Everything about American Airlines Flight 11 totally explained
American Airlines Flight 11 was a scheduled
U.S. domestic passenger flight from
Logan International Airport in
Boston, Massachusetts, to
Los Angeles International Airport. It was hijacked and deliberately crashed into the
North Tower of the
World Trade Center (WTC) in
New York City as part of the
September 11, 2001, attacks. The impact killed all 92 people aboard, including the hijackers.
After the crash, the North Tower burned and collapsed, causing thousands of additional casualties. The
recovery effort at the
WTC site, sometimes referred to as Ground Zero, lasted years. Workers recovered and identified dozens of remains from Flight 11 victims, but many other body fragments couldn't be identified.
Flight
The American Airlines Flight 11 aircraft was a
Boeing 767-223ER, registration number N334AA. The capacity of the aircraft was 158 passengers, but it was only carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members. Although this was a light load at 51 percent capacity, the average
load factor for Flight 11 on Tuesday mornings had been 39 percent in the months preceding
September 11.
Boarding
Mohamed Atta, the tactical leader of the attacks, and a fellow hijacker,
Abdulaziz al-Omari, arrived at
Portland International Jetport at 05:40 Eastern Standard Time on
September 11,
2001. They boarded
Colgan Air Flight 5930 which was scheduled to depart at 06:00 from
Portland, Maine and fly to
Boston, Massachusetts. Both hijackers had
first class tickets with a connecting flight to
Los Angeles, California; Atta checked two bags, al-Omari didn't check any bags. When they checked in, the
Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) selected Atta for extra luggage scrutiny but he boarded without incident.
The flight from Portland departed on time and arrived in Boston at 06:45. Three other hijackers,
Waleed al-Shehri,
Wail al-Shehri, and
Satam al-Suqami arrived at Logan Airport at 06:45, leaving their rental car in the airport parking facility. At 06:52, another hijacker made a call from a pay phone in Logan Airport to Atta's cell phone. In the rushed check-in after the flight from Portland, airline officials didn't load Atta's bags on Flight 11.
Satam al-Suqami, Wail al-Shehri, and Waleed al-Shehri also checked in for the flight in Boston. Wail al-Shehri and Suqami each checked one bag; Waleed al-Shehri didn't check any bags. As the CAPPS screening was only for luggage, the three hijackers didn't undergo any extra scrutiny at the passenger security checkpoint.
By 07:40, all five hijackers were aboard the flight, scheduled to depart at 07:45. Mohamed Atta sat in
business class seat 8D with Abdulaziz al-Omari in 8G and Satam al-Suqami in 10B. Waleed al-Shehri and Wail al-Shehri sat in first class seats 2B and 2A respectively.
Hijacking
The
9/11 Commission estimates that the hijacking began at 08:14, when the pilots stopped responding to requests from the Boston
Air Traffic Control Center. At 08:13:29, as the aircraft was passing through over central Massachusetts, the pilots responded to a request from Boston Air Traffic Control Center to make a 20-degree turn to the right. At 08:13:47, Boston Center instructed the pilots to ascend to a cruising altitude of . The aircraft never responded to this request.
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During the hijacking, flight attendants Madeline Sweeney and Betty Ong contacted American Airlines and said the hijackers had stabbed flight attendants Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui and slashed the throat of passenger
Daniel Lewin. Lewin, a notable Internet entrepreneur, had served as an officer in the elite
Sayeret Matkal unit of the
Israeli military. Lewin was seated in 9B with Satam al-Suqami directly behind him in 10B. In a four minute call to the American Airlines operations center, Betty Ong provided information regarding lack of communication with the cockpit, lack of access to the cockpit, and passenger injuries. She provided the seat locations of the hijackers, helping investigators to later determine their identities.
Air traffic controllers heard Atta announcing,
"We have some planes, just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport". At 08:24:56, he announced
"Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet." At 08:26, approximately over
Voorheesville,
New York, the plane made a 100-degree turn to the south toward New York City. The Boston Control Center bypassed standard protocols and directly contacted the
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) in
Rome,
New York.
Crash
At 08:46:40, the hijackers deliberately crashed Flight 11 into the northern facade of the North Tower (Tower 1) of the World Trade Center. All 92 people on board were killed.
Witnesses who saw the plane flying at low altitude over Manhattan before the crash thought perhaps the aircraft was in distress.
Port Authority police officers Patrick McNerney and Jose Sanchez looked for signs of distress, "I was trying to observe the plane, as closely as I could for smoke, fire or any type of vapor trail. There was none. The landing gear was up and the doors that house the gear closed. The plane, was, as I stated, traveling south and was moving at a high rate of speed. It was flying level and straight. The pilot didn't appear to be fighting to maintain control of the aircraft."
FDNY lieutenant William Walsh also witnessed the aircraft, "We were under the impression he looked like he was going down, but we didn't hear any mechanical difficulty. We couldn't figure out why an American Airlines plane would be so low in downtown Manhattan. We sort of expected him to veer off and go into the Hudson. But he just rose a little bit. His altitude leveled off and he was headed straight for the Trade Center. So just before he got to the Trade Center it seemed as though he gained power. We were just watching this airplane on target for the World Trade Center. All of a sudden, boom he disappear into the Trade Center."
The damage caused to the North Tower by the impact destroyed any means of escape from above the impact zone. All stairwells and elevators from the 92nd floor and above became impassible. 1,344 people were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower. Elevator shafts channeled burning jet fuel through the building. At least one elevator shaft carried burning fuel downward, exploding on the 77th floor, the 22nd floor, and the West Side Lobby.
Jules Naudet, a French cameraman, and
Pavel Hlava, a Czech immigrant, both filmed the crash of the plane into the building. A web cam set up by Wolfgang Staehle at an art exhibit in
Brooklyn to take images of
Lower Manhattan every four seconds, also captured images of American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the North Tower.
The first news and radio organizations reported an explosion or incident at the World Trade Center. CNN broke into a commercial at 08:49 with the headline reading 'World Trade Center Disaster.'
Carol Lin, who was the first anchor to break the news of the attacks, said:
Yeah. This just in. You are looking at obviously a very there. That is the World Trade Center, and we've unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened, but clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan. That is once again, a picture of one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
Later, CNN vice-president of finance, Sean Murtagh, reported that a large passenger commercial jet hit the World Trade Center in an on-air phone call his from office in the CNN New York bureau. Initial news reports speculated the crash as a terrible accident until
Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower at 09:03.
Aftermath
After the crash, the North Tower burned and collapsed. Although the impact itself caused extensive structural damage, it was the long-lasting fire ignited by jet fuel, that's blamed for the structural failure of the North Tower. Hundreds of rescue workers died
when the tower collapsed.
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on floors 101–05 of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer.
Rescue workers at
Ground Zero began discovering body fragments from Flight 11 victims within days of the attack. Some workers reported finding bodies strapped to airplane seats and the body of a flight attendant with her hands bound, suggesting the hijackers may have used
plastic handcuffs. Within a year, medical examiners had identified the remains of 33 victims on board Flight 11. They identified two other Flight 11 victims, including the lead flight attendant Karen Martin, after body fragments were discovered near Ground Zero in 2006. In April 2007, examiners using newer DNA technology identified another Flight 11 victim. The remains of two hijackers, potentially from Flight 11, were also identified and removed from Memorial Park in Manhattan. The remains of the other hijackers have not been identified and are buried with other unidentified remains at this park.
Satam al-Suqami's passport survived the crash and landed on the street below. The passport, soaked in jet fuel, was picked up off the street by a passerby who gave it to a
NYPD detective shortly before the south tower collapsed. Investigators retrieved Mohamed Atta's luggage that wasn't loaded onto the flight. In Atta's luggage they found al-Omari's passport and drivers license, a videocassette for a Boeing 757 flight simulator, a folding knife, and pepper spray. The
flight recorders for Flight 11 and Flight 175 were never found.
After the attacks, the
flight number for flights on the same route at the same takeoff time was changed to American Airlines Flight 25, and using a
Boeing 757 instead of a
Boeing 767. An American flag was flown on the jet bridge from which Flight 11 departed at Logan Airport.
Further Information
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