American Airlines Flight 11

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American Airlines Flight 11
AA11 path.svg

American Airlines Flight 11
Accident summary
Accident type kidnapping
place World Trade Center
date September 11, 2001
Fatalities 92 + unknown number of victims (WTC 1)
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 767 -223ER
operator American Airlines
Mark N334AA
Departure airport Logan International Airport
Destination airport Los Angeles International Airport
Passengers 81 (including 5 kidnappers)
crew 11
Lists of aviation accidents

American Airlines Flight 11 ( flight AA11 for short ; American one one or American eleven in radio communications ) was a scheduled flight of American Airlines . On September 11, 2001, a Boeing 767-223ER jet was hijacked by five terrorists as the first of four aircraft in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA and at 8:46 a.m. in the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City steered. There was an explosion of the kerosene and a subsequent building fire on floors 93 to 99. All 92 people on board must have died immediately at a speed of almost 800 km / h and the explosion that followed. The photos show explosive flames emerging from the facades on all four sides of the building. The flight recorder was probably destroyed in the impact, it was not found during the rescue and clean-up work after the collapse of the building.

When the jet hit, many people died in the tower. The destroyed stairwells made it impossible for people above the impact point to escape. Driven into a corner by the effects of heat and smoke, the first victims fell to their death from the broken windows on the upper floors after just a few minutes. 102 minutes after the aircraft impacted at 10:28 a.m. local time, the north tower collapsed completely from top to bottom due to a considerable weakening of the building statics . Another 1,366 people, including many firefighters from the New York Fire Department and other rescue personnel, were still in the tower and were killed when it collapsed at the latest. Identification by means of dental findings and DNA analysis was only successful for a small part of the body parts found later .

Most of the people working in the north tower (WTC 1) who were below the impact site at 8:46 a.m., around 8,000 people, survived. A number of people that cannot be quantified were injured.

The abduction

Temporal overview of the flight

The N334AA aircraft on April 8, 2001

The flight of the machine with registration number N334AA was scheduled to be at Logan International Airport in East Boston , Massachusetts at 7:45 a.m., destination Los Angeles . The 14-minute late take-off took place at 7:59 a.m. from runway 4R. At 8:13:29 am, the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 8,000 meters, 26,000  feet , over central Massachusetts, and the pilots followed a request from the Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center to turn 20 degrees right. At 8:13:47 a.m., the Boston control center prompted the operator to climb to 10,700 meters (35,000 feet). The pilots did not comply with this request and left the aircraft at 8:16 a.m. at an altitude of 8800 meters (29,000 feet). Therefore, in its 2004 report , the 9/11 Commission of Inquiry assumed that the abduction began at 8:14 am. Shortly afterwards, the machine deviated from the intended course. At 8:21 am, after repeated unsuccessful calls from the control center, the machine stopped transmitting the Mode-C transponder signal .

The course shown on the map represents the route assumed by the investigative commission.

At 8:26 PM Eastern Time, for example through Schenectady in the state of New York , the machine turned 100 degrees to the left and flew south toward New York City. At 8:37 a.m. the machine began to descend at 975 meters (3200 feet) per minute. At 8:43 a.m. she made a last turn towards Manhattan at a low altitude . It then hit the WTC at 430 knots (approx. 800 km / h). Only a few pieces of debris from the machine were found later.

Details of the kidnapping

On that day, the flight captain John Ogonowski , his first officer Thomas McGuinness, the flight attendants Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean Roger, Dianne Snyder and Madeline Amy Sweeney made up the crew of eleven. 81 passengers had checked in  .

Since all passengers, crew members and perpetrators died when the north tower was hit, only a few details of the kidnapping are undisputed and have become known as such. This includes the phone calls made by flight attendants Madeline Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong to a ground station of their airline after the hijacking. Based on their reports, it can be assumed that in addition to the pilots John Ogonowski and Thomas McGuinness, at least two other flight attendants, Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui, and one passenger, Daniel M. Lewin , were murdered by the perpetrators during the flight. Lewin was an Israeli, on business and was sitting right in front of one of the kidnappers. He had received military training from the Israeli special unit Sajeret Matkal .

In addition, flight control heard three announcements from the kidnapper Mohammed Atta to the passengers because the wrong button was presumably pressed, initially:

"We have some planes, just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport. "

“We have some planes, just keep calm and you'll be fine. We are returning to the airport. "

At 8:24:56 am:

"Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet. "

“Nobody moves. Everything will be fine. If you try to take any action you will endanger yourself and the aircraft. Just stay calm. "

At 8:33:59 am:

"Nobody move, please, we are going back to the airport, don't try to make any stupid moves."

"Nobody moves, please, we're going back to the airport, don't try to do any stupid actions."

Phone calls

Betty Ong has submitted the above details to the American Airlines Operations Center . The conversation lasted over 25 minutes, but due to the time limitation of the recording system, only the first four minutes of the conversation were recorded. Nevertheless, there are conclusions about the further course of the conversation: In the recording of a phone call in which Ong's contact person, Nydia Gonzalez, passes Ong's information to the airline's security service, one can hear Gonzalez talking to Betty Ong over and over again before the Contact finally breaks off.

Apart from the phone calls made by Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney, no other phone calls from the machine have come to light. However, there is evidence that an unidentified person attempted to reach the ground station four times between 8:16 a.m. and 8:28 a.m. The calls didn't get through. The caller is believed to be flight attendant Sara Low.

Documentation in the media

There are three film recordings of flight AA 11 racing into the north tower: that of Jules Naudet , documentary filmmaker with a fire brigade unit, a random shot by Pavel Hlava and the webcam by Wolfgang Staehle (random shot in an art project). Hlava's and Staehle's images are too blurred to see details of the aircraft. The angle of both images means that the impact is covered by the building itself. Only in Naudet's shot can the overflight over the group of firefighters, the approach and the impact into the building and the following seconds be seen. Then the group drives to the WTC and Naudet can no longer film the building. There is also a recording made by a camera team from the TV station WNYW . However, since the camera was pointing at the ground at the time of the impact, only the aircraft and explosion noises can be heard.

Remembrance, warning, memorials

The World Trade Center Memorial , a memorial with a museum to remember the victims , has been located in Manhattan since 2014 .

A very diverse culture of remembrance and warning has arisen in the United States in connection with this and the other abductions and their aftermath. This also includes many family websites.

Movie

  • The Last Hour of Flight 11. Documentation, USA, 60 minutes.

Nationalities of the victims on the plane

Passenger list of the flight

The nationality of the 76 passengers and 11 crew members included 11 different countries:

nationality Passengers crew total
United StatesUnited States United States 67 11 78
ColombiaColombia Colombia and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  2 - 2
CanadaCanada Canada and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  1 - 1
IndiaIndia India and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  1 - 1
IrelandIreland Ireland and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  1 - 1
IsraelIsrael Israel and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  1 - 1
JapanJapan Japan and United StatesUnited StatesUnited States  1 - 1
LebanonLebanon Lebanon and United KingdomUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom  1 - 1
UruguayUruguay Uruguay and AustraliaAustraliaAustralia  1 - 1
total 76 11 87

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Flight Path Study - American Airlines Flight 11. (PDF file; 4.1 MB) National Transportation Safety Board , archived from the original on June 22, 2011 ; accessed on November 8, 2010 (English).
  2. ^ Commission Report (Chapter One). National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, July 22, 2004, archived from the original on February 18, 2011 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
  3. ^ Daniel R. Bower, Ph. D .: National Transportation Safety Board, Radar Data Impact Speed ​​Study. Office of Research and Engineering, Washingston DC, February 7, 2002, accessed April 15, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Flight Path Study - American Airlines Flight 11. (PDF file; 4.1 MB) National Transportation Safety Board , p. 6 , archived from the original on June 22, 2011 ; accessed on November 8, 2010 (English).
  5. ^ History Commons, Timeline of 9/11
  6. ↑ Jules Naudet: Naudet brothers 9/11 Documentary - 1st plane hits North Tower. (Video) In: YouTube. Žiga P. Škraba, September 11, 2001, archived from the original on February 8, 2015 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
  7. ↑ James Glanz: A Rare View of 9/11, Overlooked. The New York Times , September 7, 2003, p. 2 , archived from the original on February 18, 2011 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
  8. ^ Wolfgang Staehle: Flight 11 Crash (Wolfgang Staehle). (Video) In: YouTube. Brandonjsmith1994's Channel, September 11, 2001, archived from the original on February 8, 2015 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
  9. ↑ WNYW TV: 9/11 WTC Rare Video of First Plane Attack. (Video) In: YouTube. WNYW TV, Sept. 11, 2001, archived from the original on Feb. 8, 2015 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
  10. ^ List of names at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Retrieved November 3, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : American Airlines Flight 11  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 42 "  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 49"  W.