Photos: 9/11 victim identified 11 years after attack on US

Photos: 9/11 victim identified 11 years after attack on US

Eleven years after the September 11 attacks, the New York City coroner has identified the remains of the 1,634th victim.

The remains were positively identified as belonging to Anna Laverty, 52, one of the 2,753 people killed when passenger planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda militants slammed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
No human remains have been linked to 1,119 of the victims, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which announced the latest positive identification on Thursday.
Since 2006, authorities have selected 6,134 bone fragments and 1,845 other remains for advanced DNA testing, which has led to the identification of 34 victims.

 Terror on the Ground 

 Still from video by Evan Fairbanks, Magnum PhotosAt 9:03 a.m. ET United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower, as seen in a still from a video taken from the ground on 9/11.

By hijacking four planes as part of the 9/11 attacks, terrorists took the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
National Geographic photo editors have chosen 25 iconic images that tell the stories of one of the country's darkest days.
"After ten years, I think many of the images from 9/11 still convey the rawness and brutality of the attack. It seems to me that they still have the capacity to shock," said Clifford Chanin, an executive at New York City's National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and editor of Memory Remains, a photographic book of 9/11 artifacts.

"Falling Man"

Photograph by Richard Drew, AP

This famous photograph, known as "Falling Man," captures the plunge of an unknown victim of 9/11 from the north tower—one of many who jumped or fell to their deaths from the upper floors of the World Trade Center.
The decision to publish or censor such images was polarizing in 2001.
"In the museum we are going to be showing images of people falling from the buildings, but they are going to be in a special alcove where people will have some type of advance notice of the content," said Chanin, of the national 9/11 memorial.
"We recognize that these images are not for everybody. But we also recognize that the conditions in extremis that these people found themselves in are a critical part of the story. And we can show that without identifying who those people are."

 

Before the Collapse

Photograph by Spencer Platt, Getty Images

People evacuate New York City's Financial District on 9/11 as both World Trade Center towers burn.
Within minutes, these scenes of orderly retreat would be replaced with images of widespread destruction and chaos, as the twin towers collapsed and choked city streets with dust and debris.

 

Attack on the Pentagon

Still from video by CNN via Getty Images

A video still shows American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the western side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, at 9:37 a.m. ET on 9/11, claiming the lives of 59 persons on board.
In addition, 125 military and civilian employees at work inside the Pentagon were killed by the crash.

Direct Evidence

Photograph from U.S. District Court via European Pressphoto Agency

This picture of a piece of United Airlines Flight 93 lying in a Pennsylvania field on September 14 was introduced as evidence during the trial that linked Zacarias Moussaoui to al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks.
Moussaoui was sentenced to life without parole in 2006.

Frozen Moment

Photograph by Thomas Nilsson, Getty Images

The World Trade Center's south tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. ET on 9/11, bringing the disaster that had been unfolding far above the street crashing down to engulf those below.
"I see a lot of images like these, and there is something about that frozen moment that captures the essence of what happened," Chanin said.
"While video incorporates the shock and the response and the aftermath, these particular photos get just that very moment. There is nothing really like them."

Pentagon Fire

Photograph by Jim Varhegyi, U.S. Air Force via Getty Images

Firefighters battle a spreading blaze at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on 9/11.
Five minutes after the building was hit, the Federal Aviation Authority grounded all flights over or headed toward the continental United States. Less than ten minutes after the impact, evacuations began at the White House and the U.S. Capitol.

Street in Ruins

Photograph by Jason Florio, Corbis

A lone person stands on a New York City street, seen after the twin towers' collapse on 9/11.
"Even after ten years, as I look at these photos they still seem really raw, and that quality of unreality that people expressed in the days just after the attack comes back to me as well," Chanin said.
"Sometimes, even after ten years, it's still hard to believe that this actually happened."

Fleeing the Fire

Photograph by Jose Jimenez, Primera Hora/Getty Images

Driven to the brink by fires and scorching temperatures during the 9/11 attacks, people near the top of the World Trade Center's north tower hang from windows as high as 1,300 feet (400 meters) above the streets of New York City.
Such images were extremely controversial ten years ago but have since become more accepted—if no less disturbing, Chanin said.
"I think one of the things that's happened is that we recognize one way to represent the depravity at the core of the motivation for the attacks is by showing the people who were caught above the impact and the choices that they were confronted with at the ends of their lives. I think that's become an essential part of the story."

Enveloped in Ash

Photograph by Stan Honda, AFP/Getty Images

Marcy Borders is enveloped in ash after she escaped the World Trade Center's south tower to take shelter in the lobby of a nearby office building.
The south tower burned for nearly an hour before it collapsed, claiming the lives of some 600 people inside the building and in the surrounding area.
The north tower burned for over an hour and a half before meeting a similar fate—-and killing another 1,400 people.

 

 

Moment of Impact

Photograph by Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Smoke and flames billow as United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the World Trade Center's south tower on 9/11, killing everyone aboard and hundreds more inside the building.
In New York, the crashes of two airliners hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists and the subsequent collapse of the twin towers killed some 2,800 people.

9/11 Firefighter

Photograph courtesy John Labriola

While most able-bodied occupants of the north tower fled down stairwells to safety, firefighters such as Mike Kehoe (pictured) headed up to help the wounded.
Kehoe's Ladder 11 firehouse lost six men that day, but he survived to face a life forever changed not only by 9/11 but by the iconic image in which he unwittingly appeared.
"In some ways Mike Kehoe came to symbolize the firefighters," Chanin said.

 

Assisting the Wounded

Photograph by Mark Faram, Navy Times via AP

A wounded man outside the Pentagon's west entrance receives medical help from emergency workers on 9/11. A priest says prayers over him.
In addition to the Pentagon's 125 casualties, some 106 people were seriously injured by fires following the direct hit on the building, the epicenter of U.S. military strength.

9/11 Rescuers

Photograph by Mario Tama, Getty Images

An injured rescue worker is pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 13, 2001.
In all, 343 firefighters and paramedics were killed on 9/11, as were 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers.

 

 

 

 

Running for Their Lives

Photograph by Suzanne Plunkett, AP

People run through the New York streets as the World Trade Center collapses behind them, blotting out blue skies and filling the air with enormous clouds of debris and ash.
The international nature of New York City meant that 9/11 had a truly global reach—citizens of some 115 nations were killed that morning.

 

 

Escaping New York

Photograph by Daniel Shanken, AP

New York City's workday world was turned on its head by the catastrophic events of 9/11.
This inbound view of the Brooklyn Bridge shows a route taken by many commuters earlier that morning turned into the site of a mass exodus as people walk out of a smoky and chaotic Manhattan.

Ground Zero

Photograph by Alex Fuchs, AFP/Getty Images

The smoldering remains of the World Trade Center lie at the center of what would soon be dubbed ground zero. As the tenth anniversary of the attacks approaches this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the term should now be phased out.
"We will never forget the devastation of the area that came to be known as ground zero. Never. But the time has come to call those 16 acres [6.5 hectares] what they are: The World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum," he said during a recent speech hailing rebuilding efforts.