By: Aliyah Cowan It’s been 18 years since the tragedy of 9/11 and people from Eastern Guilford High School still remember what happened until this day. On September 11, 2001, two planes were hijacked and crashed into The World Trade Center, one was crashed into the Pentagon, and the other plane was crashed into lower Manhattan.
Many families were torn apart. Nineteen terrorists were associated with a group called “Al Qaeda” and they hijacked four planes.
The first plane hit the north tower in New York and only six people survived when the building collapsed. Nearly 10,000 people were treated for their injuries, most of the injuries were severe.
Eighteen minutes after the first plane hit the north tower, the south tower collapsed. That’s when America knew they were under attack. Nearly 2,763 died after the two planes crashed into the twin towers. Coach Aguilar said, “Seeing the airplanes fly through the building and seeing the buildings falling was my vivid memory from the attack.” When asked what he thought about the government’s reaction towards the attacks he stated, “I think they were trying to take attacks seriously.” The third plane that hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. The that crashed was Flight 77. When the plane crashed it exploded in a fireball which killed 135 people that were inside the building along with all of 64 passengers that were onboard, as well as the hijackers. In total, the number of that was 189. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa. There were 40 passengers, including the crew members that died when the plane crashed into the field. The plane never reached its official target destination because the passengers and the crew members fought back against the terrorists. There was a total of four terrorists, who had successfully got on the plane with knives and box cutters. The terrorist was afraid that the passengers would break through the cockpit, so they decided to crash the plane before getting to the destination.
People think the terrorist’s destination was the White House, but no one is sure what the actual destination was.