AP News -- Q&A regarding today's terrorist attacks
September 11, 2001
Terrorist Attacks Q&A
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:14 p.m. ET
Some questions and answers about Tuesday's attacks:
Q: What was attacked in New York and Washington and when?
A: At 8:45 a.m. EDT, American Flight 11 slammed into One World Trade Center,
the complex's north tower, in New York. Eighteen minutes later, United Flight
175 crashed into Two World Trade Center, the south tower. At 9:43 a.m.,
American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. At 9:50 a.m., the north tower
collapsed. At about 10 a.m., United Flight 93 crashed about 80 miles from
Pittsburgh, and Rep. James Moran, D-Va., later said it was apparently targeting
Camp David, the presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. At 10:29 a.m.,
the south tower toppled. At 5:25 p.m., Seven World Trade Center, an evacuated
47-story building, collapsed in flames.
Q: What is the World Trade Center?
A: A complex of office buildings in lower Manhattan near Wall Street, highlighted
by the 110-story twin towers. Groundbreaking on the twin towers, designed by
architect Minoru Yamasaki, was on Aug. 5, 1966, and the ribbon-cutting for the
opening was April 4, 1973. About 50,000 people worked in the twin towers. At
1,368 feet, One World Trade Center was the fifth-tallest building in the world,
according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. At 1,362 feet, Two
World Trade Center was the sixth-tallest.
Q: Who is responsible?
A: Not immediately known, but federal authorities identified terrorist mastermind
Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect.
Q: How many people died?
A: Too early to tell, but hundreds of people aboard the planes died, and an untold
number of others were feared buried in the rubble of the twin towers. Thousands
were injured at the World Trade Center.
Q: Wasn't there a previous attack on the World Trade Center?
On Feb. 26, 1993, a terrorist bomb exploded on the B-2 level in One World Trade
Center, killing six people and leaving a 200-foot-wide, five-story-deep crater.
U.S. officials say bin Laden was the architect and also was behind the 1998
bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and last year's bombing of the USS
Cole in Yemen.
Q: Where were the planes headed and how many were aboard?
A: American Flight 11, a Boeing 767 headed from Boston to Los Angeles, was
carrying 81 passengers, nine flight attendants and two pilots; American Flight 77,
a Boeing 757 from Washington to Los Angeles, had 58 passengers, four flight
attendants and two pilots; United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 from Newark, N.J., to
San Francisco, had 38 passengers, five flight attendants and two pilots; and
United Flight 175, a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, was carrying 56
passengers, seven attendants and two pilots
Q: How many people altogether were aboard the flights?
A. 266.
Q: How do we know the planes were hijacked?
A: At 9:58 a.m., an emergency dispatcher received a cell phone call from a man
who said he was a passenger locked in a bathroom aboard United Flight 93, said
dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer in Westmoreland County, Pa. ``We are being
hijacked!'' the caller said. Also, Barbara Olson, a former congressional
investigator and wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, was aboard
American Flight 77 and twice called her husband. She described some details of
the hijacking, including that the attackers were using knife-like instruments, law
enforcement officials said.
Q: When will commercial planes start flying again?
A: The Federal Aviation Administration, which at 9:43 a.m. halted all U.S. air
traffic for the first time, said the ban would not be lifted until noon EDT
Wednesday, at the earliest. Some airports also were evacuated.
Q: Where was President Bush?
A: He was in Sarasota, Fla., when the attacks began, then went to Barksdale Air
Force Base, La., where he stayed 90 minutes before going to Offutt Air Force
Base, Neb. There, at the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command, which
controls U.S. nuclear weapons, Bush convened a National Security Council
meeting by teleconference. Two fighter jets circled the base and nearby roads
were closed during the president's stay. Bush planned to return to Washington to
address the nation on television.
Q: Where were other top government officials?
A: Vice President Dick Cheney remained in a nearly deserted White House. House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, next in the line of presidential succession after Cheney,
and other top leaders of Congress were taken to a secure government facility 75
miles west of Washington. Secretary of State Colin Powell cut short a trip to
South America to return to Washington. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan was returning from a banking conference in Switzerland.
Q: What did the U.S. military do?
A: The military was ordered to Threat Level Delta, the highest level, at least in the
Washington area, according to Air Force Capt. Tatiana Stead at Andrews Air
Force Base. Black-uniformed Secret Service agents with machine guns patrolled
the White House grounds and fighter jets circled over the city. The Navy sent
missile destroyers and other vessels to New York and Washington.
Q: What was evacuated?
A: Government and office buildings around the country, including the Capitol, the
White House, the State Department, the CIA and the United Nations. All of lower
Manhattan also was evacuated and will be closed Wednesday to all but rescue
personnel.
Q: What did Wall Street do?
A: All financial markets closed.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press |
