Terrorism in the American sky - Part I
September 11th 2001 is the day life changed on earth.
On the morning of September 11th 2001, everybody was starting the day as usual, people going to their work, others hopping on airplanes for their business meetings or even visiting relatives, children going to school...when the whole world was suddenly threatened.
Four airliners, two of which departed Boston Logan airport early in the morning, crashed with no survivors. The two airliners that left Boston, two Boeing 767 aircraft, one of American and the other of United, crashed into the World Trade Center at 9 O'Clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time. The American and United 767 were both going to Los Angeles as flight AA 11 and UA 175. My brother, who was working on his desk in Manhattan that day, witnessed the event when the two airplanes crashed into each of the Twin Towers, one a few minutes after the other. Some three thousand American people lost their lives in New York that day. The FAA forced all aircraft to land as soon as possible and the airspace covering the whole territory of the United States was closed for several days, hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers had to be re booked.
The World Trade Center towers were the two tallest buildings in New York City with over one hundred floors each, they each had a height of more than 1000 feet, and each floor had a total area of one acre. The project started in the 1950's, it was to be the world's financial district, the construction work began in the early 1960's so that the towers would be completed by the early to mid 1970's. It was in 1974 that the towers were opened to the public. They were built with a strong resistance, capable to face gusting winds of up to 150 miles per hour, engineers also thought of the possibility that a large aircraft could crash into them, but at the time engineers and architects were working on the project the largest aircraft was the Boeing 707, there was no wide body aircraft at that time. Thousands of tons of steel were needed to build the towers and the project would cost at that time more than one hundred million US Dollars.
When the towers collapsed, hundreds of firefighters trucks and police vehicles were dispatched to the disaster's place so that the place in Lower Manhattan would gradually be cleared of the debris, it took about ten days to clean up the Lower Manhattan area. That particular area, so called "Ground Zero" is barricaded by police barriers but it is visitable for the public. The idea is to eventually rebuild a tower in the future and build a memorial for all those who perished on the day of September 11th 2001.
On the morning of September 11th 2001, everybody was starting the day as usual, people going to their work, others hopping on airplanes for their business meetings or even visiting relatives, children going to school...when the whole world was suddenly threatened.
Four airliners, two of which departed Boston Logan airport early in the morning, crashed with no survivors. The two airliners that left Boston, two Boeing 767 aircraft, one of American and the other of United, crashed into the World Trade Center at 9 O'Clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time. The American and United 767 were both going to Los Angeles as flight AA 11 and UA 175. My brother, who was working on his desk in Manhattan that day, witnessed the event when the two airplanes crashed into each of the Twin Towers, one a few minutes after the other. Some three thousand American people lost their lives in New York that day. The FAA forced all aircraft to land as soon as possible and the airspace covering the whole territory of the United States was closed for several days, hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers had to be re booked.
The World Trade Center towers were the two tallest buildings in New York City with over one hundred floors each, they each had a height of more than 1000 feet, and each floor had a total area of one acre. The project started in the 1950's, it was to be the world's financial district, the construction work began in the early 1960's so that the towers would be completed by the early to mid 1970's. It was in 1974 that the towers were opened to the public. They were built with a strong resistance, capable to face gusting winds of up to 150 miles per hour, engineers also thought of the possibility that a large aircraft could crash into them, but at the time engineers and architects were working on the project the largest aircraft was the Boeing 707, there was no wide body aircraft at that time. Thousands of tons of steel were needed to build the towers and the project would cost at that time more than one hundred million US Dollars.
When the towers collapsed, hundreds of firefighters trucks and police vehicles were dispatched to the disaster's place so that the place in Lower Manhattan would gradually be cleared of the debris, it took about ten days to clean up the Lower Manhattan area. That particular area, so called "Ground Zero" is barricaded by police barriers but it is visitable for the public. The idea is to eventually rebuild a tower in the future and build a memorial for all those who perished on the day of September 11th 2001.
