
The
September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated
suicide attacks by
al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda
terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger
jet airliners.
The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the
World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the
Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near
Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.