Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror

American 11,

heavy traffic's orbiting north of the field at 3,500 feet,

maintain 3,000, runway four right.

Cleared for takeoff.

American 11, climb maintain level three five zero.

American 11, climb maintain level three five zero.

American 11, Boston.

This is Athens.

This is Boston, I turned American 20 left. I was gonna climb him,

he will not respond to me now at all.

Looks like he's turning right.

Number Three in the back. The cockpit's not answering.

Somebody's stabbed in business class.

And I think there's Mace that we can't breathe.

I don't know. I think we're getting hijacked.

What is your name?

Okay. My name is Betty Ong.

I'm Number Three on Flight 11.

Our first class passengers are...

Our first class galley flight attendant, and our purser has been stabbed.

And we can't get to the cockpit, the door won't open.

Have you guys called anyone else?

No. Somebody's calling medical and we can't get a doc...

American Airlines Emergency line, please state your emergency.

Hey. This is Nydia at American Airlines calling.

I am monitoring a call in which Flight 11,

the flight attendant is advising our reps that the pilot, everyone's been stabbed.

- Flight 11? - Yeah.

Uh, we contacted Air Traffic Control.

They are going to handle this as a confirmed hijacking,

so they're moving all traffic out of this aircraft's way.

Okay.

He turned his transponder off,

so we don't have a definitive altitude for him.

Uh, we're just going by... They seem to think that...

They have him on a primary radar. They seem to think that he is descending.

Is that American 11 trying to call?

Put that phone up on that HAM...

We have some planes. Just stay quiet and we'll be okay.

We're returning to the airport.

American 11, are you trying to call?

Nobody move. Everything will be okay.

If you try to make any moves, you will endanger yourself and the airplane.

Just stay quiet.

Hi, Boston Center, T.M.U. We have a problem here.

We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York,

and we need you guys to...

We need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there to help us out.

Is this real-world or exercise?

No. This is not an exercise, not a test.

Okay. Hey, uh, hold on one second. Okay?

Yes.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

- Hey, seriously. Big time. - What?

What?

What was that?

Is that real-world? Real-world hijacking.

Fire Department 408. Where's the fire?

Yeah. Hi. I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center.

We just had an explosion up here.

Okay. 106th floor?

- What building? One or Two? - That's One World Trade.

Keep the windows open if you can and just sit tight.

It's gonna be a while because there's a fire downstairs.

We can't open the windows unless we break them.

Okay. Just sit tight.

All right. Just sit tight. We're on the way.

All right. Please hurry.

This is Central. Be advised, from our location I see heavy smoke

coming from the building of the World Trade Center.

Send me just about anything that you got in this direction, Kate.

- Can you look out your window? - Yeah.

Can you see a guy at 4,000 feet,

about five east of the airport? Looks like he's...

Yeah. I see him.

Is he descending to the building also?

- He's descending really quick too. - Well, that's...

4,500 feet, now. He just dropped 800 feet in, like, one sweep.

That's another situation.