American Airlines Flight 11 was American Airlines' morning,
daily scheduled transcontinental flight, from Boston, Massachusetts,
to Los Angeles, California. On September 11, 2001, the aircraft flying
this route was hijacked by five al-Qaeda insurgents, and deliberately
crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City,
as part of the September 11 attacks. Fifteen minutes into the flight,
the hijackers forcibly breached the cockpit, and overpowered the pilot
and first officer. Mohamed Atta, an al-Qaeda member and trained pilot,
took over the controls. Air traffic controllers noticed the flight was
in distress when the crew stopped responding to them. They realized
the flight had been hijacked when Atta mistakenly transmitted
announcements for passengers to air traffic control. On board,
Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong contacted American Airlines, and provided
information about the hijackers and injuries to passengers and crew.
The aircraft crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center
at 08:46 local time; the impact killed all 92 people aboard.
The impact and subsequent fire caused the North Tower to collapse,
which resulted in thousands of additional casualties.