>> i was in the city and i got a call to turn on the television. there was a plane hit the world trade center and then i saw the second one and immediately called the white house. and spoke with the president a o very short period of time and urged him to shut down the airspace around new york and they immediately shut down the airspace around the country. who knows what else may have happened if the president hadn't taken that step.>> >> when i first found out about it, i was just finishing a breakfast at the peninsula hotel in midtown, manhattan. i was notified that there was -- th something had struck the world trade center. and the first notificationas it was a twin-engine plane. so we rushed down -- we rushed down to the trade center and on the way down we found out that it was a large plane and while we were going down the second plane hit, and maybe about three