September 11th , 2001 is a day that will remain
engraved in the people's minds. Terrorism has struck America before, but never
with such heartbreaking destruction.
Four jets were transformed by hijackers into fuel missiles.
Two pierced the world Trade Center towers, minutes apart, causing their
collapse. Another pierced the Pentagon ; a fourth crashed near Pittsburg
in Pennsylvania..
In an incriminating amateur videotape found at a house in
Jahalabad, Bin Laden rejoices over the September 11th attacks and
describes in detail how he planned them :
« the brothers, who conducted the operation, all
they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation, and we asked each of them
to go to America but they did not know anything about the operation. We did
not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they
boarded the planes [...] we calculated in advance, the number of casualties
from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the Tower. I was
thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure
of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and the floors above
it only. »
The World Trade Center. A quarter of a mile
high, the 110-story world Trade Center towers were the tallest in the world.
Designed as huge steel tubes, the Towers were supported by closely spaced,
14-inch steel columns on the exterior aided by steel columns in the central
core. Their collapse almost certainly was caused more by the heat generated by
thousands of gallons of burning fuel than by the impact of the jetliners.
North Tower :
8 :46 (a.m) :impact
The first plane crashed into the Towers's North face near the
96th floor. The impact ignited more than 20.000 gallons of jet fuel
and scraped away fireproofing insulation on the columns and floor trusses,
exposing the steel to temparatures as high as 2.000 degrees Fahrenheit from the
burning fuel.
The structural steel above and around the fire began to expand
and soften like heated plastic in the intense heat.
10 :28 (a.m) : final moments
The floor pancake, progressively collapsing the Tower from
within.
The North Tower stood for 102 minutes. It crumpled to the
ground in eight seconds.
South Tower :
9 :03 (a.m) : impact
The second plane slammed into the Tower and blasted a hole
through the adjacent side, wiping out many of the supporting columns and
leaving the building aflame.
9 :59 (a.m) : final moments
The Tower crumpled floor by floor.
The Pentagon. Less than an hour after the
New-York attack began, terrorists turned a hijacked plane toward the Pentagon,
the nation's military headquaters. A fortresslike structure built during World
War II of concrete and limestone, the five-story building measures more than
900 feet on a side and houses more than 23.000 employees in five concentric
rings of offices.
9 :40 (a.m), the boeing 757, crashes into the Pentagon's
lower floors.
Within minutes, the upper-floors collapsed. Some 190 people
are believed to be dead.
The White House has been the real target.
7 :30 (p.m) The national Security Agency had picked up at
least two electronic intercepts indicating the terrorists had ties to Bin
Laden.
