Nearby tower view of the first impact
Across town, on the other side of the North Tower around 8:46 a.m., someone in an adjacent building snapped this image. American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles from Boston had just struck the tower. The hijackers, we would later learn, picked those flights as they had the most fuel and would cause more damage. The moment the photographer snapped this picture, nobody knew what was to come next.
Second plane before colliding
It was 9:03 a.m. when United Airlines 175 plowed into the second tower. Both flights which hit the World Trade Center were Boston to Los Angeles nonstop flights. People in these cities would lose the most people on the flights, but there were international travelers aboard too. It was this moment when reporters started to ask what they call “the tough questions.” This was no accident.
Plane #2 hits the South Tower
This shot from below the South Tower is powerful. Someone on the streets aimed a camera up at the smoking North Tower when another plane hit. What followed was rainfall of debris, followed by people running and screaming. Debris from the impacts would litter Manhattan for blocks.