September 11, 2001   |   September 12, 2001


September 11, 2001

8:45 a.m. (all times are EDT): A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 out of 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.

9:17 a.m.: The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York City area airports.

9:21 a.m.: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey orders all bridges and tunnels in the New York area closed.

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

9:40 a.m.: The 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 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.

10:08 a.m.: Secret Service agents armed with automatic rifles are deployed into Lafayette Park across from the White House.

10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses.

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.

10:22 a.m.: In Washington, the State and Justice departments are evacuated, along with the World Bank.

10:24 a.m.: The FAA reports that all inbound transatlantic aircraft flying into the United States are being diverted to Canada.

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.

10:45 a.m.: All federal office buildings in Washington are evacuated.

10.46 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cuts short his trip to Latin America to return to the United States.

10.48 a.m.: Police confirm the plane crash in Pennsylvania.

10:53 a.m.: New York's primary elections, scheduled for Tuesday, are postponed.

10:54 a.m.: Israel evacuates all diplomatic missions.

10:57 a.m.: New York Gov. George Pataki says all state government offices are closed.

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.

11:16 a.m.: CNN reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing emergency-response teams in a precautionary move.

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.

12:04 p.m.: Los Angeles International Airport, the destination of three of the crashed airplanes, is evacuated.

12:15 p.m: San Francisco International Airport is evacuated and shut down. The airport was the destination of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

12:15 p.m.: Second tower falls.

12:15 p.m.: The Immigration and Naturalization Service says U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico are on the highest state of alert, but no decision has been made about closing borders.

12:30 p.m.: The FAA says 50 flights are in U.S. airspace, but none are reporting any problems.

1:04 p.m.: Bush, speaking from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, says that all appropriate security measures are being taken, including putting the U.S. military on high alert worldwide. He asks for prayers for those killed or wounded in the attacks and says, "Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."

1:27 p.m.: A state of emergency is declared by the city of Washington.

1:44 p.m.: The Pentagon says five warships and two aircraft carriers will leave the U.S. Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, to protect the East Coast from further attack and to reduce the number of ships in port. The two carriers, the USS George Washington and the USS John F. Kennedy, are headed for the New York coast. The other ships headed to sea are frigates and guided missile destroyers capable of shooting down aircraft.

1:48 p.m.: Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base aboard Air Force One and flies to an Air Force base in Nebraska.

2 p.m.: Senior FBI sources tell CNN they are working on the assumption that the four airplanes that crashed were hijacked as part of a terrorist attack.

2:30 p.m.: The FAA announces there will be no U.S. commercial air traffic until noon EDT Wednesday at the earliest.

2:49 p.m.: At a news conference, Giuliani says that subway and bus service are partially restored in New York City. Asked about the number of people killed, Giuliani says, "I don't think we want to speculate about that -- more than any of us can bear."

3:55 p.m.: Karen Hughes, a White House counselor, says the president is at an undisclosed location, later revealed to be Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and is conducting a National Security Council meeting by phone. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are in a secure facility at the White House. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is at the Pentagon.

3:55 p.m.: Giuliani now says the number of critically injured in New York City is up to 200 with 2,100 total injuries reported.

4 p.m: CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor reports that U.S. officials say there are "good indications" that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, suspected of coordinating the bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998, is involved in the attacks, based on "new and specific" information developed since the attacks.

4:06 p.m.: California Gov. Gray Davis dispatches urban search-and-rescue teams to New York.

4:10 p.m.: Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex is reported on fire.

4:20 p.m.: U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he was "not surprised there was an attack (but) was surprised at the specificity." He says he was "shocked at what actually happened -- the extent of it."

4:25 p.m.: The American Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange say they will remain closed Wednesday.

4:30 p.m.: The president leaves Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska aboard Air Force One to return to Washington.

5:15 p.m.: CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports fires are still burning in part of the Pentagon. No death figures have been released yet.

5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex collapses. The evacuated building is damaged when the twin towers across the street collapse earlier in the day. Other nearby buildings in the area remain ablaze.

5:30 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that U.S. officials say the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible targets: Camp David, the White House or the U.S. Capitol building.

6 p.m.: Explosions are heard in Kabul, Afghanistan, hours after terrorist attacks targeted financial and military centers in the United States. The attacks occurred at 2:30 a.m. local time. Afghanistan is believed to be where bin Laden, who U.S. officials say is possibly behind Tuesday's deadly attacks, is located. U.S. officials say later that the United States had no involvement in the incident whatsoever. The attack is credited to the Northern Alliance, a group fighting the Taliban in the country's ongoing civil war.

6:10 p.m.:Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay home Wednesday if they can.

6:40 p.m.: Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, holds a news conference in the Pentagon, noting the building is operational. "It will be in business tomorrow," he says.

6:54 p.m.: Bush arrives back at the White House aboard Marine One and is scheduled to address the nation at 8:30 p.m. The president earlier landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a three-fighter jet escort. CNN's King reports Laura Bush arrived earlier by motorcade from a "secure location."

7:17 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the FBI is setting up a Web site for tips on the attacks: www.ifccfbi.gov. He also says family and friends of possible victims can leave contact information at 800-331-0075.

7:02 p.m.: CNN's Paula Zahn reports the Marriott Hotel near the World Trade Center is on the verge of collapse and says some New York bridges are now open to outbound traffic.

7:45 p.m.: The New York Police Department says that at least 78 officers are missing. The city also says that as many as half of the first 400 firefighters on the scene were killed.

8:30 p.m.: President Bush addresses the nation, saying "thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil" and asks for prayers for the families and friends of Tuesday's victims. "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve," he says. The president says the U.S. government will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed the acts and those who harbor them. He adds that government offices in Washington are reopening for essential personnel Tuesday night and for all workers Wednesday.

9:22 p.m.: CNN's McIntyre reports the fire at the Pentagon is still burning and is considered contained but not under control.

9:57 p.m.: Giuliani says New York City schools will be closed Wednesday and no more volunteers are needed for Tuesday evening's rescue efforts. He says there is hope that there are still people alive in rubble. He also says that power is out on the westside of Manhattan and that health department tests show there are no airborne chemical agents about which to worry.

10:49 p.m.: CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that Attorney General Ashcroft told members of Congress that there were three to five hijackers on each plane armed only with knives.

10:56 p.m: CNN's Zahn reports that New York City police believe there are people alive in buildings near the World Trade Center.

11:54 p.m.: CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno reports that a government official told him there was an open microphone on one of the hijacked planes and that sounds of discussion and "duress" were heard. Sesno also reports a source says law enforcement has "credible" information and leads and is confident about the investigation.



September 12, 2001

Early Wednesday morning (all times are EDT): Six firefighters and a police officer are reported rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

5:20 a.m.: Pope John Paul II opens his weekly address with a statement condemning Tuesday's attacks, saying "evil and death will not have the last word."

8:45 a.m.: All European stock markets cease trading for one minute's silence to remember Tuesday's events.

9:05 a.m.: The assistant director of the Washington, D.C., Airport Authority tells CNN that Dulles International and Ronald Reagan National airports will open at 3 p.m. Wednesday only to allow people to pick up their luggage and vehicles.

10 a.m.: Congress reconvenes in the U.S. Capitol with members of both parties denouncing Tuesday's events.

10:30 a.m.: New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani warns that the death toll would be grim. "The numbers we are working with are in the thousands," Giuliani told reporters at a briefing.

10:50 a.m.: The president labels Tuesday's attacks "acts of war" and says the United States faces a different enemy than ever before in its history. "This will be a monumental struggle of good vs. evil. But good will prevail," Bush says.

10:54 a.m.: CNN reports that the United States has intercepted two phone calls made after Tuesday's terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, and the conversations were between members of al Qaeda, an organization sponsored by bin Laden. In those conversations, U.S. law enforcement officials say the individuals discussed hitting two U.S. targets.

11:20 a.m.: CNN reports that the FAA will not allow domestic air traffic to resume at noon Wednesday.

11:25 a.m.: A total of nine survivors have been rescued so far in the rubble in New York. Six are firefighters, and three are police officers.

12:10 p.m.: Officials from Boston's Logan International Airport say the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring all U.S. airports to comply with some emergency safety measures, including banning the sale or use of knives, even plastic ones, at airports; evacuating and sweeping all terminals with K-9 teams; and discontinuing curbside check-in.

1 p.m.: CNN reports that the FBI has taken several people into custody for questioning in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Florida. Authorities also are checking passenger manifests from the crashed airplanes to see if they include anyone who attended flight schools in the United States or who used facilities that have airline simulators.

1:20 p.m.: CNN reports that officials of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic rulers of Afghanistan, are appealing to the United States not to attack the country. The country is where suspected Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden is based.

2:15 p.m.: Philip Purcell, chairman and chief executive officer of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley, says "a vast majority" of the 3,500 staff members who worked in two of the World Trade Center buildings, including one of the twin towers, got out safely after hijackers crashed two planes into the towers.

2:20 p.m.: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says that airline flights diverted after Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon are authorized to finish their journeys Wednesday but all other planes remain grounded. Only passengers on the original flights could reboard and only after new security measures were put in place. Airlines also can move empty airplanes, Mineta said.

2:57 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that the White House says that there was "reasonable and credible information" to believe that the White House and Air Force One were possible targets of the terrorist attacks. The White House says this is why the president did not immediately return to Washington on Tuesday. The White House also says the plane that crashed into the Pentagon may have been destined originally for the White House.

3:40 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the four planes involved in Tuesday's events were hijacked by between three and six individuals per aircraft. They were armed with knives and box cutters and in some cases made bomb threats. Ashcroft says a number of suspected hijackers were trained as pilots in the United States, and he characterized the investigation as perhaps the most massive one ever undertaken in U.S. history.

4 p.m.: NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels, Belgium, approve the invocation of NATO's self-defense charter if Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the United States prove to have been directed from abroad. NATO's charter says that an armed attack against one of the organization's members is considered an attack against all of them. The United States, therefore, can invoke that section of the charter and count on the support of its NATO allies in mounting military operations. It is the first time the self-defense charter has been invoked in the 52-year history of the alliance. 

4 p.m.: White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the president called European heads of state, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin to rally an international coalition to fight terrorism.

4:50 p.m.: The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are not expected to open before Friday. The markets could open as early as Friday but will open no later than Monday, according to market officials.

5:20 p.m.: Rescue workers and journalists are evacuated from the devastated area around the World Trade Center due to a partial collapse of the nearby One Liberty Plaza. The 54-story building houses the Nasdaq stock market's new headquarters.

5:45 p.m.: Relatives of Jeremy Glick, a passenger on the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania, say he related during a cell phone call that men on board voted to try to overpower the three hijackers. Shortly after that call, the plane went down. Officials have told CNN they believe the plane was headed for Washington.

6 p.m.: President Bush visits the Pentagon and thanks rescue workers for their efforts. During his visit, a massive U.S. flag is draped over the side of the damaged building. "Coming here, makes me sad, on the one hand. It also makes me angry," he says. "Our country, however, will not be cowed by terrorists, by people who don't share the same values we share."

6 p.m.: Finance ministers and central bank presidents from the Group of Seven wealthy countries -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada -- issue a joint statement promising to work together to supply money to banks faced with unusual withdrawal demands.

7 p.m.: Congress holds a prayer vigil in the Capitol Rotunda.

7:18 p.m. Wednesday: Negotiators from Republican and Democratic parties have discussed an exact price tag for an emergency spending bill and how the money can be spent in response to Tuesday's attacks in New York City and Washington. House and Senate leaders say they plan votes on the measure Thursday. One House leader puts the cost at $20 billion.



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