World Trade Center Attack "The Second Day of Infamy"

September 11, 2001 Posted: 5:14 p.m. EDT (2114 GMT)

Letter that was used by the hijackers of the planes

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In an apparently coordinated terrorist attack against the United States, four commercial passenger jets crashed on Tuesday, three of them into significant landmarks.

• U.S. intelligence officials tell CNN "there are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin Laden may be responsible for these attacks." The sources say they based the statement on specific information that had been gathered Tuesday. Bin Laden is the Saudi millionaire who has been blamed for terror attacks against U.S. interests and is believed to be in Afghanistan.

• American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m. About 15 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles, with 56 passengers and nine crew members on board, crashed into the south tower.

• Both towers eventually collapsed in a shower of debris and plume of thick dust.

• A half-hour after the second crash, American Flight 77 took off from Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport en route to Los Angeles, California, carrying 58 passengers and six crew members -- but crashed into the Pentagon instead. Less than an hour after the third crash, United Flight 93 en route from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, with 38 passengers and seven crew aboard.

• Huge chunks of debris falling from remains of World Trade Center towers more than six hours after the crashes. Firefighters could get no closer than 2 blocks from the burning hulk.

• The FBI said it believes all four planes, carrying a total of 266 people, were hijacked.

THUNDEROUS REVERBERATIONS

The attacks accomplished at least some of their presumed purposes, snarling the nation’s government, transportation and finances and sowing fear and suspicion among its citizens:

For the first time ever, the Federal Aviation Administration closed all U.S. airports, shutting down air traffic until Wednesday morning at the earliest.

Financial markets also closed and were to remain closed Wednesday.

Members of Congress met at Washington police headquarters to consider how to conduct business. They agreed to return to the Capitol later Tuesday evening.

Prominent Arab-American and Muslim American organizations, fearing a backlash against Americans of Arab descent, urged their members and followers to consider staying out of public and called for heightened security at mosques and Arab centers.

All Major League Baseball games were canceled, and large buildings across the nation — shopping malls, skyscrapers, transportation centers — were shuttered.

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