By Viktoria Ristanovic
Features Editor
This year marks the 18th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, when tragedy struck the U.S. after two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City. Throughout the rest of the morning, two other hijacked airplanes crashed; one hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the other one crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
In a September 2001 issue of The Signal, a reporter wrote about the horrific terrorist attack and its immediate aftermath. Eighteen years later, we still remember the thousands of American citizens who lost their lives.
In what is being called the worst peacetime attack ever, New York City and Washington, D.C. were the targets of terrorist attacks last Tuesday morning.
The World Trade Center was hit by two commercial airplanes. The first crash occurred around 9 a.m., and the second crash came just 16 minutes later.
An hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, prompting the evacuation of all government buildings in Washington, including the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol and the CIA. The side of the Pentagon hit by the plane later collapsed from damage caused by the impact.
United Airlines and American Airlines both lost two planes. American flight 11 struck the north tower at 8:46 a.m. United flight 175 hit the south tower 16 minutes later.
American flight 77 hit the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. United flight 93 crashed outside of Pittsburgh. The FBI believes all four of these planes were hijacked. A Delta flight made an emergency landing in Cleveland, where the passengers were safely evacuated. Federal officials then searched the plane for explosives.
The attacks on these buildings prompted the evacuation of many other well-known landmarks, including the Sears Tower in Chicago, the United Nations in New York and Disney World. Los Angeles mobilized its anti-terrorism division. Washington Mayor Anthony Williams has declared a state of emergency and U.S stock markets were closed after the attacks on New York.
