The following is a chronology of Tuesday’s events, compiled from wire
service and other reports.
6:58 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, leaves Boston bound for Los
Angeles with 56 passengers, two pilots and seven flight attendants.
6:59 a.m.
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, departs from Boston en route to
Los Angeles with 81 passengers, two pilots and nine flight attendants.
7:01 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, leaves Newark, N.J., headed for
San Francisco with 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants.
7:10 a.m.
American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, takes off from Dulles
International Airport bound for Los Angeles with 58 passengers, two pilots
and four flight attendants.
7:45 a.m.
American Flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center
in Manhattan.
8:03 a.m.
United Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
8:07 a.m.
President Bush is in a classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in
Sarasota, Fla., listening to second graders read a story. Chief of staff
Andrew Card leans over and whispers in his ear. The president briefly
turns somber.
8:18 a.m.
Federal Aviation Administration closes all New York City area airports.
8:20 a.m.
President Bush addresses the country from Sarasota, where he denounces an
“apparent terrorist attack.”
8:43 a.m.
American Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. A hole at least 200 feet
wide is ripped open on the west side, and flames burst forth from the
nerve center of the nation’s military.
8:45 a.m.
President Bush arrives at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and
quickly leaves for Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
8:48 a.m.
The White House is evacuated. Orders are given to close government
buildings in Washington.
8:49 a.m.
Federal Aviation Administration grounds all domestic flights.
8:50 a.m.
South tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
8:58 a.m.
An emergency dispatcher in Westmoreland County, Pa., receives a phone call
from a man who says he is a passenger locked in the bathroom of United
Flight 93. “We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!” the dispatcher
quoted the man as saying. The man then said the plane was going down,
reported some sort of explosion and some white smoke coming from the plane
before losing contact with the dispatcher.
9:10 a.m.
United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco crashes near Somerset, Pa.,
80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Rep. James Moran, D-Va., said after a
Marine Corps briefing that hijackers planned to crash the plane into the
presidential retreat at Camp David or the U.S. Capitol.
9:10 a.m.
A portion of the Pentagon collapses.
9:25 a.m.
International flights bound for the United States are diverted to Canada
9:29 a.m.
North tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
10 a.m.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounces the terrorist attack and
expresses shock. Meanwhile, thousands in the West Bank town of Nablus
celebrate the attack on the United States. Some Palestinians fire guns
into the air and pass out candy in a state of euphoria.
10:21 a.m.
First lady Laura Bush, awaiting her debut testifying before the Senate on
education, tries to soothe a horrified nation. “Parents need to reassure
their children everywhere in our country that they’re safe,” she says,
grim-faced.
10:37 a.m.
The Associated Press reports that Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban rulers
condemn the attacks and reject suggestions that terrorist Osama bin Laden
could be behind them.
11 a.m
U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico are partially closed.
12:04 p.m.
President Bush addresses the nation from Barksdale Air Force Base near
Shreveport, La., vowing the United States will “hunt down and punish those
responsible.”
12:30 p.m.
President Bush boards Air Force One for Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha,
Neb.
12:44 p.m.
Two aircraft carriers and other ships are dispatched to the New York area.
1:35 P.M.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he fears casualties may be “more than any of
us can bear.”
2 p.m.
President Bush arrives at Offutt Air Force Base.
2:50 p.m.
Presidential counselor Karen Hughes addresses the nation. She says
President Bush is at Offutt Air Force Base, conducting a National Security
Council meeting by teleconference. Mrs. Hughes states that the FAA has
suspended all air traffic in the United States until at least 11 a.m.
Wednesday.
4:25 p.m.
No. 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story building next to the 110-story
towers, collapses. It had been set afire by burning debris from the World
Trade Center towers.
4:56 p.m.
CNN reports explosions and anti-aircraft fire in Kabul, Afghanistan.
5:32 p.m.
White House spokesman says that the explosions in Kabul are part of a
continuing civil war there and not a U.S. response to the terrorist
attacks.
5:55 p.m.
President Bush returns to the White House.
6:16 p.m.
Attorney General John Ashcroft says the hijackers were armed with knives.
6:30 p.m.
Members of Congress conclude a press briefing on the steps of the Capitol
by singing “God Bless America.”
6:44 p.m.
Fire marshals in New York say that 200 firefighters sent to the World
Trade Center are presumed dead.
6:46 p.m.
New York Police Department announces that 78 officers are missing.
7:30 p.m.
President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office.
