"9/11" redirects here. For the date, see
September 11. For other uses, see
911 (disambiguation). The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) consisted of a series of coordinated
suicide attacks by
Islamic terrorists on that date upon the
United States of America.On that morning
nineteen terrorists affiliated with
al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger
jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained
pilot. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (
United Airlines Flight 175 and
American Airlines Flight 11) into the
World Trade Center in
New York City, one plane into each tower (
1 WTC and
2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner (
American Airlines Flight 77) into
the Pentagon in
Arlington County, Virginia, near
Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the
flight crew on the fourth aircraft (
United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of
Shanksville in rural
Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks, and the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to WTC dust. Another 24 people are missing and presumed dead. The victims were predominantly
civilians.
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