AI Summary
5 min readOn the morning of September 11, 2001, a group of al-Qaeda hijackers cut things dangerously close. They left their hotel at 5:30 AM, dropped their rental car in the lot, and cleared security at Portland’s airport just seven minutes before their commuter flight to Boston. Had that flight been delayed, the entire operation might have unraveled. It wasn’t. They landed at Boston Logan at 6:45, and seven minutes later, lead hijacker Mohamed Atta took a short call from another pilot in a different terminal. Across three airports—Boston, Newark, and Washington Dulles—the men passed through security checkpoints without triggering any alarms. By 8 AM, four planes were loading: American Airlines Flight 11, United Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Flight 93. Ordinary flights with ordinary passengers: business travelers, families heading home, honeymooning couples.
The First Strike and the Calls from Inside
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:03) **Episode Introduction & Setup** - The hosts, Gordon Carrera and David McClaskey, set the stage for the day of the attack.
- 2 (04:35) **The Hijackers' Final Morning** - The teams of hijackers race to their flights across three airports.
- 3 (07:11) **American Airlines Flight 11: The First Strike** - The hijacking of the first plane is swift and brutal, starting just 14 minutes into the flight.
- 4 (13:48) **Bin Laden Watches and Waits** - In Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers listen to the BBC Arabic service for news of the attack.
- 5 (14:55) **The Doomed Evacuations & Building Codes** - Inside the World Trade Center, confusion and a fateful building code decision shape the disaster.
- 6 (16:54) **United Flight 175: The Second Strike** - The second plane hits the South Tower, confirming the attack for all to see.
- 7 (19:43) **Inside the Towers: Acts of Heroism** - As the towers burn, ordinary people perform extraordinary acts of bravery.
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Show Notes
What happened on 9/11? This is the day itself, as seen through the eyes of those who lived and died…
Listen as David and Gordon take us through the day that changed America, forever.
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