20th Anniversary of 9/11
September 23, 2021
September 11, 2001, It’s been 20 years, why do we still talk about it? It’s because it was the most deadly attack in America since Pearl Harbor; 2,996 people died from the attack. It started as a normal day but then at 8:45 a.m., American flight 767 crashed into the north tower. Then 18 minutes later flight 175 hit the south tower, near the 60th floor. The first responders knew they probably would not survive, but they knew there was a chance they could save people. They tried everything they could to get the people who were at the top of the building; they even tried getting a helicopter as close as they could. They saw people sticking their heads out the window, waving with anything they could find trying to show they were there and needed saving, but the helicopter couldn’t get close enough. At 9:59 a.m. the south tower collapsed and at 10:28 a.m., the north tower went down, as well.
Those weren’t the only planes that crashed at 9:38, Flight 77 crashed into a part of the pentagon and many lives were lost, but it wasn’t quite as catastrophic as the attack on the twin towers. At 9:28, American airlines 93 were hijacked. One of the terrorists redirected the plane’s autopilot to Washington D.C. One of the passengers on the flight called his wife, and said that the passengers were voting whether or not to storm the cockpit and try to take back the plane. They were planning on waiting till they were in a rural area before they put their plan into action. The hijackers were deciding if they should crash the plane early, as the passengers were trying to get in the cockpit. At 10:01, the hijacker decided to crash the plane. At 10:03, the flight crashed into a rural area in Pennsylvania.
All the passengers and staff died in the crash but they sacrificed their lives to save the white house and everyone in it. America realized that this was the start of a war, and for the last 20 years the military’s main objective has been to end the war that started on 9/11.
This year we remember the hard work, sacrifice and those who gave their lives to save many more. Let us never forget.
For more information on some background to 9/11 check out Leia Rasmussen’s article “The 20 Year War”.
Alba Shahar • Oct 1, 2021 at 4:42 pm
The topic is wonderful considering this happened almost exactly 20 years ago. I like how your trying to get people to understand and be aware of the situation that happened. Your paragraphs were great and I think it would be very hard to critique them.
Mina Song • Oct 1, 2021 at 12:20 pm
I really love this story and hope you do more!
Sienna Macalinao • Oct 1, 2021 at 12:19 pm
This was a wonderful topic to talk about, and get people more aware of the tragedy. I feel that another good paragraph that you could also add is how the people that were there also got lung cancer, and later on killed them. Another thing is how the many kids were there, and you might be able to find an article on someone who was there during 9/11. Maybe they were there with their family.