Everything we know about the three 9/11 victims who have been identified almost 24 years later

After three 9/11 victims were identified earlier last week - almost three decades on from the horrific September 2001 attack - a number of questions have been raised by onlookers.

For those out of the loop with the monumental developments, on Thursday, 7 August, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) announced that, due to DNA analysis, they could release the full names, ages, and origins of three new victims.

What happened during the terror attack?

On 11 September 2001, a total of four commercial planes carrying passengers were hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda.

Under terrorist control, two of these jets plummeted into the two World Trade Centre Twin Tower buildings in lower Manhattan, both of which previously made up the iconic skyline of New York City.

Within the hour, both the North and South Towers collapsed to the ground as a result of the damage sustained from the impacts, as well as the resulting fires.

A total of four planes were hijacked on September 11, 2001 (Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images)

A third jet crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, whilst the fourth crashed into an empty Pennsylvania field while attempting to make it to the White House in Washington, D.C - the passengers on the plane fought back against the terrorists who had hijacked the plane, but sadly nobody survived.

The devastating attacks were said to have taken the lives of almost 3,000 people in total - an estimated 2,700 occurred in New York.

That said, however, according to Indy100, only 1,653 of these individuals have since been positively identified by responding authorities - including the three announced last week.

Who are the latest victims?

The first of the three victims to have been positively identified is 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald - a New York local from Floral Park.

According to OMCE, he'd purchased his own property in Manhattan weeks prior to the 9/11 attacks, having landed a job as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust Company International.

Ryan Fitzgerald had been working in the South Tower when the second hijacked plane struck (Family Handout)

Tragically, he'd been inside the South Tower the day of the attack, having called his family member in the minutes earlier, letting them know that the North Tower had been struck, but that he was safe and preparing to leave the building.

The second of the newly-released victims is 72-year-old Barbara Keating of Palm Springs, California.

Having previously run a church, the cancer survivor had been travelling from Logan International Airport in Boston to New York City, having enjoyed a summer vacation in Massachusetts.

Tragically, the American Airlines flight she'd boarded subsequently hit the North Tower.

A third victim - an adult woman - has also been positively identified, yet her name will be withheld as per the wishes of her family.

How were the victims identified?

In the decades since the attack, over 20,000 body parts of bone fragments have been analysed by scientists and compared to the DNA of the remaining families who've long missed them.

Barbara Keating was the second victim to be named (Family Handout)

In Fitzgerald's case, his remains were sadly recovered from the wreck the following year, as per News 12. For Keating, a hairbrush was used to identify her as a victim of the heartbreaking attack.

The third, unnamed woman's identification is the result of 'ongoing outreach to families for DNA reference samples'.

Dr Jason Graham, New York City's chief medical examiner, told press this week: "This is the most complex forensic DNA identification effort in history, and it stems from the largest mass murder in U.S. history."

He continued of the mission as a whole: "Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Centre, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever.

"Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honouring the lost."