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9/11 final moments revisited
29/08/2003 20:28 - (SA)
New York - With the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks looming, the horrors faced by those who died were forced back into the public eye on Friday following the release of harrowing radio and telephone transcripts.
The 2 000 pages of emergency calls and radio transmissions made within the World Trade Centre prior to the collapse of the twin towers included heart-wrenching pleas for help, often just moments before the callers were killed.
The transcripts were released on Thursday by the agency that built and ran security at the World Trade Centre - the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Despite the agency's appeal to the media to refrain from publishing "gruesome, gratuitous or personal details," most newspapers ran front-page stories that focused on the final moments of those trapped high in the twin towers with no hope of escape.
"The whole building is going to come down on me. The building is starting coming down on my right...," said one frantic female caller.
The transcripts also revisited one of the most disturbing images of the attack, as people trapped in smoke-filled offices opted to jump rather than suffocate in the toxic fumes.
"We've got so many hurt, people jumping out the windows left and right," reported one police officer.
Open old wounds
The release of the transcripts - forced on the Port Authority by a New York Times lawsuit - had been opposed by many victims' families, who said it would only serve to open old wounds.
Those fears appeared to have been realised on Friday, as some mass-circulation newspapers went to their archives and reprinted graphic photographs from the attack, such as a second plane hitting the World Trade Centre and the fiery collapse of both towers.
"The only thing this did for me and my family was to take away the peace that we worked so hard to get in the past two years," said Laurie Tietjen, whose brother, a Port Authority police officer, died in the attack.
"Especially with the anniversary coming up, we should be celebrating their lives, not rehashing their deaths," Tietjen said.
The transcripts underlined the panic and confusion that followed the initial impact of the two hijacked planes, as the Port Authority personnel sought to make some sense of the chaos.
"We have an explosion on one of the top floors. We don't know if it's an aircraft. We don't know if it's a bomb. We have multiple injuries, we are doing an evacuation of the building. We mobilised everybody," said one agency police officer.
The radio transmissions bore stark testimony to the bravery of Port Authority staff, 84 of whom died in the attack - many of them after helping countless others to escape.
However, several newspapers also highlighted an early message sent to a person trapped on the 92nd floor of the north tower not to evacuate.
Chilling exchange
"We need to know if we need to get out of here. ... Should we stay or should we not?" the caller asked after the neighbouring tower had been hit by the first hijacked plane.
"I would wait till further notice," the police operator replied.
"OK, all right," the caller said. "Don't evacuate." He then hung up.
Another chilling exchange came amid a series of ever more desperate calls to the Port Authority police desk from a manager working for the Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the north tower.
"The situation is rapidly getting worse. We ... we have ... the fresh air is going down fast. I'm not exaggerating," the manager told the on-duty police officer.
"What are we going to do for air? Can we break a window?" she continued.
The restaurant lost 79 staff members when the tower collapsed.
Nikki Stern, who lost her husband in the attack and is now a member of the board of directors of the organisation "Families of September 11," said the release of the transcripts was unlikely to serve any useful purpose.
"It'll obviously reopen a lot of wounds and I'm not sure whether it'll give us a lot of new information," Stern said. "A lot of families don't want to get it or even hear about it."
Compared to last year, New York officials have planned a relatively low-key memorial ceremony for the second September 11 anniversary, and a number of victims' families plan to mark the day in private rather than attending official events at Ground Zero.
- AFP
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