The Most Critical 17 Minutes Of 9/11

It’s a clear, still Tuesday morning in New York City. The autumn sky is bright blue and the two World Trade Centres mark the highest points of the Manhattan skyline. 

At 8:30am the business district is bustling. Workers are making their way into elevators or stopping for a quick coffee. Their minds are on their morning meeting or the kids they just dropped off at school. Most don’t notice the plane flying too low, far too low, until they hear it. A terrible sound pierces through one of the biggest cities in the world, as a passenger plane flies directly into the north tower. Within minutes, the story will go live across the globe. 

What they don’t know is that in 17 minutes, a second plane will collide with the south tower. This isn’t an accident. It’s an attack. 

On September 11, 2001, 2,976 people were killed as a result of four hijacked commercial airliners. Two crashed into the World Trade Centers, a third targeted the Pentagon, with a fourth aiming for the U.S. Capitol building but brought down in a field by several brave passengers. 

Five men have been charged with these acts of terrorism, and the case is the largest criminal prosecution in U.S. history in terms of the number of victims. 

But this episode is not about the men responsible. 

It’s about how that day truly unfolded, and the nearly 3000 victims who did not know those early hours of September 11 would be their last.

CREDITS

Guest: Garrett Graff, author of The Only Plane In The Sky

Host: Jessie Stephens

Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney & Ian Camilleri

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