Hijacked American Airlines Flights 11 and 175 Crash into the World Trade Center's North and South Towers, Destroying Both

Osama Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the failed attack on a US airliner on December 25 in a new audio tape.

In the tape obtained by Al Jazeera, the world's most wanted man warns Barack Obama, the US president, that there will be more attacks unless he finds a solution to the Palestinian crisis.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared in a new message aired on an Arabic TV station Friday night, for the first time claiming direct responsibility for the 2001 attacks against the United States.

The militant Islamic group decided "we should destroy towers in America" because "we are a free people... and we want to regain the freedom of our nation," said bin Laden, dressed in yellow and white robes and videotaped against a plain brown background.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Others went to Arlington, Virginia, to the Pentagon. Across the Potomac River, the United States Congress was back in session. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, people began to line up for a White House tour. In Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush went for an early morning run.
For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and pleasant journey. Among the travelers were Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine.

Boarding the Flights

Boston: American 11 and United 175.

Atta and Omari boarded a 6:00 A.M. flight from Portland to Boston's Logan International Airport.

When he checked in for his flight to Boston, Atta was selected by a computerized prescreening system known as CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System), created to identify passengers who should be subject to special security measures. Under security rules in place at the time, the only consequence of Atta's selection by CAPPS was that his checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded the aircraft. This did not hinder Atta's plans.

Atta and Omari arrived in Boston at 6:45. Seven minutes later, Atta apparently took a call from Marwan al Shehhi, a longtime colleague who was at another terminal at Logan Airport. They spoke for three minutes. It would be their final conversation.

Between 6:45 and 7:40, Atta and Omari, along with Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri, and Waleed al Shehri, checked in and boarded American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:45.

In another Logan terminal, Shehhi, joined by Fayez Baniham...

This was one of those events where I remembered exactly where I was and what I was doing. I had arrived at my office at 541 N. Fairbanks in Chicago when my wife called to tell me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to Yahoo News and all that was posted was a photo of one of the towers with smoke pouring out of it. There was no description or any other information. At that time we thought it was caused by a small private plane. I hung up the phone and walked down the hall where I found some of my colleagues in the kitchen huddled around a small tv with a grainy picture. One of my friends in the room told me that he just saw a large passenger plane ram into the other tower. We were stunned, and we still did not understand who was behind this or what was going on.