A very large plane. It was going south. And battery park. It flew right past and almost hit it and then went in. This is so shocking. Of course to everybody watching. Ive never seen anything like it. It literally flew itself into World Trade Center. Obviously now we move from what appears to there it is right there. Ill looking from south to north. And it went into the one on the right. That appeared to be at least a 727. We saw the second. Here comes the the video tape that we just showed you. You will see what appears to be a large plane. Could be a 727, right there, maybe bigger, flying right into the side of the World Trade Center. It was at least a 747. It was a jet. I couldnt believe my eyes. Watching it right above me. And now you have to move from talk about a possible to accident to talk about something deliberate that has happened here. Were going to immediately check
with air Traffic Control in the area to find out if they had contact with either of these planes. Pfr the accident. But what we have seen is the most shocking video tape i have ever seen. Moving on to two separate planes. Elliott, are you still there. Hello . Elliott. Im still here. What can you see right now from your perspective . I cant see anything personally. It is completely impossible to understand why this is happening and to figure out what in the world is going on. I think we have to be grateful one hit before 9 00 a. M. And its now after 9 00 a. M. And i wonder how many people were in there. Hopefully they were evacuated following the first incident and we can only hope it was a very short period of time from when we first hearned about this. Probably about 8 50 eastern time. The second installed tent occurred about 9 05 so that
would be a short amount of time to get people out of the building. Ollie is another witness on the ground. Can you hear me . Yes, hello. Please tell me what youre seeing. Well, i live in Lower Manhattan. I face the north tower. The north side where the first plane crashed into the building and right now theres a lot of chaos on the ground. A lot of emergency vehicles. Everyone from the World Financial Center has exited and is walking north up to battery park north. There is just mass and mass of people walking north uptown of manhattan. I happened to look on the first tower and i actually saw people waving where the first plane crashed through and then it was unbelievable seeing the second jet come crashing into the second tower. What is going on . Unfortunately here in new york many of our nations cannot
see this because the antennas are in the World Trade Center. Back up tower is on the Empire State Building but Television Communication is new york city is probably knocked off the air. Were looking at the picture here where it appears because of the angle i think that the towers are leaning and i dont think that that is actually the case because after the first impact it looked as if the right hand tower was leaning and now somebody is saying were getting a witness saying they are leaning actually right now. An idea of the type of impact were talking about. And perhaps theyre buckling under the force of the collision. Were going to go to george right now thats also witnessed both or one of these collisions. Can you hear us . I can hear you. What did you see george. I was in the car driving north on west street and an enormous explosion happened and it was larger than a construction explosion. I looked out the window and what appeared to be the ground and i believe it hit the car to the right of me and it was just so scary and then there was also a ton of people and i jumped out of the car and i ran south away from the building because i thought there would be further explosion. Have you seen anyone injured on the ground, george . A man next to me was actually hit by a piece of debris on his arm and someone had been badly hurt in a car ahead of me. Im not sure if its the car ahead of me and i cant verify that but all i can say is a lot of debris was falling because everybody assumes that a bomb had exploded and thats what had people thinking that further bombs may explode. There was a rush away. Did you see, george, the second plane, that jet fly into the other twin tower. I heard two explosions,
however. The first explosion was louder and i did not i could not see that and i looked up and when i looked up i saw debris falling and a very lashlg tire. Well of course this is as we have said completely shocking video and a shocking turn of events and we have been talking here that the first incident, one might surmise it was some kind of accident and then to have a second, what appeared to be 727 jet, of course the question of terrorist attack activity has to surface and the question of whether this was an intentional terrorist act of some kind. Keep in mind were in an area where theres three major airports. You have newark airport, Kennedy Airport and laguardia airport. Its very unusual for a get into this area without being completely tracked or identified by air Traffic Control so you
would have to imagine that a, if this plane were headed right for the World Trade Center there must have been someone trying to talk or communicate with that pilot and for it to fly right into the side of the building the smaller plane, you can understand almost but a jumbo jet, a large jet lets rerack that video if we could in the control room where we actually saw the jet flying into the building. And Elliott Walker said it was a big plane. I was look in the distance and saw a small plane. To see this plane come into the picture, that is a big plane. And its hard to imagine its a 737 were now being told. And flying directly into the midsection of the what would be the eastern tower of the World Trade Center. Im wonndering if jennifer i
still on the phone. She was near a police officer, at least we could have perhaps gotten more information from that officer. Needless to say its pandemonium i am sure down this and we gathered that when either the eyewitnesses spoke about how terrifying this was for them to see and you can only imagine as you get closer to the twin towers, a new york landmark how what the scene must be like there. You talk about the building looking like they buckled. Theyre design for a 2 degree sway but Something Like that is probably more. Jane, can you hear me . Yes i can hear you. Im down here near the World Trade Center. I was walking down 6th avenue this morning at 8 42 a. M. A group of us saw a plane veer think the building and then a huge cloud of smoke and then
fire came out of one of the towers. Its near the upper floor as you can probably see with your chopper shots and then about ten minutes ago a second explosion in the second tower. Lower down. That was not effected by the plane so im not sure what happened there but right now theres a huge gaping hole in one of the towers and the other building is on fire. The team down here is incredible. People are out of their Office Buildings watching. Crying, taking pictures. Ive never seen anything like it down here. Jane, you said you saw the first plane. Could you get a glimpse of what kind of plane that was . We were told a small commuter plane. It looked it was a larger plane, mid sized plane and we could hear it very well. And walking down the street, a couple of us looked at each other thinking whats happening . And then it veered drastically on its side through the buildings and then went into the upper floors of the world trade
center tower. We want to mention when the impact hit the first tower you would hope that people who were in the second tower were beginning to evacuate. Especially if air Traffic Control had some indication that this was deliberate you would hope they were starting to get people out of the other tower before the second plane hit that tower. Although, we have been upstairs in the towers, in the restaurant up there, to try to get down. The elevators would have been jammed but if there was an indication this was deliberate you would hope they would immediately begin evacuation in the second tower. We have another eyewitness wed like to speak with. Dan is on the phone. Tell me where you are and what youre seeing or what you saw. What i saw was one plane coming in low from the north down over 7th avenue. It crashed over the top and the middle of one of the towers. Ten minutes later i saw another plane crash into the other side of the tower at a lower level. It looks to be a small commercial plane, a plane i saw. It crashed into the top of the tower and there was a huge fire ball and the gaping hole in the side of the tower. As we were waiting outside and looking at it, another plane came in low i believe from the other side and hit the middle of the other tower. I saw both planes, two separate planes crash into each tower. And dan, again t size of the planes, tell me about that. I would say that the plane was a mid sized, looked to be a commercial airline. I dont know, i thought perhaps a commercial airline. A mid sized, not a jumbo jet. This of course is unconfirmed but we are getting information
from an employee at United Airlines and we want to emphasize this is unconfirmed but there is speculation that an American Airlines plane was hijacked and crashed purposefully, on purpose into the World Trade Center and that the second plane was, another plane perhaps hijacked was then flown in the second tower. Dan tell me about people on the ground. Can you see whats happening on the ground . Im farther up in the west village. Im not on the ground here at the base of the towers. Where were you when it happened . Walking down 7th avenue south. About, oh, charles street. Which is about 15 or 20 blocks north of the towers. Well, obviously this was a shocking thing for you to witness on this Tuesday Morning. You know some wires came out and said in 1945 an army air core
b25 twin engine bomber crashed into the 79th nofloor of the Empire State Building. This was a Crystal Clear day in manhattan. So it is completely unclear how there would be any kind of problems with visibility. Dan, thank you so much for talking with us. Hopefully you can stay on the phone and we can check back in with you at another point in time. We really appreciate it. We want to also remind me that World Trade Center populationing th bombing that took place in 1993, the product of a terrorist attack that killed six people and injured more than a thousand, of course that happened on a friday afternoon. I think matt, you and al were working that day. I know i was at home in virginia watching it in disbelief and now it feels a bit like deja vu but this is so much more bizarre. No question and keep in mind that killed six people and injured 1000 and happened in a
garage in the basement. This is a direction hit on the midsection or upper section of the tower so the potentials for injuries and death much larger. Of course also the people on the planes. Also. If they were hijacked and on route to a different destination. This story continues to unfold. Bob joins us now. Bob where are you and what can you tell us . The north lawn at the white house and the first thing we looked for here is whether theres any unusual activity out here. People on the roof. That sort of thing. The president is out of town and he is in florida and he has been informed of this and i can tell you that the White House National security staff that remains here is at a senior level reading and we are hoping to hear from them as soon as
possible. But the reaction here to the pictures youre seeing and the initial pictures when they came up. Even in whats called the Lower Press Office here at the white house was one of shock. People are just standing around television monitors looking at this. I dont mean the reporters. I mean the people in the office who work here at the white house. Very Little Information is coming out of the white house. But needless to say if the speculation is true about some kind of terrorist event this will be a major, major crisis for the bush administration. Nick are you hearing any more information if there . Or any attacks on buildings in the new york area. U. S. Intelligence officials
report this morning that they constantly are hearing about threats, possible terrorist threats against american targets worldwide but this morning they have no early indications that anything of this nature could have occurred. Pentagon officials are are calling this a terrorist attack. They say that they have not yet ordered the scrambling of any military jets. If National Guard were to be scrambled in that area that would be at the order of the government. Now of course the president does have the authority to scramble American Military forces. What do you defend against exactly . If you put war planes in the
air. Although i believe according to officials here theyre now off limits and restricted but so far the u. S. Military and pentagon officials are scrambling to get as much information as they possibly can to determine what course of action if any the u. S. Military would take. But they are describing this as a terrorist attack either now. There are some officials here in the pentagon that are calling this an obvious terrorist attack based on very preliminary information. The information that intelligence officials are getting in terms of a possible hijacked plane and of course the very horrifying video of the plane veering into the tower itself is a clear indication here that this is not an accident. Thank you. Of course the coordination that took place to have two planes hit the towers within 18 minutes
of one another. Lets go back to the white house now. Of course the president has the authority to scramble military forces and this is a case obviously in which retaliation if it proves to be a terrorist incident will be an investigation and the u. S. Government will say you have to determine who is responsible for this attack and someone is going to be made to pay. Thats a big if. If we could determine the origin of the terrorist attack so there is implications of that. Lets go back to jim. Bob, thank you. At the pentagon, you have more information. Bobs exactly right. What their primary concern right
now is protecting the American Public in the new york area right now against any possible further attacks by the air. There is concern that there may be other terrorist attacks that could be planned either in new york or elsewhere. This is the slew worst Case Scenario for the Counter Terrorist planners because apparently there were no firm indications prior to this that anything like this could have happened but in terms of scrambling the u. S. Military it would be for protection for the time being and not even thinking right now about any kind of retaliation. David gregory is now on the phone. Yes. The president is about to begin an education event which is obviously being cancelled. The event will go forward. The president will come out and make a stalt about thtement abo. He was made aware on route from his hotel to this school here where he was going to talk about education. Hell make a statement and then were told he will quickly depart for washington. We should mention that new york area airports have all been closed. The lincoln tunnel has been closed here in new york. Were getting ready to listen to theth, lets go back to the pent fwon. Jim you talk about Counter Terrorist measures in place. Can you shed any light for us on what things are in place in the event of the attack of this nature . Its very difficult for the u. S. Military to respond to this kind of thing right now because
its unclear who is behind it and if there are any other potential attacks or incidents like this and this has obviously not been officially declared a terrorist attack but all the experts looking at these pictures say theres no doubt about it. This was a coordinated terrorist attack but who and why is unclear right now and the problem with putting planes in the air to prevent any further attacks is these are after all open air spaces for the most part and its difficult cull for the u. S. Military to scramble jets and put them in the air and according to officials here, then do what . This area of course is declared off limits in terms of any air
traffic officials are scrambling to find out first what happened and what potential reaction the u. S. Military could provide in terms of protection. Possible further protection against any potential attack. If these planes were hijacked or carrying any theres not much they could have done. You cant shoot down the plane like that plus for the injuries you could cause on the ground in a place like manhattan. Thats exactly right and the president as we said earlier does have the authority to scramble the military to put them up in some kind of force protection mode. The governor has the air National Guard at his disposal and he can do that but officials are wondering what to do in toemp terms of protection and how. To the Counter Terrorist this is the worst Case Scenariobecause there right now seems to be not much they can do in terms of it. Nick obviously were scrambling for information here. I want to read this reuters wire that says two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center on Tuesday Morning causing huge explosions and killing at least six people. Cnbc tv said this were at least a thousand injured. Both towers of the lower man hatd t manhattan landmark. The fbi told the Associated Press that it was quote foul play and not an accident. A person that answered the phone, that was reported by