These plans for improvement were never realized . On the morning of September 11 , 2001 , Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the Twin Towers in a coordinated act of terrorism . At 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time ( ET ) , a team of five hijackers intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the northern facade of the North Tower . At 9:03 a.m. ET , a second team of five hijackers intentionally crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the southern facade of the South Tower . After burning for 56 minutes , the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m . At 10:28 a.m. , the North Tower collapsed , after burning for 102 minutes . The attacks on the World Trade Center killed 2,753 people . The resulting collapse caused structural failure in many of the surrounding buildings as well , and the entire complex was soon destroyed
American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11
World Trade Center (2001–present)