and enormous fireball on both sides of the buildings, and there is a tip of the second plane hitting the second building as people were trying to get out of the first building. we have confirmed reports right now that there was one hijacked flight, american airlines, from boston to los angeles and that is apparently one of the planes used in this crash. terrorism always has two prongs to it. the physical threat and now the psychological threat. this does seem to be surreal, but in fact, it is real when you have an explosion of undetermined origin at the pentagon and the most conspicuous symbol of american capitalism, the twin trade towers here in new york, two deliberate attacks on those towers today and we don t know for sure who is responsible. and the u.s. capitol, also has been evacuated. there have been evacuations taking place at the white house. needless to say many people in the pentagon have left that
screen. this, of course, happens just before the morning commute, before people were heading into their offices and while i m sure some people were already at work, immediately, there is speculation or cause for concern this is the world trade center that was the center of a terrorist bombing some years ago. so the questions have to be asked, was this purely an accident or could this have been an intentional act? either way, extensive damage has been done to this building. also looks like there s smoke coming out of the east side of the building in the shot we saw. white smoke billowing out of the east side. obviously, horrified commuters were absolutely devastating when they heard this explosion. we talked with somebody a moment ago about that, jennifer, and also another eyewitness, elliot walker, who was actually a producer here on the today show. elliot, can you hear me? yes, hi, katie. tell me where you are and what you saw. i live in this area, i returned to my apartme
sound, the kind of sound you hear when a plane is, you know, going fast past you. followed by an enormous crash. and an immediate explosion. i don t think we could feel shockwaves, but we sort of felt like we did. we were in a position where we could see the trade center almost immediately between the other buildings. and an enormous fireball that must have been 300 feet across was visible immediately. a secondary explosion, i think, and then plumes of smoke. must have been a three-block cloud of white smoke. now, from where i was on the street a moment ago, you can, in fact, see smoke leaving the building on three sides. it seems to be coming out on at least four or five floors. the air is filled with hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper that are just sort of floating like confetti. the area is swarmed with emergency vehicles. and sirens.
liberation of palestine. this comes ironically on a day where the israeli foreign minister is planned to meet with yasser arafat. the palestinians were accusing the israelis of racism. there hasn t been one specific incident. the israelis vacated the meeting as well. as well, but not one specific incident. it s also worth pointing out that terrorism always has two prongs to it. the physical threat and now the psychological threat. this does seem to be surreal, but in fact it is real when you have an explosion of undetermined origin at the pentagon, the most conspicuous symbol of american capitalism, the twin trade towers here in new york, two deliberate attacks on those towers today. and we do not know for sure who is responsible. and the capitol, by the way, the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. there have been evacuations taking place at the white house. needless to say, many people in the pentagon have left that
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. you re welcome. we also want to report, remind people that world trade center bombing that took place on february 26th back in 1993. the product of a terrorist attack. the result of a terrorist attack that killed six people and injured more than 1,000. of course, that happened on a friday afternoon. i think, matt, you and al were working that day. we were. i was at home in virginia watching it. in disbelief. now, it feels a bit like deja vu. this is so much more bizarre. no question. and keep in mind that killed six people, inskrred 1,000, and the explosion happened in a garage, in the basement. this was a direct hit on the midsection or upper section of the tower. the potential for injuries and death much larger. also people on the planes. that s right, exactly, if they were hijacked a