Ago. We have very Little Information. On the phone, we have jennifer who apparently witnessed this event. Jennifer, can you hear me . Hello. Hi, jennifer. Hi, katie. Hi, can you please tell me what you saw and give me any information about whats going on there. Yes, i have its quite terrifying. Im in shock right now. I came out of the subway at bowling green. I was heading to work at battery park at the ritz carlton hotel. And i come out and i saw a big i heard a boom, looked up and there was a big ball of fire. Im now looking north at the World Trade Center. It is the left twin tower if im looking north. You can hear the emergency crews behind me. And it is unbelievable. When the fire first burst, it was hello . Go ahead, we can hear you. Like ive never seen before. And as you know, i used to work in news, ive never seen any
fire like this in the air. And pieces of the building were flying down. It looks like its like the top i cant even tell you. Maybe 20 floors. Intense smoke. Its horrible. I cant even describe it. Do you have any idea what kind of plane it was . Im sorry . Do you have any idea what hit the World Trade Center . What it was . Yeah, what kind of plane . Were getting reports that an airplane hit the building. Oh, i didnt even know that, honestly, i was walking up. I looked up and saw a big boom and fire. You know, i got to tell you, we were all saying around here it was very interesting that it would be a bomb and it would be so high up. So perhaps it was a plane. We have no no talk of a plane, however, i have to tell you, theres still theres something flying in the air. I mean, its mindboggling. Its horrifying. Jennifer, its matt lauer. Id like to ask you, while you
were close to the building or have you since the explosion seen anyone whos been injured being taken out of the building . Are there ambulances dealing with people on the sidewalk around the building . No, i have not. I have to tell you, my father worked in the Financial Center and i first called over there, its next door, to see if he was okay. I couldnt get through. Im far away right now. I thought it might be a little dangerous to get too close. I saw lots of debris coming down. And right now im in battery park. I dont know its only its probably a fiveminute walk from here to the World Trade Center. But the smoke is incredible. I mean, i cant see the top of the tower. Its starting to cover the top of the second tower. In fact, were looking pictures right now, jennifer, with a huge gaping hole on the side of the building and billowing smoke. So im right now yeah, i see major fire. I definitely see fire. Jennifer, you said youre looking north at the building. In other words, yourewere loo
north side of the building. Im on the exact opposite side. It appears that is where the largest hole is. You mentioned correctly, towards the top of the building. On west side of the building, we can also see some holes there that could have been from damage once the impact occurred. Again, weve been told that this is a plane. We dont have confirmation on that. But there is an enormous hole in the north side of that building. Jennifer, can you tell us a little bit more about what you heard when you heard this explosion . Describe it for us . Absolutely. When i walked out of the subway i looked at the twin towers because i always look up there. Right when i looked up, there was a boom. It wasnt that loud. Like, it wasnt huge. However, what was unbelievable was the amount of fire. It was a big ball of fire that just went up. And i looked around at people. We were all horrified. Im stuttering because i mean, its shock, ive never seen anything like it, its just horrible. Of course this is real cause for concern because the World Trade Center is one of the busiest Office Buildings here in new york with hundreds, perhaps thousands workers who even the state governor has an office there. Several thousand workers. Given the time this has happened, its only probably appropriate to surmise that people might have been in the building. You know, weve seen stories in the past where planes have hit buildings, small planes, and it would be hard to imagine that a small plane could create that kind of hole in a building like the World Trade Center and create the damage on the other side of the building from the sheer impact. Small planes tend to crumple and then fall down the building. We havent talked to anyone who is close to the base of the building matt . Yes, go ahead. Im just talking to a Police Officer and he said yes, he heard it was a plane. Does he have any information about what kind of plane it was
or does he can he tell us any more details . Yes, may i im going to put you on hold for one moment, okay . Just to recap, if youre just joining us, youre looking at dramatic pictures of new yorks World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan be where a short time ago were told a plane crashed into the upper floors of the western most tower. You can see residual damage on the west side of the building. Obviously fires are burning right now. There was, back in the 40s, a plane hit the Empire State Building. So right now, were getting information it was a small commuter plane. Well let people know soon we have more information as to what actually caused this. On everybodys mind, who was
might have been hurt as a result of this terrible incident. Were going to be talk to more eyewitnesses coming up. Were back at 9 00 eastern time on this Tuesday Morning. Were back with dramatic pictures of an accident that happened just a short time ago. The World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan where were told a plane some reports are, it was a small commuter plane, crashed into the upper floors of one of the twin towers. You can see fire and flames or smoke billowing from that tower. Theres a gaping hole on the north side of the building. Thats the side youre seeing to the lefthand side of your screen right now. And other damage to west side of that building, which is to the right side of your screen. This happened before the morning commute. While im sure some people were
already at work, immediately, theres speculation or cause for concern. This is the World Trade Center that was the target of a terrorist bombing years ago. So the question is could this be an intentional act. Extensive damage has been done to this building. Obviously, horrified commuters were devastated when they heard this explosion. Another eyewitness, Elliott Walker, who is actually a today show producer. Tell me what you saw. I was walking down the sidewalk, delivering my young daughter to school. We heard a very loud sound. The kind of sound when a plane
is going fast past you. Followed by an enormous crash. I dont think we can feel shockwaves but we sort of felt like we did. We could see the trade center immediately between the other buildin buildings. An enormous fireball was visible immediately. A secondary explosion i think. Now from where i was on street a moment ago, you can see smoke leaving the building on their 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 is just kind of floating like confetti. Obviously, were sensitive to this kind of thing in this
neighborhood. Have you seen any evidence of people being taken out of the building . Of course the major concern is oh, my goodness human loss, do you know oh, another one just hit Something Else just hit a very large plane just flew directly over my building and theres been another collision. Can you see it . Yes, oh, my we just saw a plane circling the building. We just saw a plane circling the building a second ago on the shot right before this. I think there may have been another impact . Can you tell . I just heard another very loud bang and a very large plane that might have been a dc9 or 747 just flew past my window and i think it may have hit the trade center again. I didnt get the impression that it was that big a plane. It looked big from here. I did see a plane go by a second ago and it has now impacted the building. Im trying to see if its the
different tower. Its the second the first was world center 1. It looks like the second building was hit. This say piece of tarp. We may actually see another plane enter the picture here in a second. I wonder if there are air Traffic Control problems. Lets go back to jennifer. Did you see this happen . Hello . Jennifer, did you just see this happen, jennifer . Matt, ive never seen it looks like a movie. I saw a large plane, like a jet, go immediately headed directly into the World Trade Center. It just flew into it, into the other tower, coming from south to north. I watched the plane fly into the World Trade Center. It was a jet. It was a very large plane. It was going fast. It went past the building being built in battery park, went right past, 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 there it is right there. Again, looking from south to north, and it went into the one on the right. That appears to be at least a 727. We saw a second ago here comes the videotape that we just showed you. You will see what appears to be a large plane. It could be a 727. Right there. Maybe even bigger. Flying right into the side of the World Trade Center. It was at least a 727. 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 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 before the accident. What weve just seen is about the most shocking videotape that ive ever seen. What are the odds of two separate planes hitting both towers . Elliott are you still there . Yes, still here, katie. Elliott, what can you see right now from your perspective . I dont face in that direction. I cant see anything personally. It is completely impossible to understand why this is happening and to figure out what the what in the world is going on. I think we have to be grateful the first one hit before 9 00 a. M. But its now after 9 00 a. M. And i wonder how many people were in those offices. Hopefully they were evacuated following the first incident and we can only hope it was a very short period time from when we first learned about this, was probably about 8 50 eastern time. The second incident occurred about 9 05. And so obviously that would be a short amount of time to get people out of the building. Olley everhart is another witness on the ground. Olley, can you hear me . Yes, hello. Please tell me what youre seeing. 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 final center has exited and is walking north up to battery park north. Theres just mass and mass of people walking north up town of manhattan. I happened to look on the first tower and actually saw people waving where the first plane crashed through, and then it was unbelievable, seeing this second jet come crashing into the second tower. What is going on . Unfortunately, here in new york, many of our stations cannot see this, local station, because the antennas are on the World Trade Center. Their backup towers are on the Empire State Building. But Television Communication in new york city is probably pretty much 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 lefthand, the righthand tower was leaning. And now somebody is saying were getting a witness saying they are leaning actually right now. Which will give you an idea of the type of impact were talking about. And that perhaps theyre buckling under the force of the collision, the hole thats resulted from these two planes. Were going to go to george shea, who has also witnessed one or both of these collisions. George, can you hear us . I can hear you. What did you say . I was in the car driving up, just out of the battery tunnel driving north on west street when an enormous explosion happened. It was larger than a construction explosion. I looked out the window. What appears to be an enormous tire smash into the ground. I believe it hit the car to the right of me. And it was just so scary. And there was also a ton of debris fall. I jumped out of the car. I ran south away from the building. I thought there would be further explosions. And have you seen anything
injured on the ground, george . A man next to me was actually hit by a piece of debris in his arm. And they said that someone had been badly hurt in a car ahead of me. Im not certain if it was the car next to me. A lot debris was falling. Very confusing because everybody i think immediately assumed that a bomb had exploded and that sort of, you know, had people thinking that further bombs may explode. It was sort a rush away. Did you see, george, the second plane, that jet fly into i heard two explosions. There was a first explosion that was louder and then a second explosion, and i did not i could not see it. When i looked up, i saw debris falling and the tire, as i said, a very large tire. Well, of course, this is, as weve said, completely shocking video, and shocking turn of
events. Weve been talking here that the first incident, one might surmise, that it was some kind of accident, and then to have a second, what appeared to have 727 jet, of course, the question of terrorist activity has to surface. The question of whether this was an intentional terrorist act of some kind. Keep in mind, were in an area here where there are three major airports. You have newark airport, Kennedy Airport and La Guardia Airport all within several miles of the World Trade Center. Its very unusual for a plane to 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 well, the smaller plane, you can understand almost, but a jumbo jet, a large jet, completely lets rerack that video if we could, down in the control room
where we actually saw the jet flying into the building. And i was mistaken Elliott Walker said it was a big plane, i was looking in the distance and saw a small plane, which might have been a helicopter. To see this plane come into the picture that is a big plane. There it is. And, i mean, 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 wondering if jennifer is still on the phone. Do we still have jennifer on the phone . Shes actually not 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 there. We gathered that from the eyewitnesses with whom we spoke and how terrifying this was for them to see. You can only imagine, as you get closer to the twin towers, a new york land mine, landmark,
how what the scene must be like there. You talked about the buildings looking like theyre buckling. Theyre designed to have a 2 degree sway in either direction because of the height of the building and to deal with wind and stress. But Something Like that is more than its probably designed for. We want to go now to jane who i understand is a Television Producer here in new york. Jane, can you hear me . Yes, i can hear you. Im down here near the World Trade Center. I was walk down sixth avenue this morning at 8 42 a. M. A group of us saw a plane veer through the building, then we saw a huge cloud of smoke. And then fire came out of one of the towers. Here, 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 affected by the plane so im not quite sure what happened there. Right now, theres a huge gaping hole in one of the towers. The other building is on fire. This 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. Did you get a glimpse of what kind of plane that was . We are told it was a small commuter plane. Well, it wasnt a cessna or anything like that. It was a larger plane. A midsized plane. And we could hear it very low. And walking down the street, a couple of us looked at each other, thinking, whats happening . 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 just mention when the impact hit the first tower, you would hope that people who are in the second tower were beginning to evacuate. Especially if air Traffic Control had some indica