National Tragedy

President Bush called the events a "national tragedy" as an emergency government crisis team rallied in Washington D.C.

Shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the southern tower, Two World Trade Center collapsed in what witnesses described as a demolition crew operation, at about 10 a.m. ET. At 10:30 a.m. ET, the northernmost tower, One World Trade Center, also collapsed.

There were no immediate details available on casualties, but thousands of people work in the buildings affected.

The West Wing of the White House and the Capitol have both been evacuated, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued an order that no plane was allowed to take off anywhere in the country. All military bases were put on Threatcon Alpha, the highest level of alert, after the attacks, which came without any warning.

At least one military fighter jet patrolled the skies above Manhattan this morning in the wake of the tragedy.

"Today we`ve had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on this country," President Bush said.

Police in Washington blocked off a two-block perimeter around the White House.

Agents with automatic weapons, machine guns were trying to move tourists out of the area, locking down entire buildings around the White House.

Cell phones may have been deliberately turned off because of fear that cell phones could be used to detonate a bomb.

There were no immediate reports of how many were injured or the extent of damages at the twin towers, or at the Pentagon.

A government source requesting anonymity told ABCNEWS that the FBI was investigating reports of three plane hijackings. One of the flights was American Airlines flight 11, which departed from Boston`s Logan International Airport at 8 a.m. bound or Los Angeles.

"It`s simply a jetliner, it`s extremely reliable flown by two [people], could have been three in the cockpit," ABC aviation expert John Nance said of the Boeing 767, the plane hijacked from Boston. "The door is flimsy — anyone who wants to get through that door can get through that door."

Nationwide Alert

All New York City area airports were closed down shortly after the second WTC crash, and armed military aircraft imposed a no-fly zone around the city to prevent further attacks.

In Chicago, the Sears Tower was evacuated and the police department went on heightened alert.

"Usually the building is so full of activity, and now there`s no one in the hallways. It`s creepy," Cathy Grable, a 31-year-old interior designer, told the Associated Press.

Witnesses speaking in the moments after the first crash told WABC that the first plane seemed to try to avoid the northern tower, One World Trade Center, but could not, plowing into the top floors of the north side of the northernmost tower at about 8:48 a.m. ET.

As television camera crews filmed the billowing black smoke, a second plane, which appeared to be a Boeing 737, flew toward the towers from the west and crashed into the southern tower, Two World Trade Center, about 20 to 25 floors from the top.

The witnesses described the first plane as a small twin-engine passenger jet. The witnesses said it appeared that most of the jet stuck inside the building.

"Papers were billowing down and it looked like the wing crashed down to the street causing a panic on the highway and cars hit each other. People were in a panic. Things look in better control now," a witness from the Dow Jones offices in the neighboring World Financial Center said.

There was no immediate word on injuries or fatalities in the twin disasters.

Police, fire and emergency personnel were already on the scene attempting to deal with the first disaster when the second plane struck.

Jennifer Tammi, 33, a doctoral student taking an elevated subway train from her home in Brooklyn to Columbia University in upper Manhattan, was watching the smoke from the first explosion when she saw the second plane hit the other tower.

"I was looking at the smoke and saw a plane heading low over lower Manhattan," she said. "It banked and headed straight for the middle of the other tower. It looked like it flew right through the building."

Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings, landmark twin towers, which were struck by terrorist bombers in February 1993.

The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke.

Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said.

Commodity trading in the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) shut down after the crashes.

"They`ve evacuated the building," Mike McDougall, vice president of the Latin American desk at FIMAT USA Inc., told Reuters.

Brokers said business in NYBOT, which is located in the WTC complex and trades raw sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton and orange juice, has been suspended.

The World Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26, 1993, left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others.

In 1945, an Army Air Corps B-25, a twin-engine bomber, crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in dense fog.

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Author: ABC NEWS