American Airlines Flight 11 was an American domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing all 92 people aboard the flight, and resulting in the deaths of more than 1,300 people within the skyscraper's top 18 stories, in addition to causing the deaths of numerous people below the trapped floors.
The hijacking and crash of Flight 11 resulted in the greatest number of fatalities of the four hijacked flights, both aboard the aircraft and on the ground, and is the deadliest aviation incident in history. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767 operating American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Boston Logan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport.
The airplane left the runway at 07:59. Less than 15 minutes after takeoff, the hijackers injured two flight attendants, murdered one passenger, and breached the cockpit while forcing the passengers and crew to the rear of the aircraft. The assailants attacked both pilots, allowing lead hijacker Mohamed Atta to take over the controls. Air traffic controllers suspected that the flight was in distress because the crew became non-responsive. They realized that the plane had been hijacked when Atta's announcement to the hostages was accidentally transmitted to air traffic control instead of through the aircraft's PA system. Also, two flight attendants were able to contact American Airlines and pass along information relevant to the situation, including casualties suffered by the crew and passengers.
Atta flew the hijacked plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center from floors 93 through 99 at 08:46 local time. The impact was witnessed by people on the streets of New York City as well as the nearby state of New Jersey. The media quickly began reporting on the incident and speculated that the crash had been an accident. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower at 09:03, dispelling any notion it was accidental.
The damage caused by the plane and the fires ignited by its crash caused the North Tower to collapse at 10:28 that morning, resulting in hundreds of additional casualties. While the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site led to the discovery and identification of body fragments from certain individuals who boarded Flight 11, many have not been identified.
Flight
The aircraft involved in the hijacking was a Boeing 767-200ER, with registration number N334AA, built and delivered in 1987. The capacity of the aircraft was 158 passengers, 9 in first class, 30 in business class and 119 in economy class. The September 11 flight carried 81 passengers and 11 crew members. This was a light load at 58 percent capacity, but higher than the average load factor for Flight 11 on Tuesday mornings of 39 percent in the months preceding September 11.
The crew members were Captain John Ogonowski (age 50; a former Air Force transport pilot), First Officer Thomas McGuinness Jr. (age 42) (a former Navy fighter pilot), purser Karen Martin and flight attendants Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean Roger, Dianne Snyder, and Amy Sweeney.
McGuinness picked up the assignment for that flight the day before around 3:00 p.m., after celebrating his birthday with his family on September 10. Another pilot, Steve Scheibner, was originally scheduled for the flight.
All 92 people on board were killed, including Frasier creator and executive producer David Angell, his wife Lynn Angell, actress Berry Berenson, Akamai Technologies co-founder Daniel Lewin, and astronaut Charles Edward Jones. Uruguayan-Australian cyclist and radio presenter Alberto Domínguez was also on board Flight 11. Additionally, seven TJX employees were heading on a business trip for a store opening. The oldest victim of the September 11 attacks, Robert Grant Norton (aged 85, born May 11, 1916) was on Flight 11.
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane had been scheduled to be on the flight but missed it due to a hangover the night before and his travel agent mistakenly telling him that the flight left at 08:15 instead of 07:45. Actor Mark Wahlberg was also scheduled to be on the flight but changed his plans and canceled his ticket the day before. Actress Leighanne Littrell had also previously been booked on the flight but, like Wahlberg, changed her plans.
Boarding
Portland, Maine
Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, and fellow hijacker Abdulaziz al-Omari arrived at Portland International Jetport in Maine at 05:41 Eastern Daylight Time on September 11, 2001. At the Portland ticket counter, Mike Tuohey asked the hijackers for their driver's licenses; Atta "threw his on the counter" while al-Omari simply held his under his chin and smiled. Tuohey became suspicious of Atta's demeanor and considered that he might be a terrorist, but let it go out of concern that he was racially profiling Atta.
Although Tuohey had the discretion to issue the hijackers their boarding passes for Flight 11, he declined and told the men they would have to check in again for the flight in Boston. In response, Atta appeared on the verge of anger and told Tuohey that he had been assured "one-step check-in", but to defuse the situation, Tuohey told Atta that he better hurry to the gate or else he would miss the flight. Although Atta still looked visibly annoyed, he and al-Omari left the ticket counter for the Portland airport's security checkpoint.
They boarded Colgan Air Flight 5930, which was scheduled to depart at 06:00 and fly to Boston. Both hijackers had first class tickets with a connecting flight to Los Angeles; Atta checked in two bags, a green Travel Gear bag and a black Travelpro bag, while al-Omari checked in none. When they checked in, the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) selected Atta for extra luggage scrutiny, but he boarded without incident.
The flight from Portland departed on time and arrived in Boston at 06:45. Three other hijackers, Waleed al-Shehri, Wail al-Shehri, and Satam al-Suqami, arrived at Logan Airport at the same time, having left their rental car in the airport parking facility. At 06:52, Marwan al-Shehhi, the hijacker pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, made a call from a pay phone in Logan Airport to Atta's cell phone. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin.
Boston, Massachusetts
Since they were not given boarding passes for Flight 11 in Portland, Atta and al-Omari checked in and went through security in Boston. Al-Suqami, Wail al-Shehri, and Waleed al-Shehri also checked in for the flight in Boston. Wail al-Shehri and al-Suqami each checked one bag; Waleed al-Shehri did not check any bags. CAPPS selected all three for a detailed luggage check. As the CAPPS' screening was only for luggage, the three hijackers did not undergo any extra scrutiny at the passenger security checkpoint. No videos exist of these interactions, as Logan Airport did not utilize surveillance cameras in the security areas or departure lounges at that time.
First Officer Lynn Howland had just arrived in Boston after copiloting the flight from San Francisco that would be redesignated American Flight 11. As she walked off the aircraft and entered the passenger lounge, Atta approached her and asked if she would be flying the plane back across the country. When Howland told him she just brought the aircraft in, Atta turned his back and walked away. As he boarded Flight 11, Atta asked a gate agent whether the two bags he had checked earlier in Portland had been loaded onto the plane. In the rushed check-in after the flight from Portland, airline officials did not load Atta's bags on Flight 11.
By 07:40, all five hijackers were aboard the flight, scheduled to depart at 07:45. Atta sat in business class seat 8D with al-Omari in 8G and al-Suqami in 10B. Waleed and Wail al-Shehri sat in first class seats 2B and 2A. Shortly before takeoff, American Airlines flight service manager Michael Woodward walked aboard for a final check. He briefly passed Atta, later reporting him as having a brooding expression, and then left the plane. At 07:46, one minute behind schedule, the aircraft received clearance to push back from Gate B32, and was cleared to taxi to the runway at 07:50. The aircraft began its takeoff roll from Logan International Airport at 07:59 from runway 4R.
Hijacking
The 9/11 Commission estimated that the hijacking began at 08:14 when the pilots stopped responding to requests from the Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (Boston ARTCC). At 08:13:29, as the aircraft was passing over central Massachusetts at 26,000 feet (7,900 m), the pilots responded to a request from Boston ARTCC to make a 20-degree turn to the right.
At 08:13:47, Boston ARTCC told the pilots to ascend to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 m), but received no response. At 08:16, the aircraft leveled off at 29,000 feet (8,800 m) and shortly thereafter deviated from its scheduled path.
At 08:17:59, flight controllers at Boston Center heard a brief, unknown sound on the radio frequency used by Flight 11 and other nearby flights, a noise that was later described as sounding like a scream. Boston ARTCC made multiple attempts to talk to Flight 11 without reply. The commission believes that the hijackers were in absolute control of the aircraft by 08:20, six minutes after launching their assault.
The flight's Mode-C transponder signal was then switched off by someone in the cockpit at 08:21. At 08:23 and 08:25, Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) tried to contact the flight. The first message read, "Good morning, ATC looking for you on 135.32"; the other read, "Please contact Boston Center ASAP. They have lost radio contact and your transponder signal." Flight 11 did not reply.
Reports from flight attendants
According to flight attendants Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong, who contacted American Airlines during the hijacking, the hijackers had stabbed flight attendants Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui and slashed passenger Daniel Lewin's throat. It is unknown how the hijackers gained access to the cockpit; FAA rules at the time required that the doors remain closed and locked during flight. Ong said she thought that the hijackers had "jammed their way" in. Ong's and Sweeney's calls indicate that all five hijackers barricaded themselves in the cockpit.
The commission suggested the hijackers attacked the flight attendants to get a cockpit key, to force one of them to open the cockpit door, or to lure the captain or first officer out of the cockpit. It is theorized that Atta initiated the hijacking by giving a signal and that the al-Shehri brothers made the first move by attacking Martin and Arestegui; Sweeney said that Martin was badly injured and being given oxygen. Sweeney and Ong said Arestegui's injuries were not as serious. Ong said she heard loud arguing after the hijackers entered the cockpit.
It is believed that the hijackers either killed or incapacitated Ogonowski and McGuinness. Sweeney said that one of the hijackers had shown her a device with red and yellow wires that appeared to be a bomb. Ong and Sweeney said that the coach passengers did not seem to fully understand the peril and were under the impression from the flight attendants that there was a routine medical emergency in the front section of the plane and that the other flight attendants were helping passengers and finding medical supplies. Ong said Lewin appeared to be dead, while Sweeney said that al-Suqami had attacked Lewin. Lewin was seated in 9B, and al-Suqami sat directly behind him in 10B.
One version of events is that al-Suqami attacked Lewin, unprovoked, to frighten other passengers and crew into compliance. Alternatively, Lewin, an American-Israeli Internet entrepreneur who understood Arabic, and had served as an officer in the elite Sayeret Matkal special operations unit of the Israel Defense Forces, may have attempted to intervene in the hijacking, and confronted the hijackers in front of him, unaware of al-Suqami behind him. Lewin is believed to be the first fatality in the 9/11 attacks. During a four-minute call to the American Airlines operations center, Ong stated that phone calls and attempts to gain entry to the cockpit were unsuccessful and that she thought someone had sprayed Mace in the business class cabin. Between the two of them, Ong and Sweeney also provided the seat numbers of the hijackers, which later helped investigators to determine their identities.
Hijacker's transmissions
At 08:24:38, Atta's voice was heard by Boston air traffic controllers, saying, "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport." At 08:24:56, he announced, "Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet."
Atta apparently tried to make an announcement to the passengers, but keyed the wrong switch and instead his voice was picked up and recorded by air traffic controllers. There are no reports of anyone on the plane hearing the hijacker's transmission. After Atta's transmissions and the inability to contact the airliner, air traffic controllers at Boston ARTCC began to realize that Flight 11 was being hijacked. At 08:26, after crossing the Massachusetts–New York border, the plane turned 100 degrees to the south, following the Hudson River that would lead directly to New York City. At 08:32, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, notified FAA headquarters.
At 08:33:59, Atta announced a third and final transmission: "Nobody move, please. We are going back to the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves." At 08:37:08, the pilots of United Airlines Flight 175 verified Flight 11's location and heading to flight control. A few minutes before their plane was also hijacked, at 8:42 a.m., the pilots of Flight 175 informed New York Center that they previously heard a suspicious announcement over the radio as they were climbing out of Logan 28 minutes earlier, which would have been around the same time Flight 11 was hijacked. The pilots reported hearing the words, "Everyone, stay in your seats", suggesting they heard the third transmission.