The Boeing 767 that was American Airlines Flight 11 completed an unapproved, L-shaped path through bright blue skies that covered roughly three hundred miles from Boston, west to Albany, then south over the streets of Manhattan. At the last millisecond of its trip, at a speed estimated at 440 miles per hour,53 the silver plane’s nose touched the glass and steel of the north face of the 96th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
