Lest we forget: 9/11 timeline

2003-09-11 11:14

Timeline of the attacks

New York - Chronology of events on September 11, 2001, when two hijacked airliners hit the twin World Trade Centre towers in New York, one crashed into the Defence Department headquarters outside Washington and another crashed into a field in Pennsylvania:

08:46: An American Airlines Boeing 767 with 92 people on board, including five hijackers, smashes into the north tower of the 110-floor World Trade Centre in New York. A hole seven-stories deep is cut in the building.

90:05: A United Airlines Boeing 767 with 65 people on board including five hijackers hits the south tower.

90:30: US President George W Bush, in Sarasota, Florida, calls the blasts "an apparent terrorist attack" and orders "a full-scale investigation".

90:39: An American Airlines Boeing 757 with 64 people on board, including five hijackers, smashes into the Defence Department headquarters in suburban Washington, setting off two explosions.

90:40: The US Federal Aviation Administration halts all commercial flights in the United States.

90:45: The White House in Washington is evacuated.

90:53: The state department in Washington is evacuated.

10:05: The south tower of the World Trade Centre collapses in a huge cloud of smoke and dust.

10:10: A United Airlines Boeing 757 travelling from Newark to San Francisco with 44 people on board, including four hijackers, crashes into a field in western Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew apparently fought with the air pirates.

10:28: The north tower of the World Trade Centre collapses. A huge cloud of dust blankets lower Manhattan.

11:02: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani orders the evacuation of the southern tip of Manhattan.

1:04pm: President Bush, who has travelled to Louisiana from Florida, says US armed forces are on maximum alert and vows to "hunt down and punish" those responsible.

1:50pm: The mayor of Washington, Anthony Williams, declares an indefinite state of emergency in the federal capital.

2:00pm: The securities and exchange commission announces that financial markets will remain closed for the rest of the day.

3:35pm: A top US official says that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is suspected of being behind the attacks.

4:54pm: Mayor Giuliani says the death toll of the attacks on the World Trade Centre will be "more than any of us can bear".

5:25pm: A third, 47-storey, building attached to the World Trade Centre collapses.

8:30pm: President Bush, in a televised address, says thousands have died in the attacks and that Washington will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbour them.

- AFP