Eyewitness to 9/11: Behind the Lens | Original News Coverage

foreign [Music] it was a day that you'll never forget it's also a day that you know you really don't want to remember nothing compared to 911 nothing compared the sound and what I felt it will never Escape me this is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center you can see the firemen assembled here the police officers FBI agents and you can see the two towers a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us we better get out of the way you know you look up and you see one World Trade Center with your eyes but you don't see one World Trade Center in your mind you see two buildings on fire terror and fear and running on the street again people were scattering for cover get out get out get out get out this is just so much bigger than we thought we had no idea nobody's safe we're not safe even near all these little buildings we're not safe I could see the tail of a jetliner dip dip turn that fast would you hold on just a moment we've got an explosion inside I remember just saying Nina we've got to get down we've got to get down as far as all my colleagues you know I thought everybody was gone the building collapsed I'm not there anymore the whole side has collapsed the building has collapsed with that cloud of smoke it just was a whole new approach to things come on let's go let's go egg and mians come on come on the way like a movie scene it just sort of came up the street behind us I don't think you could be that close to 3 000 people dying and emotionally spiritually not just feel that way on you well I can see a people people hurt children without mothers and fathers tonight and that's for us we were covering it these families that never were the same again I have much much bigger burden than we do you rolling okay foreign [Music] all right let's go right to it it was like a day I can't forget it was a beautiful Tuesday with fluffy white clouds in the sky and it was it was just gorgeous it's one of those great spectacular days that you didn't ever think anything but it's great to be in this city and it turned out to be you know the backdrop for one of the worst days it was election day it was primary election day here in New York City you know ready for a for an interesting primary trying to pick the next mayor of New York it was supposed to be a simple Tuesday and I think I'm going to have an easy day right you come in at seven you go home at three hopefully you have no five o'clock live shot when people say this came out of the Clear Blue Sky it really did I was in the RF room which stands for radio frequency waiting for the chopper to fire up a signal the chopper pilot said to me that he sees smoke coming from the towers one of the towers I made sure there was a tape rolling I ran upstairs to The Newsroom I told everybody to look at the Alpine receiver to make sure that they could see what was going on my first thought was you know a Piper Cub or you know a small plane or something must have hit it and as I walked into the room I saw a smoke billowing off of one of the cameras that we had and all of a sudden a plane a plane just came into the World Trade Center I was like what what breaking news get in control and I said you're kidding he says no plane hit the building the desk started getting some phone calls that it might have been a small plane that it crashed no one thought at all that we were under attack at that point we didn't know the size of the plane we didn't know anything about the plane we just knew that a plane had gone into one of the towers and I looked at that and said uh oh I gotta get to work and I jumped out of bed I don't even know if I brushed my teeth I threw on whatever was there literally ran to the station we assigned producers to the control rooms and he said we need to get this on the air this is The News Leader ABC 7 Eyewitness News again what we know in case you're just joining us a small plane ran into the north side of the World Trade Center get through the control room on the way call Bill Ritter so I call Bill we don't know what it what really happened but you know might be a small plane we just don't know let's get any right away and I wanted all our you know all our evening anchors in here to lead our coverage we got a phone call and it was one of the assignment editors on the desk and a plane hit the World Trade Center and we started walking out to the aircraft and you get out on the ramp here and you could see the city and I could see the smoke coming off the twin towers and we knew at that point that this was this was real this was something big I was right in this area and the News assignment desk is right there you can always hear what they're saying especially when they're screaming and the News was we got a plane down seems like it's a small plane it hit one of the buildings chaos and eyewitness news is usually a well-oiled machine and I walked in and seasoned veterans on the assignment desk were running around phones were ringing I get this crazy call from the desk somebody's hit the World trades and our plane ran into the World Trade Center and the initial thought was what some small plane pilot couldn't get his bearing straight on this absolutely spectacular day what is this this is ridiculous and that very moment is when everything changed and everybody went into full defensive mode news Gathering and it was just a sight to be seen we were basically sending everybody down to the World Trade Center we didn't know what we were dealing with calling every car just the mobiles mobile 15 are you in Mobile 10 are you in are you in go downtown go downtown find a crew get down there let us know when you're there take Joe Torres with you and get down there I just ran out the door I said okay I'll jump in whatever truck just as I got to the corner of 67th and Columbus she was standing there she put her hand up she jumped in the truck and we zoomed downtown First Responders needed to get their doctors we weren't as a journalist you're not at that level but you knew that there was a job to do that we had to be on the air that we had to be there Marty was coming out of the garage knocked on the window jumped in the Ford Explorer I said you and me let's go jumped in the helicopter and started up and started flying towards the city and the first thing we noticed was that Newark Airport which is a couple miles from here cleared us in a straight line to the World Trade Center which is very unusual because of the approach path coming in you're right in the line of all the approaches going into Newark they cleared us straight which meant there was nothing coming into Newark and we didn't really think about it we just knew it was unusual but it was better for us because it was a straight line I remember coming into the room and John was already flying he was already talking to me about what was you know what he saw you know he's you know you saw building smoke coming from you know the uh from the World Trade Center we were over Bayonne and I went to talk to my pilot and behind him out the window I could see another airplane down by the Verrazano Bridge and it was passenger airplane the initial Instinct as we're always flying and sharing the skies I asked Paul do you have this guy meaning do you have visual contact do you know he's there and he said yeah I got him and newark's not even pointing them out to me on the radio I heard John like scream he goes oh my God a plane just flew underneath me he goes and it's like right on right on the deck he said it's right going right over the Bay going right towards the World Trade Center I saw the United Airlines on the side of the airplane and it had no business being at that altitude it was low as low as we were and it was fast and it was right mid span over the Verrazano a few miles away from us and it shouldn't have been there and as you look back on it now you say that was totally out of place but we had him in sight from a safety standpoint we were satisfied with that I went back to doing something and looked back out the window and it was us and the statue and the World Trade Center and I could see the tale of a jetliner dip dip turn that fast very abrupt not something you would normally see and it was just Instinct I turned the camera pointed it that direction reach down to press play and record on the old deck and looked at my Monitor and the fireball was there [Music] hold on just a moment we got an explosion inside and it started the process immediately and I asked Paul I said where is that airplane meaning the one that we had seen and he was already saying that was him that was him oh my God that was him the people here are nobody's panicking I was in shock for a second and I got out one call to the assignment desk immediately I said chop 7 news desk another airplane hit the building and the dust came back to me and said what did you say and I lost my radios all of our repeaters were on top of the building and whatever power was left in that run was enough to get another plane hit the building what did you say and I had nothing I lost my air signal I lost Communications with the station so at that point it's Paul and I out there all by ourselves after we realized that the second plane hit a second tower I ran upstairs at that point and I told everybody hey a second plane just crashed in to the second tower I remember belowski saying we just got video of a second plane hitting the tower in this we're in live coverage in like a couple seconds there's the second plane another passenger plane hitting the World Trade Center and then I remember going to delgiorno have you on the line John what can you tell us Johnny with us we also lost ifb for John to hear off air and eventually you know I figured out that if I took the microphone and I put it up to one of the TVs one of the off air programs he could hear the radio and I hear hey John can you hear me John are you with us see he doesn't realize we're cueing him just uh north of Midtown Manhattan or over the west side of Manhattan here at 79th Street looking South towards the World Trade Center just an absolutely staggering sight as both towers of the World Trade Center currently billowing in Smoke and he describes how the plane actually slams into the building and is completely inside the building we were on our way to the scene and we witnessed a second airplane so the type of plane from what I believe in my experience to be a Boeing 737 and from his angle you can actually see the plane wedged into the second tower and you can see both Towers burning I think everybody pretty much knew this was no accident now it's clear you have one you have two you know what's happening and you're already thinking is there another one coming and I'm in an aircraft and if it's behind me I'm not going to see it all these things are racing through your mind that quickly but if I'm going to be out here in this I might as well do the job [Music] we are flying downtown getting close to the World Trade Center you see people streaming Uptown just people are flowing Uptown like I've never seen before people are crying people are hysterical as we came in we came over the Henry Hudson Bridge and the bridge was being shut down as we approached it I think they led us through because we're a news vehicle they shut the road down behind us I remember having this conversation with Marty along the way where I said we should really try to get into the tower so we can document the firefighters and their heroism and their dedication and how they were going to be getting people out of the building and saving people I said we need to go show that he's like that's great let's do it we went down the West Side Highway we pulled over and and what we knew was go live as fast as possible the city shut down the southbound Lanes of the West of the West Side Highway so that that was the first crew that started bringing us from the ground shots we get down to the scene and there's a jet engine laying on the corner just blocks away a plane engine sits on the sidewalk burned I'm looking up I couldn't believe what I was seeing the gash in the building and I saw all of that thick black smoke billowing out of the first tower that was hit and my first thought was well that's not a small plane that's way too much smoke we didn't believe it till we saw it because we're going down Ninth Avenue we really couldn't see it and then we cut over to Washington Street and that's when you could start seeing the World Trade Center on the inside of it actually red hot inside there I was getting phone calls from Network what do you see what do you see what is that and I said sir I'm no expert on holes in buildings made by planes that is a huge hole I told Michelle we're not going any further when we got to Canal Street Michelle said why I said because we're here to document the story not to be the story if that thing falls down we're going to get crushed we're going to die we went on the set really not knowing a whole lot you knew something was bad you just weren't getting the pieces of what it was yet the story was evolving so quickly to keep updating updating updating and we actually had a lot of people calling in to smash right dead into the center of the World Trade Center people describe what happened like a drunk driver it just kept on going and realized what was going on and tried to turn to the left one of the most memorable ones is somebody that was on 60 someth floor calling in saying I'm here I am here and I'm stuck right now now sure that I'm above or below where the plane hit are you above Jim or below I have no idea I have no idea where the plane hit right now everything's under control I want to tell anybody that has a family member that may be in the building that the situation is under control for the moment they of course ended up dying when the buildings collapsed continuous breaking news story like that that doesn't really have an end is that the especially the first couple hours the flood of information that came how do you separate X happens and is it tied to y or and if it's not then what's a tie do is it just coincidence or circumstances this is not an accident this is Terror and we knew it we didn't have confirmation on it but your heart your heart knew it and it was scary it was very very scary to think that we were being attacked by that time Jim Dolan came in and he came on the set it was 8 48 this morning when the world changed forever for a number of reasons they had me go to the Anchor desk that day in part because I had a background in covering terrorism I was interested in it I knew whose while here he was I knew who Bin Laden was I knew a little bit about Al Qaeda multiple attacks fit into the al-Qaeda plan all of this fit into what Al Qaeda had already been doing around the world terrorism was something that happened elsewhere it wasn't that much longer after that President Bush from Florida closed before cameras and says terrorism against our nation will not stand it was the first time we were experiencing an attack on America this big and people trying to process that they're using planes as missiles to try and and bring down those two buildings I remember we got down fairly close to the towers and it was just a chaotic scene I remember seeing lots of debris metal paper raining down from The Towers smoke billowing out our job as reporters is to get as close as possible to see what's going on so we were just you know getting down there as quickly as possible without knowing what we were walking into and I remember thinking I can't get down there fast enough and I saw a delivery man and I said I need your bike I'm a newscaster I need your bike I've got to get down there I remember just pedaling and pedaling when we got probably a block or two away a police officer started going go back screaming go back go back and that's when I saw Lauren glassberg it was chaos I mean people were screaming and looking up and I just sort of wandered around trying to figure out what exactly was going on and I remember standing on a street corner and saw Nina Pineda who is one of my best friends we saw each other we saw the police officer the police officer was screaming get down get back if a first responder was telling me get down there's going to be an explosion then I better probably listen as the guy is screaming he's like take cover so Lauren and I crouch behind a car remember just saying Nina we've got to get down we've got to get down I remember being afraid for her for me [Music] she was my best friend kind of holding on to each other I'm sure she said glassy we're going to be all right totally Nina and then we we realized okay we have a second here maybe to get further away let's get back up and keep going I don't think you could be that close to 3 000 people dying and emotionally spiritually not just feel that way on you I mean it took us a long time to function as humans and that's for us we're recovering it these families that never were the same again have much much bigger burden than we do [Music] oh you know I hadn't seen Marty in probably 10 years to see him it it I mean it brought me back to that day but it also reminded me of this bond that we have because of what we went through together so we came in here and then we parked right there [Music] we got to within one block of the World Trade Center got out of the truck grabbed the gear I mean you can see in the video we we get to the towers you can see that I I look up and you can see the expression on my face I mean I'm just I'm just horrified I'm in awe I'm horrified you couldn't imagine this you know you look up and you see one World Trade Center with your eyes but you don't see one World Trade Center in your mind you see two buildings on fire and as we came through here I think that's when I understood what was happening that's when I started to see the debris that's when I started to understand what was happening it's all you know still very Vivid to me 20 years later 20 years later I can I can hear the sounds I I almost feel like I I can smell that smell of that day the the smoke is burning um you don't forget that ever and the firemen were all gathered in this area in here exactly where we were right there yeah so so this is it it is I can hear it I can still hear it but we were standing right there and that's where we shot the two stand-ups when you get that close to a story you assume that you're not going to be able to stay there for too long all right take one take one and two so I said to Martius well look while we're here why don't I shoot something on camera he's like great idea let's do that so take one this is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center you can see the two towers debris continues to fall and to rain on the people below I do take one and I don't like it pick two I said okay take two this is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center you can see the firemen assembled here the police officers FBI agents and you can see the two towers a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us we better get out of the way there's this Roar that you never forget it was you the firefighters who were here and I remember tilting up and it wasn't until I opened up my left eye it's when my my world changed because my my brain became one solid sphere of survival but I knew I was going to perish I knew it and that is what has hurt me through the years is I saw my own death I saw the end so while Marty's still shooting I turn around and there's a door a door to an office building [Music] if that door was locked was no door if I had to run for half a block I wouldn't be here Marty wouldn't be here that video would be the last that you ever saw of me so I go through the door and I've learned to see that door as providential I've learned to view that door as the door to the rest of my life and you know I guess the big picture for me is I wonder why you wonder why we made it why we're here 20 years later hi don't wonder I know I don't don't wonder One Foot In Front of the other keep moving that's what I do I need to find [Music] some kind of good to come out of 9 11. and and that's the way I that's the only way I I feel like I can process it um and if 911 has made me a more sensitive person if 911 has made me a better journalist then that's something good that came out of something that's horrible and and that's all I can do otherwise it eats you from the inside out otherwise it becomes corrosive I needed to find a way to process it myself but I mean I ran from 911 and I need to find a way to process it better I hope at some point I can but my way of coping with all of this has been to put one foot in front of the other and not just on 911 but every day that came after that for 20 years I never say Do You Remember I never asked that correct but when I do see you I remember yes it's not that we don't want to talk about it it's we are not the story and it makes us uncomfortable even talking about that because many other people were seriously affected in ways much more grave than than The Way We Were the time seemed to stand still there's so much chaos and going on when we were on investing next to seven World Trade we saw the playing Parts like Boeing yes and then I was shooting embedded in the street right and I was shooting straight up and that's when I said Joe let's just get people well I just was in the lobby trying to get a cup of coffee heard the bang and now I'm just going around the corner see if my friends all right I can't talk I remember a firefighter up on the Plaza and he's yelling at us get out of the way you're gonna get hit by debris and that's when I say well maybe we should go to the South Tower and we're about halfway there and a dcpi police woman notices Joe and we bump into Teresa a friendly face from the New York Police Department who serves as a liaison between the media and the police she's with dcpi and we see each other we hug and embrace and she offers to bring us to West Street a news conference so we turn around and we were about the same spot where we started and then it was like an earthquake underground underground Underground and then all of a sudden everybody starts running let's go underground the thought was that something underneath that the streets is going to explode and we're running up Church Street Teresa is digging her nails into my arm as we're running I remember her screaming because she was we were fearing for our lives at that point come on come on the big white cloud coming and all sudden the FBI hit an FBI thing on he goes don't breathe it it's poison and I'm rolling still and Joe's come on let's go let's go egg and beyonces come on come on there it is there it is and I knew I was gonna outrun it so I just held my breath and it you know it just whooshed over me and I realized not dead let's just keep running because we were getting closer to get people coming out yep and we got a few um but that cloud of smoke just was a whole new approach to things the way like a movie scene it just sort of came up the street behind us I started shooting people coming out of the cloud and things covered with it we see this gentleman he identified himself as an engineer at the Port Authority and you work in number one World Trade yes I do and what floor were you uh 72nd floor and he's covered with his white dust it's white dust and he started saying well you know they're really strong buildings they're very strong buildings as you remember from the blast the last time so and all of a sudden people's in the background I see people start looking up so I pan up and there goes the North Tower you're looking at it saying I can't there's got to be two towers there I can't believe it and there's not and you literally could not believe your eyes what you were witnessing but it was real I just look back and it's like thank goodness you knew that dcpi police oh wow because that for me that is the turning point it almost seems like divine intervention at that point that steps that steps in and says you know you may not know this but I'm with you right now and the end result will be that at the end of the day you'll be alive that was almost a living example of somebody stepping in saying no you're going this way you're going this way and ultimately thank goodness we went that way I have my physical tape here from 9 11. this is what I shot this is 20 minutes long thank God it lasted to 22 minutes so I ended up right below Tower one my first shots if you look at watch the tape I'm on a tripod I have my my uh my camera on the tripod and I'm shooting up because I had an understanding of at the time that I want I was documenting history while I was shooting I saw things that people it's your worst nightmare you never want to see a body hitting the ground because it's nightmarish I couldn't imagine how hellish how horrific it was inside and I never shot somebody falling from the building because you could tell what they were wearing that would have been somebody's father somebody's brother somebody's husband somebody's Uncle so I never did it I never ever shot somebody coming falling uh to the ground and making contact what I tried to do and on my tape you can see a firefighter's reaction to it and he's a fireman you know he's maybe he has seen but their reaction was just you have to see it to fully understand how horrific it is as amazed as I am as horrified as I am just keep shooting on my tape you can see an eyewitness like it's 737 like a jet plane he mentioned you know it was you know an American Airlines a silver aircraft and I'm looking at him in amazement I'm like what he's like yeah two of them and I still don't believe the words out of his mouth and then the tower comes down and what I felt it will never Escape me the last scene of my tape one of them is a mother who has her child remember I had a seven month old at the time had her child on a Baby Bjorn right in front she was in complete distress the mother couldn't breathe I think she was hyperventilating I put my camera down this is the one time I put my camera down I tried to talk to her to calm her down [Music] um because I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have your child and have all of this Calamity around it was one of those things where I'm glad I was a human being before I was a cameraman so looking back 20 years later I don't know where she is I don't know the child must be 20 years old in a couple of months but I'm glad I did that you know I'm glad that's one of the things I stopped being a journalist and I was a father [Music] sometimes when you do a job like this you do think about the fact that something bad could happen but that was a day where really something really bad happened as soon as we got onto the streets of Manhattan there were nothing but fire engines going down like Second Avenue heading to lower Manhattan so we just tailed on to one of those folks going down and just followed them as far down as we could go and myself and my cameraman at the time we got out the truck and started walking toward the World Trade Center we're going up against waves and waves of people going in the opposite direction and here we are going in that direction toward the World Trade Center because people were leaving that area in droves just like the First World Trade Center bombing the people came out they were wet and that's how I knew who was in the building that's what I remembered from the first time because the the sprinkler system goes off in the building when something like that happens significantly more than the last one but it only lasted 10 seconds you were actually here doing the World Trade Center bombing yes you remember that in comparison you're saying was this is seems a good deal worse we were just you know out there and then I walked into a deli and when I walked into the deli I just said hey do you happen to have a restroom and the guy said sure it's right over there and as soon as he said those words I felt oh the Earth Rumble I mean it just shook and my initial reaction was that maybe they blew up the trains because it just felt like an earthquake and we ran outside and then we saw this incredibly tall stories tall cloud of debris rushing in our Direction and we were like shocked and stunned it was like here it comes so we jumped into the deli and as soon as we jumped into the deli turned around and looked back it looked like the angel of death had passed by foreign Deli window went from being bright sunlight filled to Absolute darkness and it was like you really realized that you were inside of something terrible people were putting their hands up on the glass you could see this hands prints coming across the glass as they reached and kind of crawled their fingers along the glass to find the door handle to pull it open and as they were pulling it open like I said that dust was pushing in to the store but eventually you started to see these gray figures completely top to bottom like I said you couldn't tell what they had on you couldn't tell if they were black or white you couldn't tell anything they were just completely gray tell me a little bit you could put a stationary I work for the Red Cross right the whole business went down it took maybe seven to ten minutes for the dust to kind of finally settle there was a lot of things people were looking for places to hide in in the deli because nobody just had a sense of what was going to happen we finally went back out there was still dust particles in the air it looks like a nuclear winter out here but the cloud had started to lift and it was more gray than just complete darkness we started to see stuff on the ground I still can remember there were hats you know shoes all kinds of things and the soot on the ground was several inches thick and it was just like incredible and then people were walking out of the Dust coming toward us with tears running down their faces but they're still encrusted in that gray scent he just knew that it was the worst that you ever wanted to imagine the unthinkable happened today the World Trade Center both Towers gone you don't want to get people over excited but especially in 2001 we were the main source of immediate information it wasn't like now you just pick up the phone and it's there we were pretty much it it is a scene out of Dante's Hell horrific billowing dust and smoke as the tower just kind of pancaked slowly just crumbled and you heard this this sort of Roar but muffled that's how I remember sort of being muffled and I remember as we were running away I yelled at John you rolling okay and I do remember looking at my watch and saying no world trade tower is standing time 10 30 Lower Manhattan it was sort of a way for me to keep from losing control and for me to sort of seek Refuge at that second at that time of that catastrophe in my work so that I could do it without falling apart people are running it's chaos we're all covered in dust and I look off to the side and I say is that mayor Giuliani and I say let's go and I just do what comes to mind but just stick a microphone in his face and start asking questions he knows basically what happened to airplanes stop it come with us come with us we did on that day what we always do when there's a big story we sent everybody Adam Jim Hoffer Joe Torres Stacy Sager Mina Pineda Jeff Ross Lauren glassberg ABC 7 Eyewitness News they were so close I mean that was our job we had to get to the scene the second and last Tower of the world trade tower has just collapsed but as we try to reach our reporters to get status reports and to move them around we lost total Communications yours now Michelle Michelle and then when the buildings came down keep going keep going let's go knowing that I had sent these reporters to that location and we couldn't reach anybody my first thought was oh my God I just sent all these people to their deaths family members were calling to see what how the husband's wives were doing and if you didn't see them on TV you didn't know if they were alive or dead and you don't know where they are I remember Joe's wife Fran was asking where is he because we hadn't heard from Joe Nina Lauren Anthony Johnson NJ Glenn May Rose Angelo Martin they were all down there now these are reporters photographers so we knew that they had to be among those people that were running and you're just praying that they got out of the way oh my god there it goes where are they how did they how did Marty and NJ get out what happened are they dead I couldn't imagine escaping it because it was 100 story plus building coming down all the debris that's associated with that and them escaping that I immediately thought thousands of people on the ground are dead I don't know where my colleagues are but I I really did think they were all dead when my mom called me and told me to get down there she didn't hear from me again she saw that first building go down and my whole family thought I was dead Tim I can't get through no no no they can't be busy hi this is Joe Torres put me on a phone or now uh Joe Torres who's on the phone with us Joe I'm uh on a pay phone at the corner of Berkeley and bear with me I can't see too much West Broadway I can't begin to tell you the difficulty the painfulness it is to watch this Joe Torres is on the air and he's close to the buildings nothing's falling yet and he's talking talking talking talking talking and he goes hey I see a police officer I'm gonna go talk to him I'll come back or I'll get back in touch with you guys we go to the next and the next the next and at some point his wife gets through the control room and I pick up cat it's Fran have you heard from Joe I haven't heard from him that's fine watch it coming out of the fog roll out of the fog Glenn I think I said like he's okay I know he's okay I remember saying all that and not knowing if it was true we worried how about Joe his family worried about Joe and I remember our our managers had to talk to Joe's wife and said we don't we don't have to hear from him and we're going to keep you posted so my wife being the wife of a news reporter knows that if they've gone to him live once they're going to go back to him live and now that hasn't happened why not my photographer Glenn mayros and I are safe we're okay back at St Vincent's the video was seen all over the world and it was also seen in Pittsburgh where I'm from so they had to get on the air and say if Nina's family is watching that she's alive they were pretty panicked as to our whereabouts and I can imagine that's that would have been really tough for them to not know where we are but the information started to trickle literally a trickle back to us that Joe's okay Glenn's okay Margie's okay nj's okay and that was a relief for us we were able to tell all but one family dad they were okay [Music] I knew Don since high school I brought his resume over Don was the engineer in charge of the transmitter at the top of World Trade Center Dawn was a up on that Tower we just put in a new receiver and he called and said I think we have a problem really calmly he was such a hard worker so smart and he was our guy up there by the tower and he was doing his job I remember hearing the engineers talk about our engineer being on the top floor and then we had to get him out of there but that he wouldn't go they were trying to get him to leave and he was such so dedicated that he wouldn't go [Music] he was a great employee he was at work before he was supposed to be he was there before nine o'clock when the second tower came down everybody knew what had happened that just added to the incredible pain and Agony that we all felt you know one of three thousand you know people that were whose lives were taken and it really brought it close to home it really really did he was one of the smartest people I ever met he was a good friend of mine [Music] tonight their destruction represents the depths of evil it was Go cover represent you know you're clear it's not about buildings it's about people it's about souls it's about people suffering and literally dying as you're speaking we're all New Yorkers and uh we're all Americans and watching this happen is unbelievable we've lost our Skyline and as a country I think it's fair to say we've lost our innocence you're just not ready for that and as much as you say to yourself okay I've got to get a grip here if you will I'm I've got a job to do and it's a very difficult job at this point I had never seen anything like that before and you know I've been in the news business for a while then I had been in the business for about 20 years and uh I have to say that they really uh rattled my cage it was something I had never seen before it looked upon they were covered in ashes white and gray marching up the West Side Highway desperate to get home they couldn't take the train they couldn't take a bus there was no way so ferry service started running all the ferries started coming and bringing people to New Jersey whether it takes four six ten hours to get home tonight no one here was really complaining or counting the hours they were instead counting their blessings and they lined up just wanting to get home they're thankful to be alive that's all I could say I just want to get home to my family there had been the hope that perhaps boats carrying either people who might have been seriously injured or critically injured needed some type of help or for them ferried across to New Jersey for some hospitalization 10 hours after the initial impact we were all still hoping that maybe there are people to be saved but we waited and we waited and we waited as Darkness fell and we never saw a boat my assignment for the next several days was triage was people who were getting out there were doctors on standby they were volunteers on standby there were hospitals waiting and we went to all of them but the people were never brought in you always hold that hope just a short while ago we saw a tractor-trailer we understand the first of the bodies being taken to the morgue here at Bellevue Bellevue is right next to the medical examiner's office and so I remember reporting they were bringing trucks up to the morgue even that first day refrigerated trucks were parked outside the morgue and you knew that this was going to be mass casualty I was at St Vincent for days all right we are live in front of St Vincent's Hospital and the story was didn't change people just weren't coming to the hospital because they didn't survive they are waiting anxious to treat patients who are brought in I talked to one doctor he said the adrenaline is Flowing but there's a sense of helplessness they just want to be able to help as many people as possible they're hoping that more are brought in alive it was dramatic it was very crystal clear at that point the magnitude of loss as night falls we were seeing more and more equipment coming onto the scene the plan now was to work through the night and pour as much light onto that scene as possible I remember them bringing in huge trucks to start actually trying to remove some of the debris as the night fell over the plume and the smoke and the cloud it just it continued it was just as fresh at night as it was when it happened during the day you could smell the acrid scent of that smoke and it's the scent you'll never forget I've never smelled anything like it I haven't since and I hope I never do you just you cannot describe what we later started calling the pile I mean you can't describe the dystopian Carnage that was in lower Manhattan it was a hellscape you cannot imagine and it went on forever you couldn't see the end of it it was horrifying it was it was horrifying to see what people had done to other people who would have ever thought that you would look down Sixth Avenue and those Towers would not be standing there you know um [Music] you know it's 20 years and I start talking about that day and it comes back at a time where people weren't as connected as they are now on social media the news really provided not just information but perhaps a sense of all of us being in this together as one nation one city it was the commitment to getting the story and telling it right but it was all so you know this is home and so it was an attack on on all of us New Yorkers and the rest of the world are scared they are frightened they're trying to get answers to the questions that we're trying to get answers to and everybody was suffering that day whether you lost a loved one or not this city in particular was suffering and we were trying to help them manage and get through that suffering this incident changed people you can see in your co-workers before and after you can see in the residence of New York City before and after we cover news and you know that you're going to cover bad things and you can kind of put them in a little compartment but this one was the kind of thing that just you carry with you for the rest of your life I felt like historically I want it to be known what we saw what we experienced and from my perspective I want my kids to be able to see this and I don't want it to just disappear into the ether doing my job I think and documenting it pays tribute to the people who actually never survive First Responders they're the heroes the firefighters are the heroes there's so many people who who didn't think twice about going down there when people were running away the firefighters those pictures of them walking up and then the towers come down it was just heroism at its finest I don't know that they expected the building to come down but I don't think they gave a second thought to you know heading up when all those other people were coming down I still think about the families the kids that never knew the parents there's no closure it's that scar stays right in your heart forever it scars up heals a little bit but it's not ever 20 years later I still haven't come to terms with all of it when I drive home at night and I would go to Bayonne I would see the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan in my rearview mirror and one of my favorite views is when the Sun is setting in the sky is that beautiful blue and the sun makes all those Lower Manhattan look golden I would live for that now I have a hard time looking in the rearview mirror I just don't want to be reminded of it the sadness is is still too raw for me I'm glad that I have these horrible memories just to make it clear what happened because we can never forget we can't forget the loss in the city that day and we also can't forget the resilience of the city that day bill beutel has a final thought finally tonight part of our world has fallen apart that is not a statement of Despair it is a statement of fact it was a lovely day when it began a little bit before nine o'clock 15 minutes later in lower Manhattan though all hell had broken loose the Twin Towers began to sway and then to fall we watched as our way of life began to sway in fall too Skyline is gone so this tragic story is really just beginning I'm Bill Vuitton good luck and be well [Music]

Channel: Eyewitness News ABC7NY

Views: 2,942,824

Keywords: abc7ny, eyewitness news, wabc eyewitness news, 911 footage nyc, 911 plane crash recording, 911 as it happened live, 911 footage first hit, 911 documentary, eyewitness to 911, eyewitness to 911 behind the lens, 911 behind the lens, 911 footage nyc north tower, 911 collapse scene, reporter at 911 collapse, wtc twin tower collapse, 911 news coverage, 911 news broadcast, 911 live, 911 on the air, 911 reporters, original 911 coverage, NJ Burkett 911 video, 911 footage aftermath

Id: lIp7z5VraG4

Length: 52min 44sec (3164 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023