Twenty-five years ago today, the world watched an event unfold that would change international history.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, hijacked passenger aircraft were deliberately flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Within hours, both towers had collapsed.

Nearly 3,000 people were dead.

The consequences would reach far beyond Manhattan.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, we are announcing the release of a new Bill Stewart investigation examining the Twin Towers and the events surrounding 9/11.

Going Back to the Evidence

Much of what happened on 11 September is familiar.

The images have been replayed for a quarter of a century.

But understanding the event requires considerably more than watching the television footage.

The new investigation returns to the documented record and examines the sequence of events before, during and after the attacks.

It looks at the preparation undertaken by the hijackers, the intelligence warnings that existed beforehand, the events aboard the aircraft, the experience of those trapped inside the World Trade Center and the enormous emergency response that followed.

It also examines one of the most important questions surrounding the disaster: how two of the most recognisable skyscrapers in the world could suffer catastrophic structural collapse.

102 Minutes That Changed History

The period between the first aircraft striking the North Tower and the collapse of that building lasted little more than an hour and a half.

Yet during that short period, thousands of individual decisions were made.

People attempted to escape.

Others went back to help colleagues.

Emergency workers climbed upwards while occupants came down.

Families made final telephone calls.

Air traffic controllers struggled to understand an unprecedented series of hijackings.

Political and military leaders attempted to determine whether further attacks were coming.

Those minutes transformed the world.

Airport security changed.

Intelligence agencies changed.

Military strategy changed.

Foreign policy changed.

Wars followed.

And phrases such as the War on Terror became part of everyday language.

A Personal Memory

For author Bill Stewart, the book also carries a personal memory.

He had recently joined a vessel and was sitting in his day room with the television switched on when footage of the aircraft striking the towers appeared.

For several moments he believed he was watching a film trailer.

Then came the realisation that the pictures were live news.

Like millions of people around the world, he watched events that seemed almost impossible unfold in real time.

That memory has remained with him for twenty-five years.

Remembering the People

Above everything else, the story of the Twin Towers is a human one.

Office workers.

Visitors.

Aircraft passengers and crews.

Firefighters.

Police officers.

Paramedics.

Families.

People who left home on an ordinary September morning with no reason to believe that they would not return.

This new investigation seeks to place those people at the centre of the story while examining the evidence surrounding one of the defining events of the twenty-first century.

The new Twin Towers investigation by Bill Stewart is available now.

You can discover this book alongside the growing collection of disaster, aviation, maritime and historical investigations from Stewart Independent Publishing Group here at Billy’s Book Club — Books worth talking about.