9/11 timeline: Remembering how the attack unfolded 25 years on

The famous New York towers are targeted for the first time by terrorists. Six die after a truck bomb exploded below the North Tower, but many more lives are saved after the towers failed to collapse.

Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef detonates a bomb on board a plane bound for Tokyo, killing one. A bigger plot to bomb 11 airliners and crash a plane into the CIA headquarters is foiled, but it sows the seeds for a larger attack.

Egyptian terrorist Mohamed Atta, later identified as the ringleader of the attacks, emails flight schools enquiring about ‘intensive training programmes’. He later receives a pilot’s licence.

Atta calls planner Ramzi Binalshibh and says he has a riddle that he is trying to solve: ‘Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down—what is it?’ Binalshibh realises the two sticks stood for the number 11, and the cake with a stick down is a nine, meaning the attack is set for 9/11.

The first hijackers pass through security in Portland, Maine, and board a flight to Boston before getting on American Airlines Flight 11 – the plane that would hit the North Tower.

Flight 175, which would later hit the South Tower, takes off from Boston for Los Angeles. Meanwhile, American Airlines Flight 77, to Los Angeles, takes off from Washington, D.C. This flight later hits the Pentagon.

Ground personnel receive the first signal that something is wrong when Flight 11 crew members issue a hijacking alert. A passenger, Daniel Lewin, is stabbed by a hijacker seated behind him. He may have been trying to stop the attack from taking place.

United Flight 93 from Newark, bound for San Francisco, had seven crew members, 33 passengers, and four hijackers on board. It is claimed the terrorists intended to fly it into the US Capitol building.

Flight 11 crashes into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower. President George Bush is alerted four minutes later, and his advisors initially assume the collision was a tragic accident.

As officials scramble to evacuate the World Trade Center complex, Flight 175 crashes into floors 77 through 85 of the South Tower.

American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon in Washington DC. All 59 passengers on the plane are killed, along with 125 on the ground.

As the world watches on, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses in 10 seconds after burning for 56 minutes. More than 800 people in and around the building are killed.

Crew and passengers storm the cockpit and bring the plane down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing further loss of life.

People are seen jumping from the upper levels of the building before the second tower collapses after burning for 102 minutes. More than 1,600 people in and around the building are killed.

President Bush, who had travelled back to the White House from Florida, assured Americans that a search is underway for ‘those who are behind these evil acts.’

Some 20 people who were in the towers when they collapsed are saved. Rescue workers pull Genelle Guzman-McMillan from the rubble 27 hours after the north tower fell. She becomes the last person found alive.

Bush announces that the attacks had been organised by Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and declares a ‘war on terror’ while speaking to the United States Congress.

The US and its allies, including the UK, launch Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The objective is to remove the Taliban from power.

Despite widespread opposition at home and abroad, Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair begin the invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Almost a decade after the attacks, Bin Laden is captured and killed by US forces in Pakistan.

To mark a decade since the devastating attacks, a memorial is opened in New York on the site of the World Trade Center. It includes two large fountains on the sites where the towers stood.

Around the 22nd anniversary, two new victims were officially identified thanks to new DNA sequencing technology.

Three more victims of the terror attack are identified in August 2025. Ryan Fitzgerald and Barbara Keating were both named, along with a third woman whose name was not released.

Days before the 25th anniversary of the attack, another victim of the attack – a woman – is identified using genetic genealogy.