Attack on America
15h30 – Two airplanes have
crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City this morning
(EDT USA time) in, what is being called at this time, a terrorist attack on the
USA! WOW!!! I was just there a few weeks ago!!!
The first one hit one of the
towers just before 9am (EDT USA time) and the second one hit the other tower 18
minutes later! One of the planes was an American Airlines 767 had been hijacked
after it took off from Boston!!
15h37 - All bridges and tunnels
leading into and out of NYC have been closed. There are unconfirmed reports of
1000 injuries so far. CNN World even showed video footage of the second plane
crashing into it as they were filming the first tower when the second plane
hit!
15h45- the Pentagon is on fire
and is being evacuated!!!! It is thought that a plane or helicopter has crashed
into it! There’s also a fire on the Mall in DC, of which the cause hasn’t been
determined yet!!!! The White House is being evacuated (unfortunately, W is in
Florida)! This only happens in the movies, not in real life!!
15h50 – ALL OF THE AIRPORTS IN
THE USA ARE CLOSED for at least the next 7 hours, with probably extension on
that time frame!!!! Other than war times, this has never happened before!!!
15h54 – The White House was
evacuated because there was a jet flying over it and there shouldn’t have been
as it is restricted airspace. The secret service told the people in the White
House to RUN out of it.
They just showed Air Force 1
(W’s plane) about to take off from Sarasota airport to go back to DC. Maybe
it’ll get shot down.
15h55 – The Treasury building
is being evacuated now
15h56 – According to CNN World,
the Associated Press has just reported that the White House was evacuated
because of a “credible terrorist threat.”
15h59 – There is a lot of smoke
coming from south tower of the World Trade Center!!! It is thought that there
was another explosion or it just collapsed. CNN Was filming it as it happened!
It’s a totally scary scene!
16h – Fire at the State
Department building also!!! I was going to go out for a bit, but this is too
exciting in a terrifying kind of way.
16h01 – It’s been confirmed
that the south tower of the WTC has collapsed!!! This is soooo frightening
seeing so much of Manhattan being covered with smoke/dust/whatever!!!!!
I was in the lower level of the
World Trade Center when I was in NYC on 29 August. I bought a CD at Borders
Books and also switched trains (from the A to the South Ferry train (1 or 9, I
forgot which one).
16h03 - They’ve just reported
that the Sears Tower in Chicago has been evacuated, but there is no news as to
why yet!!!
16h11 – CNN just got a report
from a reporter who was just outside of the Holland Tunnel.. He said that parts
of the building began peeling away and the police yelled, “RUN! RUN! ” and
thousands of people were running from the building as the outside began peeling
way, possibly as far down as the 30th floor.
16h14 – The United Nations
building has also been evacuated! It shouldn’t have been in any direct danger
as it’s on the east side of Manhattan.
16h15 – CNN’s congressional reporter in DC (Kate
Snow), who is 2 blocks from the Capitol, reported that 5 minutes ago, she heard
a sound that sounded like an explosion, but they don’t know what or where it
was yet.
16h19 – The Justice Department
in DC is being evacuated!!
16h20 – David, a CNN reporter
in DC has the wife of a friend of his on the phone, who was an eyewitness to
the Pentagon explosion. She said that a commercial plane came in very quickly
and low, flew over and past I–395 and
then crashed into the Pentagon.
16h25 – All international
flights to DC and NYC are being sent to Canada since all of the USA airports
are closed.
16h28 – The top portion of the
North Tower of the WTC has just collapsed!! Both towers of the World Trade
Center have now disappeared from the NYC skyline. They don’t know why both
towers have collapsed..whether it was due to structural damage or other
explosions.
I have them on video from when
I was there on 29 August!
16h32 – They just showed what
appears to be a view from Staten Island (looking across the harbour, past the
Statue of Liberty) and all of lower Manhattan is covered in smoke
16h33 – CNN has just had a
report that a car bomb has exploded at state department
16h35 - Sky News has reported
that another hijacked plane is heading towards DC!! They’ve also said that
Canary Wharf Building in London and the stock exchange have been evacuated!
Also, planes in the UK are possible going to be grounded.
16h37 – CNN- unconfirmed
reports – part of the pentagon has collapsed and there is a 747 down somewhere
in Pennsylvania!!! Perhaps that was the one that was in the air and headed
towards DC.
16h42 – CNN is reporting that
the pentagon is monitoring another hijacked plane!
16h43 – Sky News – 3 planes
have crashed into the WTC and there is a 747 down outside of Pittsburgh
(Pennsylvania).
16h44 – I received a SMS from
one of my students (Michal P) telling me to turn on CNN immediately.
16h49 - There is a second plane expected to get to DC in a few minutes
and F16 fighters have been dispatched to intercept it.
16h50 – CNN reported that the
plane down in Pennsylvania is actually in the Somerset area, 80 miles south of
Pittsburgh.
16h55 – Israel has evacuated
all of its missions in the world.
17h01 – Rudy Giuliani, the
mayor of NYC, came on CNN and said of people are in lower Manhattan (south of
Canal) should “get out!” He gave them directions on where to go to be out of
the area that all this is happening in and be out of the emergency services
way.
17h08 – Sky news – several
planes are unaccounted for! Sky news is piping this in from WCBS in NYC.
I still can’t believe I’m
watching all this happen!
17h12 – CNN is now calling this
segment “America Under Attack.”
I brought postcards back from
NYC for my students, but am now having 2nd thoughts about giving
them out.
17h15 – CNN has just reported
that all Philadelphia landmarks have been evacuated. It didn’t say if there was
a threat to them or not.
17h17 – Sky News is still
saying that there is another plane headed towards DC, but CNN says that the
police in DC have no report of it.
17h19 – American Airlines has
just confirmed that it has lost 2 airplanes. One was flight 11 from Boston to
Los Angeles, the second was flight 77 from Dulles Airport (DC) to Los Angeles.
CNN has also reported that
plane in Somerset, Pennsylvania was a United flight from Chicago – New York
City
American Airlines is the
airline I fly when I am in the USA. I fly Swissair to and from Europe.
United flight 93 from Newark to
San Francisco has crashed and United says “There is concern about another one,”
a Boston to Los Angeles flight. They
don’t know if that is the flight that crashed in Somerset. Now I’m confused as
two different United flights have been reported about.
17h24 – I received an SMS from
one of my students (Maciej M) asking if I had heard the news.
17h30 – CNN, just had General
Wesley Clark, A former commander of NATO, on, who said that there is no
guarantee that these “attacks” are over!
I hope it’s over!
17h38 – BBC World is saying
that the FBI has said that 4 airplanes have been hijacked and that United
flight 93 was the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. Still no word on the one
that they’re now “deeply concerned” about, or if it was actually flight 93.
17h41 – CNN has told of an
unconfirmed wire report that a group called the “Islamic Jihad Movement” saying
that the attacks are “in response to the United States policy in the Middle
East.”
17h45 – There is a press
conference at Logan Airport in Boston, since many of the planes supposedly
originated from there. He answered almost all of the questions saying, “I don’t
have any information on that right now.”
17h47 – United has now said
that the flight they’re concerned about is flight 175, which also left from
Boston.
17h55 – United has now
confirmed that flight 175 (from Boston to LA) has gone down.
I’m getting confused with the
different planes so here’s a scorecard, based on my notes this afternoon.
However, these are guesses, as the airlines haven’t said exactly which airplane
crashed where. My guesses are based off of the geographical location of the
different crashes and take off/landing points of the airplanes:
American Airlines flight 11
(Boston to Los Angeles) – World Trade Center
American Airlines flight 77
(Dulles Airport (DC) to Los Angeles – Pentagon
United Airlines flight 93
(Newark – San Francisco) – Somerset, Pennsylvania
United Airlines flight 175
(Boston – Los Angeles) – World Trade Center
17h57 – BBC World has now
reported that the USA – Mexico border has been closed.
18h00 – CNN has just said that
flight 93 crashed in Somerset. At 17h19, CNN reported that the plane that crashed
in Somerset was on a flight plan from Chicago to Newark. They were wrong.
18h00 – CNN’s reporter in DC
has confirmed that W, Cheney & their families are safe, but wont give the
location, except that W is on his way back from Florida.
18h12 – According to CNN, LAX
(Los Angeles Airport), Disney World (in Orlando) & Disney Land (Anaheim)
have all been evacuated.
18h12 – According to CNN again,
The USA – Canada border is now in a “high state of alert”
18h18 – CNN reporter in Los
Angeles said that family members of the passengers on the flights going to LA
have just started arriving. He said that he wasn’t able to give the exact
information as to why LAX is closed (meaning that he wasn’t allowed to say if
there was a threat to LAX or not).
I’m still in shock about this!
I still don’t get understand
why on earth anyone would want to crash a plane in Somerset, Pennsylvania.
Perhaps it was on its way to DC or NYC when something went wrong and they
crashed it before it got to its destination.
18h20 – The Taliban (the
leaders of Afghanistan) have just said “‘We want to tell the American children
that Afghanistan feels your pain and we hope that the courts find justice.”
They have a press conference coning up at 1pm NYC time. I gotta run out before
that.
18h24 - Kennedy Space Center
& NASA have been shut down.
18h27 – I’ll be back soon.
18h45 – I’m back
18h47 – Kurt Weldon, my idiot
senator, was on the TV saying that this would show the people of the USA that
the number one priority is “Not healthcare or education, it’s defense.” What a
jerk, using something like this to attempt to get Americans’ minds changed to
support massive defense spending.
18h49 – W has landed at an air
force base in Shreveport, Louisiana. From there, he will go to a secret
location.
18h51 – Taliban News Conference
begins via videophone from Kabul, but the connection was too garbled to hear
the translator.
18h55 – Palestinian terrorist
groups and Osama Bin-laden led groups have both issued denials on involvement.
19h08 – W was on tape from a
few moments ago, but the tape didn’t work!
19h30 – Lucja called to see how
I was. I assured her that I am fine. She was specifically interested as she
knows I have family in Pennsylvania. I told her that was in extreme western
Pennsylvania and my family is at the opposite end of the state.
19h40 – One of my FCE students,
Wojtek, called me to see if I was okay. I assured him that I am.
19h56 – Tony Blair, the Prime
minister of the UK, is speaking. He’s condemning the attack, offering
condolences and telling about the security majors that have been taken in the
UK.
20h06 – The Navy is now
guarding the east coast of the USA. 2 battleships will guard NYC and 5
destroyers and frigates will protect the rest of the east coast.
20h55 – There will be no
commercial air traffic in the USA until at least midday (noon) tomorrow.
21h14 – BBC World has just
reported that W has landed at an Air Force Base in Nebraska. So much for a secret
location.
21h17 – BBC World just showed
the celebrations, mainly of children (!) over the attack in the Arab quarter of
Jerusalem! How sick is that!!
22h48 – Public transportation
in all five boroughs of NYC has been restored.
22h53 – CNN reported that some
of the communities in the area, such as Glen Cove, Nassau & Suffolk
Counties (all on Long island) are helping by ways of sending high-speed ferries
to evacuate people from Manhattan and also bring medical personnel to
Manhattan.
Also, W is supposedly in the
air on his way back to DC.
23h02 – Interestingly enough,
flight United 93 got to Cleveland, then turned towards DC at which point in
time the pilot actually radioed and changed his destination to DCA, Washington
National Airport. Perhaps that was his way of sending a clue as to what was
going on.
One of CNN’s commentators,
Barbara Olson, was on one of the planes. According to her husband, whom she
called on her cellular phone, all the passengers and staff (including the
pilot) were herded to the back of the plane. The weapons she spoke of were
knives and cardboard cutters. She wasn’t even supposed to be on the flight..she
was supposed to be on one yesterday, but today was her husband’s birthday and
she wanted to be at home for breakfast with him this morning.
Smoke and ash is still
billowing from the WTC.
CNN just, perhaps mistakenly,
showed the presidential helicopter landing in front of the pentagon. They only
showed a second or two of it and then cut away.
This is the end of this report.
More will be continued on the regular journal pages.
