story1644.xml

story1644.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-01

On the morning of September 11, 2001 in Sunnyside, New York (which is in New York City, in the borough of Queens), I was in my apartment on the sixth floor, getting ready for work. While I was sitting at the dressing table in my bedroom watching ?The Today Show?, suddenly an announcement was made: ?We are interrupting this program with a breaking story.? Not only was it verbal, but the words were also printed on the screen. Then a picture came on of one of the World Trade Center Towers on fire. I immediately turned and looked out my open window and saw the North Tower on fire. This was no longer an electronically transmitted picture on a television screen. I was now an actual eyewitness. I don?t recall trying to guess what had happened. I just remember focusing on the terrible fire in The Tower, and that people were in there. I immediately telephoned my daughter because her boyfriend works near the Twin Towers. I also called my boss, as her granddaughter works for the Mayor?s Office near there. My daughter accepted my horrific information and, said she would immediately call her boyfriend. But my boss said, ?Audrey calm down, sit down, relax?you are hallucinating?. She said she was listening to the jazz radio station that is connected to our office telephone system. I told her that the jazz radio station does not report breaking news and that she should turn on the television set in the executive suite before phoning her granddaughter. I hung up, went for my camera and began taking pictures.

My bedroom windows face west and I look directly at the Empire State Building, which is only four miles in front of me across the East River, but I have an unobstructed view of much of Manhattan including the World Trade Center downtown. The skyline is a panorama in front of me.

As I stared at the burning Tower, I saw a flying object coming into view, to the south of the site. I thought it was a news helicopter and that we might soon know what had happened. But then I realized it wasn?t a helicopter but a plane. ?Oh, no, it has two engines! It?s a commercial airliner, and it?s flying so low,? I said aloud to myself. As I watched in horror, the plane banked and rolled into the South Tower, followed by a horrific fire explosion. I heard no sound other than cries of ?Oh My God? from the reporters on television and myself. It was like watching a film of an old silent movie. I later asked a pilot-friend why I didn?t hear anything? ?Sound dissipates when it is that high up,? he said. I continued to watch in horror, with both Towers now burning. I probably surmised that a plane had also crashed into the first Tower. But it never occurred to me that America was being attacked. I was just a spectator taking photographs. Though I had no way of knowing, I would photograph a picture of the South Tower collapsing.

For me there were more traumas to come. Before The Towers collapsed I saw a third commercial airliner flying overhead from the Brooklyn-Queens side of the East River, heading west on a diagonal towards the Empire State Building. All I could do was pray out loud, ?Please, God, don?t let this airliner crash into the Empire State Building?. I also tried to communicate with the pilot through mental telephony: ?Please don?t hit the Empire State Building. No, don?t try to fly between the Empire State and the Chrysler Buildings as there are only eight city blocks between them.? That is hardly enough room for a commercial jet to navigate through. ?Please fly to the south of the Empire State Building?. And it did, thank God. I was so intent on watching the nose of this airliner that I never noticed the identification marking on the tail. There were articles in The New York Times and Newsday that mentioned a Police Department helicopter saw what they thought was a kamikaze plane (their words) coming in toward The Towers and radioed to their command, who in turn relayed the message to the ground rescue forces and the Fire Commander inside The Towers. He ordered all firefighters to evacuate The Towers immediately. This turned out to be a hoax, which was a good thing as The Towers collapsed soon after. That was probably the plane I saw. I haven?t heard of anyone else who saw this plane, though the office workers in the Empire State Building (if they hadn?t been evacuated yet) must have been terrified to see a commercial airliner flying so low and so close.

I have lived in my apartment for forty years and never saw a commercial jet fly from east to west across the East River. My pilot-friend, who also was a former neighbor, works for Flight Safety Patrol at LaGuardia Airport, said to me when I told him my story, ?Audrey, you know this is not an aviation flight path?. There was one other bit of information that I came a crossed in a book of photographs, titled Above Hallowed Ground. A photographic record of September 11, 2001. By photographers of The New York City Police Department. Shown is a centerfold photograph of The Towers Burning and above them an F-15 is doing a flyover. The caption on the page says: On the lookout for two remaining planes that were unaccounted for just before an F-15 roared past. Soon after I witnessed the jet flying toward the Empire State Building I saw an F-15 fly over.

In closing, all I can say is, the pilot of that plane and I know he flew towards the Empire State Building and even I knew it was not an aviation flight path.