The first plane hit the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11, 2001, at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time, when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

Key details

  • Date: September 11, 2001.
  • Time: 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time.
  • Plane: American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767.
  • Location of impact: North face of the North Tower (1 World Trade Center), between roughly the 93rd and 99th floors.

Brief timeline around the first impact

  1. Flight 11 took off from Boston’s Logan International Airport at 7:59 a.m., bound for Los Angeles.
  1. The flight was hijacked shortly after takeoff while en route.
  1. At 8:46 a.m., it was deliberately flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
  1. At 9:03 a.m., a second plane (United Airlines Flight 175) struck the South Tower.

Context and impact

  • The 8:46 a.m. crash is widely recognized as the moment the 9/11 attacks visibly began for most of the world.
  • The event led to nearly 3,000 deaths across all attack sites and reshaped U.S. and global security, politics, and foreign policy.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.