English 110 - September 11 Case

Danielle Meierhofer

English 110/Section 25

September 22, 2011

9 1 1

September 11, 2001, was a normal day for Americans all around the world. Adults were getting up to start their day at work, and children were preparing themselves for school. Everyone was pursuing their normal everyday activities, and were already thinking about what they would be doing that night, or even the rest of the week. Little did anyone know that we would be attacked. This paper will inform about the events that took place on that very day. The topics discussed will be the beginning and planning of the attack, the actual crash, the aftermath, and the rebuild. The attack of September 11th will always be a topic talked about because of how it changed America and the devastation was so tremendous that it can never be put in the past. Now it is time to begin right from the very beginning.

It all started in mid-1996 where two men would meet in a cave in Tora Bora, Afghanistan (Farmer 14). These two men were Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Farmer 15). Osama had been planning the attack all along. He never liked Americans, and believed that we should all be killed. He believed that we were the terrorists. From 1996 to 2001 this massive plan had been building every day. Also during this time Osama was organizing smaller attacks on the United States. There were many different bombings there were going on a few took place where the military was staying, and there was a bombing that took place at the World Trade Center (Farmer 22). The US was also getting different ideas about attacks and was trying to take action and decide what they needed to do. The group that he had was called Al Qaeda terrorist organization (Kelly). There were 19 men that boarded the four planes that were going to by hijacked (Kean and Hamilton 7). These men will lead into the next point and also the most devastating act in American history.

The hijacking of plane America 11 was the first plane to take off that morning with 5 of the hijackers. These hijackers passed all the airport security inspections. This includes the baggage X-ray check and the body scans (Kean and Hamilton 4). A couple of the hijackers had to go through the wand checks by the security guards, but they still passed these inspections as well, and boarded American Flight 11 (Kean and Hamilton 5). The flight took off at 7:59, and just before 8:14 the flight had reached 26,000 feet. Once the plane reached its correct altitude fasten your seatbelt light came on and this would be the last time that flight 11 had communication. It is believed that the hijacking started at 8:14 or thereafter (Kean and Hamilton 8). At 8:46:40 the plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (Kean and Hamilton 11). The next plane that was hijacked was United 175. The plane was departed from the airport at 8:14 and by 8:33 it reached is altitude of 31,000 feet. This flight was just taking off at the time that American 11 was being hijacked (Kean and Hamilton 11). On this flight there were also 5 hijackers. At 9:03:11 Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The next flight to be hijacked was flight 77. Unlike the other planes this one was headed for the Pentagon. Flight 77 took off at 8:20 and reached its altitude at 8:46 (Kean and Hamilton 14). At 9:37:46 Flight 77