Episode 3416
American Airlines Flight 11
Fri, 2026-Sep-11 01:11 UTC
Length - 3:35
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Friday, 11 September 2026, is American Airlines Flight 11.
American Airlines Flight 11 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight that was hijacked by Mohamed Atta and four other al-Qaeda hijackers on the morning of September 11, 2001. It was one of four aircraft hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks. Atta deliberately flew the aircraft into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing all 92 people aboard, including the five hijackers. The impact destroyed all escape routes from the floors above the impact zone, trapping more than 1,300 occupants on floors 92–110, none of whom survived. People below the impact zone were also killed as a result of the attack.
The hijacking and crash of Flight 11 resulted in the greatest number of fatalities of the four hijacked flights, both aboard the aircraft and on the ground, and is the deadliest aviation incident in history. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767 operating American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
The airplane left the runway at 07:59. Less than fifteen minutes after takeoff, the hijackers injured two flight attendants, murdered one passenger, and breached the cockpit while forcing the passengers and crew to the rear of the aircraft. The assailants attacked both pilots, allowing lead hijacker Mohamed Atta to take over the controls. Air traffic controllers suspected that the flight was in distress because the crew became non-responsive. They realized that the plane had been hijacked when Atta's announcement to the hostages was accidentally transmitted to air traffic control instead of through the aircraft's PA system. Also, two flight attendants were able to contact American Airlines and pass along information relevant to the situation, including casualties suffered by the crew and passengers.
Atta flew the hijacked plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center from floors 93 through 99 at 08:46 local time. The impact was witnessed by people on the streets of New York City as well as the nearby state of New Jersey. The media quickly began reporting on the incident and speculated that the crash had been an accident. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower at 09:03, dispelling any notion it was accidental.
The damage caused by the plane and the fires ignited by its crash caused the North Tower to collapse at 10:28 that morning, resulting in hundreds of additional casualties. While the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site did lead to the discovery and identification of body fragments from certain individuals who boarded Flight 11, many have not been identified.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:11 UTC on Friday, 11 September 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see American Airlines Flight 11 on Wikipedia.
This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Until next time, I'm neural Danielle.
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