September 11, 2001: A Minute-by-Minute Timeline of the Day America Was Attacked
In 102 minutes, four hijacked airliners changed the course of the 21st century. This is the day reconstructed to the minute, from the 9/11 Commission's official timeline and corroborating contemporaneous accounts.
Terrorism·11 September 2001·New York · Arlington · Shanksville
Date11 September 2001
LocationsNew York City · Arlington, VA · Shanksville, PA
Aircraft hijacked4 — American 11, United 175, American 77, United 93
Perpetrators19 al-Qaeda hijackers
Casualties2,977 killed (excluding the 19 hijackers)
Immediate responseFAA grounds all U.S. civil aircraft — the first such order in history
The four hijacked flights — where each one departed, and where each one ended
The record, minute by minute
Timeline
A note on the images below: every photograph-style image in this timeline is an artist's dramatization, generated for illustrative purposes. None are archival photographs of the actual events. They are presented to help convey the scale and human reality of that morning, not to sensationalize it or cause distress — and with respect for everyone who lived through it and everyone who did not.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph — 5:45 AM, an ordinary morning begins
7:59 AM
Flight 11 departs Boston
American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 bound for Los Angeles, departs Logan International Airport with 92 people on board, including five hijackers.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
8:14 AM
Flight 175 departs; Flight 11 hijacked
United Airlines Flight 175 leaves Boston for Los Angeles with 65 people aboard. Around the same time, Flight 11 is hijacked over central Massachusetts.
8:19 AM
The first alert
Flight 11 flight attendant Betty Ong reaches American Airlines ground staff by airphone and reports the hijacking — the first indication anyone on the ground has that something is wrong.
8:20 AM
Flight 77 departs Washington
American Airlines Flight 77 leaves Washington Dulles for Los Angeles, carrying 64 people.
8:42 AM
Flight 93 departs, 41 minutes late
United Airlines Flight 93 finally leaves Newark for San Francisco after a delay in routine ground traffic — a delay that will later place it far enough behind schedule for its passengers to learn what has already happened to the other three flights.
8:46 AM
Flight 11 hits the North Tower
Flight 11 crashes into floors 93–99 of the World Trade Center's North Tower, severing all three emergency stairwells above the impact zone. Everyone on board is killed instantly. First responders are dispatched within minutes.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
8:50 AM
Bush is told — and the assumption of an accident
President George W. Bush, visiting an elementary school classroom in Sarasota, Florida, is told a plane has struck the World Trade Center. His advisors initially assume it was a tragic accident involving a small aircraft.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
8:51–8:54 AM
Flight 77 hijacked
Flight 77 sends its last routine radio transmission at 8:51. The hijacking begins in the minutes that follow, somewhere over the mid-Atlantic states.
9:03 AM
Flight 175 hits the South Tower — live, on television
Flight 175 crashes into floors 77–85 of the South Tower. Because news cameras are already filming the smoke from the North Tower, the second impact is captured live — and any remaining assumption that the first crash was an accident ends instantly.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
9:05 AM
"America is under attack"
Chief of Staff Andrew Card leans in and tells President Bush, still in the Florida classroom, that a second plane has hit the second tower and America is under attack.
9:08 AM
FAA halts departures nationwide
The Federal Aviation Administration stops all departures at U.S. airports bound for or through New York airspace, the first in a rapidly escalating set of nationwide groundings.
9:28 AM
Flight 93 hijacked
Flight 93 is hijacked over northern Ohio. A hijacker's announcement, meant for the cockpit, is broadcast to air traffic control instead — giving controllers on the ground rare, real-time awareness that a fourth aircraft has been seized.
9:36 AM
The Vice President is moved
Secret Service agents evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House.
9:37 AM
Flight 77 hits the Pentagon
Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon's western façade at full throttle. All 64 aboard and 125 people inside the building are killed.
9:42 AM
All U.S. airspace grounded
The FAA orders every one of the 4,546 civil aircraft then flying in American airspace to land immediately — the first nationwide grounding in the agency's history.
9:45 AM
Washington evacuates
The White House and the U.S. Capitol are evacuated, along with numerous other government buildings and landmarks, amid escalating fears of further attacks.
9:57 AM
Flight 93's passengers act
Having learned by phone of the attacks in New York and Washington, passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 move to storm the cockpit. The hijacker piloting the aircraft rolls it violently to try to break up the assault.
9:59 AM
The South Tower collapses
After burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower collapses in under 15 seconds, killing everyone still inside and many first responders on the ground.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
10:03 AM
Flight 93 goes down in Shanksville
Flight 93 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 aboard. Its intended target — almost certainly the U.S. Capitol or the White House — is never reached, because its own passengers fought to stop it first.
10:28 AM
The North Tower collapses
102 minutes after Flight 11 struck it, the North Tower collapses. Lower Manhattan is engulfed in dust and debris for blocks in every direction.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
5:20 PM
7 World Trade Center falls
Weakened for hours by fires ignited by falling debris from the towers, the 47-story 7 World Trade Center collapses. It had been evacuated earlier in the day and was unoccupied.
8:30 PM
The President addresses the nation
President Bush addresses the country from the Oval Office, closing a day that began as a Tuesday morning commute and ended with the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
Dramatized recreationNot an archival photograph
What the day changed
2,977 people were killed that morning and the deadliest terrorist attack in history reset the assumptions of an entire generation about air travel, national security, and the reach of a non-state actor. The attacks led directly to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan weeks later, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and a redesign of airport security worldwide that persists today. Nearly a quarter-century on, thousands more first responders and survivors have died from illnesses linked to their exposure at the sites — a toll still being counted long after the day itself ended.
