ABSTRACT
The event is all too familiar. September 11 happened on a crisp, autumn-like morning. Two hijacked passenger aircraft silhouetted against an azure blue sky came crashing into the twin 110-story towers of the World Trade Center. The North Tower was struck first as the American Airlines flight crashed into floors 93 through 99, igniting everything in its path. Seventeen minutes later a United Airlines plane hit the South Tower, cutting though floors 77 through 85, causing massive fireballs to surge through the building. Ten terrorists, five in each aircraft, succeeded in turning passenger planes into guided missiles, instantly killing 600 people on those floors alone. Others died as they became trapped in elevators and clogged the exits. Many more would fall as they struggled through fume-infested, smoke-drenched corridors and stairwells. The site came to be known as “ground zero,” and its fatalities rose to nearly 3,000 people with more than twice that number of casualties.
