Satellite images show how 9/11 attack looked like, what has changed after 20 years
Historical and new satellite images supplied by space firm Maxar Technologies show what the September 11, 2001 terror attack looked like from space and what has changed since then.
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were one of the most defining moments of modern history. Millions of people watched the events unfold on television as 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets at multiple locations.
Historical and new satellite images supplied by space firm Maxar Technologies show what the devastating terror attack looked like from space and what has changed since then.
The Twin Towers at Manhattan in New York City were the ground zero of the first set of attacks where two hijacked planes were piloted into the buildings.
At 8.45 am local time, the American Airlines Boeing 767, which was loaded with roughly 20,000 gallons of jet fuel, hit the north tower. Only 18 minutes later, the second hijacked Boeing 767 -— United Airlines Flight 175 -- crashed into the south tower.
The destruction caused by this attack was captured by the only commercial high-resolution satellite in earth’s orbit at that time —- IKONOS.
At 9.45 am, the third hijacked plane —- American Airlines Flight 77 —- crashed into the west side of the US Department of Defence Headquarters, popularly known as The Pentagon.
The heroics of the passengers and crew members onboard the fourth hijacked plane —- United Flight 93 —- who reportedly attacked the cockpit, ensured that the terrorist could not hit their fourth intended target. The plane crashed in field near Shanksville in Pennsylvania.
The 9/11 attacks led to the US invasion of Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the attacks. But despite everything, Laden continued to evade the American manhunt.
While the focus of initial US operations to search for Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan, the US agencies, after years of intelligence gathering, figured out that their most wanted man was hiding somewhere else.
Intelligence suggested that the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks could be hiding at a compound at Abbottabad, only two-hour drive from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
According to Maxar, the US agencies used “Maxar imagery to study the structure of the compound in detail, allowing the military to simulate and train for the raid, enabling a precise operation once boots hit the ground".
In the early hours of May 2, 2011, following a raid at the compound in Abbottabad by the US Navy SEALS, Osama bin Laden was killed. A year later, Osama bin Laden’s hideout was demolished by the Pakistan government.
At ground zero of the attacks in New York, stands the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and the One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the US.
The west side of the Pentagon building was rebuilt in its original shape that now overlooks the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial at the southwest side.
To remember and honour the passengers and crew of Flight 93, the Flight 93 National Memorial has been built near the crash site that showcases the flight path of the flight with a marble "Wall of Names" of the passengers and crew members.
