#571 9/11

 Fact# 571

9/11

On the morning of September 11th, 2001 nineteen Terrorist hijackers boarded four US planes armed with Box Cutters, tear gas, Pepper spray. Thus began the horrific morning of the worst terror attack in world history resulting in the deaths of 2,977 people.

Yet as horrific as the day was, it could have been so much worse, if it hadn't been for the work of Heroes who deserve to be remembered. Some included the Flight School in Minnesota which had arrested a Student with Ties to Al-Queda trying to learn commercial Jets –which put The CIA on alert for a potential imminent attack even being presented to the President on August 6th 2001, but with one piece of information wrong. They Thought the attack was to take place in Israel which Osama Bin Laden had been pushing the US to abandon for almost a decade, and so put the bulk of their counter terrorism efforts there. This also allowed the CIA to prevent more terrorists from entering the country for the attack –eliminating 3 targets (2 nuclear power plants and The White House) from the Terrorist’s plan due to lack of numbers, and forcing them to rely only on those already within the country.

Then there was the matter of the Towers themselves, which at the time of the North Tower being Struck had upwards of 17,400 people inside. Almost immediately Eric Eisenberg ordered all his Employees in the South Tower to evacuate –even though authorities told the Executives in the building that it was just an accident and to remain where they were. Mr. Eisenberg didn’t listen however and got most of the companies in the South tower to issue evacuations to their employees. Sadly Mr. Eisenberg was still working hard at this task when the second plane hit the floor he was on (92). He is thought to have died instantly, and his actions are thought to have saved more than 3,000 people from urging floors to be evacuated before the 2nd Strike occurred.  By the end only 630 people died in the south tower despite it commonly being more populated than The North.

Then there are the Emergency service personnel who rushed into the collapsing buildings to save who they could. 413 of them never made it out. The 414th Emergency responder had a very different experience as he was on Flight 93 (headed to The Capitol Building) when it was hijacked and upon learning from the other passengers what became of other planes that day, he hastily organized an uprising to retake the plane. It seems likely they would have been successful too, had it not been for the Terrorist’s choosing to crash into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania when it became clear they wouldn’t reach their target. 

In the end the ordeal was a world tragedy, but thankfully Al-Qaeda saw the whole ordeal backfire. They had planned on this attack scaring the world into backing down and huddling up in their corners of the globe, thereby abandoning Israel so Terrorists could attack it. Instead the tragedy only made the world unite as the attack killed people from over 90 countries, and ultimately resulted in the only use of NATO’s Article 5 calling upon all member nations to respond to an attack made against them. 

Thank you all for reading today’s Fun Fact. Please, if you can find it in your busy days, please take a moment of silence to remember and honor the Heroes who saved as many lives as they could that day –many paying the ultimate price. Thank you and please have a wonderful day.