United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-200 carrying 65 passengers and crew, was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone aboard and causing the deaths of more than 600 people in the South Tower's upper levels in addition to an unknown number of civilians and emergency personnel on floors beneath the impact zone. Flight 175's hijacking not only led to it being the second-deadliest of the four suicide attacks carried out on the day in terms of plane and ground fatalities, but also secured its place as second-deadliest plane crash in aviation history, surpassed only by American Airlines Flight 11.
The September 11 attacks of 2001, in addition to being a unique act of terrorism, constituted a media event on a scale not seen since the advent of civilian global satellite links. Instant worldwide reaction and debate were made possible by round-the-clock television news organizations and by the internet. As a result, most of the events listed below were known by a large portion of the world's population as they occurred.
The collapse of the World Trade Center occurred on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, after two commercial airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City as part of the September 11 attacks. The North Tower was the first building to be hit when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the skyscraper at 8:46 a.m., causing it to collapse at 10:28 after burning for 1 hour and 41 minutes. At 9:03 a.m., the South Tower was struck by United Airlines Flight 175, collapsing at 9:58 that morning after 55 minutes of burning. The resulting debris severely damaged or destroyed more than a dozen other adjacent and nearby structures, ultimately leading to the collapse of 7 World Trade Center at 5:21 p.m. The hijackings, crashes, fires and subsequent collapses initially killed a total of 2,760 people. Toxic dust from the collapses soon gave rise to numerous long-term health effects that continue to plague many who were in the vicinity of the collapsing towers, with at least 3 additional deaths reported. The 110-story towers are the tallest freestanding structures ever to collapse.
The Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel at 3 World Trade Center within the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in April 1981 as the Vista International Hotel and was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. It was also known as World Trade Center 3, the World Trade Center Hotel, the Vista Hotel, and the Marriott Hotel throughout its history.
Brian Clark is a Canadian businessman and survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Clark worked for the American international brokerage firm Euro Brokers Inc., which lost 61 employees that day, nearly one-fifth of its New York branch.
Jim Dwyer was an American journalist and author. He was a reporter and columnist with The New York Times, and the author or co-author of six non-fiction books. A native New Yorker, Dwyer wrote columns for New York Newsday and the New York Daily News before joining the Times. He appeared in the 2012 documentary film Central Park Five and was portrayed on stage in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy (2013). Dwyer had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his "compelling and compassionate columns about New York City" and was also a member of the New York Newsday team that won the 1992 Pulitzer for spot news reporting for coverage of a subway derailment in Manhattan.
One World Trade Center, also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly the Freedom Tower, is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. It is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant Islamist extremist network al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions of the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the top five tallest buildings in the world at the time. The hijackers aimed the next two flights toward targets in the Washington metropolitan area as part of a similarly coordinated attack on the nation's capital, and successfully flew the third plane into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth was intended to strike a nearby federal government building in Washington, D.C., but crashed in rural Pennsylvania following a passenger revolt. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror.
Some conspiracy theories contend that the collapse of the World Trade Center was not solely caused by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11 attacks, and the resulting fire damage, but by explosives installed in the buildings in advance. Controlled demolition theories make up a major component of 9/11 conspiracy theories.
9/11: The Twin Towers is a television special documentary film which uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to re-create a minute-by-minute account of what happened inside the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City during the September 11 attacks. In the United States it premiered on the Discovery Channel on 3 September 2006, narrated by Harry Pritchett. In the United Kingdom it premiered on BBC One on 7 September 2006, narrated by Terence Stamp.
American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing everyone aboard the flight and ensuring the deaths of well over a thousand people in the upper floors of the skyscraper in addition to causing the demise of more than 200 people below the trapped floors, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in human history as well as the deadliest plane crash of all time. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-223ER with 92 passengers and crew, was flying American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
102 Minutes That Changed America is a 102-minute American television special documentary film that was produced by the History channel and premiered commercial-free on Thursday, September 11, 2008, marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Its name comes from the timespan from the first impact of American Airlines Flight 11 and the collapse of the World Trade Center. The film depicts, in virtually real time, the New York-based events of the attacks primarily using raw footage from mostly amateur citizen journalists, focusing mainly on the reactions of New York inhabitants during the incident. The documentary is accompanied by an 18-minute documentary short called I-Witness to 9/11, which features interviews with nine firsthand eyewitnesses who captured the footage on camera.
The September 11 attacks of 2001 caused the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. 2,606 of the victims came from the World Trade Center and the surrounding area, while a further 125 were killed at the Pentagon. The remaining 246 were murdered aboard the four hijacked flights―American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93. The hijacking and crash of Flight 11 single-handedly made 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
Hotel Ground Zero is an American television documentary special that premiered on September 11, 2009 on the History channel, marking the eighth anniversary of the event. The program features the overshadowed story of the Marriott World Trade Center on the day of the 2001 attacks, resulting in its destruction caused by the collapse of the adjacent South Tower followed by the North Tower, as told by people who had escaped from the hotel.
The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers—the original 1 World Trade Center at 1,368 feet (417 m); and 2 World Trade Center at 1,362 feet (415.1 m)—were the tallest buildings in the world. Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center, 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space and, prior to its completion, was projected to accommodate an estimated 130,000 people.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. The 1,336 lb (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into its twin, the South Tower, taking down both skyscrapers and killing tens of thousands of people. It failed to do so, but killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and caused over a thousand injuries. About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings that day.
Kevin Flynn is an American journalist who is an editor with The New York Times and the co-author of 102 Minutes. His work as an investigative editor helped earn The New York Times numerous awards, including a 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He served as the police bureau chief of the newspaper from 1998 to 2002, when he became investigations editor for the newspaper's Metro desk. He is currently investigations editor for the paper's Culture desk.
