Timeline of Events September 11, 2001

[txradioguy]

Timeline of Events September 11, 2001

7:58 am - United Airlines Flight 175 departs Boston for Los Angeles,

7:58 am - United Airlines Flight 175 departs Boston for Los Angeles carrying 56 passengers, two pilots,
and seven flight attendants. The Boeing 767 is hijacked after takeoff and diverted to New York.

7:59 am - American Airlines Flight 11 departs Boston for Los Angeles, carrying 81passengers, two pilots,
and nine flight attendants. This Boeing 767 is also hijacked and diverted to New York.

8:01 am - United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 38 passengers, two pilots,
and five flight attendants, leaves Newark, N.J., for San Francisco.

8:10 am - American Airlines Flight 77 departs Washington's Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles,
carrying 58 passengers,
two pilots, and four flight attendants. The Boeing 757 is hijacked after takeoff.

8:46 am - American Flight 11 from Boston crashes into the North Tower at the World Trade Center.

9 am - President Bush arrives at Sarasota, Fla., school for speech. White House chief of staff Andrew Card tells him
a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

9:03 am - United Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the South Tower at the World Trade Center.

- U.S. Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York area airports.

9:05 am - President Bush is visiting a second-grade class when Card whispers to him that a second plane
has struck the towers. President delays plans to address the tragedy, deciding to get more information first.

9:21 am - Bridges and tunnels leading into New York City are closed.

9:25 am - All domestic flights are grounded by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

9:30 am - President Bush meets privately with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who briefs him.
He delivers first remarks on the tragedy and asks for a moment of silence for the victims and their families.

9:45 am - American Flight 77 crashes into The Pentagon.

10 am - Aboard Air Force One en route to Louisiana, President Bush calls Vice President Dick Cheney
and puts America's military on a high alert status. Sifts through reports
from staff, including an erroneous report that a car bomb had struck the State Department.
Gets news that a plane has crashed near Pittsburgh.

10:05 am - The South Tower at the World Trade Center collapses.

10:05 am - The White House is evacuated.

10:10 am - A large section of one side of The Pentagon collapses.

10:10 am - United Flight 93 crashes in a wooded area in Pennsylvania, after passengers confront hijackers.
One passenger, Todd Beamer, calls his wife on a cell phone and tells her of the plan to overpower the hijackers.
The connection remains open after Beamer puts the phone down.
Lisa Beamer hears her husband tell the other passengers “Let’s roll” signaling the start of the attack.

10:28 am - The North Tower at the World Trade Center collapses.

11:40 am - President Bush arrives at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., where he makes a series
of telephone calls from a general's conference room. Tells Cheney in telephone call, "It's the faceless coward that attacks."
He also talks to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and New York Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

1 pm - President Bush speaks to the country from a briefing room at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. (text below)

“I want to reassure the American people that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist
local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks. Make no mistake: The United States
will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.

I've been in regular contact with the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the national security team
and my Cabinet. We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people.
Our military at home and around the world is on high alert status, and we have taken
the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government.

We have been in touch with the leaders of Congress and with world leaders to assure them
that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans.

I ask the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens
and to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families.

The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake: We will show the world that we will pass this test. God Bless.”

1:15 pm - President Bush departs conference room for Air Force One in a camouflaged Humvee.
Talks to Cheney again en route to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska and
schedules a 4 p.m. meeting of his national security staff. Also talks to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani
and Gov. George Pataki. "I know your heart is broken and your city is strained
and anything we can do, let me know," Bush says.

3:07 pm - President Bush arrives at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

4:36 pm - President Bush departs for Washington. En route, he calls first lady Laura Bush and
says, "I'm coming home, see you at the White House." Works with aides on his prime-time speech.

6 pm (approx) - Leaders and members from both sides of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate make a joint statement
on the attacks and end the press conference with the singing of “God Bless America”.

7 pm - President Bush arrives at White House to prepare for address.

8:30 pm - President Bush speaks to nation from The Oval Office (text below).

“Good evening. Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate
and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices:
secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.

Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing
have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.

These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed.
Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.
These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and
opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America,
with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors
who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans.
Our military is powerful, and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in
New York City and Washington, D.C., to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every
precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington
which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight
and will be open for business tomorrow.

Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts.

I've directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities
to find those responsible and bring them to justice.

We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks.
And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.

America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace
and security in the world and we stand together to win the war against terrorism.

Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered,
for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a
power greater than any of us spoken through the ages in
Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me."

This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice
and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time.

None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.

Thank you. Good night and God Bless America.”

8:35 pm - Bush attends national security meeting.

10:21 pm - Meeting has ended. Secret Service radio squawks with news
that Bush has gone home to bed: "Trailblazer…Second floor of the residence."

[austingirl]

I can still picture that beautiful blue sky that day in Austin. I was driving to the gym when I heard about the first plane hitting the WTC. I watched the second plane hit and couldn't believe the newscaster pondering about pilot confusion. I shrieked at the TV that it was terrorism "Say the T-word!"

A few minutes later, when the plane hit the Pentagon, I thought nowhere was safe and we were all dead. I drove home and watched in towers fall, kneeling, crying and praying. My sons were at two different private high schools. Each called and wanted to come home. I told them to stay put and follow directions.

The next week, I didn't travel to Chicago for my parents' fiftieth anniversary. Too scared to fly. Never forget.

[txradioguy]

I remember on 9/11 leaving wife's house (we were just dating at the time) and looking towards downtown about 11pm on 9/11 and for the first time in my life seeing the whole of the Midland skyline shrouded in darkness. That's when the reality and the gravity of the situation we were facing that day really began to set in with me. I didn't sleep a wink that night...I just kept replaying what had transpired that day over and over in my head.

A month later I was on State Active Duty in Austin when the first NG soldiers started patrolling Bergstrom Airport and the bombing campaign in Afghanistan began.

[Sighlass]

I remember today for two reasons, 9/11 (day I went into a closet at work to privately pray for America)... and day my mother died 10 years later.

Very sad day for me and yes I will cry a little today remembering it.

[Polly Ticks]

The memories are still so visceral.

[txradioguy]

The memories are still so visceral.

18 years ago seems like 18 minutes. I'm a guy who has trouble remembering what I was doing yesterday but can remember down to the last detail what I was doing thinking and feeling on September 11, 2001. It's the reason I am where I am today. It helped me to focus on what's important in life...not to mention how things can change in a blink of an eye.

[txradioguy]

On 9/11 I was just waking up to go to work when the first plane hit.  My mom called me and told me to turn on the TV that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I flipped on the news to Fox saw the smoke and my first thought was that someone at La Guardia was gonna get fired.

While Jon Scott is talking with someone about the crash...I see the second plane hit the South Tower. “That’s no accident that’s an attack” is what I said to myself as I quickly got dressed and sped down I-20 to work.

The radio station group I worked for has switched all 5 stations to the AM station which was broadcasting live updates from AP Radio News. That’s when I heard AP Reporter Ron Fournier’s voice crack as he said that a plane had just hit the Pentagon.

I went racing into my station with my Alert Roster (I was in the National Guard) in my hand. My General Manager (a former Force Recon Marine) asked me as I came in the door “are you gonna have to go?” I told him I didn’t kno yet I had to call in and see. He told me “if you have to leave just go don’t worry about the time off I’ll cover it.”

[austingirl]

18 years ago seems like 18 minutes. I'm a guy who has trouble remembering what I was doing yesterday but can remember down to the last detail what I was doing thinking and feeling on September 11, 2001.

This is true for me as well. Every detail is burned in my psyche.

[verga]

I was teaching in upstate New York, very rural school.
Walked into the office and they were talking about the first plane hitting. Took a second for it to sink in. secretary rushed in and said the second one had hit. I told them this is not accident it is a terrorist attack. Went back to my room where one of the art teachers was teaching photography and they made the announcement.
One of the students asked when we would be hit. I told her that we were not a prime target and we wee safe. She asked if it was okay to pray and I told her it was.
When I got home I just sat and watched the news loops. After an hour or so I went to my parish, lit a candle and just prayed.

[Bigun]

I sat in my office and watched it all unfold on TV in real-time.  I was confused by the reporting for a short time but soon realized that it was an act of war and got to work. 

[Bigun]

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

[Polly Ticks]

18 years ago seems like 18 minutes. I'm a guy who has trouble remembering what I was doing yesterday but can remember down to the last detail what I was doing thinking and feeling on September 11, 2001. It's the reason I am where I am today. It helped me to focus on what's important in life...not to mention how things can change in a blink of an eye.

Yes, agreed.  It's another one of those moments like JFK being shot (so I've heard) or the Challenger exploding.  We'll all remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we felt.  It was a paradigm shift.

[Bigun]

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

[txradioguy]

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

Goat screwing assholes!   

[txradioguy]

My kids were in a charter school in Midland at the time and I vividly remember a Midland County Sheriffs Deputy cruiser parked in front of the school deputy inside...car running...guarding those kids...my kids.

[thackney]

My wife and I were in the Houston Saudi Aramco Tower.  We were going through orientation class to move us with our young kids to Saudi Arabia.

We got little news.  During breaks we would watch a TV in the Lobby for a few minutes.  It was very confusing.

When they decide to evacuate the building, our class voted and we decided to stay to finish the all day class.  People had flown in from other parts of the country and had flights to make.  They didn't want to reschedule to come back.

Friends called to get our kids for us.  It was hard to understand why they were pulling their kids out until later in the day.

Plans changed....

[andy58-in-nh]

Yes, agreed.  It's another one of those moments like JFK being shot (so I've heard) or the Challenger exploding.  We'll all remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we felt.  It was a paradigm shift.

It was a shocking and formative experience for me, as it was for so many others. I was working in my office that morning and somewhere in the background I overheard a voice say something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. And that was it for work on 9/11/01, as I watched the terrible events unfold on the Drudge Report, Fox News and through posts on Free Republic (where many of us now here used to hang out).

9/11 was particularly jarring for me due to the fact that back in the 1980's, I briefly worked in the South Tower of the WTC (79th floor).  18 years on, the events of that day are still shocking to contemplate, except perhaps for those among us who think of that day solely in terms of "some people (who) did some things". 

God Bless America.

[berdie]

It was life changing for me. Yes, December 7 was horrific but there was a war going on. 9/11 came out of the blue...at least for me.

I was sitting on the freeway going to work in traffic listening to the coverage. I glanced to the side of me and there was a fire truck full of firemen crying. So was I.

I will never forget.

[austingirl]

If someone told me on 9-12-01 that eighteen years after 911, we would have friends of some people who did something in our Congress, I wouldn't have believed it. But then, I didn't believe that our nation would elect a madrassa-educated person with the middle name Hussein, either.

[Bigun]

If someone told me on 9-12-01 that eighteen years after 911, we would have friends of some people who did something in our Congress, I wouldn't have believed it. But then, I didn't believe that our nation would elect a madrassa-educated person with the middle name Hussein, either.

   Right there with you @austingirl

[Fishrrman]

September 12, 2001:
================
The view from the bridge

Like everyone else here, I turned on the television yesterday morning and couldn't believe what I was seeing.

But it was another working day. I tried to call, to find out what might be running. Didn't get through. I didn't try very hard to contact them - I knew there would be a train to run. So I left for work on my regular time.

When I got to the crew room at New Haven, I found that many of the daytime trains had been canceled, including mine, #173 on Tuesdays. In the chaos, the tunnels into and out of New York had been closed and then inspected before traffic would be allowed through. However, some trains were starting to run again, so I waited around to be available in case they needed me for something.

#149 was going to run on time from Springfield (to D.C.). That would be mine. I asked the Motor Storage engine dispatcher for my engine: the 915 - it was only one there. It's one of the last "old-time" AEM-7's, not rebuilt, no ACSES, and still has the old-time cab signal display. It's an engine that remains a pleasure to run, rather than a contest. Indeed the 915 has changed very little since my first trip on it many years ago.

The inbound train arrived on time from Springfield, and we left on time as well, but waited at South Norwalk for a Metro-North extra heading up the Danbury branch. Their schedules had been disrupted as well, and they were running what they could trying to get things back together.

We stopped at Stamford, finished the run down the New Haven line with clear all the way - unusual. Then headed down the Hell Gate Line for New York.

Perhaps the most spectacular view of Manhattan island and the boroughs of New York City is one that most people will never see: from the cab of a locomotive on the Hell Gate Bridge. You're up in the air, but not so high that you lose the breadth and magnificence of scope. You may get a similar, fleeting glimpse from the Triborough Bridge, but on the Hell Gate you have more time to appreciate what's before you.

Back in 1986 when I first got a computer, one use I found for it was to keep a database record of all my jobs. At first, I kept only essential data: engine numbers, terminals, mileage, times, etc. But then I decided I should include something more, a place to record comments about the day's trip.

The view from the bridge was one of my first experiences on my first trip over the road as a promoted engineman back May 1981, and it has earned entries in my "comment log" through the years. Here are a few:

October 28, 1990 (Conrail):
"Saw a complete rainbow stretching from the Bronx to Long Island - the most perfect I've ever seen"

July 1, 2001 (Amtrak):
"Saw a bolt of lightning hit the World Trade Center just before going into tunnel on the trip in"

Two days ago, Sunday, September 9 (Amtrak):
"There was no one to run 57, so I took that instead of 163; on the way back, NYC looked very nice under clouds overhead"

Coming westward on the Hell Gate Line, you pass by Oak Point Yard on the left with the elevated Bruckner Expressway on your right. You're down below street level here, but at the west end of the yard you start the climb. You're slowing down here, from 60 to 40 for the sharpest curve, as you leave the South Bronx. You turn right, go across the Bronx Kills bridgework, then continue upward past the toll booths of the Triborough Bridge. As you climb towards the 50mph curve at the east side of the main span, that's when you really see it. The View.

And of course, they were gone.

We arrived at Penn Station with 6 cars, 2 trainmen, 5 passengers, and no one on the platform waiting.

When I don't see him, I'll leave a note for the outbound engineman, saying how many cars, and condition of the brakes and engine. But last night I added:
     149
     6 cars
     Brakes OK
     Eng OK
     A sad day.

Penn Station was very quiet. I walked out to 8th Avenue and 31st. Looking downtown towards the darkness, I saw what might be flashing lights far off, couldn't tell how far. I walked eastward on 31st Street, the taxi stands were blocked off with police vehicles; I heard they commandeered the taxis for emergency service. 7th Avenue was closed south of 34th Street, being used as an "emergency vehicle corridor". It was eerily quiet in midtown, almost no one there.

Back inside, there was no eastbound work for me. All earlier trains were gone and the ones coming later would have crews arriving, available to work back. So I could deadhead home.

There weren't going to be any eastward trains from Penn for a couple of hours, so I decided to take Metro-North back to New Haven. I walked to the 7th Avenue Subway entrance by the Long Island Rail Road side, with money out for a subway token, but the clerk at the booth waved me through the open gates. There was no service south of 34th Street - downtown trains were terminating there, then heading back uptown.

Waiting in the subway car to leave, I listened to a gentleman who worked for Jersey Transit. From his window he had seen it all: the second plane hit, the first collapse, the second collapse.

Grand Central was all but deserted. In the quiet there, one can take in what must be the greatest public space in America. I caught the 10:17pm for New Haven. The guy running it had hired out one man behind me.

The ride home in a deadhead car gave me time to consider the day, turning everything over inside.

In 1941 about 3,000 lives were lost at Pearl Harbor. We went to war, against known enemies, known countries. Yesterday we lost ... well, who has ANY idea yet of how many? Certainly thousands. Could it reach 20,000?

But this time, our war must be not against a country - it must be against a CULTURE. We must fight it and do whatever it takes to win. If we are not willing to do this, we will certainly face a greater Hellfire NEXT time.

I got home 3 hours' behind my regular time.

I have yet to finish my timeslip for yesterday, and then enter it into my records. I'm unsure what I can put into my comment log to fully represent yesterday's events.

I didn't sleep long last night. The televisions keep looping videos of the planes slicing into the buildings. How many times can YOU watch it? There are going to be more videos, perhaps more chilling than before. At once, the most awful and compelling sight I've ever seen. I am hard-pressed to keep my composure when I stop to think of those hundreds or thousands of doomed people in those buildings. Those who chose to jump rather than be burned alive. May God have pity on their souls.

Last night just after sunset on the bridge, I looked in the distance and saw the ashes of their lives floating up from Manhattan and across Brooklyn.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001:
"The view will never be the same."
=======================

18 years later I will again ask a question I began asking 2 years after the World Trade Center attack:
Who's winning...?

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

I called my boss and asked him to contact the customer to let them know that my flight to Dallas had landed in New Orleans and I wouldn't be able to make it for the meeting.  I didn't want to be rude and just not show up.  He didn't really share my concern, he seemed to think they would just "get it".  I'd catch on as I learned a little more.