American Airlines Flight 11 and Wind Point Light: Difference between pages

Revision as of 02:15, 25 March 2007

Revision as of 17:48, 17 July 2007

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{{Infobox_Lighthouse

{{Infobox Airliner accident |

| image_name = WindPoint.jpg

name=American Airlines Flight 11 |

| caption = Wind Point Lighthouse

Crash image=Seconds_after_first_plane.JPG|

| ___location = Racine, Wisconsin

Image caption=Seconds after Flight 11 Impact.|

| coordinates = {{coor dms|42|46|52|N|87|45|30.2|W|region:US_type:landmark}}

Date=[[September 11]] [[2001]] |

| yearlit =

Type=Hijacking |

| automated =

Site=[[World Trade Center]]|

| yeardeactivated =

Fatalities= 92 + 1366 (Tower 1) |

| foundation =

Injuries= |

| construction =

Aircraft Type= [[Boeing 767|Boeing 767-223ER]] |

| shape =

Operator=[[American Airlines]]|

| height = 112 feet

Tail Number= {{airreg|N|334AA}} |

| lens = DCB-24R Aerobeacon

Passengers= 81 (incl. 5 hijackers) |

| range = 19 miles

Crew= 11 |

| characteristic =

Survivors=0|

}}

'''Wind Point Lighthouse''' is an active aid to navigation located at the north end of [[Racine, Wisconsin|Racine]] Harbor in the [[U.S. state]] of [[Wisconsin]]. Designed by [[Orlando Poe|Orlando Metcalfe Poe,]] it was constructed in 1880.

:''"Flight 11" redirects here. For the Continental Airlines flight that was bombed in 1962, see [[Continental Airlines Flight 11]].''

It is one of the oldest active [[lighthouse]]s on the [[Great Lakes]]. The beacon, originally powered by third order [[fresnel lens]], was replaced by a DCB-24R Aerobeacon in 1964. The light can be seen for 19 miles.

'''American Airlines Flight 11''' was the first flight hijacked in the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]]. It was an [[American Airlines]] flight aboard a [[Boeing 767|Boeing 767-223ER]] [[aircraft]], registration number {{airreg|N|334AA}}, which regularly flew from [[Logan International Airport]] in [[East Boston, Massachusetts|East Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], to [[Los Angeles International Airport]]. On [[September 11]], [[2001]], the aircraft on this route was [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacked]], and was crashed into the [[One World Trade Center tenants|North Tower]] of the [[World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]] at 8:46 a.m. Out of all the planes hijacked that day Flight 11 contained the most passengers.

The lighthouse stands 112 feet tall. It is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] (Reference #84003780).

Located on Lighthouse Road, next to the Shoop Park golf course, it is set on a sprawling lawn overlooking Racine Harbor. A signal house (horns removed) remains on the grounds as well as a garage, 2 storage buildings and an oil house. The Wind Point Police maintain offices in the attached building.

==Hijackers==

Five hijackers were aboard the flight:

* [[Mohamed Atta|Mohamed Atta al Sayed]] (Egyptian) - the ringleader and pilot, was in seat 9D.

* [[Waleed al-Shehri]] (Saudi Arabian) - sat in seat 2B

* [[Wail al-Shehri]] (Saudi Arabian) - sat next to Waleed, in seat 2A

* [[Abdulaziz al-Omari]] (Saudi Arabian) - sat in seat 9G, had earlier flown with Atta to Logan Airport from [[Portland, Maine|Portland]], [[Maine]]

* [[Satam al-Suqami]] (Saudi Arabian) - had paid in cash that day, sat in seat 10B

Four of the hijackers were selected by [[Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System|CAPPS]] for extra screening of their checked bags for explosives. Mohamed Atta was selected when he checked in at [[Portland International Jetport]], while Satam al-Suqami, Wail al-Shehri, and Waleed al-Shehri were selected in Boston. Since Waleed had checked no bags, CAPPS screening had no effect on him, while the others merely had their bags undergo extra screening. CAPPS selectees did not undergo any extra scrutiny at the passenger security checkpoint.<ref name="staff">{{cite web |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_3.pdf |title=The Aviation Security System and the 9/11 Attacks - Staff Statement No. 3 |publisher=9/11 Commission}}</ref>

==External Links ==

==The flight==

* [http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=242 Lighthouse Friends]

[[Image: 911 commission AA11 path.png|thumb|left|AA 11 flight path from Boston to New York City]]

* [http://www.lighthouseratings.com/WindPoint/ Lighthouse Ratings]

The flight was regularly scheduled for takeoff at 7:45 a.m.<ref>[http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/aa11/11.htm 9/11 Investigation (PENTTBOM)], FBI, national Press Release, September 2001</ref> However, boarding was running behind schedule, and at 7:45 a.m., lead hijackers [[Mohammed Atta]] and [[Abdulaziz Alomari]] were still boarding the plane. In the rush, Atta's bags were not loaded onto the plane in time.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uslugg274705186apr17,0,6096142.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print |title=Unraveling 9-11 was in the bags |publisher=Newsday (New York) |date=[[April 17]] [[2006]] |author=Dorman, Michael}}</ref> Ultimately running 14 minutes late, the flight finally took off from Logan International Airport at 7:59 a.m. from runway 4R.<ref name="ntsb">{{cite web |url=http://www.ntsb.gov/info/Flight_%20Path_%20Study_AA11.pdf |title=Flight Path Study - American Airlines Flight 11 |publisher=National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)}}</ref> At 8:13:29 a.m., as the aircraft was passing through 26,000 feet over central [[Massachusetts]], the pilot responded to a request from Boston Air Traffic Control Center to make a 20&deg; turn to the right.<ref name="ntsb"/> At 8:13:47, Boston Center then instructed the pilots to ascend to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. The aircraft never responded to this request.<ref name="ntsb"/> At 8:16 a.m., the aircraft levelled off at 29,000 feet.<ref name="ntsb"/>

* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/light/windpt.htm NPS Inventory of Historic Light Stations]

{{Wisconsin-struct-stub}}

===Hijacking===

[[Category:Lighthouses in Wisconsin]]

The [[9/11 Commission]] estimates that the hijacking began at 8:14 a.m.<ref name="ch1">{{cite web |url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm |title=9/11 Commission Report (Chapter 1) |date=July 2004}}</ref> [[John Ogonowski]] (Pilot) and Thomas F. McGuinness Jr. (First Officer) were in control until the plane was hijacked. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft started to deviate from its scheduled path. Boston Air Control made multiple attempts at contacting Flight 11 but received no response.<ref name="ch1"/> At 8:21 a.m. the flight stopped transmitting its Mode-C [[Transponder (aviation)|transponder]] signal.<ref name="ntsb"/>

[[Category:Racine, Wisconsin]]

The tower is 108 feet tall with a 111 foot focal plane.

At 8:24:38 a.m., Boston Center overheard Atta announcing ''"We have some planes, just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport"''. At 8:24:56, 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."''<ref name="ntsb"/> At 8:26 a.m., the plane made a 100-degree turn to the south heading toward New York City.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB196/doc01.pdf Flight 11 NTSB Report]</ref> At 8:33:59, Atta announced ''"Nobody move please, we are going back to the airport, don't try to make any stupid moves."'' At 8:37 a.m., the aircraft began descending from 29,000 feet at 3,200 feet/minute, and a final turn towards [[Manhattan]] at 8:43 a.m.<ref name="ntsb"/>

===Phone calls===

Flight attendants [[Madeline Amy Sweeney]] and [[Betty Ong]] supplied information on what happened. According to them, three people &ndash; two attendants ([[Karen Martin]] and [[Barbara Arestegui]]) and a passenger &ndash; were stabbed or had their throats slashed by the hijackers. The passenger, [[Daniel M. Lewin|Daniel Lewin]], a notable [[Internet]] [[entrepreneur]], had also previously served as an officer in the elite [[Sayeret Matkal]] unit of the [[Israeli Defense Forces|Israeli military]]. A 2002 [[FAA]] memo referenced Lewin as possibly being killed by [[Satam al-Suqami]] after he attempted to stop the hijacking. Apparently, as Lewin, who sat in seat 9B made his move, al-Suqami, sitting immediately behind him in seat 10B attacked him from behind.

The first-class area had been sequestered by the surviving crew, and the rest of the passengers had been led to believe that a medical emergency was taking place in the first class area. The hijackers also used [[mace (spray)|mace]], [[pepper spray]] or some other [[aerosol spray]]-based [[tear gas|irritant]] to discourage entry into the first class area and the cockpit. One passenger reported her eyes were burning and that she was having trouble breathing.

==Crash==

[[Image:Hlava WTC1 impact.jpg|right|250px|thumb| A frame from [[Pavel Hlava]]'s video, one of only two known videos that shows Flight 11 crashing into the North Tower of the [[World Trade Center]].]]

At 8:46:40 a.m.,<ref name="ntsb"/> Flight 11 was deliberately crashed into the northern facade of the North Tower (building 1) of the World Trade Center. The aircraft, which was travelling at approximately 470 miles per hour, impacted between the 94th and 98th floors with approximately 24,000 gallons of flammable jet fuel.<ref name="fema">{{cite web |url=http://www.fema.gov/rebuild/mat/wtcstudy.shtm |title=World Trade Center Building Performance Study |date=May 2002 |publisher=Federal Emergency Management Agency}}</ref> This was the first crash in the attacks of the day. All on board (11 crew, 76 passengers, and 5 hijackers) were killed. The crash was also witnessed by nearby pedestrians and drivers.

The first news and radio organizations reported an explosion or incident at the World Trade Center, CNN broke into a commercial at 8:49 a.m. CNN headlines first read 'World Trade Center Disaster.' [[Carol Lin]], who was the first anchor to break the news of the attacks, said:

"Yeah. This just in. You're looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center." [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.01.html]

Later, Sean Murtagh, CNN vice-president of finance, in an on-air phone call, said from his office in the CNN New York bureau that a large passenger commercial jet hit the World Trade Center. Eventually, all other TV networks interrupted regular broadcasting with news of the crash. Initial news reports speculated the crash as a terrible accident until [[United Airlines Flight 175|Flight 175]] crashed into the [[South Tower]] 17 minutes later.

[[Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet|Jules Naudet]], a French cameraman, and [[Pavel Hlava]], a Czech immigrant, both filmed the crash of the plane into the building.<ref>''[http://www.ambafrance-us.org/culture/tv/programs/naudet911.html]''</ref>

===Casualties===

The damage caused by the impact destroyed any means of escape from above the impact zone. All stairwells and elevator shafts that would have taken victims down to safety were destroyed, unlike the South Tower which (because it was hit at an angle and not towards the center) still had one functional stairwell after impact. 1366 people were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC): according to the Commission Report hundreds were killed instantly by the impact [http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch9.htm], the rest were trapped and died later, either from jumping from the burning building or the eventual collapse.

[[Cantor Fitzgerald L.P.]], an investment bank on the 101st-105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Many rescue workers (400 for the two towers together, most of them of the [[New York City Fire Department|FDNY]]), died when the tower collapsed.

Notable plane passengers included:

*[[David Angell]], American television producer (b. 1946)

*[[Berry Berenson]], American actress and photographer (b. 1948)

*[[Carolyn Beug]], music video producer (b. 1953)

*[[Charles Edward Jones]], a military astronaut (b. 1952)

*[[Daniel M. Lewin|Daniel Lewin]], co-founder and CTO of [[Akamai Technologies|Akamai]] (b. 1970)

Although the impact itself caused extensive structural damage, it was the long-lasting fire, starting with burning jet fuel, that is blamed for the structural failure of the North Tower. Many have speculated that this is why the hijackers chose to use this fully fueled transcontinental flight. The centralized-support design (in the center core and exterior walls, instead of throughout) of the towers also contributed to the collapse. In a later recording, [[Osama bin Laden]] seems to take credit for the attack and states that he did not expect the towers would collapse.

{{see|Collapse of the World Trade Center}}

==NORAD response==

The [[Federal Aviation Administration]]'s Boston [[Air Traffic Control]] Center was responsible for monitoring American Airlines Flight 11, as it departed from Logan. After repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, along with transmissions from the plane ''"we have some planes."'', the air traffic controller knew this was a hijacking. He alerted his supervisor, who then began notifying the chain of command of the hijacking, and that the flight was heading into the New York Center's airspace. At 8:32 a.m., the FAA Command Center in [[Herndon, Virginia|Herndon]], [[Virginia]] notified FAA headquarters.<ref name="ch1"/>

At 8:37:52 a.m., the Boston Control Center bypassed standard protocols and directly contacted [[North American Aerospace Defense Command|NORAD]]'s [[Northeast Air Defense Sector]] (NEADS) in [[Rome, New York|Rome]], [[New York]].<ref name="ch1"/> NEADS called on two [[F-15 Eagle|F-15]] fighter jets at [[Otis Air Force Base]] in [[Falmouth, Massachusetts|Falmouth]], [[Massachusetts]] to scramble, intending to intercept Flight 11. The F-15 fighters took off from Otis at 8:46 a.m.<ref name="ch1"/> By this time, American Airlines Flight 11 had already crashed into the World Trade Center.

Because Flight 11's [[transponder (aviation)|transponder]] was off, United States Air Force pilots did not know which direction to travel to meet the plane. NEADS spent the next several minutes watching their radar screens in anticipation of Flight 11 returning a radar contact. The nine minutes of advanced notification about the hijacking of Flight 11 was the most that NORAD received out of the four hijacked aircraft on 9/11.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kean, Thomas H., Lee H. Hamilton |title=Without Precident |chapter=The Story in the Sky |pages=p. 263 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf}}</ref>

==Miscellaneous==

The [[flight route designation]] for future flights on the same route at the same takeoff time was changed to American Airlines Flight 25, now a [[Boeing 757]] instead of a [[Boeing 767]], to disassociate other planes from the one used in the attack and out of respect for those who had died. An American flag now flies on the jet bridge that Flight 11 departed from at Logan Airport.

[[Seth MacFarlane]], creator of the animated TV series ''[[Family Guy]]'', was booked on Flight 11, but due to a mix up, missed the plane. His travel agent told him the flight departed at 8:15 instead of 7:45, and he arrived just after the plane had boarded. <ref> [http://www.tv.com/seth-macfarlane/person/57171/biography.html Seth MacFarlane biography] </ref>

Initial suspects were:

* [[Adnan Bukhari]]

* [[Ameer Bukhari]]

* [[Amer Kamfar]]

==References==

<references/>

==External links==

* [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html The Final 9/11 Commission Report]

* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&day_of_911=aa11 AA Flight 11: Minute by Minute]

* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/10/12/48hours/main314569.shtml CBS Story aboard Flight 11]

* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB196/index.htm 9-11 NTSB Report]

* [[:sep11:American Airlines Flight 11 victims|American Airlines Flight 11 manifest]]

[[Category:September 11, 2001 attacks]]

[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 2001]]

[[Category:Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners in the United States]]

[[Category:World Trade Center]]

[[Category:American Airlines flights]]

[[es:Vuelo 11 de American Airlines]]

[[fr:Vol 11 American Airlines]]

[[it:11 settembre 2001 - Volo American Airlines 11]]

[[sv:American Airlines Flight 11]]