Dedicated to all the people lost in the hijacking crashes.
On Tuesday, the 11th of September, 2001, America was attacked.
At 8:45 a.m. EDT, the first hijacked plane crashed into the Northern Tower,
which later collapsed, hurting and killing rescue workers working to help the injured. About 20 minutes later, the
Southern Tower also collapsed, while many ran from the streets to seek cover. If you looked around after the fall of towers you'd see people panicking and in total shock, family members and friends worked there, or them themselves might have been late for work, and lucky that they decided to sleep in that day, instead of arriving at work early.
If you write out the date of the crashes, it will look like this: September is the ninth month, and the day was the 11th... when put together it looks like this: 911.
The Pentagon was also a target for the planes, up to 800 people could be dead there. Editor's Note: The latest report says it's down to 190.
Some families received calls from their loves ones, saying the last good-byes, and telling them that they loved them, and would see them again, someday, somehow.
The hijacking and crashing of the planes left America in shock.. Not only Americans were in shock, but the world joined in.
New Zealand as a country was in total shock. The news was watched in practicially every school, and teens in my class had lost their friends and loved ones, one girl had lost her father.
Now New York is left with the clean-up, which is horrific. When interviewed, a worker said, "Finding complete and whole bodies isn't always the norm, limbs, legs even heads are found without sign of the rest of the body." But the citizens in New York and all Americans have gotten behind this devastating crash, and are donating blood and clothes to the survivors.
The F.B.I. found out quite a lot of information just the day after:
- The attacks were made with pocket knives and box cutters, and
sometimes bomb threats were made.
- The hijackers were trained in how to take control of the flying of
the plane, and they were trained in the U.S.A.
- The plans were begun at least a year before carried out.
Here are some quotes from witnesses who lived to tell the tale...
The Pentagon:
"I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings, went right there and
slammed into the Pentagon," eyewitness Mike Walter said of the plane that
hit the military complex.
"A huge explosion, great ball of fire, smoke started billowing out, and then
it was just chaos on the highway as people either tried to move around the
traffic and go down either forward or backwards," he said.
World Trade Center Attack:
"It just went, 'Bam,' like a bomb went off. It was like holy hell," said a
witness who was in one of the World Trade Center towers when it was hit by
one of the planes.
"We heard a loud crash and the building started shaking, moving like a
wave," said Matthew Cornelius, who had just arrived for work at the Port
Authority offices when the first tower was hit.
"I saw people jumping off the building," said another witness. "Everyone
was screaming, running ... people were stampeding, people started screaming
that there was another plane coming and the second building just exploded."
"A horrendous number of lives were lost," said New York City Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, who was on the street outside the complex when the first plane
crashed into the towers where 40,000 to 50,000 people may have been
working.
"We do know that numbers of police and firemen are missing and pay tribute
to their heroism," said New York Gov. George Pataki of the missing 78
officers and 200 firefighters who responded to the first attack.
"I can't imagine any American pilot crashing an airplane into one of these
buildings even with a gun to the head. They wouldn't do that," said James
Kallstrom, the retired FBI agent who led the investigation into the 1996 crash
of TWA 800.
Now a new page in history has been written, and these devastating crashes, which have claimed many lives, will remain in our hearts and minds forever; the images real, so real, and yet there was still a 'Hollywood' feel to the crashes.
What will be the next page in history? Could World War Three be lurking around the corner? So many questions that still aren't answered, and maybe they never will be.
This day will never be forgotten. God Bless America, and all the families
involved in one way of the other.
Tuesday the 11th of September, 2001 will be in history forever, the day the
United States of America was attacked.
This is Tech...
Signing Out...
p.s. I got my references from xtra.co.nz, Channel Three (news & updates) and
CNN.com.
