9/11 Behavior Analysis

Wells Bruce

9/11 Behavior Analysis

        The attacks made towards the United States on September 11th, 2001 will always be a terrible tragedy. For most, these attacks were felt but not firsthand because they were not involved directly in the attacks. However for those directly affected by these events, their lives will forever be impacted by the terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. The thoughts and feelings of those that experienced these attacks personally are indescribable. However each person’s decisions and reactions were most likely different from the next person. The terrorist conducting the attacks had a certain behavior, while the passengers had a completely different behavior, with very different emotions.

        For those that perished during the 9/11 atrocities, no one knows for sure how they reacted or what they did during the attack, however there can always be speculation on how each person behaved. For the Islamic terrorists, their behavior was simply sickening and extremely wrong, but somehow they believed what they were doing was right. The only explanation for their behavior would be their upbringing and the nurturing they received as children. It is very sad as many of the children raised in the middle-east are raised around terrorism and must conform to these vicious group’s violence. However, what the passengers on these planes were going through is something no one could ever imagine. Their brain most likely entered “fight or flight” mode once they realized what was going on in order to survive. This mindset could be seen with many of the passengers on United Flight 93, as they fought back against the terrorists, crashing the plane in a field, instead of in Washington D.C. where it was headed towards. For those few people that were flight crew on each plane, their behavior might have been slightly different than the passengers would have been. The crew most likely felt a sense of responsibility to keep all the passengers calm during this time of crisis, attempting to give off a composed feel even though they were as scared as anyone on that plane. Obviously, the people on the ground during this petrifying time did not have the same fear and reaction that any person on the planes had, but they had to have a strong sense of fear as well. Most of the people on the ground would be expected to check on all of their loved-ones to make sure they are okay. However it is possible that the people on the ground that were affected by these attacks developed forms of PTSD because of how traumatic this day was. For the U.S. government, their reaction would have to be of someone in complete shock. A tragedy of this magnitude in the mighty United States was unheard of and then having multiple attacks at once on the public had to raise many concerns for our government officials. These attacks raised many concerns for those officials, eventually leading them to increase security severally, perhaps coming from a sense of guilt. However what would have happened if all these passengers had ten more minutes? I believe that with a little more time, at least two of the four planes could have been saved. The planes that hit the twin towers were unable to be stopped because they came out of nowhere, but for the planes that hit the Pentagon and crashed in Pennsylvania, I believe with a little more time that they would have been able to take the plane back and bring it to safety.