2002 State of the Union Address
Bush spoke about the September 11 attacks of the previous year that killed thousands of people in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda carried out the attack with 19 hijackers that took over four commercial airline flights and crashed them into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City's Lower Manhattan, and into the Pentagon in Virginia's Arlington County.
Ziad Jarrah
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami and Ahmed al-Haznawi boarded United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark International Airport at gate A17 without incident, and sat in first-class seats near the cockpit. Before boarding, Ziad Jarrah called his girlfriend, Aysel Sengün, from a public telephone at the airport, repeating the words 'I love you' over and over. Due to the flight's delay, the plane took off at 8:41 am, five minutes before American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center. The pilot and crew were notified of the first two hijackings that day, and were told to be on the alert. Within minutes, around 9:28 am, Flight 93 was hijacked as well. The 9/11 Commission stated that Jarrah was the pilot.