story426.xml
Title
story426.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-04-16
911DA Story: Story
The Pentagon
Washington, DC
09-11-01
BNN Page
Arlington: Plane crash/vacinity of 14th St bridge/George Wash Pkwy/Arlington units have witnessed an airplane crash very close to the Pentagon?further details as they become available/ BNN 624 MDT Group 12 9:45 am 9/11/01
I left for work on a sunny Tuesday morning at about 6:50 am?as usual and stopped for coffee at Starbucks?as usual.
For no particular reason I bought a piece of coffee cake not knowing it would be my breakfast and lunch.
Arriving at work in Old Town Alexandria at 8 I was greeted by my fellow employees also beginning their days. For the past month or so I have been taking my portable radio and scanner into the office to suplement the old Radio Shack model I use to monitor the DC Fire dispatch. This allowed me to also keep tabs on the Fairfax Co Fire channels with my GE-MPD radio and scan the Alexandria and Arlington 800mhz frequencies with the Radio Shack Pro 39.
Sometime around the 9:00 hour a fellow worker informed me that she had heard that an aircraft had hit the WTC in New York. I instinctively switched on the radio in my office to WTOP-AM , a long time source for concise information and news.
Through the AM static we listened to the reports from New York with updates almost constantly. A second plane hit the tower #2 and the staff became engrossed in the scratchy reports. While answering the ?E? mails that had accumulated over night and listening to the radio I kept a close ear on the scanners. The local reports were the usual BLS calls, accident with injuries, etc.
Around 9:30 am I caught the Arlington Co Fire dispatcher shouting to?I think?a Battalion Chief that ?there is a plane down at the 14th St bridge !!! ? (the site of the Air Florida crash in the 80?s)
Too much to be a coincidence I jumped up out of my chair, grabbed my radios, announced the news to the office and left for my car. I drive a used Virginia State Police car, a 1994 Chevy Caprice?equipped with 2 mobile Trunk Tracking radios, a Motorola 16 channel Radius to cover the 460 mhz range and the two portables I use in the office and while on foot. On the way out I felt an obligation to inform the local TV producers whom I work with from time to time of the incident.
Speed dialing from my NEXTEL I called WRC-4(NBC), FOX ?5 and WUSA ?9 (CBS). While on the phone to Ch 4 I heard the Arlington dispatcher indicate the crash was in the Del Ray area, next?Crystal City?next the Navy Annex and finally the area at the Pentagon. I informed the Fox news desk of the crash and the young lady who answered shouted the information all over the newsroom.
Traveling North on Rt 1, knowing my urgency and conscious of the city traffic I turned on my headlights, activated the emergency strobe tail lights and began to use the air horn to make my way to towards the crash. As I approached the overpass into the Del Ray area I could see a massive cloud of black smoke behind Crystal City to the North. Rt 1 divides at Rt 395?right to DC, left to Rt110, which runs adjacent to the Pentagon. I sped along 110 until I found a median cross over, made a U-turn and proceeded up the wrong way an exit ramp to the parking area. I covered the 4 plus miles in 5 minuets. I could see the evacuations well under way and hundreds of people milling around the Pentagon lawns.
As I rounded the ramp up to the fire I began to think about where to leave my car!
I noticed a burgundy van parked on the grass at the ramp merge and pulled along side out of the way. A newswoman was preparing her Fox microphone and her cameraman was setting up his tripod.
Now it was time to GO!!
What to take!!??
I fumbled with a spare battery for the Sony HandiCam, hung my IDs around my neck, turned off the lights and flashers and popped the trunk. Out of the car I grabbed the Sony, 2 spare Hi8 tapes, the Nikon FM-2 with a 35mm lens, a 60-300mm zoom and 3 rolls of film. Jamming it all in my pockets I took OFF!
The first thing I shot was a man in a suit examining parts of the wreckage strewn all over the street approximately 150 yards from the impact area.
Next, the sheer spectacle of the Pentagon on fire with the thick black smoke rolling over its face to the South.
My mind was racing and I knew I had to prioritize the visual overload of the scene. Stressed over and over by my best friend Tom Yeatman, also a freelance videojournalist, shoot the action first, the scene last?there was action everywhere!
Moving along the West face of the building toward the impact area
I found medics treating a dozen or so victims. Shooting that I moved further along to a burned man being loaded into an ambulance. With the burning building behind
him he pleaded with someone to tell his family that he was all right. Moving again I focused on the impact site?trucks, hoses, volunteers with backboards, clergy, fire and smoke everywhere.
I heard a helicopter over my right shoulder, turned and was able to shoot the U S Park Police helicopter landing to fly out the first patients. The scene was surreal with scores of emergency vehicles in the background. The ground crew motioned for someone to come forward and, looking to my right I shot a severely burned man being rushed by on a gurney for a fly out. Distracted from that scene by a crunching thump I turned again to the building in time to shoot the end of the collapse of the upper 3 floors.
Just about then I was told by an ATF agent that ?you might want to leave?a second plane is 10 minuets out !!? I moved across the street searching the sky. All that I could think was what an opportunity it would be to get it on film! That mindset usually sets in when I acknowledge that events are completely out of my control.
Hearing what I thought to be another explosion I looked across the Potomac for another plume of smoke and to see if the Washington Monument and the Capitol were still there! Later I found out that it was a sonic boom from the F-16s arriving from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to protect the Capitol!
As some order settled in and more and more police arrived we were pushed back to perhaps a quarter of a mile from the impact site. Helicopters began landing behind us and we were again moved to a Citgo gas station about a half mile away where the balance of the coverage has taken place.
As always, Tom Yeatman was in touch by cell to advise, direct and assist. He and I have had a remarkable relationship over the past 15 years shooting color prints for ourselves, 35mm Black and white for AP, UPI, The Post and the Times to, now, video. Keeping the local producers apprized of my progress and shopping my tape, Tom was indispensable! Over time we have established credibility with the local stations by bringing in only what we think they can use. WRC ?4 was anxious to see what I and and asked that I take it to their live truck for dubbing and / or feed to the station?it didn?t work.
By this time I was well over a mile from my car! I asked the authorities to back track through what now had become a crime scene and was refused. Moving West up the hill to the to the Navy Annex I hopped a 4 foot brick wall into Arlington National Cemetery and walked the mile plus through the gravestones. Scaling a 12 foot fence just inside the yellow police tape I hopped into the car and off to the stations; 4,5 and 9 in numerical order. At 4,an NBC affiliate, the local producer looked the images over and called the staff from MSNBC and Dateline to the dubbing room. They all bought it. Fox?s man on the desk took counter notes to highlight the best segments for his producer. Channel 9 ran it with a voice over before I even got home.
Finally, at home after the most remarkable 8 hours I have ever spent, sore, exhausted, hungry and a bit dehydrated I watched it all unfold on the TV. It seems that everyone used almost everything I had, either with a voice over or background for lead stories.
As it turns out, so far, my tape is the only one showing the victims, close up shots of the fire and the events unfolding within minuets of the impact. As one of what were probably dozens of photojournalists there, I was fortunate to shoot the tape of a lifetime! I guess I was lucky and in the right place at just the right time.
Tom tells me that it wasn?t luck?it was being prepared. I credit Tom for teaching me the logic of a spot news shoot, a long-term relationship with the local stations?and a lot of luck!
Bob Pugh
BlindSpot News Services
Washington, DC
09-11-01
BNN Page
Arlington: Plane crash/vacinity of 14th St bridge/George Wash Pkwy/Arlington units have witnessed an airplane crash very close to the Pentagon?further details as they become available/ BNN 624 MDT Group 12 9:45 am 9/11/01
I left for work on a sunny Tuesday morning at about 6:50 am?as usual and stopped for coffee at Starbucks?as usual.
For no particular reason I bought a piece of coffee cake not knowing it would be my breakfast and lunch.
Arriving at work in Old Town Alexandria at 8 I was greeted by my fellow employees also beginning their days. For the past month or so I have been taking my portable radio and scanner into the office to suplement the old Radio Shack model I use to monitor the DC Fire dispatch. This allowed me to also keep tabs on the Fairfax Co Fire channels with my GE-MPD radio and scan the Alexandria and Arlington 800mhz frequencies with the Radio Shack Pro 39.
Sometime around the 9:00 hour a fellow worker informed me that she had heard that an aircraft had hit the WTC in New York. I instinctively switched on the radio in my office to WTOP-AM , a long time source for concise information and news.
Through the AM static we listened to the reports from New York with updates almost constantly. A second plane hit the tower #2 and the staff became engrossed in the scratchy reports. While answering the ?E? mails that had accumulated over night and listening to the radio I kept a close ear on the scanners. The local reports were the usual BLS calls, accident with injuries, etc.
Around 9:30 am I caught the Arlington Co Fire dispatcher shouting to?I think?a Battalion Chief that ?there is a plane down at the 14th St bridge !!! ? (the site of the Air Florida crash in the 80?s)
Too much to be a coincidence I jumped up out of my chair, grabbed my radios, announced the news to the office and left for my car. I drive a used Virginia State Police car, a 1994 Chevy Caprice?equipped with 2 mobile Trunk Tracking radios, a Motorola 16 channel Radius to cover the 460 mhz range and the two portables I use in the office and while on foot. On the way out I felt an obligation to inform the local TV producers whom I work with from time to time of the incident.
Speed dialing from my NEXTEL I called WRC-4(NBC), FOX ?5 and WUSA ?9 (CBS). While on the phone to Ch 4 I heard the Arlington dispatcher indicate the crash was in the Del Ray area, next?Crystal City?next the Navy Annex and finally the area at the Pentagon. I informed the Fox news desk of the crash and the young lady who answered shouted the information all over the newsroom.
Traveling North on Rt 1, knowing my urgency and conscious of the city traffic I turned on my headlights, activated the emergency strobe tail lights and began to use the air horn to make my way to towards the crash. As I approached the overpass into the Del Ray area I could see a massive cloud of black smoke behind Crystal City to the North. Rt 1 divides at Rt 395?right to DC, left to Rt110, which runs adjacent to the Pentagon. I sped along 110 until I found a median cross over, made a U-turn and proceeded up the wrong way an exit ramp to the parking area. I covered the 4 plus miles in 5 minuets. I could see the evacuations well under way and hundreds of people milling around the Pentagon lawns.
As I rounded the ramp up to the fire I began to think about where to leave my car!
I noticed a burgundy van parked on the grass at the ramp merge and pulled along side out of the way. A newswoman was preparing her Fox microphone and her cameraman was setting up his tripod.
Now it was time to GO!!
What to take!!??
I fumbled with a spare battery for the Sony HandiCam, hung my IDs around my neck, turned off the lights and flashers and popped the trunk. Out of the car I grabbed the Sony, 2 spare Hi8 tapes, the Nikon FM-2 with a 35mm lens, a 60-300mm zoom and 3 rolls of film. Jamming it all in my pockets I took OFF!
The first thing I shot was a man in a suit examining parts of the wreckage strewn all over the street approximately 150 yards from the impact area.
Next, the sheer spectacle of the Pentagon on fire with the thick black smoke rolling over its face to the South.
My mind was racing and I knew I had to prioritize the visual overload of the scene. Stressed over and over by my best friend Tom Yeatman, also a freelance videojournalist, shoot the action first, the scene last?there was action everywhere!
Moving along the West face of the building toward the impact area
I found medics treating a dozen or so victims. Shooting that I moved further along to a burned man being loaded into an ambulance. With the burning building behind
him he pleaded with someone to tell his family that he was all right. Moving again I focused on the impact site?trucks, hoses, volunteers with backboards, clergy, fire and smoke everywhere.
I heard a helicopter over my right shoulder, turned and was able to shoot the U S Park Police helicopter landing to fly out the first patients. The scene was surreal with scores of emergency vehicles in the background. The ground crew motioned for someone to come forward and, looking to my right I shot a severely burned man being rushed by on a gurney for a fly out. Distracted from that scene by a crunching thump I turned again to the building in time to shoot the end of the collapse of the upper 3 floors.
Just about then I was told by an ATF agent that ?you might want to leave?a second plane is 10 minuets out !!? I moved across the street searching the sky. All that I could think was what an opportunity it would be to get it on film! That mindset usually sets in when I acknowledge that events are completely out of my control.
Hearing what I thought to be another explosion I looked across the Potomac for another plume of smoke and to see if the Washington Monument and the Capitol were still there! Later I found out that it was a sonic boom from the F-16s arriving from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to protect the Capitol!
As some order settled in and more and more police arrived we were pushed back to perhaps a quarter of a mile from the impact site. Helicopters began landing behind us and we were again moved to a Citgo gas station about a half mile away where the balance of the coverage has taken place.
As always, Tom Yeatman was in touch by cell to advise, direct and assist. He and I have had a remarkable relationship over the past 15 years shooting color prints for ourselves, 35mm Black and white for AP, UPI, The Post and the Times to, now, video. Keeping the local producers apprized of my progress and shopping my tape, Tom was indispensable! Over time we have established credibility with the local stations by bringing in only what we think they can use. WRC ?4 was anxious to see what I and and asked that I take it to their live truck for dubbing and / or feed to the station?it didn?t work.
By this time I was well over a mile from my car! I asked the authorities to back track through what now had become a crime scene and was refused. Moving West up the hill to the to the Navy Annex I hopped a 4 foot brick wall into Arlington National Cemetery and walked the mile plus through the gravestones. Scaling a 12 foot fence just inside the yellow police tape I hopped into the car and off to the stations; 4,5 and 9 in numerical order. At 4,an NBC affiliate, the local producer looked the images over and called the staff from MSNBC and Dateline to the dubbing room. They all bought it. Fox?s man on the desk took counter notes to highlight the best segments for his producer. Channel 9 ran it with a voice over before I even got home.
Finally, at home after the most remarkable 8 hours I have ever spent, sore, exhausted, hungry and a bit dehydrated I watched it all unfold on the TV. It seems that everyone used almost everything I had, either with a voice over or background for lead stories.
As it turns out, so far, my tape is the only one showing the victims, close up shots of the fire and the events unfolding within minuets of the impact. As one of what were probably dozens of photojournalists there, I was fortunate to shoot the tape of a lifetime! I guess I was lucky and in the right place at just the right time.
Tom tells me that it wasn?t luck?it was being prepared. I credit Tom for teaching me the logic of a spot news shoot, a long-term relationship with the local stations?and a lot of luck!
Bob Pugh
BlindSpot News Services
Collection
Citation
“story426.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/4900.