some people say they are close to death, but I say I was literally two steps away from death.”
Every channel was wall to wall twenty-four hour news coverage from ground zero for the next week. Fire fighters, police officers, first responders, and volunteers worked day and night, searching through the ruble for survivors. Nearly 3,000 people died at ground zero, 50,000 worked there. At the pentagon 184 died and 23,000 worked there, all 40 passengers and crew members died on flight 93, 250 of these lives were on a hijacked plane.
Osama Bin Laden thought by attacking the United States he would ruin the alliance between the Middle East and the United States, then making unlike leaders to step out of power, letting a clear spot for Bin Laden to step into power. Thank fully that part of his plan did not fall through.
The question, “why we at are war,” is asked a lot. The answer is a little unclear but the main reason is, outside sources said that Sudddan had mass destruction weapons and were targeting the United States with them. We went to war with Afghanistan because that is where terrorist training camps were held and we wanted and needed them to stop.
One New study that has come out is that 400 first responders and people who lived near Ground Zero have died from cancer. There have been up to fifty different types. No one assumed this at first because there weren’t enough toxins linking it to cancer, but that research has now been proven wrong by new studies.
I was three years old when this happened, the only thing I remember was that my mom was due to have my young sister Bobbie on that day, we were all sitting in the living room watching it on the T.V. though I did not clearly understand what was happening, I knew it was terrible. My mom told me she was scared to have Bobbie and she just wanted to ‘hold her in’ for as long as possible, she had her seven days later.
Comments
Good job Jamie!!