Twenty years ago, a flight took off from Boston and was rerouted to New York. What happened next changed the course of history.
This is the story of September 11, 2001 — a date the world will never forget.
This is the story of September 11, 2001 — a date the world will never forget.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A huge explosion now, raining debris on all of us, we better get out of the way!
00:30The cockpit's not answering, somebody's stabbed in business class, and I think there's minks
00:47that we can't breathe, I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked.
00:50We have some planes, stay quiet and you'll be okay, we're returning to the airport.
01:00If you're just joining us, you're looking at dramatic pictures of New York's World Trade Center
01:17in Lower Manhattan, where a short time ago we were told that a plane crashed into the upper floors
01:24of the westernmost tower.
01:37I was somewhere between 74 and 72 in that stairwell when the second plane went through our building.
01:44It went through our building between floors 77 and 82, so we were just a few floors below the strike zone.
01:54I've never felt anything like that in my life.
01:58That building, that fire escape well that we're inside, this concrete bunker starts to shake so violently
02:07back and forth, the handrails breaking away from the walls.
02:10That's the chance we had for the first time to encounter the police and firefighters and paramedics
02:15from New York City and the Corps Department.
02:17Just the looks in their eyes, no words, just the looks in their eyes.
02:25They knew that they were going up and they knew that they were never coming back.
02:31They looked like it was on purpose.
02:34You saw a plane?
02:36Yes, I just saw a plane go into the building.
02:39Why do you say that was definitely on purpose?
02:42Because it just flew straight into it.
03:01I walked up to him and leaned over and said, a second plane hit the second tower.
03:08America is under attack.
03:10Today we've had a national tragedy.
03:12Terrorism against our nation will not stand.
03:16We were going to work and when I heard this huge noise, I just got out of the car.
03:33Then I saw the plane was coming down and around this area, the wing was up and down this way.
03:41Then with a second, it just crashed straight away.
03:45A few hours later...
04:03First we hear the sound of the twisting steel and crumbling concrete of what once was the South Tower,
04:10the building that we had been in just eight, nine minutes earlier.
04:15Wow.
04:32My husband, Tom Burnett, he was a passenger on flight 93 that morning.
04:37The phone rang in on call waiting.
04:40It was Tom.
04:44I said, Tom, you're okay?
04:47He said, no, I'm not.
04:50He said, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked.
04:52It's flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco.
04:58He said, they have already stabbed a guy and they're trying to get into the cockpit.
05:06On his fourth and final call, he said they were waiting until they were over a rural area to take back the airplane.
05:14As we sat there listening, I said to him, you sit down, you be still, be quiet and don't draw attention to yourself.
05:22He didn't listen.
05:24He screamed into the phone, no, no, no.
05:28If they're going to crash this plane, we're going to do something.
05:31He hung up the phone and led the crew and passengers down the aisle and into the cockpit.
05:36United 93, have you got information on that yet?
05:39Yeah, he's down.
05:40He's down?
05:41Yes.
05:42When did he land?
05:43He did not land.
05:45Oh, he's down?
05:46Yeah, somewhere up northeast of Camp David.
06:01The police officer told everybody to form a human chain and we held on to each other and he flashed a light and he directed us to Building 5 and we went out Building 5.
06:19Did you see people bleeding?
06:20Oh, everybody could see.
06:22Do you want blood?
06:23Here's blood.
06:24Everybody's bleeding.
06:25People are laying all over the floor.
06:26It's horrible.
06:27It was as though day turned to night.
06:29I'm sure you've heard the description already.
06:31It was unbelievable, like a war zone.
06:33I felt horrified because it's like you don't know what's coming.
06:35They kept saying another plane coming and all you hear was this rumbling.
06:40People were crying.
06:41People were jumping out the window.
06:43They were waving, trying to say, help me.
06:46You see their arms.
06:47And then you saw the man jump down and everybody was jumping.
06:51It was crazy.
07:28Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.
07:41These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat.
07:47But they have failed.
07:49Our country is strong.