Twenty-five years ago, one of the most shocking events of our lifetime was witnessed by millions as the tragedy unfolded live on TV screens around the world. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York.
The hijacked plane crashed through floors 93 to 99 of the 110-storey building, sending glass, twisted metal, and photocopy paper, falling to the ground around the busy world of workers walking to the office below. As a student at Liverpool John Moores University in my 20s, I remember a news flash interrupting whatever was on TV.
Live Coverage and the Second Strike
Video showing circling shots of the North Tower with a cloud of black smoke pouring from a gaping hole in its north face. I couldn't quite take it in. What was I seeing? I clicked through the channels — BBC, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5. The same live reports of New York.
In the North Tower, people below the impact area had begun evacuating the building. But not those on the floors above, there was no way out as all three stairwells had been blown apart. Hundreds of office workers trapped by smoke and fire on the upper floors, with nowhere else to go, jumped.
I was transfixed by the live news footage as a second jet, Flight 175, flew like a missile into the South Tower. I remember a gasp and the long silence of the journalists in the news studio. Millions watched as a ball of fire erupted from the south face between floors 77 and 85. The aircraft struck with such force that the starboard engine fell from the building and landed six blocks away.
The Pentagon and Flight 93
Just minutes after the first impact, terrorists took control of a third plane, Flight 77, above southern Ohio. And at 9:28am, the final plane, Flight 93, is hijacked above northern Ohio. Soon after, President George W Bush made his first public statement about the attacks to an audience of about 200 teachers and students at an elementary school he was visiting.
At 9:37am, Flight 77 crashes into the western side of the Pentagon building – the headquarters of the US military – sparking a violent fire. The White House and the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. were evacuated while the airspace above the United States was closed.
We learned later that the passengers and crew on board the final plane, Flight 93, now heading towards the Capitol building and the White House in Washington, D.C., revolted and fought back against the hijackers. As they attempted to break into the cockpit, the hijackers purposely pointed the plane's nose towards the earth, crashing in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.
Twin Towers Collapse
But this was not the end of the horror. At 9:59am, news reports around the world show the South Tower collapse, 56 minutes after impact, as steel, concrete, and clouds of smoke consumed the office workers, police and fire crews in the city below. News footage showed hundreds of panic-stricken people running for their lives. Some just walked. Their skin and clothes were caked in fine white dust.
At 10:28am, one hour and 42 minutes after the first plane, the North Tower collapsed to the ground, destroying the Marriott Hotel below. Hours later, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave a press conference. When asked to estimate the number of people killed in the Twin Towers, he replied: "More than any of us can bear".
On the front page of the Manchester Evening News that day, under the headline 'Tower Terror', was an image showing the moment the aeroplane struck the South Tower. It wasn't just an American tragedy. Families of those involved around the world were holding on to the hope they would be found alive.
Local Victims and Heroes
One of those was the family of a 37-year-old businessman from Stockport. Michael Lomax was born and raised in Heaton Moor and served as the executive vice president at Aon Corporation. Michael went to Didsbury Road School and Stockport Grammar before gaining a scholarship to read maths at Oxford University, then going on to a glittering career. He was on the 84th floor of the World Trade Centre’s South Tower when he made a desperate mobile telephone call to his wife Erica to say he was trying to get out, just before the second hijacked airliner crashed into the building. It was the last the family heard from him.
Another there that day was Police Supt Neil Wain from Wythenshawe. In New York to give a lecture on British policing to his American counterparts, he was called into action below the Twin Towers just hours after the first plane hit. Instead, he put his skills to use picking through the horrific carnage which surrounded him at what was to become known as Ground Zero.
"Obviously I had no idea what was going to happen, but as a police officer, just like every other one in New York, I wanted to be involved, wanted to help," Neil told the Manchester Evening News. "I had the ability to be able to physically help out at the scene. This is just what any police officer or fireman would want to do."
His work was not confined to the torrid remains of the Twin Towers. He spent time in mortuaries, and supporting the families and friends of missing people who were crammed into a few reception areas waiting for news. Showing appreciation to him for coming to the aid at the scene, officers from the New York Police Department tore off the badges of their uniforms to give to him. For a long time, he kept them as a mounted collection in his office at Wythenshawe Police Station.
Flights Turned Back and the Fundraiser
There were those jetting out from Manchester Airport to the US who were also caught up in the events of the attack. The M.E.N. reported on a flight full of holidaymakers bound for Disneyland in Florida whose jet was forced to turn back as it crossed the Atlantic. The captain told 358 stunned passengers over the Tannoy: "We have to turn back... No one is allowed to enter American airspace... Planes have been hijacked and have been flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
Paul Watson from Irlam was travelling with his wife and family to Orlando when it turned back after two-and-a-half hours. He told the M.E.N: "A hush came over the plane. People were disappointed to lose their holidays but it paled into insignificance compared to what had happened." Newlyweds Christian Greene and his wife, Joanne, were flying out for their honeymoon that day. Mr Green said: "It was completely shocking – a sombre silence came over everyone. We just wanted to land safely and get back home."
On October 19, 2001, just five weeks after the events of September 11, the Manchester Evening News organised the biggest fundraiser in Europe for the dependents of those crews who died trying to save others. Around 15,000 people packed the M.E.N. Arena for a charity night, which included a match between soccer teams made up of Manchester United and City legends, managed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Kevin Keegan. The event raised £64,000 and helped to boost the final amount of the Greater Manchester Fire Service Fund for the families of their New York colleagues to £271,635. In the following months, after being administered through a fund in America, the money arrived at the homes of the families who needed it most.
Interviews Never Forgotten
The M.E.N.'s Chief Reporter, Neal Keeling, reported on the tragedy in the weeks that followed. Neal said: "I remember starting a shift at 3am after the MEN was campaigning with the Arena fundraiser. I had to interview the widow of a firefighter and the father of another who both perished trying to save lives at the Twin Towers. I called their New York homes, where it was about 10 p.m. They were interviews that I never forgot – poignant and heartbreaking. The father told me how after his son was killed he looked in his son's room and found a letter the son had kept from his own dad, wishing him luck, and expressing his pride, on the first day of his career as a firefighter."
Nine days after the attack, President Bush delivered a historic televised address to a Joint Session of Congress. In this speech, he formally announced to the American public and the world that the 19 hijackers belonged to the Islamic terror group, Al-Qaeda.
The Final Toll
It is still impossible to say the exact number of deaths as people are still dying today after potentially suffering from toxin-related illnesses that can be attributed to the attack. In total, there were 2,977 reported deaths. However, the New York City medical examiner's office then began to add those who died of illnesses from exposure to dust from the site, raising the number of victims to 2,996. This includes the 2,606 people who were in and around the devastated buildings at the World Trade Center, and 125 at the Pentagon. All 265 people on board the hijacked planes were killed.
Out of emergency services, a total of 343 firefighters died, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel were killed in the attacks. There were 19 hijackers involved who also died on board the four aircraft.
On the day after the attack, a comment piece appeared in the Manchester Evening News. It opened with: "The world we live in is a profoundly different place today. The unprecedented acts of fantastical ruthlessness beamed live to our television screens yesterday afternoon, leaving countless innocent people dead, will scar everyone who witnessed them, perhaps for the rest of our lives." Twenty-five years on, these words have never sounded truer. From the way we travel, to the deaths and the wars that have taken place as a direct result of that day, the world changed in the split second that the first jet hit.
