story1503.xml

story1503.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-27

I am a NYPD Detective and I was in my office in Brooklyn. My office looks across the water into Manhattan and the Twin Towers. One of my colleagues just left the office and returned suddenly stating that he heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center; we turned on the television and saw the smoke coming from one of the towers and I thought to myself that it must have been a small plane like the one that hit the Empire State building years ago. Then I and several others went outside to look and I saw a plane flying low coming from the the direction of the Statue of Liberty going toward the towers and I thought it was trying to avoid the thick smoke coming from the towers. I turned to go inside when I heard this scream form one of the females from my office who was up on the roof of our building; I ran up to the roof and she was hysterical; screaming and crying, I asked what happened and she said that another plane hit the building. I turned and scanned the sky realizing that the low flying plane I had been watching was the second plane that hit the towers. I felt an empty feeling come over me and I ran downstairs and jumped in a car with another detective and drove to the Battery Tunnel so I could go help whoever I could. I am also an Emergency Medical Technician and I knew that this was going to be a horrible, horrible day. We were unable to get through the tunnel for approximately an hour and when we came out the other side I was stunned by this time both towers had fallen and there was smoke and ash everywhere you looked. It was about a foot deep all over. I saw ESU trucks crushed, police and firetrucks also. empty shoes all over the street where people had run out of them in fear or where someone had jumped from the towers. It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen.