A photographic list of all the passengers and crew who perished on American Airlines flight 11 while it flew over Shanksville Pennsylvania
Boston Logan International Airport
United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11th, 2001, as part of the September 11th attacks. The flight's scheduled plan was from Logan International Airport, in Boston Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California. The Boeing 767-200 aircraft was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing all 65 people aboard and an unknown number in the building's impact zone.
Approximately thirty minutes into the flight, the hijackers forcibly breached the cockpit and overpowered the captain and first officer, allowing lead hijacker and trained pilot Marwan al-Shehhi to take over the controls. The extremists instantly murdered Captain Victor Saracini from Yardley, Pennsylvania and First Officer Michael Horrocks from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania as they pulled them away from the cockpit controls. Unlike Flight 11, whose transponder was turned off, Flight 175's transponder was visible on New York Center's radar, which depicted the aircraft's deviation from its assigned flight path for four minutes before air traffic controllers took notice at 08:51 EDT. Thereafter, they made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the cockpit. Several passengers and crew members aboard made phone calls to family members and relayed information regarding the hijackers and casualties suffered by passengers and crew.
Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California, also known as LAX
Captain Victor Saracini was the pilot for the United Airlines flight 175 route on 11th September 2001.. He was murdered in the cockpit by hijackers Banihammad and al-Shehri..
As a veteran pilot for United Airlines, Victor J. Saracini placed great stock in paying attention to time. But as a father to his two daughters, the concept of time — or rather, maximizing the limited amount of it he had — took on an almost transcendent meaning.
Thank goodness, then, that Mr. Saracini, 51, a former Navy pilot, was about the most reliable person you could ever meet, and always thinking of his daughters, Kirsten, 13, and Brielle, 10, according to his in-laws, Bernard F. and Bernadette G. Hildebrand. "He taught them computers even before they could count, basically," Mrs. Hildebrand said about Mr. Saracini, who was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175.
Once, Kirsten used her allowance money to buy a souvenir in Pennsylvania. After she paid for the item, she counted the change. Satisfied, she said, "Thank you," and picked up the package. "What kid would do that?" Mrs. Hildebrand said.
Mr. Saracini beamed, too, when his daughters did practice flight plans with him, or learned to read a compass. "He was very thorough with everything," Mr. Hildebrand said. "One time, he called to say, 'You won't have to worry about a thing if anything ever happens to me. The girls will be taken care of.' "
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 31, 2001.
First Officer Michael Horrocks from Glen Mills
Michael Horrocks was born in 1963 in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. He attended Hershey High School and West Chester University (where he was quarterback of the college football team), then served as an officer (a pilot, and, later, a flight instructor) in the United States Marine Corps, where he was known by the congenial nickname, “Rocks.”
On retiring from the Marine Corps, Michael was hired by United Airlines.
On September 11, 2001, Michael Horrocks was the First Officer (co-pilot) of United Airlines Flight 175, a regularly scheduled flight from Boston’s Logan Airport to Los Angeles.
According to news reports confirmed by a family member, Horrocks called his wife before the plane took off and joked that the pilot–Victor Saracini–was “some guy with a funny Italian name.”
While we will never know exactly how or when Michael Robert Horrocks died, it is an absolute certainty that he was not at the controls when his plane struck Tower 2 of the World Trade Center at 9:03 AM on September 11, 2001. United Airlines Flight 175 was carrying 56 passengers (including the five hijackers) and nine crew members, making a total of 60 actual human beings; all died.
Michael Robert Horrocks is survived by his wife Miriam, and his children Michael (Mick) and Christa, as well as an extended family and a network of professional friends and colleagues around the world from his time in the military and in the airline industry.
At Michael’s funeral, he was remembered as an avid outdoorsman, a proud family man, a quiet but intense Marine and professional pilot, and a man who could always be trusted to do the right thing.
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The south tower, left, was struck at 9:03 a.m.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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The aircraft crashed into Tower Two (the South Tower) of the World Trade Center at 09:03. The Flight 175 hijacking was coordinated with that of American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the upper floors of Tower One (the North Tower) 17 minutes earlier. The crash of Flight 175 into the South Tower was the only impact televised live around the world. The crash and subsequent fire caused the South Tower to collapse 56 minutes later at 09:59, resulting in hundreds of additional casualties. During the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site, workers uncovered and identified remains from some Flight 175 victims, but many other body fragments could not be identified.
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White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card delivers news of the terrorist attacks to President Bush, who was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla.
(Doug Mills / Associated Press)
After burning for 56 minutes, the south tower begins to collapse at 9:59 a.m.
(Gulnara Samoilova / Associated Press)
Hamza al-Ghamdi and Ahmed al-Ghamdi checked out of their hotel and called a taxi to take them to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. They arrived at the United Airlines counter in Terminal C at 06:20 Eastern time and Ahmed al-Ghamdi checked two bags. Both hijackers indicated they wanted to purchase tickets, even though they already had paper tickets, which were purchased approximately 2 weeks before the attacks. They had trouble answering the standard security questions, so the counter agent repeated the questions very slowly until satisfied with their responses. Hijacker pilot Marwan al-Shehhi checked a single bag at 06:45, and the other remaining hijackers, Fayez Banihammad and Mohand al-Shehri, checked in at 06:53; Banihammad checked two bags. None of the Flight 175 hijackers were selected for extra scrutiny by the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS). Shehhi and the other hijackers boarded Flight 175 between 07:23 and 07:28. Banihammad boarded first and sat in first class seat 2A, while Mohand al-Shehri was in seat 2B. At 07:27, Shehhi and Ahmed al-Ghamdi boarded and sat in business class seats 6C and 9D, respectively. One minute later, Hamza al-Ghamdi boarded and sat in 9C.
Hamza al-Ghamdi
Fayez Banihammad
Mohand al-Shehri
Hijacker pilot Marwan al-Shehhi
The flight was scheduled to depart at 08:00 for Los Angeles. Fifty-one passengers and the five hijackers boarded the 767 through Terminal C's Gate 19. The plane pushed back at 07:58 and took off at 08:14 from Runway 9, about the same time Flight 11 was hijacked. By 08:33, the aircraft reached cruising altitude of 31,000 feet, which is the point when cabin service would normally begin. At 08:37. air traffic controllers asked the pilots of Flight 175 whether they could see American Airlines Flight 11. The crew first responded saying they couldn't locate the hijacked plane but would continue looking. They then responded that Flight 11 was at 29,000 feet, and controllers instructed Flight 175 to turn and avoid the aircraft. The pilots declared that they had heard a suspicious transmission from Flight 11 upon takeoff. "Sounds like someone keyed the mic and said 'Everyone, stay in your seats'," the flight crew reported. This was the last transmission from Flight 175.
September 11 - The South Tower Attack | United Airlines Flight 175
Flight 175 was hijacked between 08:42 and 08:46, while Flight 11 was just minutes away from hitting the North Tower. It is believed that hijackers Banihammad and al-Shehri forcibly entered the cockpit and attacked the pilots while the al-Ghamdis commanded passengers and crew to the aft of the cabin and al-Shehhi took over the controls. Knives were used to stab the flight crew and kill both pilots. One passenger also reported, during a phone call, the use of mace and bomb threats. The first operational evidence that something was abnormal on Flight 175 came at 08:47, when the plane's transponder signal changed twice within the span of one minute, and the aircraft began deviating from its assigned course. However, the air traffic controller in charge of the flight did not notice until minutes later at 08:51. Unlike Flight 11, which had turned its transponder off, Flight 175's flight data could still be properly monitored. Also, at 08:51, Flight 175 changed altitude. Over the next three minutes, the controller made five unsuccessful attempts to contact Flight 175 and worked to move other aircraft in the vicinity away from Flight 175.
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Smoke billows from World Trade Center’s north tower as the south tower explodes after it was struck by United Airlines Flight 175. For New Yorkers near the scene on Sept. 11, 2001, the sights and sounds of everyday life can still trigger painful memories and other psychological reactions to the attacks.
(Chao Soi Cheong / Associated Press)
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A thick acrid smoke billows from the twin towers as it slowly engulfs the clear blue skies of Manhattan on September 11th 2001, After they collapsed, the Empire State Building, foreground, was the tallest building in New York. (Marty Lederhandler / Associated Press)
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Smoke rises over Manhattan after the terrorist attacks.
(Daniel Hulshizer / Associated Press)
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A crowd in Lower Manhattan watches the twin towers before both collapsed.
(Amy Sancetta / Associated Press)
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A woman looks up at the smouldering inferno in disbelief mixed with fear and other strong emotions as she attempts to come to terms with the horror and shock of that moment..
Around this time, the flight had a near midair collision with Delta Air Lines Flight 2315 flying from Hartford to Tampa, reportedly missing the plane by only 300 feet (90 m). Air traffic controller Dave Bottiglia was the first person in the control center to realize Flight 175 had been hijacked. When he directed Flight 175 to turn, the cockpit was unresponsive; instead, the aircraft accelerated and headed toward the Delta plane. He then advised the Delta aircraft to take evasive actions, adding "We have an airplane that we don't know what he's doing. Any action at all." Moments before Flight 175 crashed, it avoided another near collision with idwest Express Flight 7, which was flying from Milwaukee to New York.
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The north tower, the first to be hit and the last to fall, collapsed at 10:28 a.m., 102 minutes after it was attacked. A young boy turns and runs from the scene as he tightly closes his eyes and grimaces as he attempts to shut out the sounds and sights of the horror he has just witnessed..
(Jose Jimenez / Primera Hora)
At 08:55 a supervisor at the New York Air Traffic Control Center notified the center's operations manager of the Flight 175 hijacking. Bottiglia – who was handling both Flight 11 and Flight 175 – remarked, "We might have a hijack over here, two of them." At 08:58, Flight 175 was over New Jersey at 28,500 feet, heading toward New York City. In the five minutes from approximately 08:58 when Shehhi completed the final turn toward New York City until the moment of impact, the plane was in a sustained power dive, descending more than 24,000 feet in 5 minutes 4 seconds, at an average rate of over 5,000 feet per minute. Bottiglia reported he and his colleagues "were counting down the altitudes, and they were descending, right at the end, at 10,000 feet per minute. That is absolutely unheard of for a commercial jet."
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Survivors of the World Trade Center attacks make their way through smoke, dust and debris on Fulton Street, about a block from the collapsed towers.
(Gulnara Samoilova / Associated Press)
Flight attendant Robert Fangman and passengers Peter Hanson and Brian David Sweeney made phone calls from GTE airphones in the rear of the aircraft. Airphone records also indicate that passenger Garnet Bailey made four phone call attempts to his wife. At 08:52, a male flight attendant – likely Fangman – called a United Airlines maintenance office in San Francisco and spoke with Marc Policastro. Fangman reported the hijacking and said the hijackers were likely flying the plane. He also said both pilots were dead and that a flight attendant had been stabbed. After a minute and 15 seconds, Fangman's call was disconnected. Policastro subsequently made attempts to contact the aircraft's cockpit using the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) message system. He wrote, "I heard of a reported incident aboard your acft [aircraft]. Plz verify all is normal." He received no reply.
Flight attendant Robert Fangman
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Robert Fangman lived in Chelsea, Massachusetts. In fall 2000, he left a career in sales to become a United Airlines flight attendant. Relatives said the job was ideal for Robert, who loved international travel and fine food and wine. On September 11, Robert was working aboard Flight 175 en route from Boston to Los Angeles. He was 33 years old.
Peter Hanson Family Photo with Sue his wife and there 2 year old daughter Christine.. Peter Burton Hanson (January 24, 1969 - September 11, 2001) was an American software salesman from Groton, Massachusetts. They were traveling to Los Angeles to visit relatives and take Christine to Disneyland.
Former U.S. Navy pilot Brian David Sweeney thumbs up - The former pilot was just 38 when he died on 9/11.
Born on August 10, 1963, Brian David Sweeney grew up in Massachusetts. His widow, Julie Sweeney Roth, remembers him as a warm and confident man. “He was like Tom Cruise but with a Goose personality — he had the confidence of Tom Cruise but he had this personality that you just wanted to hug him and love him,” Julie said. “He was just that kind of guy.” A former U.S. Navy pilot, Brian had once worked as an instructor at TOPGUN in Miramar, California. But in 1997, Brian accepted a medical discharge from the Navy after an accident left him partially paralyzed. The next year, he met his wife, Julie, at a Philadelphia bar. Julie remembers that the 6’3″ Brian Sweeney stood out to her immediately. “I looked at my girlfriend and I told her that’s the kind of guy I would marry,” Julie said. After a whirlwind courtship, Julie moved in with Brian in Massachusetts. They got married in Cape Cod, a place that Brian had long loved. Together, they began to build a life. By February 2001, Julie was working as a teacher, and Brian had gotten a job as a defense contractor. For one week each month, he flew to Los Angeles for work. And that’s exactly what he planned to do on September 11, 2001. Brian said goodbye to Julie and boarded United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles. But tragically, he would never make it there.
Brian David Sweeney tried calling his wife, Julie, at 08:59, but ended up leaving a message, telling her the plane had been hijacked. He then called his parents at 09:00 and spoke with his mother, Louise. Sweeney told his mother about the hijacking and mentioned that passengers were considering storming the cockpit and taking control of the aircraft. Sweeney said he thought the hijackers might come back, so he might have to hang up quickly. He then said goodbye to his mother as he quickly hung up.
Brian Sweeney and his widow Julie Sweeney Roth.
At 08:52, Peter Hanson called his father, Lee Hanson, in Easton, Connecticut, telling him of the hijacking. Hanson was traveling with his wife, Sue, and their two-year-old daughter, Christine, the youngest victim of the September 11th attacks. The family was originally seated in Row 19, in seats C, D, and E; however, Peter placed the call to his father from seat 30E. Speaking softly, Hanson said the hijackers had commandeered the cockpit, a flight attendant had been stabbed, and that possibly someone else in the front of the aircraft had been killed. He also said the plane was flying erratically. Hanson asked his father to contact United Airlines, but Lee could not get through and instead called the police.
Peter Hanson made a second phone call to his father at 09:00:
It's getting bad, Dad. A stewardess was stabbed. They seem to have knives and Mace. They said they have a bomb. It's getting very bad on the plane. Passengers are throwing up and getting sick. The plane is making jerky movements. I don't think the pilot is flying the plane. I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it'll be very fast ... Oh my God ... oh my God, oh my God.
As the call abruptly ended, Hanson's father heard a woman screaming.
As the plane approached New York City, Hijacker pilot Marwan al-Shehhi would have seen the fire and smoke pouring from the North Tower in the distance. He would of thought my brothers have achieved there goal for Allah and now I must fulfil my own destiny as an evil courage and determination floods his brainwashed mind and body....The aircraft was in a banking left turn in its final moments, as it appeared the plane might have otherwise missed the building or merely scraped it with a wing. Therefore, those who were on the left side of the plane would also have had a clear view of the towers approaching, with one burning. At 09:01, two minutes before impact as Flight 175 continued its descent into Lower Manhattan, the New York Center alerted another nearby Air Traffic Facility responsible for low-flying aircraft, which was able to monitor the aircraft's path over New Jersey, and then over Staten Island and Upper New York Bay in its final moments.
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Pedestrians cross Brooklyn Bridge out of Manhattan.
(Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
At 09:03, Flight 175 crashed nose-first into the southern façade of the South Tower of the World Trade Center at over 500 miles per hour (800 km/h; 220 m/s; 430 kn), striking through floors 77 and 85 with approximately 9,100 U.S. gallons (34,000 L; 7,600 imp gal) of jet fuel on board. The youngest person on Flight 175 was Christine Hanson, aged two and a half, and the oldest was 82-year-old Dorothy DeAraujo of Long Beach, California. By the time Flight 175 struck the South Tower, multiple media organizations were already covering the crash of Flight 11, which had hit the North Tower 17 minutes earlier. The image of Flight 175's crash was thus caught on video from multiple vantage points on live television and amateur video, while approximately a hundred cameras captured Flight 175 in photographs before it crashed. Video footage of the crash was replayed numerous times in news broadcasts on the day of the attacks and in the following days, before major news networks put restrictions on use of the footage. After the plane penetrated through the tower, part of the plane's landing gear and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof and two of the floors of 45–47 Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, 600 feet (180 meters) north of the former World Trade Center. Three floor beams of the top floor of the building were destroyed, causing major structural damage.
Unlike at the North Tower, initially, one of the three stairwells (A) was still intact after Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. This was because the plane struck the tower offset from the center and not centrally as Flight 11 in the North Tower had done. Only 18 people passed the impact zone through the available stairway and left the South Tower safely before it collapsed. Only one person on the 81st floor survived: Stanley Praimnath, whose office was sliced by the wing of the plane. He witnessed Flight 175 coming toward him as the crazed terrorist stared him in the face. One of the wings sliced through his office and wound up wedged in a doorway about twenty feet (six meters) away from him. No one escaped above the impact point in the North Tower.
Chicago native Dorothy Alma de Araujo lived in Naples, California. After 20 years on the administrative staff of California State University in Long Beach, Dorothy retired and went back to school. At age 69, she earned a fine arts degree and went into business selling her work. On 9/11, Dorothy was on Flight 175 heading home from a visit with her son. Today would have been Dorothy’s 99th birthday. In her honor, a white rose was placed at Dorothy’s name on the 9/11 Memorial.
A portion of the fuselage of United Airlines Flight 175 on the roof of WTC 5, Oct. 25, 2001. This was from the plane that crashed into the South Tower, WTC 2. World Trade Center, New York City, after September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark
| CREDIT: BRIAN CLARK
Stanley Praimnath, 9/11 survivor from Louisiana. | Photo Source: KPLC(KALB)
By Chandler Watkins
Published: Sep. 12, 2019 at 11:54 PM BST
9/11 survivor recounts harrowing tale of his escape from the South Tower - Stanley Praimnath hid under his desk on the 81st floor when the plane hit, and says his faith helped bring him home safely.
How One Canadian Survived 9/11 | The Agenda - Steve Paikin speaks to Brian Clark, a retired Canadian businessman and one of only 18 survivors of the World Trade Center's South Tower in New York on September 11, 2001. He discusses his experience being at the centre of the terrorist attack that defined the 21st century.
Brian Clark, 2021 (Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images; mural photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Some people above the impact zone made their way upward toward the roof in hopes of a helicopter rescue. However, access doors to the roof were locked. In any case, thick smoke and intense heat prevented rescue helicopters from landing. These people sadly perished as they waited for help.. The South Tower finally succumed to the intense heat and structural damage at 09:58:59, it burned for a total time of 56 minutes before collapsing down into a pile of twisted metal and concrete debris..
Among the wreckage that remained after the towers fell were remnants of the south tower’s perimeter columns. (Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/FEMA photographer Bri Rodriguez)
The flight recorder for Flight 175, as with Flight 11's, was never found. Some debris from Flight 175 was recovered nearby, including a landing gear found on top of a building on the corner of West Broadway and Park Place, an engine found at Church and Murray Street, and a section of the fuselage which landed on top of 5 World Trade Center. In April 2013, a piece of the inboard wing flap mechanism from a Boeing 767 was discovered wedged between two buildings at Park Place. During the recovery process, small fragments were identified from some passengers on Flight 175, including a 6 in (150 mm) piece of bone belonging to Peter Hanson, and small bone fragments of Lisa Frost. In 2008, the remains of Flight 175 passenger Alona Abraham were identified using DNA samples. Remains of many others aboard Flight 175 were never recovered.
A piece of debris, possibly from one of the crashed airliners, lies on the corner of Murray Street in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
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Alona Abraham
New York police say what appears to be part of the landing gear of one of the jets flown into the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 has been found.
The 5ft (1.52m) piece of metal, which bears a Boeing label and serial number, was wedged between two New York City buildings, police said.
The federal government provided financial aid—a minimum of $500,000—for the families of victims who died in the attack. Individuals who accepted funds from the government were required to forfeit their ability to sue any entity for damages. More than $7 billion has been paid out to victims by the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, although that figure includes damages to those who were injured or killed on the other hijacked flights or the towers. In total, lawsuits were filed on behalf of 96 people against the airline and associated companies. The vast majority were settled under terms that were not made public, but the total compensation is estimated to be around $500 million. Only one lawsuit progressed to a civil trial; a wrongful death filing by the family of Mark Bavis against the airline, Boeing, and the airport's security company. This was eventually settled in September 2011. US President George Bush, other top officials, and various government agencies were also sued by the widow of a passenger, Ellen Mariani. Mariani's cases were deemed to be frivolous.
9/11: A survivor's story twenty years later - 9/11 survivor, Joe Dittmar shares his story about escaping from the World Trade Center.
Joe Dittmar
Fr Mychal, a chaplain with the NYC Fire Department, was giving the last rites in the lobby of the north tower when he was crushed by debris falling from the south tower. As the first official casualty of the World Trade Center attacks, the iconic image of his body being carried from the rubble is still as powerful now as was back then in 2001. Fr Mychal was a fabled New York figure known for ministering to people with AIDS, rough sleepers, drug addicts, recovering alcoholics and anyone else who needed his help.
Rescue workers carry fatally injured New York City Fire Department chaplain, the Rev. Mychal Judge, from the wreckage of the World Trade Center in New York City early September 11, 2001. Chaplain was crushed to death by falling debris while giving a man last rites in the trade center. The twin towers collapsed on September 11 after being struck by jetliners. (Image: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
Judge was a man who encompassed a number of seeming contradictions. He was not a typical priest. From 1971 to 1978, he struggled with alcoholism, battling his addiction with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was gay, a fact known only by a number of his closer friends. Judge synthesised his experiences in order to access a spiritual empathy that allowed him to reach out to the poor and the dispossessed when they needed it most. In 1992, he became chaplain to the New York Fire Department, a role he relished. He was often first on the scene in cases of tragedy. In 1996, when TWA Flight 800 exploded shortly after takeoff, he ministered to the families and arranged a memorial. He brought coffee and blankets to Chinese immigrants washed up on Rockaway Beach. And on September 11th, 2001, he was among the first on the scene when the Twin Towers were struck.
He was a peacemaker. In 1986, when Detective Steven McDonald was shot in Central Park by a youth and left paralysed, Judge prayed with the victim and later brought about a reconciliation between the two. Judge and Detective McDonald became lifelong friends and visited a number of communities going through processes of reconciliation, including Northern Ireland and Sarajevo.
Father Mychal's Blessing: Remembering the September 11 Victim Who Died Praying for Others
He was a stalwart supporter of addicts, the homeless, and victims of the Aids crisis in the 1980s. As a member of Dignity, a group who advocate for change in the Catholic Church’s attitude to homosexuality, he set up an Aids ministry and welcomed them to St Francis of Assisi church in contravention of the church’s ban. Judge spoke about his sexuality with his closer friends, but remained celibate.
Perhaps Father Mychal Judge’s greatest achievement is the example he set to others by his deeply human story. Here was a man whose life was not without adversity, whose personal story did not always fit accepted ideas of Irish-Americanness. And yet, in living as he did, he has changed that narrative, and become one of the most beloved members of our global diaspora.
When, during the Aids crisis, Judge was called to anoint a dying man, the man asked him “Do you think God hates me?” Judge cradled the man in his arms as he passed.