For many people, the harrowing events that transpired on September 11, 2001 is nothing more but a dark past and an utterly horrifying story. But for its victims and the witnesses who feared for their own lives, the tragedy has become a nightmare on loop.
Just like any other day, New York was brimming with energy—people were on their way to work, the cabs piled up in bumper to bumper traffic, and the sun generously offered its warm beams on cobblestone lofts. Nobody knew the terrors that await the majestic skyscrapers of the city. For everyone around the area, September 11, 2001 was just an ordinary Tuesday.
Just before noontime, nineteen men trained by the militant Islamist group Al-Qaeda carried out coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States. They seized four passenger planes flying over eastern America with the intention of crashing them into the country's major landmarks.
Two of the hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York; the first aircraft hit the North Tower at 8:46 am, while the second crashed into the South Tower at 9:03 am.
The impact caused a huge fire, trapping people on the upper floors, and leaving the whole city in smoke. In less than two hours, both 110-storey buildings collapsed. New York's pride was no more. At 9:37 am, the third plane destroyed the western part of the Pentagon, US' military headquarters in Washington DC.
People in the fourth plane also suffered at the hands of Al-Qaeda members, the aircraft crashed in a Pennsylvania field, leaving all 44 people onboard killed. Up to this day, it is thought that the hijackers originally planned to attack the Capitol Building but failed when the passengers fought back.
