Why did it have to be me? I was just a small, young, and innocent plane from American Airlines and I didn’t mean to cause such an immense amount of damage to others, (“9/11 COMMISSION REPORT”). Before I get too ahead of myself, let me backup and start from the beginning to tell you the history of my hijacking, the frantic calls for help I heard, the amount of deaths I caused and how I helped change history forever that day.

Date and Time? September 11, 2001 at 7:59 A.M., I could feel the passengers boarding me. At about eight o'clock, the pilot fired up my engines, taxied down the runway, and I took off. I was excited. This was my first big flight with this amount of people on me. I was ready to do anything I needed to do that day to get to Los Angeles safely. The flight from Boston to Los Angeles was smooth sailing for the next fifteen minutes until I felt a sudden  jolt. That moment was when my life changed forever.

It was about quarter after eight and I heard a thud. I then realized that someone had either fallen or got killed. I then could feel someone else taking over the controls which meant that my pilot was killed. Over the next several minutes, many announcements were made over my loudspeaker. Sometimes it would be Mohammed Atta, the person who killed my pilot and took over the controls, and sometimes it would be the flight crew making frantic calls to the tower for help from their air phones, (“Stay Quiet and You’ll Be Ok: Atta Told the Passengers”). I also heard all of the passengers calling back home to their loved ones and telling them they will not make it home. Just as I was trying to figure out what was going on, I felt  myself descending rapidly. I knew that moment that this was something that I would have no control over and it was going to become a horrible event in history in just moments. This would be the end of my days. I heard one of the flight attendants say over my PA system that we were flying too low and she could see buildings and water, (Philip Delves Broughton). I could also feel the passengers running in panic and I could hear their cries of fear of what was about to happen. I could then see the city of New York and all of the amazing buildings. I continued to go down and down. Then at 8:46 A.M., I hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, (“September 11th Hijackers Fast Facts”).Just as I made contact with the tower, I saw my whole life flash before me like a bolt of lightning. I remembered the day I was manufactured, my first flight, all of the passengers I had carried to their destinations safety, and the many co-workers I had come to know and love deeply. I also thought back to the beginning of the day and how I was just a plane who was innocent and wanted to do my job. I felt the passengers running and I heard them crying. Just then, I blacked out.

I don’t what happened after that because I blew up on impact. I do know that I caused the deaths of many innocent people in a situation in which I had no control. In total, I killed 1,402 people in the tower and 87 people on the plane. I also was responsible for contributing to the deaths of 343 firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 police officers, and 2 paramedics,(“September 11th Hijackers Fast Facts”). This was a terrible, gruesome day in American history.

After all of the horrifying terror caused by the hijackers, the frantic calls made by the flight attendants, and my impact to the tower, I rest in peace along with the three other planes that changed history that day. Who knew a young plane like me could cause so much commotion, heartache, and damage to so many families?