FOX 4 TV broadcast from Sept. 11, 2001

Welcome back to Good Day. These are live pictures for you right now. A tragic accident apparently has just happened in New York City. A plane has crashed right into the World Trade Center. You can see the smoke and the flames coming out of the shattered windows. The World Trade Center, of course, in New York's Financial District, Twin Towers, of course, was the target of a terrorist bombing several years ago down in the basement area. There is a huge, gaping hole in one of the towers of the World Trade Center. Thousands, tens of thousands of people actually work inside those two buildings in the heart of New York's Financial District. And we're looking at live pictures right now from one of the television stations in New York. Let's go ahead and see if we can listen in now to some live news coverage that's going on right now on the scene. And I'm, like, on the 14th floor, so I was just, like, looking out, you know, because there's, like, a fire staircase or something, you know, just like a little balcony. And I saw it go right into the building, and I was like, oh, my God, you know. And it was a big plane. It wasn't, you know, a little plane. It was fairly big. How big can you tell us? Give us an idea. I don't know. I would say it was like a plane that I board on to go to, wow. So this wasn't just a small Piper Cub or something that had gone the wrong way? No. No. And, of course, we would, the weather, I take it, where you are, is just about picture perfect. Picture perfect, yes. It's very clear outside. So there would be the suspicion, then, that anybody who would drive a plane smack into the middle of the World Trade Center would have done it on purpose. It would seem that either that or they lost control, but I can't see something like that. I mean, it was, like, right into the building, so, you know, and it was coming low, you know, because if I was to see a plane that was going high, and then, oh, all right, but this was coming low. It's very visible. Can you see the streets below the World Trade Center? No, I cannot because I'm on Hudson Street. You're on Hudson? Yeah, I'm on Hudson Street in Franklin. Now, you say you were out there grabbing a smoke when it happened? Right. What did the other people do when they heard the noise? Well, there was nobody. I'm up on the 14th floor. Oh, you were on the 14th floor, I see. Yeah, so I'm not street level. I was up on the 14th floor, and I was just, like, looking out, you know, looking out, you know, just watching the scenery, and when I saw the plane. All right, Rosa, thank you very much. Talking with eyewitness Rosa Cardona Rivera on the 14th floor of a building very close to the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. And once again, Dick Oliver was on the scene down at City Hall reporting to us. However, our transmitter is located on top of the World Trade Center building, so that apparently caused our picture from that remote to just go out on us. But once again, yes. I was just saying, I can imagine what the people there must be going through given what happened there a decade ago. Yes, Dave? Well, a couple of things. Number one, if it indeed was a plane, the FAA or the control towers at one of the three major airports should have record of what's in the area. Sometimes they do vector planes around the southern tip of Manhattan. We might want to get a hold of Nick Gregory, who's a certified pilot and, again, flies through the area pretty regularly. Number two, even though planes typically are not that close to these buildings, with the possibility of anything from engine failure to hydraulic failure, you lose control of your ability to control aircraft. You can see right now probably police helicopters hovering right around the towers. But, again, wind speeds at this point not tremendous at all. Flying conditions near perfect. And, of course, they would have to, under ordinary circumstances, have filed some sort of a flight plan. If it were a plane, and apparently, according to the lady we spoke to, eyewitness, just a few moments ago, she did see a plane go in there. Now, I'm told that it may be a twin-engine plane that simply smashed. It looks like it went head-on, smack into the World Trade Center building. At this point, one could only expect, given the weather conditions, given looking at that picture live right there, that it went smack inside the World Trade Center. And if that is the case, I'm afraid we've got a tragedy on our hands. We've got something coming across the wire here, James. But, actually, it's nothing more than what you've already been reporting. Witnesses report hearing a huge explosion. Yeah, well, we're looking at it. There's no doubt there was a huge explosion and fire. Lots of black smoke coming from that building. Black smoke, again, would indicate that the fire is nowhere near under control. I expect they have sprinkler systems in there. Jim, you're watching live pictures from New York City. Again, apparently, a small aircraft has hit the World Trade Center, one of the two towers in New York City's financial district. There are several large holes right in the sides of the World Trade Center, 110 stories high. No word yet of any injuries or deaths, but no doubt there is panic right now inside that building as the flames and smoke are filling those upper floors. We're going to have more for you as we continue live coverage here on Fox 4. It just drove right through the World Trade Center tower. What's your vantage point there, Jim? I'm actually across the Hudson and Hoboken, but I have a clear view right at the World Trade Tower. Now, it did seem to you that it was done on purpose? You know, I don't know if I can say that, but it was a very odd type of turn. It was headed directly at the building, so whether that was on purpose or not, I can't tell. I don't know if he was trying to avoid, or they were headed for it. Describe that turn for us. Was it particularly heavily banked? It was pretty heavily banked, maybe 45 degrees. Again, hard to tell. It was kind of unremarkable because you do see planes fly through here. It was a large plane, like a 727, and that's the only reason I kept looking, and then it went right into the building. I just thought it was going to follow the river and keep on going, but it didn't. Now, after the plane struck the building, from your vantage point, it apparently went directly inside. That's correct. And if that's the case, my goodness. Yeah, actually, as the impact occurred, you could see debris flying out the other side. So it apparently went right through. We're looking at a live picture of the building right now, Jim, and what would you say, that would be about the 90th floor or so? Yeah, again, I can't tell if it went right through, but certainly debris was shot out the other side of the building. Did you hear anything when it took place? Did you hear the crash? Yes, I did. In terms of anything beforehand, though, no. I mean, I couldn't tell if the plane was in distress or anything like that, but certainly when it hit, there was a large explosion. And again, you had smoke and debris coming out the other side as well. All right, Jim, thank you very much. I've been talking to Jim Friedel, eyewitness, who witnessed the crash from Hoboken. Thank you, Jim, very much for giving us what you saw and heard. Again, just a few minutes ago, apparently a large plane, according to that eyewitness, Jim Friedel, that vantage point from Hoboken that, as you look at the picture from our chopper now arriving at the scene, Jim Friedel in Hoboken said it appeared to bank sharply and smash directly, perhaps purposefully, into— Oh, my goodness. Oh, God. There's another one. Oh. Oh, my goodness, there's another one. This seems to be on purpose. Oh, my goodness. Another plane? Now it's obvious, I think, that there's a second plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. I think we have a terrorist act of proportions that we cannot begin to imagine at this juncture. Oh, my God. My goodness. A second plane now has crashed into the other tower of the World Trade Center. Obviously, a suicide terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. What we have been fearing for the longest time here apparently has come to pass, a disastrous terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, both towers, planes smashing into each one. I understand we've reestablished contact with Dick Oliver. Dick is on the phone. Yes, Jim. Some kind of an aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center. This is no accident. This is no bomb from inside. This is, as you put it, a terrorist attack. There's no two ways about it. Dick, what vantage point are you at now? We're still at Park Row. People are streaming down, heading away from the World Trade Center. Having heard the second blast, people are running, some of them running out. Emergency vehicles still heading toward the World Trade Center. Now, thick black smoke. I don't know if you've got a picture. We're trying to take some pictures here for you. Black smoke coming out of the second explosion. The first explosion seems to have calmed down somewhat. Oh, my goodness. Yes, there's gray smoke coming out of there, meaning that the water is being put on it. People continue to stream past us here on Park Row, as well as emergency vehicles. There's an ambulance, a boat, a vehicle, and a police vehicle. My goodness, Nellie, if I can only begin to imagine the carnage that has taken place. We see an ember falling from the top of the floor of the Empire State Building. It's tough to look at, but let's look at it once again. After a plane crashed into the side of the World Trade Center, then another one, as our cameras were focused on the building, crashed into the other tower. Jim, there's now a very serious fire on the south tower of the World Trade Center. This is about, I would estimate, about the 60th or perhaps the 70th floor of the tower, right on the corner, the northeast corner of the south tower. A plane shooting out of the building. We have absolutely no reports of who was in there, but you've got to believe that being around the 9 o'clock hour, that people were just sitting down for a day's work in those buildings. Jim, I was just thinking that the, if I'm not mistaken, remember several years ago, Mayor Giuliani moved the Emergency Management Office to one of the higher, to the 30th floor or around that area of one of the towers of the World Trade Center, and that's indeed the brain of all the emergency management activity. I believe, though, that's in one of the other towers. Ollie, can you talk to that? Ollie, can you hear me? I hear you, Jim. Dave brought up the point that the Mayor's Emergency Management Office, the so-called bunker, is in one of the towers of the World Trade Center, but I don't believe it's one of the two top ones. No, it's not. It's about the 30th floor. It is not up there. And by the way, for those who are wondering about the towers, they appear to be structurally sound. They're not always small pieces of debris circulating in the air around it where the explosions occurred. The buildings themselves seem to be intact, intact as far as their structure is concerned. There's been talk over the years about the threat of terrorism making the buildings fall down onto the streets, but I can reassure everybody that they seem to be holding up fairly well while efforts are going forward to fight the fires and whatever happened in those two towers. Now we can see smoke emanating from many of the floors of the two towers. We see to the left of your picture there smoke coming out of the floors above where the plane crashed into, I believe, that's the North Tower that we're looking at there. There were thousands of people gathered where I am here at City Hall Park, in front of City Hall, just watching what's going on. These are live pictures from New York where both towers, the 110-story Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, are on fire following what undoubtedly is an intentional attack this morning. One was hit by an aircraft. Some witnesses are saying it was a 727 or 737 passenger jet. Then just a couple of minutes ago, watch very carefully, another aircraft flies into the other tower, a huge explosion. Watch carefully. And now both towers are on fire. Considerable smoke and flames and huge gaping holes. Thousands of people, of course, work in those buildings in desperate efforts right now to get them out safely. There is panic as well in the streets below, people realizing that this is an intentional act of terrorism. People are very concerned for their safety, literally are running away from this area in New York City. And, of course, another question that hasn't even been addressed yet, where did those aircraft come from? Were there innocent people on board those planes? Desperate rescue efforts right now. We want to show you this replay once again. All of this happened just before 8 and then there, about to 4 minutes after 8 o'clock, the right side of your screen. That back tower has not been hit until this plane runs into the side of it. An explosion several floors lower than the initial explosion. That first tower, it is about 110 stories high, as Tim pointed out. That first explosion, about the 90th story or so. And that second explosion, much, much lower level of the tower. That is absolutely incredible to watch that. And, again, the big question, where the aircraft came from? Let's go ahead and rejoin the live coverage now from New York. Speculation, no doubt. And for years we have been talking about security from terrorists here in this major city. It makes you wonder how, if it indeed were two planes, we did see one, how did they manage to get into the area and to just hit the plane like that? These are all the things that are going to have to be answered. How could two large planes just that quickly get out of control from a local way? Presumably commercial aircraft. Now, we can't speak to the first one, but that second aircraft that went through looked like a large twin-engine or three-engine jet. Those are simply not around for private aviation. That's not your Piper Cub. No, it is not. That's obviously designed to do considerable damage to those buildings on this day when we're holding a primary election in New York City. Now, I would imagine— Jim, what you're saying could be a drone aircraft. That's an aircraft that's guided electronically to its target without having a pilot. Now, that is a possibility as well. In the meantime, I can tell you that planes are shooting out of both towers now, the heaviest being on the south tower, the northeast corner of the south tower of the World Trade Center. But there's a considerable blaze going on in the north tower as well. I wonder if there's any way of finding out exactly what is located on those upper floors. You'd like to just cross your fingers and pray to God that maybe there weren't a lot of people up there. State office buildings and, of course, lots of commercial office buildings on those spaces as well. I know during the last terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, my son was in the building, and he told stories of groping down through the staircases for some 50 floors before he, thank God, got out safely. In fact, the governor has an office in the World Trade Center as well. There is one thing. After the bombing of the World Trade Center in the 90s, I do know that there were major efforts to have disaster drills, to have a preparedness plan in the event of an awful tragedy like this. But one has to wonder how, with two gigantic skyscrapers burning, the fire department and emergency services can handle both in that confined space without a tremendous step forward. No matter how much you set in place, how much you try to prepare for until it actually happens, it's just not the same thing. You are listening to live coverage here on Fox 4 News of an apparent act of terrorism in New York City at the World Trade Center towers. Both towers have been hit just moments apart by two different planes that apparently intentionally smashed into those buildings. We're joined on the telephone by Dr. Tony Cooper, an expert in international affairs and terrorism, teaches at the University of Texas, Dallas, and thanks for joining us. You've been listening, haven't seen the unbelievable pictures, Tony, that we're looking at right now, what appeared to be a passenger plane smashing into one of the two towers, and then about ten minutes ago, a second, and from the profile as we saw it go in, it was captured on videotape, a second aircraft looked like a Boeing 737, maybe, crashing into the other tower of the World Trade Center. This is the day we have dreaded in this country. Yes, this is a truly amazing attack on a major center of international importance. It's the sort of thing that people have been talking about for years, dreading happening, because, quite frankly, there's absolutely no defense against what must be called a suicide attack on a major landmark of this kind. Now, we are getting word, Tony, from the FBI that they may be investigating reports of a plane that was hijacked just before the World Transitor crashes. That would coincide with what you know about how these organizations work and how they would have planned this out. Well, this, again, is something that we have dreaded for years, because for a plane to be hijacked, obviously, it means that it would have innocent passengers aboard, and this would increment the horror of this enormously. But the reports that suggested it was perhaps a 737 does seem to indicate that this was a commercial plane that had been taken off course, and there is always the possibility that this will happen, that hijackers will crash onto a major city. But, clearly, the possibility of protecting this, even with restricted airspace, is almost nil. The building is there. There's no way of erecting defenses against it. You can't put anti-aircraft missiles on top of the World Trade Center and shoot any aircraft that comes nearby, because with the several airports and general aviation in the New York area, or any metropolitan area, of course they're flying by high buildings all the time. Yes, and if people are prepared to die themselves, the only question, really, is how many innocent people will they take with them? And the question is immediately going to become what kind of response does the United States launch? You have the usual suspects, but you've got to have, in the eyes of the world, some pretty good evidence to point the finger at somebody and launch an attack. Well, really, you know, the problem with responses is that it doesn't really deter anybody from doing this in the future. In fact, people look at this and they say, those who protagonize this sort of thing, look how enormously successful we have been in this case, where can we do this again? And we are extremely vulnerable. This has been our fear, certainly since I have been connected with terrorism now for nearly 40 years. We have been worried that an aircraft would crash on a major urban center. We had something like this back in the 70s, where a lone hijacker was going to attempt to crash into the White House. And we've been very, very fortunate the world over that this has not happened up to now. Until now. Right. You can protect the White House because it's one building. You can't protect every high-rise building in the world. Tony Cooper, thanks very much for joining us as we look once again at that unbelievable replay of that second jet flying into the other tower at the World Trade Center this morning. Tony Cooper, thanks very much. Thank you so much, Tim and Julia. Thank you, Tony. We'll ask you to stand by. I want to rejoin now the live coverage from the New York City stations. They have more from the scene there on the streets below and the rescue efforts to possibly get some folks out of these World Trade Center towers. The upper portion of this tower, Tower 2, also has smoke coming out of it. And we, again, are not sure exactly what that is about. We'll, again, try to keep you up to date with this as we get more information. But what we do know is that two separate planes have hit the World Trade Center. We do have firefighters on the scene. They are going to have to do an internal battle of this blaze. They cannot do anything from the external because it's so high. It makes it very difficult to vent a fire like this as well. It also makes it difficult to battle it because they're going to have to use high-rise packs, and they're also going to have to use bottles, air bottles. And the air bottles only carry a 30- to 45-minute supply. Then they have to go back to the cascade system to refill. So they're going to have to be bringing bottles up as they fight and as they battle this throughout the morning. So it will take some time to get this cleared. There will be, obviously, a lot of traffic in and around downtown Manhattan. It's a very good idea to stay out of the downtown area. Please do not use your water unless you have to. Firefighters need all the water that they can garner at this point. And, again, as you can see, this is still an ongoing battle. I mean, we have major flame inside this building. You can imagine the heat of this. And, of course, the World Trade Center is no stranger to fire and to other problems. There was the World Trade Center bombing several years ago. Firefighters do know the layout of this building, but it has been several years since this happened. So, again, there will be some new firefighters on the scene of this. If you also remember, there was a B-52 which hit the Empire's—I'm sorry, B-25, correct that, B-25, which hit the Empire State Building many years ago after the war. And so this is the second building in Manhattan to have been hit by a plane. Again, we're not sure if both planes or one plane was hit. It looks like perhaps both towers are on fire. We're not sure exactly what happened here. But, again, two separate planes have hit the World Trade Center. There is a major fire battling right now. Firefighters are in there for a major fight. The stairwells, of course, are how people are going to be evacuated. People will be evacuated out of these buildings. Do not, if you're watching this from the World Trade Center, do not get on an elevator. It is not a good idea to use an elevator in the middle of a fire, obviously. The water and other fire can short out the equipment, so you will have to walk down. The World Trade Centers, of course, are among the tallest buildings in the world, making this an even more complicated fire to battle. Fortunately, the good thing that we can say is that the firefighters in Manhattan are very, very talented when it comes to fighting high-rise fires, which is what they do best. Welcome back, 20 minutes after 8 o'clock. We continue our coverage of the disaster in New York City. Two aircraft jets, intentionally, apparently, running into the World Trade Center, the twin 110-story buildings in lower Manhattan's financial district in New York City. And we are joined on the telephone by one of our aviation experts, Denny Kelly, who joins us frequently on aviation issues. None ever before like this, Denny. This is the day we all hoped would never happen, but we knew it could. Yeah, it's stunning. I mean, it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. We're getting reports, Denny, from the FBI that they are investigating that a plane, possibly one, maybe two, was hijacked before the crashes. How could this have happened? Let's talk about the airspace around New York City and, in particular, these towers. Well, of course, you know, the airspace around New York City is very crowded. There's a lot of airplanes, and it's very, you know, it would be very difficult to keep track of everybody and make sure that everybody's at the right altitude and in the right place. And it would be very easy to hijack an airplane and get into the system, and before anybody knew it, you know, of course, fly it into one of these buildings, which appears to be exactly what happened. To have ordered the pilot to do a suicide mission to fly purposely into one of the buildings. Well, my guess would be, and this is strictly a guess because I don't know any more than you do, but my guess would be that what they did was that they somehow overpowered the crew and somebody got into the seat and flew the airplane themselves into the World Trade Center. In fact, you wouldn't even have to get in the seat. You could turn the autopilot on and fly it into the building. Yeah, and the indications are that both, we saw one of the planes actually hit one of the towers, and we heard reports about what happened in the other case. And in both cases, planes came in at what witnesses described as a very odd angle, almost flying kind of sideways at a 45-degree angle to the building and then crashing into the building, which would indicate either there was a struggle going on or somebody who wasn't an expert pilot ran into it, something awful going on inside the cockpit. And you have to be, at this point, we don't know were there innocent passengers on those jets. Well, my guess would be there could be passengers on those airplanes and probably were, but also you have to understand that when you get around tall buildings like this, there's a tremendous amount of turbulence right near the buildings because of the way the wind flows around these buildings. And so the airplane, once it got down that low and around those buildings, would probably be pitched around pretty dramatically because of this. Now, let's talk about the size of the planes because at first report, they were concerned maybe it was a smaller plane, and how could a small plane have gotten so close to the buildings? But clearly that second plane we saw, as you said, was a very large plane. It looked like it could have been a 737, it could have been a 757. It's hard to say. I saw it for a fraction of a second, but it appeared to me to be a 737 would be the most likely. Yeah, that certainly is what it looked like. We're told, folks, at this point that the New York Stock Exchange is being evacuated and that New York City airports have been closed. There are several airports around there. And, Denny, let's talk about air traffic around there because, and here we look again at that second aircraft just about, can you see it? The right side of your screen there. Plowing into the other World Trade Center building. Unbelievable. Many airports in that area that have commercial traffic and planes are flying fairly close to those buildings all the time. Well, they fly probably 2,500 to 3,000 feet. Which isn't all that far away. There's air traffic in the area. If someone were to say, well, gee, you shouldn't allow aircraft within five miles, that's just not possible in New York City. No, no, no. If you're going into LaGuardia, if you're landing in LaGuardia and you're landing to the east, northeast, you fly right over there, very close to those buildings. And, you know, you could dive an airplane into those buildings of any size and before air traffic control really knew what was going on, you'd hit the building. Well, that was my next question for you was the timeline on all this. When would air traffic controllers have known? When could the word have possibly gotten out that one or two planes had even been hijacked, much less that they were on a mission to do this? What's the time from takeoff there at the area airports to how far away this was and flying time? Well, LaGuardia is very close. I mean, LaGuardia is right across the river from New York City. So you probably would have no warning or very, very little warning because they're so close. I mean, you wouldn't have 10 or 15 minutes. I mean, you'd have probably less than a minute. And you'd have to know the airplane was hijacked. And air traffic control, per se, is looking at a radar scope, and unless the airplane that was hijacked, unless the transponder, which is a radar beacon that the airplane emits, unless that is turned on and sending out a signal for altitude, they wouldn't know what the altitude of the airplane was. And so they wouldn't know until it hit the World Trade Center that that was going to happen. And like you say, no indications whether the pilot was even able to let them know that there was a hijacking in progress. The radar transponder on these airplanes emits a signal that it's picked up by air traffic control, and there is a code that if you're hijacked, you're supposed to put into the transponder that tells air traffic control that the airplane's been hijacked. Now, there's also a code for emergency. But whether or not the crew would have time to do that or whether or not the hijackers would allow them to do that is hard to say. Right. Just absolutely devastating looking at this. Now, as we look at the firefighting efforts that are underway in that building, the firefighters are going to have to walk up those buildings, it looks like 80 to 90 stories up to fight those fires, which is just going to be an amazing feat. And we should let you know it's an hour later in New York City. It's 926 in New York. And there are people that have been at the office inside those buildings, and we are talking thousands and thousands of people that work in those two towers who have been there for quite some time. And some people apparently still are in the building.