Some cropped the photo or used a sequence of two or three images, showing the plane exploding into the South Tower. Reports from the CDC found that the collapse of the towers exposed workers and the general public to a number of known chemical carcinogens. Shockingly, the attacks could even be seen from space, with images from NASA showing smoke pouring out into the sky. The hijacked plane crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh after first flying near Cleveland and then turning around. We had a large conference room there with a projector and cable TV, so I wanted to get the news on to see what was happening. At some point, I remember passing a number of firefighters heading up the stairs. Picture from inside the World Trade Center during the attack. Gulnara Samoilova, the photographer who took this photo for the Associated Press, was covered in dust just like them, and she remembers being in a state of shock, trying to get her bearings. It wasnt just a single sound but seemed to reverberate for over a second. I pulled up my T-shirt to cover my face. Standing right Niles connected with DeFazio the year after her husbands death. Do I still have a job? A New York City firefighter walks away from ground zero after the collapse of the towers. (Photo: Reuters), New York City firefighters and other emergency personnel survey the World Trade Center collapse area near Vessey and Greenwich Streets after the World Trade Center collapse. Residents in Borodyanka in Ukraine gathered on Friday to remember the people who were killed during the conflict in Avery Davis-Roberts is an expert on election observation and standards. After the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, Kelly Guenther grabbed her camera gear and ran to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade that overlooks the New York Harbor and the skyline of Lower Manhattan. Marcy Borders stands covered in dust as she takes refuge in a New York City office building after one of the towers collapsed. Culbertson spoke about the harrowing moment in the 2014 Astronauts: Houston We Have a Problem. President Bush speaks to rescue workers, firefighters and police officers at the rubble of New Yorks ground zero, three days after the attacks. The story appeared in the Times the next day. Close. Tell your people to try to get home as fast as possible.. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks, while more than 25,000 were left with injuries and long-term health problems. Priest Stephen McGraw prays over a wounded man outside the west entrance of the Pentagon as emergency workers help the wounded just outside of Washington, DC. I dont know why these strangers shared their personal stories with me a total stranger other than they felt the very human need to connect and share their story, their memories, their grief, their loss.. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispers into the ear of US President George W. Bush as Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, on the morning of September 11. People are only just discovering that 3 towers collapsed on 9/11, Pilot thought co-pilot was joking before he died inside the cockpit, Donald Trump slammed as clip of his 'tallest tower' reaction to 9/11 attacks resurfaces, Only one plane was allowed to take off after all others grounded on 9/11. I recall driving down the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and passing the downtown area, seeing a massive plume of smoke still rising from the WTC site. A person jumps from the north tower of New York's World Trade Center as another clings to the outside while smoke and fire billow from the building. The garage started to fill up, so I ran to the back of the building and then down a metal staircase to the lower level to find some breathable air, she said. It was then that I noticed large chunks of concrete and pieces of metal in my path. I was shocked; both towers gone, our building destroyed and 7 World Trade Center burning. Photos: Memorials for those lost on 9/11, More NBC News coverage:Remembering 9/11. Looking for U.S. government information and services? There was a certain amount of warmth to the light. Eventually the building stabilized. My mother-in-law was there with my daughters, but my wife was still trying to make her way home. It was singed around the edges and looked official. She worked in the building and had gotten out safely. Log In Sign Up. People in front of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral react as they look down Fifth Ave towards the World Trade Center towers after planes crashed into their upper floors. Even a mental inventory of the things that were in my office that no longer existed. Strangely enough, my first thought was that WTC1 somehow exploded and what we experiencing was the impact of that. It was the early days of digital photography, and Franklin remembers going to a nearby hotel lobby to use a dial-up Internet connection and send his photos back to the office. What did it feel like to be inside the World Trade Center at the time of the 9/11 attacks. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider I returned to my office and decided to call my mother. Below are steps you can take in order to whitelist Observer.com on your browser: Click the AdBlock button on your browser and select Don't run on pages on this domain. Over 2,606 people were killed in and around the World Trade Center in the attacks. Select from premium World Trade Center Attacks of the highest quality. Those were hopeful days, she said. It felt like being in the middle of hurricane. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. That is when I saw the men carrying Father Judge in a chair, Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton said. The other two passenger jets were directed at the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Still not knowing what had happened I went into the lobby of 7 World Trade Center. As I left the office I noticed many other employees from the National Commodity Specialist Division already filling the hallways to go to their evacuation exit. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, in coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and a crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I just assumed it was a terrible accident. While I was covered in dust and other particles, I was not injured. Was everything lost? Like many New Yorkers I know some of the people who have passed and I know many people who have lost a loved one. WebFDNY Ladder 3 firetruck recovered from the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. Photo There were also many other firemen coming in their own private vehicles to help. All we needed was to have our employees return. Smoke was pouring out, and while I dont recall seeing much in the way of flames, it was clear that there was a raging fire going on inside the building. Then came the big day. My staff and I were watching in bewilderment at the first tower that was engulfed in smoke, she said. 2:09 911 second Plane hits second WTC tower - That smell was in my nose and the taste of it in my mouth for weeks afterwards.. I remember thinking how horrible it was that she was moving through this moment all by herself.. Claim: Photograph captures an unlucky tourist posing on the observation deck of a World Trade Center tower on 9/11, seconds before a hijacked airliner smashed into the building. In that moment, total strangers near her on the sidewalk reached out to comfort her. The rest of the night was mostly a blur. Chief of staff Andrew Card interrupts President Bush at 9:07 a.m. during a school visit in Sarasota, Fla., to inform him that a second plane hit the World Trade Center. I arrived for work that We get it: you like to have control of your own internet experience. To read our full stories, please turn off your ad blocker.We'd really appreciate it. You have to remember there were no smartphones in 2001; I had no way to see this imagery up until this point, he said. And it was scary to see so many first responders in the midst of reconciling with the overwhelming nature of the situation. Women react as they witness the collapse of the World Trade Centers South Tower, about a half-mile away on Canal Street. In the foreground is the Empire State Building. I quickly apprised her of the situation, and told her that within a few minutes there would probably be pandemonium as people learned what had happened. I couldnt believe what I was watching. It was then that he finally saw the dramatic video footage that much of the world had already seen by this point. It, too, was shut down. It was on her left, flying over the Statue of Liberty and heading right for Manhattan. A few seconds after hanging up the phone at 9:03 a.m., I felt a violent jolt, and then a falling sensation. Plunkett felt like she was on autopilot as chaos unfolded all around her. I had dust in my eyes, nose and mouth. We (about 10 of us) made our way to the stairwell on the northeastside of the building. I remember thinking, No, no, no! Then I took a breath and told myself, Do your job. I put the camera to my face, framed the skyline wide in my viewfinder, and I waited for the plane to come into my frame on the left.. Thats where I saw wave after wave of New York City firemen rushing to get to the towers. When I got home around 4 p.m. When I was standing beside the towers when I first left building 6 I thought the worst was over. Where will we go? AAP has won the Delhi mayor polls. The photos sat unseen in Eneas possession until he remembered them again earlier this year. Tragically, the towers became one of the targets in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Then everything went silent. This Now famous photograph has becoe iconic and ispired an article and documentary movie. By Kyle Almond, CNN Published September 10, 2021. Still, I could not put one and one together and make the connection that a jetliner had just crashed into the building only a few feet above my head and split open, spilling the contents of its fuel tanks into the building core. The perfectly blue sky went pitch black as a humongous cloud of thick dust blasted through the streets. Pedestrians run for cover after the collapse of the south tower. 45 Dorothy Morgan became the 1,646th World Trade Center victim to be identified through DNA testing. Source: New York State Education Department, History.com, Source: New York State Education Department,History.com, Source: New York State Education Department, Source: World Trade Center, 911memorial.org. After leaving the hotel I went back to stand outside of Penn Station and, to my surprise, I heard the rumbling of a subway. "What we were seeing was the second tower coming down.". Maryann also captured the North Tower collapsing. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 carrying 92 people, speared into the 110-story north tower. I am so glad we are living in the safest place in the world. May God Bless those who we lost on that terrible day.". They had a full set of gear on, and they looked weary and frightened, yet they continued up past us. The delis entrance is seen in the background. I went in, and there was a small lobby where a few people were gathered, as confused as I was about what was happening.. I can only describe it as surreal. WebAP Images Completed in 1973, the original World Trade Center complex was dubbed a "dream come true" by Governor Nelson Rockefeller at the official ribbon cutting ceremony And I just instinctively started photographing them as they were falling.. We didnt know whether it was a commercial jet or a private plane like a Gulfstream. I remember the smell of the pulverized debris. This was partially because I believed that it was an accident and I was in no immediate danger. Lower Manhattan disappeared from view in a cloud of dark smoke.. I have always been fascinated by the historical significance of photojournalism, particularly regarding September 11, and when I remembered in February that I had unseen photographs, I scanned and posted them to my Flickr page, Enea says. The building management of 7 World Trade Center then decided to open the emergency exits to let everyone outside. It was then that my front office employees and I decided that we should evacuate the building even though an alarm had not gone off yet. She worked for an insurance company on the 94th floor of the North Tower. She was just walking out of Penn Station on her way to work. Lederhandler, a renowned photographer who also photographed D-Day in 1944, died in 2010 at the age of 92. I returned to my office and decided to call my mother. I was standing in the hallway outside my office talking to a co-worker, when I heard a tremendous explosion at 8:46 a.m. It was emotionally draining, but necessary, work. 25. It was a surreal scene where firefighters, police and a few civilians stumbled around, catching their breath, spitting out mouthfuls of mud, photographer Ruth Fremson said. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. 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