Witness to 9/11: In the Shadows of Ground Zero

All news, all the time.

This is 1010 Wins.

When you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world.

Good morning.

64 degrees at 8 o'clock.

It's Tuesday, September 11th.

I am Lee Harris, here's what's happening.

It's primary day and the polls are open in New York city

- Uptown FDR drive is backed up from

the Brooklyn Bridge to Houston Street

with an accident blocking two lanes.

Another accident further north, at the 70's is cleared.

- Not like this is any big surprise,

but anything Michael Jordan does makes big news

and this morning, it appears at age 38,

He indeed will be coming out of retirement again.

- What's up with Whitney Houston?

Certainly not her weight.

The painfully skinny singer was no-show at

Michael Jackson's anniversary concert last night

A friend says blame it on drug abuse.

Breaking news now on 1010 Wins.

This just in to our newsroom,

a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

They just played the tape again.

It is horrific.

A second plane, the size of a passenger jet

flying into the second tower of the World Trade Center.

What happened?

I dunno, your guess is as good as mine.

- Two airbuses evidently were taken from LaGuardia.

Yeah, yeah.

My father's got ABC on and he said

that they've got footage of the airplane

actually hitting, hitting the towers.

And...

They said that there's some...

There's a report that they, hi dad.

Sorry.

I know a lot of the cell phone towers

are on the World Trade Center.

That's why this keeps cutting out.

Some people don't have any service.

What do they know about LaGuardia?

You guys know what happened?

Hm?

Do you know what happened?

Two planes crashed there...

Hijacked planes, two hijacked planes.

Really?

Yeah.

You guys see it?

Huh?

You guys see it?

What do you think happened?

Hijacked plane, what you can do.

It's suicide, suicide bombers.

How does it make you feel?

- Terrible, like, I've never seen something like this.

I know, I got a feeling,

like that very like, surreal.

I don't know how to feel.

Is now being evacuated

so this phone call will be cut short.

All of the public building as you've heard,

probably on your news.

All of our rails and all of our bridges have been closed.

The debris is blocked from the

World Trade Center as it exists right now.

Literally as we're speaking, people are

either jumping out of the building

from 60, 70, 80, 90 floor up...

Whoa!

Oh shit!

Holy shit!

People are jumping out of buildings on the 80th floor.

People are jumping out of the buildings on the 80th floor.

and obviously this emphasizes

the horrendous personal toll.

Oh

- As many as 50, perhaps even more

we onboard on one of the planes that crashed so...

So that means, if that's true...

- It had to be a hijack, 50 people were on board.

a lot of these things

that are coming into the newsroom,

but that indicates a possibility of a hijack.

The FBI had said that

they were investigating a possibility...

Holy Christ.

A hijacking

just before the crash occurred.

So that may be part of the story there.

And it looked to me,

watching the video of the second plane,

it looked to me that, that was a 737

or at least a comparable size...

Two planes.

To a 737 aircraft...

737.

172 and 182 and it was moving

at least 300 miles an hour when it hit the building.

Now you have to believe...

That had to be the explosion we saw.

Live shots

and somebody might've gotten a shot at that thing.

So we could identify it

because we don't know if that was an airliner.

We don't know right now, all we saw

was just a shot of it hitting the second tower...

That is horrible, people jumping

out of the freaking windows.

This plane, who was on

at least the second plane, the one that we saw.

It sounds serious,

as you heard Commissioner Jerry Demorada there,

abandoning the emergency service...

Set up exactly for these kind of emergencies

because of the danger that comes their way

and others who are in nearby buildings

surrounding the World Trade Center.

We just got a report in

that unidentified persons saying as well

that American airliner, 767 from Boston

that were coming in from Boston, with the plane.

But again, they're unidentified sources

on the second plane,

that is the second plane that came in

and flew into one of the towers.

- All you saw was a huge explosion, just now.

A huge explosion.

Part of the plane just actually fell inside the building.

The other part of the plane

went through the building.

And some of the plane exploded

and fell onto the street.

Smoke came out.

People were saying that there was there.

And the second building was fine.

And then 15 minutes later.

You get a good view way down there.

What a view, yeah.

You see that up close?

Yeah it's so bad over there.

Oh yeah?

- I was one of the carpenters that worked on that building.

- It's the only way they're gonna get to that building.

- Did you leave a message on Ilene's machine?

I spoke to her, I left a message before.

It's was just an answer, it was almost nonchalant.

You know?

And then she goes, "I have to call you back"

I go, "Yeah", you know?

- I just heard it right here, subways are down

The airports are closed.

Yeah, everything's down.

How will you get back?

The freight's closed, that's it.

I was told the security of the building

was the main concern.

I'll tell you one thing.

But if it is, it was sabotage.

Once and for all, you know,

we have to do something about it, you know?

What you gonna do?

What do you think?

How are you?

You think it's a bomb?

What?

You think it's a bomb?

Yeah.

Yeah, the same thing.

- You guys ever see anything like this?

Of course, unfortunately the first thing

that comes to your mind is one thing.

Not us.

Unfortunately, maybe it's unfair.

You know what they say, that Bin Laden...

Bin Laden, Bin Laden.

You know how many lives, that's a helicopter.

Those people didn't have a chance.

Not a fighting chance.

I'll tell you one thing.

Including was 848, that there was, you know,

a lot of people, that didn't have a chance to go.

- Some way the missile at the Woolworth building.

Where's the Woolworth building?

It's downtown.

Down the N2, they're saying before

the second one impacted,

a possible missile was fired at the Woolworth Building.

The ladies say they hear it.

I don't know yet.

But you know, they're gonna be people

trapped under the rubble, all of them.

The fire that is being reported

at this hour at the Pentagon

and associated press reporter

saying that he saw the the tail end

of a large airliner plunge into the building.