September 11, 2001 attacks

a hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 collides with the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:02:59am September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower, resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks. The victims were predominantly civilians.

Kevin McNulty

Kevin was 37 years old and by now a father of two with his youngest just having started kindergarten. He was working for CompUSA in the training department when an employee rushed out of the breakroom.

"A plane just flew into the World Trade Center!"

Kevin rushed back in after her to see the report on the television in the break room. He knew that in the 40s a plane had accidentally flown into the Empire State Building, and at first he thought that might be what had happened here. He got to the television only a couple of minutes before the second plane hit the other tower. He knew then that it was no accident.

At first, all I could think about was the daunting task that faced the fire fighters rushing in to the WTC. Then the first tower collapsed. At some point, the news broke about the Pentagon. Then, news reports started frantically coming in from all over. It was chaos. There was talk about a bomb at the State Department and lord knows what else. I remember thinking that the world had gone crazy. All I wanted to do was go home and check on my kids. After a couple of hours of CNN, that's just what I did. The store basically closed down for the rest of the day. At that point we had no idea what the extent of the attacks were or if or when they were going to end. I remember just wanting to hold my family until all the noise stopped.

A few days later, with no apprent provocation, I just started crying. Thinking about all the people who'd died only because they had gone to work that day. Thinking about how it could have been any of us. I cried for a long time.

To this day, I still can't watch the footage of the plane hitting the second tower without looking away.

Denise Duggan

I was working for a software development firm at the time. I remember about that time everything just stopped and we were all over the net trying to get information. Of course, many websites were jammed. I went to Buck Lake Elementary school that day for lunch with my youngest as September 11 is his birthday. As I came in the office staff informed me they were trying to keep the information from the younger students (he was in first grade I believe) so their parent could handle it with them. I remember it being a very surreal feeling having lunch with a bunch of cheery first graders and yet feeling so terrible about what had happened and yet having to keep a smile on my face. For years after that, when someone asked my son when his birthday was, he'd say "September 11th" and then he'd get a sad look and say "the sad day" but then his face would brighten and he'd say "but a happy day too becuase it's my birthday."