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10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses from the top down as if it were being peeled apart, releasing a tremendous cloud of debris and smoke.


8:45 a.m.: A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 out of Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.

9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston, crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both buildings are burning.

9:30 a.m.: President Bush, speaking in Sarasota, Florida, says the country has suffered an "apparent terrorist attack."

9:40 a.m.: The Aviation Authority (FAA) halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted.

9:43 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 is hijacked from Dulles Airport, Washington, and crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately.

9:45 a.m.: The White House evacuates.

9:57 a.m.: Bush departs from Florida.

10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly drifts away from the building.

10:10 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, also hijacked, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.

10:13 a.m.: The United Nations building evacuates, including 4,700 people from the headquarters building and 7,000 total from UNICEF and U.N. development programs.

10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses from the top down as if it were being peeled apart, releasing a tremendous cloud of debris and smoke.

11:02 a.m.: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay at home and orders an evacuation of the area south of Canal Street.

11:18 a.m.: American Airlines reports it has lost two aircraft. American Flight 11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard. Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington's Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles, had 58 passengers and six crew members aboard. Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

11:26 a.m.: United Airlines reports that United Flight 93, en route from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, has crashed in Pennsylvania. The airline also says that it is "deeply concerned" about United Flight 175.

11:59 a.m.: United Airlines confirms that Flight 175, from Boston to Los Angeles, has crashed with 56 passengers and nine crew members aboard. It hit the World Trade Center's south tower.

What happened on United Flight 93?
Passengers on board the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in rural Pennsylvania apparently decided to attack the terrorists who had commandeered the plane, according to family members of one passenger.

Passenger Jeremy Glick called his wife Liz and in-laws in New York on a cell phone to say the plane had been hijacked. All 38 passengers, and possibly the crew, had been herded to the back of the plane. Glick said they were aware a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and that some passengers were talking about retaking control of their plane.
Moments earlier, according to a partial transcript of cockpit chatter, air traffic controllers heard someone shout, "Get out of here," through an open microphone. The plane, which took off from Newark bound for San Francisco, was near Cleveland, flying at 35,000 feet.

At that point, air traffic radar showed the plane abruptly turning 180 degrees, heading southeast, apparently towards Washington with the possible intention of crashing it into the White House or Capitol.
Passenger Thomas E. Burnett Jr., 38, made four calls to his wife Deena in California. "A group of us are going to do something," Burnett said at one point, his wife told the press. He also said one passenger had been stabbed.
Shortly afterwards the plane nose dived into a field in Somerset County, southeast of Pittsburgh, 90 minutes after the first airliner hit one of the twin towers in New York.

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