What time did 9/11 happen 24 years ago? Key facts you didn’t know about that fateful day

On September 11, 2001 the 9/11 attacks took place. Four U.S. passenger planes were hijacked by small teams of terrorists. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The second plane hit 17 minutes after the first, reports say.

The towers caught fire, trapping people on the upper floors. In less than two hours, both towers collapsed in huge clouds of dust. A third plane crashed into the headquarters of the U.S. military near Washington DC. The fourth plane, Flight 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. It is said that the hijackers were moving for the U.S. Capitol, as per the report by BBC.

Key facts of 9/11

The number of people died were 2,977 in the attacks, except the 19 hijackers. 246 passengers and crew died on the four planes. 2,606 people died at the Twin Towers, including some who later died from injuries. 125 people were killed at the Pentagon. The youngest victim was 2-year-old Christine Lee Hanson, and the oldest was 82-year-old Robert Norton, both passengers on planes, as per reports.


An estimated 17,400 people were inside the Twin Towers when the first plane struck. Nobody survived above the impact zone in the North Tower; 18 people survived above the impact zone in the South Tower. People from 77 countries were among the victims, and 441 first responders from New York died,as mentioned by BBC report.

Reports say al-Qaeda were behind these attacks, an Islamist extremist group led by Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the mastermind bihind these attacks. The 19 hijackers worked in teams of five or four. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, two from the UAE, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.

U.S. response and security changes

After the attacks within a few months, President George W. Bush attacked Afghanistan with international support to fight al-Qaeda and to find Bin Laden. In 2011 Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. In 2003 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan, and was in a secret CIA jail, and then he was moved to Guantanamo Bay.

A military court has been trying to figure out how he can be tried for 9/11 because his interrogation may affect evidence. In 2025, a plea deal for Mohammed to avoid the death penalty was rejected by a U.S. appeals court. After 9/11, airport and flight security became much stricter, and the TSA was created in the U.S. Clean-up at Ground Zero in New York took more than eight months, as stated by BBC.

The One World Trade Center (“Freedom Tower”) was built at 1,776ft, taller than the original North Tower. The Pentagon was rebuilt in under a year, and staff returned by August 2002. Americans mark the anniversary every year with ceremonies at the Twin Towers site, Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as per the AP News.

FAQs

Q1. What time did the 9/11 attacks happen?
The first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York early in the morning on September 11, 2001.

Q2. How many people died in the 9/11 attacks?
A total of 2,977 people died, including passengers, workers in the buildings, first responders, and civilians, not counting the 19 hijackers.