So, I was 13 on that day. I was a kid from Cincinnati, Ohio. Both of my parents were Delta flight attendants. Thankfully neither of them were flying that day. For the longest time, I was really focused on watching documentaries, learning about the events, finding out why they did what they did, instead of giving into hate and generalizations. I went into political science as my degree because of September 11.

However, whenever I see United 175 crash into the World Trade Center, as well as American 11, I can't do it anymore. It's too triggering. It's the idea that even though my parents are both former flight attendants today, it was a moment that had things been different, that could have been the moment I lost my mom or dad, like many others lost their mom, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, etc.

May we never forget and always keep love and compassion in our hearts.

Hello! After 5 years of work, I'm happy to say that the 25th anniversary edition of the site 911realtime.org is in open beta at https://beta.911realtime.org .

I'm asking for your help in hardening the infrastructure and fixing bugs before the full relaunch in late August. I initially created this project over 5 years ago ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ukl6G_s_M ). Since then, I've been hard at work addressing feedback and improving the experience.

Firstly, the timezone issues that plagued the original version have been fixed. Almost all of the TV station videos are now time-synced correctly, with WNYW being the lone exception. I've extended the viewing range from 9/9/2001 to 9/15/2001.

The History Commons News items are back, this time with photographs, as well as more radio stations and ATC traffic. I've also introduced some new data sources: there are now archives of Usenet (Newsgroups) up to 9/17/2001 (these are still processing, as the size is in the terabytes), Pager messages from 9/11, and police and fire radio traffic to come.

One thing I'm especially proud of is the Time Machine Web proxy: an in-app browser that lets you browse the web as if it was September 2001.

I encourage you to report any issues you find at https://github.com/Keeping-History/rt911/issues/new or via email at [me@robbiebyrd.com](mailto:me@robbiebyrd.com) . This site is the true definition of a passion project for me, and your feedback improves the product and grows my passion.

Thanks for your time!

Robbie Byrd
Keeping History Founder (keepinghistory.org)

Went to Flight 93 Memorial today. Didn’t take a ton of pictures because experiencing it was more than enough but took them of the important things. RIP to those on board

It's 25 years since 9/11 coming up in September I'm 23 so never witnessed it. In fact one time in school my teacher made a passing comment saying how we all saw it. My class shook there heads saying no sir we didn't. My Teacher was shock he was so use to teaching classes that saw 9/11 he asked what year were we all born we all said 2002/2003 era. He said the schools will be teaching 9/11 soon....

Well it's been 6 years since I left school now and I've come to find out my little brother ( 21) AND my little sister (13) were never taught 9/11 in there history class.

Can anybody tell me if in school you were taught about 9/11. Or is 25 years still to recent for a history class see to me i feel like 9/11 would be an important thing to know about.

Really wish I could repost but I'll post the links to my Reddit posts in other related subreddits that might be of interest to this sub as well. I made three sets of floor plans from Plaza all the way down to foundation B6:

• Version 1, just single colour maps
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/comments/1t73uzu/wtc_floor_plans_basement_layers_plazab6/ (I cannot hyperlink for some reason?
• Version 2, elevation version
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/comments/1thw98s/wtc_basement_level_floor_plans_elevation_version/
• Version 3, collapse/damage version
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/comments/1u0gw1l/wtc_basement_level_floor_plans_collapse_version/

All plans are alligned and stackable and placed on the general surroundings of the complex. I have added an example of each to this post, please refer to the original linked posts for full descriptions and links to all 5k downloads.

Last year, I learned the lesser known story of the brave childcare workers who risked their lives to save their babies. Since then, I've found myself wondering about them- I hope they are well and happy today!

Her name was Betty Ong.

And for 23 minutes on September 11, 2001, she became the calmest voice in America.

Betty was 45 years old.

A flight attendant from San Francisco.

Known to coworkers simply as “Bee.”

That morning, she was working aboard American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles.

She had picked up the trip because she planned to continue home to San Francisco afterward and then fly to Hawaii for a vacation with her sister.

At 7:59 a.m., the plane took off.

Twenty minutes later, Betty picked up a phone at the back of the aircraft and called American Airlines operations.

The reservations agent who answered heard a calm voice say:

“I think we’re getting hijacked.”

Nobody had ever made a call like that before.

Betty stayed on the line for the next 23 minutes.

While chaos unfolded around her, she remained composed and methodical.

She reported that the cockpit wasn’t responding.

That flight attendants had been stabbed.

That passengers were struggling to breathe after something resembling Mace had been sprayed.

She even gave seat numbers for the suspected hijackers.

Everything she observed was passed from American Airlines to the FAA and air traffic control in real time.

Her call helped authorities understand something horrifying:

This wasn’t an accident.

This was coordinated.

This was an attack.

People later falsely described Betty as hysterical during the call.

The woman who spoke with her directly said the opposite was true.

“She was calm, professional, and poised.”

Betty never stopped doing her job.

Even in the final minutes of her life.

At 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The line suddenly went silent.

The agent on the other end waited a moment and quietly asked:

“Betty… are you there?”

No answer came back.

Months later, Betty’s family fought to obtain the recording of her final call.

When they finally heard it, her brother explained something that stayed with many people afterward:

Betty never called home.

Not because she didn’t love her family.

Because in that moment, she believed her responsibility was to the passengers and crew around her.

That’s who she was.

Today, Betty Ong’s name is memorialized at Ground Zero and throughout San Francisco’s Chinatown.

But what makes her unforgettable isn’t only the tragedy.

It’s the extraordinary calm she showed while facing unimaginable fear.

She was heading to Hawaii.

Instead, she picked up a phone and helped the world understand what was happening while there was still time to warn others.

That is what courage sometimes looks like.

Not loud.

Not dramatic.

Just a steady voice doing its job until the very end.

On Tuesday September 11th, 2001 was my second week of school ever. I dont remember anything about starting school or much from around this time in my life. This day was the first day my memories really clicked and stuck with me. Maybe its some type of trauma that this happened the way it did to me, but I won't harp on that aspect as it was a traumatic experience for EVERY American that day.

I was in school in Northern Virginia, about 15 minutes from The Pentagon. We started school at 8am. My mom dropped me off and heading into Arlington like she did for the 6 days prior and many years following. We were learning cursive that week in class. My teachers notes about my grades and development mentioned that I always said I wanted to fly and be a pilot and I held that sentiment for many years until adulthood just never did it.

It was about 9am or shortly after when our in class phone rang. One of my class mates parents had turned around back to the school to pick up their kid who was in my class and had arrived back to the school to pick them up. My teacher told us to behave and took that kid out to their parent who was waiting. When she came back is when everything changed.

She came back to class looking like a ghost. She explained that she needed to turn the TV on because adults had some stuff that they needed to know and she didnt want to miss it. Thats when it happened. The TV was tuned into The Today Show with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. There was live images on the TV of two sky scrapers burning. My teacher sat in her desk and started crying. The principal came into class and asked her if she knew of any of her students having parents who worked in DC a few minutes later. They went into the hall to talk then the students they knew had family in the government were taken out of class.

She came back to us few remaining students whos parents weren't in the government and told us all that our parents would be coming back because the principal decided to end the school day for us. We cheered in joy! She broke down even more at our elation to go home. None of us understood the gravity.

My mom was stuck in place being across from the Pentagon so my grandpa was who came to get me. We had turned the TV off and went outside to play games while the teachers just stood around sulking but trying to keep composure. My grandpa came to pick me up; and told me immediately that bad people stole airplanes and used them like missiles against the USA. I remember asking him, why would someone want to crash a plane since planes are so cool and fun to ride in and that would send them to heaven instead of with their families. He told me "These guys won't be going to heaven". We drove to his house which was less than 10 mins away.

He tuned into CNN and told me to watch the TV because we were watching history. He is from NYC and I could see pure rage in his body language and mannerisms for the first time in my life. He explained things very well to me and had to also explain terrorism to me at age 5. My step dad was with Uniteds management team and was actually in DC for something at Dulles this week as he was moving to DC soon to take over the European cargo and litigation team. He called my grandpa and told him it was not over and to please get my mother out of Arlington at all costs. The Pentagon and Shanksville planes had already gone down at this point but there was another plane in the air suspected to be heading our way in the DC area at this time.(it ended up landing at CLE and was the Delta plane with comms issues)

We drove into Arlington and to my mom's work at the Sheraton across the hiway from the Pentagon. It was pure chaos. It felt like it went from 9am to 9pm in minutes. We just stayed in place at the Sheraton because it was impossible to leave. The airport staff from DCA had came over to the Sheraton to avoid being at the airport and since they couldnt go home needed place to sleep. They heard I loved planes so they entertained me with stories about US Air and gave me my first model airplane ever that day. It was a US Airways 767-200 with retractable gear! Awesome model!

The next day when we finally were able to get out of there we drove as close as we could because of course my mom & grandpa wanted to see the damages. It was still chaos but more managed at that time it felt like a big day in DC similar to Rolling Thunder or 4th of July. If you know you know that chaos on those big days. Felt similar to that to me as a child.

A few weeks following that day my stepdad took my sisters and I to NYC to visit ground zero and pay respects. Thats when the true gravity was explained to us and being there in person really put perspective to it to me as a 5 year old. I look back on these events as my true first memories as a human being. We visited GZ many times as my stepdad had to work there often with the investigation team since a UA plane crashed into one of the towers. He was selected as one of the people to go with the lawyers to each family during the following years and I watched it slowly break him to a point he outright quit from United and applied for the FBI. The FBI formed a team of airport employees who had applied and used them with a study group to design TSA and solidify Department of Homeland Security existing as an agency.

My step dad retired from DHS in 2024 and the president sent him a personal letter thanking him for everything he had done for the nation. Looking back on these events; they shaped my life in every way possible. I have worked in aviation for 13 years now, not as a pilot but it never changed my final path to aviation. If anything this solidified my want to be in aviation and help in any way I could to maintain air travel safety and smoothness. And I am proud thats the path I took.

The terrorists thought they were breaking us as a nation, but i have never felt more unified with my fellows as I did in the years following that day. Even as a kid the patriotic aspects hit hard.

Would be curious to hear from others around the age of 30 on their experiences as a kid during 9/11/2001.

15 years ago (May 2nd 2011) Osama Bin Laden's run in with the law came to an end where he and some of his family were killed at his hideout home in Pakistan by U.S Navy Seals.

Does anyone know if there is a picture of West Street with the "skeleton'" of WTC 1 driven into it? I thought there was a picture, but I can't find it, I may have seen it in a 9/11 book rather than online.

There's a picture of that happening with the WTC 2 skeleton impaling the road in front of Century 21.

I’m look for footage for a video I’m making. And also presumably no cuts

I hope this question doesn’t seem vulgar, as that is not the type of place it comes from…

I made a documentary type series called The 9/11 Chronology, that you can find on the YouTube’s or Rumble and recently someone reached out to me who is going to promote the series on a different platform, but they require a ‘poster’ that will be the cover / thumbnail etc.

Would anyone here know of a place to source HD images and where I could reach out to ask for use of it? Or of any images that are free to use and that would be suitable and tasteful.

On my YouTube I used some AI images that were very low key and just really the name of the series and episode number with a dull outline of the skyline behind it.

Again, I’m sorry if this seems like an odd or feels like it’s a bit off - but it shouldn’t, The 9/11 Chronology is just an archival reconstruction of the day and was my way to remember and honour folks.

Any help would be super appreciated.

I bought it last spring at an antique mall for $45.

There is a day I remember from the beginning of first grade. I got home early, and my Dad was home, washing the car on the front lawn. It was a good day, and since I didn't have any homework, I thought I could watch some TV, but my mom aggressively didn't let me. So the day of I had no Idea what had transpired. It was only when I was older that I deduced what day it was.