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September 11, 2001

posted
September 10,
2013
9/11 Memorial

5:45 AM Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari make it through the security at the Portland, Maine International Jetport. They take a shuttle flight to Boston’s Logan International Airport. At 7:59 AM, they connect with the Los Angeles-bound American Airlines Flight 11. American Airlines Flight 11 is fourteen minutes behind its scheduled departure.

Seventeen other hijackers are meantime clearing security checks at Boston’s Logan Airport, Newark International Airport, and Washington Dulles Airport. They all have knives, box cutters and other concealed weapons. Eight of these hijackers are have to undergo additional screening but all are able to board their flights.

8:14 AM United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Logan. It too is 14 minutes behind the scheduled departure.

8:20 AM American Airlines Flight 77 departs from Washington Dulles International Airport ten minutes behind schedule.

8:24 AM Mohammed Atta mistakenly contacts air traffic control from Flight 11.

8:37 AM Air traffic controllers contact the military.

8:42 AM United Airlines Flight 93 departs Newark International Airport after a 42 minute delay.

8:46 AM Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

8:50 AM President Bush is made aware of the crash at a grade school in Sarasota, Florida.

8:55 AM A Port Authority official announces via a public address system inside the South Tower “Your attention, please, ladies and gentlemen. Building 2 is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building 2. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may use the re-entry doors and the elevators to return to your office. Repeat, Building 2 is secure.”

8:58 AM Crew and some passengers contact authorities and loved ones from Flight 175.

9:02 AM The Port Authority announces that people can evacuate from the South Tower.

9:03 AM Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower.

I was in shock as I watched Flight 175 crash into the South Tower from my workplace in Philadelphia. Telephone lines were jammed and even e-mails and text messages were slow to send and receive.

United Airlines Flight 93 targeted Washington, D.C. but crashed and we later learned it fell into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 AM.

Our workplace dismissed students by 9:45 AM. Staff was dismissed at lunchtime for the weekend. Later, at home, I began writing a memorial Website — I didn’t know how to cope. My parents arrived in the late morning and I spent the remainder of that day and the weekend with my wife, one-year old son, and my parents. The memories of that day still leave me feeling tearful and dumfounded.

Here is the Website that I completed in the ensuing days: http://www.angelfire.com/dc/erichunt/index.html/

In those days, I was teaching Web design as well as administrative functions. My students and I created many pages together and the 9-1-1 memorial theme was high on our list of subjects in those days.

I pray for any of you that experienced the traumas and loss during that sad day and the many days and weeks that followed as we discovered more about the attacks.

May God bless us all and keep our souls in His light.

~ Eric

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