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Terrorist Attacks Q&A
By RONALD BLUM, Associated Press Writer
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 (news - web sites). At 9:50 a.m., the south tower collapsed. At about 10 a.m., United Flight 93 crashed about 80 miles from Pittsburgh. At 10:29 a.m., the north 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 (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites), 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 (news - web sites)?
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 returned to Washington and addressed the nation on television from the Oval Office.
Q: Where were other top government officials?
A: Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) cut short a trip to South America to return to Washington. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Alan Greenspan (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) and the United Nations (news - web sites). 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. The New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), the Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange will remain closed Wednesday. |
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