In the first of a three-part review of the year, CHRIS TITLEY recalls the fateful day all things changed

WHO can imagine what was going through the minds of the hijackers that morning? The rest of the world was blissfully ignorant of the inferno that was about to rain from the skies. In York, people were enjoying a lunch break. In New York, they were travelling to their offices on a crisp, blue morning, thoughts on the routine day ahead.

But Mohammed Atta and the other 18 plotters knew this was not a routine day. Not that you would have guessed from pictures taken by the airport security cameras. On these they look preternaturally calm.

That composure must have masked inner turmoil. If the Osama bin Laden video tape is to be believed, the terrorists had just received their orders: hijack American planes and crash them into high-profile targets.

Considering the amount of flight training they had undertaken, training which never involved take-off or landing, it would be foolish to think their mission was a surprise. Yet when the hour came, their nerves must have been raw. Armed only with box-cutter knives, the task they faced was monumental, in more ways than one.

Yes, they must have been nervous, because whatever else these men were, they were human. Which only invites the question: What sort of human can destroy so many innocent lives? Who can labour so determinedly and skilfully to kill themselves, the terrified and weeping children on board the hijacked planes, the thousands innocently trapped inside the target buildings?

What sort of human? The sort who has immutable faith that he is about to be catapulted into paradise. That is the closest we can get to understanding the hijackers.

They executed their orders with chilling brilliance. So effective were they at avoiding Western intelligence, the first anyone outside of the aircraft knew of the attacks was when those mobile phone calls started.

Michael Woodward, a flight services manager at Logan airport in Boston, was one to receive a call - from flight attendant Madeline Sweeney, on board American Airlines flight 11.

The plane had been hijacked she told him. A man's throat was cut, and he appeared to be dead. She gave details of the terrorists' seat numbers before Woodward asked if she knew her location.

"I see water and buildings. Oh my God! Oh my God!" The line went dead. The water would have been New York's Hudson River.

At 8.48am, US Eastern time, flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines flight 175 hit the south tower. At the precise moment that this fireball erupted, the free world knew it was under attack.

We watched the events unfold on television. When reports came in that the Pentagon had been hit and another plane was missing, it seemed as if World War Three was starting, live on all channels. This was too much to absorb. The spectacle left us numbly acknowledging that it resembled a Hollywood movie; only later did the shock of seeing so many people perish in front of our eyes sink in.

So many images were burned into our consciousness that day. The explosions; tiny specks plummeting to earth from the towers, their only way out; the graceful collapse of the skyscrapers; the look of shock on George Bush's face when an aide whispered the news into his ear; New Yorkers looking like ghosts, cement-grey dust covering their business suits and briefcases.

After the death and the horror came the grief and the heroism. We learned that the plane that crashed in a field near Pittsburgh had been forced down by passengers to avert greater disaster. Some 300 of the New York firefighters who went on a rescue mission in the twin towers never came back.

North Yorkshire firefighters immediately launched an appeal for their stricken Stateside comrades, and raised more than £100,000. Local people flocked to special church services, including one at York Minster. A book of condolences in the Asda supermarket, Monks Cross, soon began to fill up with heartfelt messages.

Fears of further attacks grew. A Leeds academic dressed in a full biological warfare suit to warn of the dangers of chemical strikes. Then, to add to the mood of terror, a postal anthrax campaign in the US claimed five lives and caused widespread panic.

Initial global shock at the air attacks soon gave way to a new international resolve that this must never be allowed to happen again. With President Bush, Tony Blair took the lead in helping to establish a world coalition against terrorism. America identified Saudi Arabian dissident Osama bin Laden, by then sheltered by the extremist Taliban regime in Afghanistan, as its number one target.

Nato offered unprecedented support to the US, and we waited for the bombing to begin in Afghanistan. And waited. The Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, expressed the widely-held belief that any war would have to be as a last resort. As it was, President Bush belied his "wanted, dead or alive" rhetoric and was remarkably restrained. America's mighty firepower was held in check until October 7, nearly a month after the New York and Washington atrocities.

On that day, at about 5.30pm, the air attacks began, with millions of pounds worth of missiles exploding in the Afghan capital of Kabul. This prompted peace campaigners to take to the streets in York and across the country.

However, opinion polls, including those in the Evening Press, showed a healthy majority in favour of the military action sanctioned by both Tony Blair and George Bush. Remarkably, this was one war that was really was all but over by Christmas.

Astonishing American air power, combined with Afghan opposition force the Northern Alliance, proved to be too much for the Taliban, who were routed. An interim Afghan government is being installed today, and a UN peacekeeping force formed.

But there are too many unanswered questions for us to look forward with great certainty. Where is bin Laden? How has his al-Qaeda terrorist network survived the war? Will the US stop here - or pursue Saddam Hussein and Iraq?

Will Son Of Star Wars go ahead, with its profound implications for North Yorkshire? President Bush seems determined to continue, despite recent events confirming the view that terrorism is at least as great a threat to freedom and security as "rogue states".

Will we feel safer in 2002? It is too early to tell. Yesterday, on the 100th day since September 11, New York firefighters finally extinguished the fires in the remains of the World Trade Centre and brought out more bodies.

It is far too early to tell.

Updated: 10:19 Friday, December 21, 2001