American Airlines 11 Absturz-Indizien

"Joseph" Afse

Then, at 8:45, I heard too much sound, like a plane was landing right here in the street.

When I look up, it was a plane, alright. I could see it coming through the sky. It hit the building. I saw the flames, the windows shatter, everything. All the people walking here thought it was an accident. A lot of us thought that the pilot is a drunk.
Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11, Damon DiMarco

Arthur Angel

"We heard a big explosion, everything got real dark, like it was snowing, only it wasn't snow. It was broken glass," said Arthur Angel, who was on the street and witnessed the first plane crash.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), September 11 2001

Bruce Antelman

Bruce Antelman, president of Information Express, a Palo Alto document delivery company with offices in New York, saw the first airplane crash into the World Trade Center from his bedroom window on the 11th floor of a nearby apartment building.

"It very smoothly arched right into it and hit it solidly in the center, at the top of the building, Antelman said. "It was so obvious it was deliberate. That was the freakiest part, watching it hit.
http://www.sfgate.com/today/0912_chron_nyscene.shtml

"Dr J Atlasberg"

OK, we actually have an "Eyewitness News" reporter, Dr. J. Atlasberg (ph) who was downtown at the time and he is on the phone with us live.

Dr. J., what can you tell us?

DR. J. ATLASBERG (ph), REPORTER: Hello, Steve.

I'm actually uptown at 86th and Riverside. I can see the World Trade Center from about half the building up to the top. And about five minutes ago, as I was watching the smoke, a small plane -- I did -- it looked like a propeller plane, came in from the west. And about 20 or 25 stories below the top of the center, disappeared for a second, and then explode behind a water tower, so I couldn't tell whether it hit the building or not. But it was very visible, that a plane had come in at a low altitude and appeared to crash into the World Trade Center.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.01.html

Ezra Aviles

From a window on the 61st floor in the north tower, Ezra Aviles had seen everything. He knew it was no bomb. His window faced north, and he saw the plane tearing through the skies, heading straight for the tower. It had crashed into the building over his head-how far, he was not sure. In fact, its lower wing cut the ceiling of the 93rd floor, and its right wing had ripped across the 98th floor, at the very moment that Patricia Massari was speaking to her husband about her home pregnancy test.

Aviles worked for the Port Authority. He dialed five numbers, leaving identical messages, describing what he saw, and telling everyone up the chain of command to begin the evacuation. He called one colleague, John Paczkowski, but reached his voice mail. "It seems to be an American Airlines jetliner came in from the northern direction, toward-from the Empire State Building, toward us," Aviles said. He ticked through a list of notifications-he had called the police and the public affairs office, and had beeped the chief operating officer for the agency. "Smoke is beginning to come, so I think I'm gonna start bailing outta here, man.... Don't come near the building if you're outside. Pieces are coming down, man. Bye." ...

By then, the havoc was escalating, even if the cause was not apparent. In the police bureau at the base, Alan Reiss heard talk of a missile having been fired from the roof of the Woolworth Building, just a couple of blocks east of the trade center.

As Reiss was listening to this, a Port Authority detective, Richie Paugh, arrived.

"We're going out onto the plaza to let you know what's going on," Reiss told the desk. He and Paugh walked down the hallway from the plaza, past an airline ticket counter. A revolving door put them under a soffit, an overhang sheltering the entrance to 5 World Trade Center. They peered out. Debris had rained onto the plaza-steel and concrete and fragments of offices and glass. Above them, they could see the east side of the north tower, and also its northern face. Instead of the waffle gridding of the building's face, they now saw a wall of fire spread across ten or fifteen floors. Then they saw the people coming out the windows, driven toward air, and into air. The plane had struck not two minutes earlier.

On the ground, they saw an odd shape. Reiss looked closer. It was the nose gear of an airplane, missing the rubber tire, but with its wheel still connected to the hydraulic elbow that retracts into the bottom of the plane. Paugh began to take notes on its shape and location. Reiss protested. "There's crap falling on us," he said. "I don't have a hard hat on or anything, let's just drag it in."

He and Paugh lugged the part into the police office. "It's evidence, put a sticker on it," Reiss said.

"A plane hit the building," Paugh said.

"It's a big plane," Reiss added. "It's not a Piper Cub. This is a bi-i-i-g fucking wheel."
102 Minutes, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn

Matthew Battles

I saw the first plane come buzzing in down lower Manhattan, flying incredibly low. The noise was what I imagine an old buzz bomb sounded like. It was a big jet, wobbling, flying unsteadily and very fast. Being a New Yorker, I almost shrugged it off, but two women on the street shrieked "oh my god, it's going to crash." I stopped cold. I counted the seconds, maybe five, before I heard a thud. I couldn't immediately see that it had hit the world trade center. In a few minutes, though, the smoke rose up, glittering with thousands of bits of tile or dust or something, clearly coming from right near the world trade center. And then I started crying.
http://matthewbattles.com/wtc_archive.html

David Blackford

New Yorker David Blackford, walking to his office, heard the roar of the plane and looked up. "I saw this plane screaming overhead," he told The New York Times. "I thought it was too low. I thought it wouldn't clear the tower." And then he saw the plane smash into the New York landmark. The ground shook, and "you could see the concussion move up the building," said Blackford.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_5_101/ai_79234540

FIREFIGHTER RICHARD CARLETTI

I was coming up Allen, which turns into First. When I was crossing Delancey Street, I saw a jet in front of me, which was the first jet. He was pretty low. He was probably about 30 stories. Now I'm heading north and crossing Delancey Street on Allen and I see the jet make a move toward the Trade Center. It made a southwesterly turn from that point.. I proceeded up First Avenue, left on 14th, parked in front of the firehouse. Fireman Lynn was there. He said they were out on a box, they wouldn't let him on because they thought they had a good job, and right then he told me a plane just crashed into the Trade Center. It was the same exact plane I just saw.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110419.PDF

FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH CASALIGGI

On the morning of September 11th we were operating a box up on Church Street Near Canal. There was an odor of gas in the area. While we were out operating, we heard the first plane coming in. I turned around and I watched the plane crash into the north tower.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110430.PDF

PARAMEDIC KENNETH DAVIS

As we were driving over the 59th Street bridge, just looking out the window, we saw a plane hit the World Trade

Center, what we thought was a plane... you could see the flames and the smoke starting and they're like, wow, it must have been one of the little planes. I said, no, it looked like a jet.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110454.PDF

Clyde Ebanks

Clyde Ebanks, 36, an Aon insurance executive based in Dallas, was in a meeting in a northwest-corner conference room on the 103rd floor. Sitting with his back to the window, he watched horror spread across his colleagues' faces and turned around to see the tip of the wing of a jet disappear into the north tower. Immediately, his boss, Chris Gardner, a top executive with the company's global risk services unit, ordered everyone to leave.

"I started packing my briefcase with my laptop and my files and stuff, and he stood there. He kept yelling at me. I was the last one to leave the room. He wouldn't leave until I left," Ebanks says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-09-02-choices-usat_x.htm

FIREFIGHTER KENNETH ESCOFFRY

On the morning of September 11th about 8:45, I was relieved, and a few of us were standing in front of quarters when we noticed a plane came directly over the firehouse maybe around 8:45, somewhere around that time. One of the guys mentioned that the plane looked like it was really low. Before we could really think of what he said, the next thing we heard an explosion. We saw the smoke.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110460.PDF

Deputy Chief Peter Hayden

Division 1 - 33 years

Firehouse: Were you in quarters when you heard the incident come in? Hayden: I was in quarters, yes.

Firehouse: Were you just getting off or just coming in? Hayden: I was continuing on. I worked the night before. I was in my office when I heard a plane coming in low.

Firehouse: You heard the plane come over?

Hayden: Yeah, I looked out the window. I really couldn�t see anything because the building lines obstructed the view, but I heard the crash and I knew right away what it was.
Firehouse Magazine (Web Archive copy)

Colin Heywood

"It was so loud," said Colin Heywood, 36, a British designer who lives in a loft with a view of the Twin Towers. "I was in my bedroom making a telephone call and I saw it tilt and head towards the building. As it hit, its wings seemed as wide as the tower. It disappeared into the building, as if it was swallowed inside." That was 8.45am.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1340337/Death-in-the-towering-inferno.html

Stacy Horn

Posts from the ECHO discussion board, as reported in New York Magazine:

11-SEP-01 8:47 Stacy Horn A PLANE JUST CRASHED INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER.

11-SEP-01 8:49 Stacy Horn Oh god. I'm shaking. A plane just went by my window, it was flying WAY too low, and I was thinking, "How ironic," I wrote about this in my book, and it crashed.

Oh God, people are dead now. Oh god.

11-SEP-01 8:50 Cathy Where did you hear? I have the Today show on. No bulletin.

11-SEP-01 8:51 Stacy Horn I SAW IT. It just happened, too soon for radio and TV.

11-SEP-01 8:51 Cathy There's the bulletin!!! Oh God!

11-SEP-01 8:51 Stacy Horn I'm freaking out. I called 911 and it was busy.

11-SEP-01 8:55 Stacy Horn I didn't see the hit, I saw the plane go by (TOO LOW) and heard the crash which was AWFUL. Then I stood up and saw the big GAPING hole (I can see the World Trade from where I am.)

11-SEP-01 8:56 just charlene There is a huge fucking hole in the side of the WTC!

11-SEP-01 8:56 starla what kind of plane was it?

11-SEP-01 8:57 Ellen I think I heard the crash all the way up here. Oh god.

11-SEP-01 8:57 Stacy Horn

Jet. A big jet.
http://nymag.com/news/features/20288

POLICE OFFICER VICTOR LAGUER

KING: The Governor of New York, George Pataki. Speaking of heroes, we are now joined by officer Victor Laguer. Officer Laguer a member of the New York City police department for 11 years. He and his long-time partner, James Leahy, were on the scene one minute after the first tower was hit. His partner is missing. Is that your regular beat, so to speak, Officer Laguer?

VICTOR LAGUER, NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER: Yes, Officer Leahy is my regular partner.

KING: And is that area of New York City where you regularly serve?

LAGUER: No. We serve Greenwich Village. We serve the 6th Precinct.

KING: What were you doing so close to the building?

LAGUER: We were on a routine patrol on 7th Avenue and Grove Street when we saw the plane go overhead. And my partner mentioned to me that this plane looked awful low. So we proceeded down 7th Avenue and we saw the plane strike the building.

KING: What went through your mind?

LAGUER: We were in awe. We were terrified. We couldn't believe what we saw. It almost looked like a show. And all my partner kept on telling me is "Let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's get down there as fast as we can."

KING: Did you think accident or was it obviously deliberate?

LAGUER: We thought accident. It was a big plane. We couldn't conceive of it just purposely going in to the Twin Towers. Our only hope was to get there as soon as possible to save people.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/14/lkl.00.html

FIREFIGHTER LT. BOB LAROCCO

We all heard a plane that sounded like it was in trouble. So everyone stopped what they were doing. I kind of thought to myself that it was headed toward Newark Airport. I didn't think much of it.

And then I heard a dull thud. I kind of stopped in my tracks and stopped for a second, and said, nah. People started running out of the stores on Second Avenue there. They were saying, oh, God, oh, God, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/15/asb.01.html

Police Officer David Leclaire

On tues., 9/11/01, at approximately 0846 hours, P.O. J. Camera and myself were standing on the North East corner of Jersey Ave. & 12th St., facing the World Trade Center. We observed an aircraft, flying south, slam into the top of the north tower.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/pa-transcripts/pa-police-reports01.pdf

Andrew Lenney

Andrew Lenney, 37 years old, a financial analyst for the New York City Council, was walking to work a few blocks from the trade center when, he said, "I saw the plane out of the corner of my eye. You're accustomed to a plane taking up a certain amount of space in the sky. This plane was huge. I just froze and watched the plane.

"It was coming down the Hudson. It was banking toward me. I saw the tops of both wings," he said. "It was turning to make sure it hit the intended target. It plowed in about 20 stories down dead center into the north face of the building. I thought it was a movie," Mr. Lenney said. "I couldn't believe it. It was such a perfect pyrotechnic display. It was symmetrical."
www.pulitzer.org (Web Archive copy)

Denny Levy

Denny Levy, 36, a videographer, witnessed the impact from the ground.

"I saw this plane flying low over the buildings down the center of Manhattan," said Levy, who was uninjured. "It went toward the World Trade Center. It sounded like its engine was broken. Your brain tricks you. I thought it went past the building, and then it went a little to the left and took a plunge at the building.

"Then there was this burst of stuff coming out of the building. There was no fire and no explosion. I wondered why the plane was making so much noise and was so low.

"You could tell it was a passenger plane, that it was in trouble or trying to get close for a view. You'd never think a plane would go dead center into a building. It was like a missile.

"I thought it was an accident, except he took a sudden left. He went right for it. It was so creepy. I thought, 'Oh my God, I just saw 300 people die.' "
Los Angeles Times, September 11 2001

Mark Lewis

MICHAEL MCKEE, BLOOMBERG NEWS

I was in a taxi, heading down Manhattan’s West Side Highway for a conference at the World Trade Center when the first airliner flew over us and crashed into the North Tower. It was 8:50 a.m.

Traffic came to an immediate halt. I jumped from the cab, climbed the fence and ran three blocks to the trade center as it began falling apart. I interviewed witnesses, including two financial industry workers riding their bikes to work.

"It was like a mirage," said Mark Lewis, a systems analyst at Citigroup Inc.’s Salomon Smith Barney unit. "I looked up and saw (the plane) melting into the building."

Just then we heard a tremendous noise, looked up and saw another large passenger plane slam into the South Tower, 50 or 60 stories up. Glass and debris rained down as we ran into a nearby building.
The Beaumont Enterprise, September 12 2001
http://www.poynterextra.org/extra/pdf/BeaumontEnterpriseW.pdf

Rob Marchesano

Rob Marchesano, a construction foreman, was working at a site at La Guardia Street and West Third. He heard a roar overhead, and saw a plane flying by, low and fast and at an angle that at first made him fear that it would hit his crane. He and his co-workers watched in astonishment and then horror as the plane approached the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He noticed that the plane seemed to tilt at the last second, as though someone wanted the wings to take out as many floors as possible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38407-2001Sep15

Gene McGillian (unspecific - could be either plane)

"I saw (the plane) maybe 200 yards before it hit," said Gene McGillian of Dobbs Ferry, a broker at the New York Mercantile Exchange. "I saw all kinds of debris and body parts on the ground and on car hoods. You had to move pretty quickly because there were pieces of metal hitting the ground. It was horrible."
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010912/SPECIAL01/109120302/-1/SPECIAL0106

Jay McInerney

P&W: What did you see on 9/11?

JM: I watched the whole thing out of my window. As I pulled my shade up in the morning, I saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Center out of the corner of my eye. I saw it all unfold. I kept turning from the TV to my window. It was completely surreal. I tried to go down there but it was blocked off. I did end up working in a soup kitchen, trying to help, for two months, like the characters Luke and Corrine in the new novel.
http://www.pw.org/mag/dq_mcinerney.htm

Glen Miller

Miller was on Staten Island driving to his office at 0843 when, at a turn in the road, he saw the first aircraft crash into the North Tower...
http://www.fireboat.org/press/prof_mariner_jan02_1.asp

Sean Murtagh

LIN: Right now we've got Sean Murtagh -- he is a CNN producer -- on the telephone.

Sean, what can you tell us what about you know?

SEAN MURTAGH, CNN PRODUCER: This is Sean Murtagh. I just was standing on the vice president of the vice president of finance for CNN.

CELLINI: Shaun, we're on the air right now. What you can tell us about the situation?

MURTAGH: Hello?

CELLINI: Yes, Sean, you are on the air right now. Go ahead. What you can tell us?

MURTAGH: I just witnessed a plane that appeared to be cruising at slightly lower-than-normal altitude over New York City, and it appears to have crashed into -- I don't know which tower it is -- but it hit directly in the middle of one of the World Trade Center towers.

LIN: Sean, what kind of plane was it? Was it a small plane, a jet?

MURTAGH: It was a jet. It looked like a two-engine jet, maybe a 737.

LIN: You are talking about a large passenger commercial jet.

MURTAGH: A large passenger commercial jet.

LIN: Where were you when you saw this?

MURTAGH: I am on the 21st floor of 5 Penn Plaza.

LIN: Did it appear that the plane was having any difficulty flying?

MURTAGH: Yes, it did. It was teetering back and forth, wingtip to wingtip, and it looks like it crashed into, probably, 20 stories from the top of the World Trade Center, maybe the 80th to 85th floor. There is smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center.

LIN: Sean, what happened next? Does it appear to you that the plane is still inside the World Trade Center?

MURTAGH: From my angle -- I'm viewing south towards the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center. It looks like it has embedded in the building. I can't see, from my vantage point whether it has come out the other side.

CELLINI: Sean, what about on the ground or any debris that has hit down there?

MURTAGH: My vantage point is too far from the World Trade Center to make any determination of that.

LIN: Did you see any smoke, any flames coming out of engines of that plane?

MURTAGH: No, I did not. The plane just was coming in low, and the wingtips tilted back and forth, and it flattened out. It looks like it hit at a slight angle into the World Trade Center. I can see flames coming out of the side of the building, and smoke continues to billow.

CELLINI: Generally, is that a trafficked area in New York for aircraft?

MURTAGH: It is not a normal flight pattern. I'm a frequent traveler between Atlanta and New York for business, and it is not a normal flight pattern to come directly over Manhattan. Usually, they come up either over the Hudson River, heading north, and pass alongside, beyond Manhattan, or if they are taking off from LaGuardia, they usually take off over Shea Stadium and gain altitude around the island of Manhattan. It is rare you have a jet crossing directly over the island of Manhattan.

LIN: For our viewers who are just tuning in right now, you are looking at live picture of the World Trade Center tower, where, according to eyewitness Sean Murtagh -- he is the vice president of finance and eyewitness to what he describes as a twin-engine plane -- or possibly a 737 passenger jet -- flying into the World Trade Center. It appears to be still embedded inside the building.

Sean, are you in a position to hear whether any sirens are going, any ambulances, any response to this yet?

MURTAGH: Not from my vantage point. I am probably 1 1/2 to two miles from the World Trade Center.

LIN: It is a remarkable scene: flames still coming out of the windows, black smoke billowing from what appears to be all sides. Obviously, windows are shattered, and steel is jutting out from the structure right now.

CELLINI: Sean, we are looking at these pictures.

MURTAGH: I see them in my office. I have them on all my TVs.

CELLINI: And you are telling us you believe the plane remains embedded.

MURTAGH: I can't tell from my vantage point.

LIN: Sean , thank you so much for your eyewitness account there.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.01.html

Jules Naudet

Jules had gone out with a fire crew checking a suspected gas leak. They heard a plane. Jules panned his camera up and remembers how he even saw the American Airlines logo on the aircraft.

It was he who took the now famous shot of that first plane smashing into the North Tower.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2236210.stm

EMT-D RALPH RAMOS

I started at 0600 that morning. I was on my way back to my 89, which is on Duane and Church Street. We were returning back there from Battalion 4 and we were going up, I believe it's Pearl Street, and my partner Alex Loutsky and I, we witnessed the first plane hit the first tower. Saw it flying low and we thought, that plane's flying kind of low, and then it hit the building and we went over the radio and we told central that we had witnessed a plane hitting the building, and at first she didn't believe us, but then other units started saying they saw the same thing...
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110303.PDF

Vincent Rao

Victor Rao had just stepped off the elevator on the 11th floor of a building a block away at the corner of Murray and Church streets, humming a "silly Beatles song," when he heard a sound like a low-flying plane.

"I turned and said to my friend, `Man, that plane is flying low,' " he recalled hours later. "Before I could even get the last word out, it hit the side of the building and just blew the other side out."
http://web.archive.org/web/20041215032051/http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/terror/sep11/backyard.asp

Nicholas Scinicariello

Nicholas Scinicariello, 62, of Yorktown Heights, worked for the Port Authority on the 86th floor of Tower One.

"I saw the plane come in. My office faces north. I just finished my coffee and I heard my friend say, 'Oh no, oh no.' This plane was coming right at us, then it went up and hit the upper floors.
Newsday (Web Archive)

Robin Seaberry

A NATION CHALLENGED: CHARITY; Help With the Bills When the Future Is Uncertain

By AARON DONOVAN New York Times

Published: September 21, 2001

Robin Seaberry arrived at work at 8:30 a.m., a bit earlier than usual. She sat down at her desk on the 101st floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center, put her bag down and turned on her computer.

As the computer was booting up, something -- she's not sure what -- made her stand up and look out the window a few feet from her desk. At that moment, she saw American Airlines Flight 11 slam into the north tower, some 130 feet from her desk. I couldn't even say 'Oh, my God,' she recalled. I just stood in shock.

Dawn Sealake

"I was in the World Financial Centre looking out the window and I saw this plane just slam right into the World Trade Centre. I couldn't believe it. "

OFFICE WORKER Dawn Sealake
The Australian, September 13 2001

Robert Seiden

Robert Seiden, 30, management consultant working in lower Manhattan: "At 8.45am I was sitting at my desk on the 36th floor of an office building at 41st Street and Third Avenue when I heard a jet engine. But I know that you can't fly jets in Manhattan. Then I turned round and saw the plane; it was just literally flying down Park Avenue, as if it were flying right down the street but over the street,

"And I said `it's too low! It's too low!' And it was going too fast. The wings tilted and it impacted around the 70th floor and there was a huge explosion and a fireball, and I started screaming.

"Now my whole office was there, watching and then 15 minutes later, another plane flew into the building," he said. "Everyone was hysterical. It was unbelievable."
The Independent, September 12 2001

George Sleigh

...I heard the loud roar of airplane engines outside. I turned in my chair so that I could see out the window. About three or four plane lengths away, I saw a huge jetliner coming at the building. I said, "That guy is low!" I spoke loud enough that my colleague sitting in the cubicle next to mine heard me. I saw the nose of the plane and then the smooth underbelly and one of the wings. It was just above me, a little bit to the right, and slightly bent so the wing over me was higher than the other wing. I couldn't see any windows or recognise any markings but I noticed the landing gear was up. It had just registered that this was no small plane when it entered our building two floors above me.
September 11: An Oral History, Dean E. Murphy

FIREFIGHTER THOMAS SPINARD

As we were at the box, a plane passes us overhead real low. You could hear it; you could feel it. We turned around, and it just impacted the building, building one....

I drove over to Canal Street and made a left on Greenwich, went down Greenwich, passed right in front of seven, made a right. When I made the right, there was debris, windows, metal and I guess plane debris right on the floor there between seven and I guess that would be six...

While we were still in the middle of the street, another plane comes in, makes a big circle, comes around from like the Statue of Liberty direction, and hits two. We can't believe that another one is coming in. Joey got on the radio, "Another plane just hit the second tower." I don't know if he said mayday or what, but he yelled "Another plane hit the second tower."
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110445.PDF

Ed Stawarz

"I saw the tail end going and going and going and then it was all gone," says Ed Stawarz, who had been on the roof of the nearby Federal Reserve Bank investigating a water leak. "Just sucked it inside."
September 11: An Oral History, Dean E. Murphy

Tom Sullivan

The heat was so intense that Dadario started sweating. Then the fire was gone, and in its wake, papers fluttered in the air. "What the hell was that?" Dadario asked.

Tom Sullivan knew.

In his office at Fiduciary Trust on the 97th floor, the portfolio analyst had just told his boss, Anthony Ventura, that his wife was expecting twins. Then, he recalls, something out the window caught his eye: a jet streaking south over Manhattan. He had just enough time to yell "Get away from the windows!" before he dived to the floor as the jet crashed into the north tower, 40 yards away.

Sullivan, 30, an Army Reservist and an assistant fire warden for his floor, ran out of the his office and yelled at colleagues to hit the fire stairs. He didn't stop to take anything, not even his wedding ring lying by the keyboard.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-09-02-choices-usat_x.htm

Denny Tillman

I watched the first plane fly downtown and collide with the north tower and almost immediately began to take pictures. These are selected for the significant moments they show.
http://www.911digitalarchive.org/images/details/3105

Joe Trachtenberg

Witness Joe Trachtenberg saw both attacks from a high-rise block on the other side of Manhattan. He said: "The first tower was smoking hard. Then there was another plane, and before we knew, it went kamikaze and flew straight into the other tower.

"There was a mass explosion, and windows flying. It was horrible."
Daily Star, September 12, 2001

Corie L. Trancho

I watched both planes hit from the kitchen window of my office.
http://www.911digitalarchive.org/images/details/1822

Bruce Wallace

Mar was in the shower and I was working at my desk. I heard a plane, large, slow, and way too low, and then the unmistakable crash. "A plane crashed. I heard it. I'm going out to see"...
http://121contact.typepad.com/my_weblog/2003/01/010911_ground_z.html

Lieutenant William Walsh

...we heard this loud roar. Everybody thought -- or at least to me it sounded as though there was going to be a Con Edison steam explosion. This was about a quarter to 9, I'd say.

So everyone looked up to where they thought they heard the sound coming from, and we saw an American Airlines plane. To me it looked as though as though it was going treetop level right down West Street. Then he appeared to rise a little bit.

We were under the impression -- he looked as though he was going down, but we didn't hear any mechanical difficulty. We couldn't figure out why an American Airlines plane would be so low in downtown Manhattan. We sort of expected him to veer off and go into the Hudson.

But he just rose a little bit, his altitude, leveled off, and he was headed straight for the Trade Center. So just before he got to the Trade Center, it seemed as though he gained power. We were just watching this airplane on target for the World Trade Center.

All of a sudden, boom he disappears into the Trade Center. You hear this sickening noise as if two pieces of fiberglass had hit. You hear this loud explosion. He just disappeared into the Trade Center.

You could see a huge fireball come out from where he hit. I guess it was about ten stories high of brown smoke coming out and thousands of pieces of paper being thrown through the other side of the World Trade Center.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110442.PDF

Tom Weber

So I'm sitting there, on the 39th floor, and we're used to plane traffic, the sounds of planes are very familiar, but I heard a much louder sound, a sound closer in proximity than I've ever heard before which caused me to look up in the direction of that sound. I saw a commercial airliner which appeared to be banking to the east just go what appeared to be right through the WTC causing an explosion on one end and an explosion on the other end...

...came back to the window and I saw the second plane, and I never gave the second plane any credibility because there couldn't be another plane flying into the World Trade Center because that's impossible, almost impossible as the first one. And it was flying south. It wasn't as direct a hit as the first plane was. It kind of hit like the edge of the building, but the explosion was way worse than the first one. The first explosion wasn't...as a matther of fact, the first plane didn't have as big an explosion as the second. The second hit and our building shook.
http://www.courttv.com/talk/chat_transcripts/2001/0911eyewitnesses.html

Unnamed SeaStreak captain

SeaStreak, another high-speed ferry operator between the Atlantic Highlands and Manhattan, also found its vessels located close by to provide almost immediate evacuation assistance. By 0840, the catamaran ferry SeaStreak New York had almost completed its run to New York and was heading up the East River. As it passed Pier 16 on the East River, the captain radioed the home office, "that he saw a plane hit the WTC. He continued up to East 34th Street, did the drop off and pick up, and while on the way back, again near Pier 16, he saw the second plane hit the other tower," said Joanne Conroy, marketing director of SeaStreak.
http://www.fireboat.org/press/prof_mariner_jan02_1.asp

Unnamed

Midtown Manhattan, a man identified as a pilot tells CNN:

"This morning we were at Midtown Manhattan on the 31st floor of a building facing south. We saw a (Boeing) 767 flying low down the center of the island of Manhattan, heading toward downtown Manhattan. About, maybe, 20 blocks north of the World Trade Center, we saw the plane veer to the left and fly directly into the north side of the south tower. This was the first plane, a 767."
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/witnesses

It is known that some debris from the aircraft travelled completely through the structure. For example, life jackets and portions of seats from the aircraft were found on the roof of the Bankers Trust building, located to the south of WTC2. Part of the landing gear from this aircraft was found at the corner of West and Rector streets, some five blocks south of the WTC complex.
FEMA Report

Police Officer Maureen Brown They also found a stewardess's torso and hands, and the hands had been tied together, like they'd been tied behind her back.
Women at Ground Zero, Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba

Tony Ortiz

ANNE THOMPSON reporting: Tom, the people who are up there behind me digging at the site, they're not only police and firemen from here in New York City and from across the country, but there are many volunteers, one of whom is Tony Ortiz.

Tony, you've been up there. You tell me you've been doing a lot of digging by hand. Why is that?

Mr. TONY ORTIZ (Volunteer Relief Worker): Well, we came--we found some of the airplane's seats, and when you come too far--when I find something that--that you really got to dig very carefully, because there may be some bodies there. We found some clothing. We started digging, basically, with our hands and with the debris that we find around.

THOMPSON: Did you find anyone alive?

Mr. ORTIZ: No, not yet.
Attack on America, NBC News, 10 pm, 13 September 2001

On September 11 2002, one year Anniversary of the death of our son, we were informed that the Recovery team at Ground Zero have found the ATM Bank card of Waleed [Iskandar, passenger on Flight 11] and that it will be mailed to us in Northridge. When we received it, we found it in good condition.

How could a plastic card survive the fire of the terrorist attack of the Black Tuesday on the USA?

I consider it as a sign from Waleed to his parents on the first Anniversary of his loss.
http://www.iskandar.com/waleed911/atmcard.html

On Oct. 12, it arrived inside a second envelope at Mrs. Snyder's modest white house on Main Street here, and the instant she took it out and saw it, she says, chills just went over me. It was singed and crumpled. A chunk was ripped out, giving the bottom of the envelope she had sent the look of a jagged skyline. Mrs. Snyder's lyrical script had blurred into the scorched paper. The stamp, depicting a World War II sailor embracing a woman welcoming him home, was intact.

Along with the letter was a note: To whom it may concern. This was found floating around the street in downtown New York. I am sorry if you suffered any loss in this tragedy. Sincerely, a friend in New York!

Since then, Mrs. Snyder, a customer service representative at a grocery store, has discovered that she has one of only two pieces of mail known to have been recovered from the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. At least one auction house has contacted her, saying she could sell the letter for tens of thousands of dollars.
One Letter's Odyssey Helps Mend a Wound
New York Times
December 20, 2001

NY Daily News, September 8th 2002

DNA extractions were done on every one of the 19,906 remains, and 4,735 of those have been identified. As many as 200 remains have been linked to a single person.

The 1,401 people identified include 45 of those aboard the hijacked planes - 33 from Flight 11, which struck the north tower, and 12 from Flight 175, which hit the south tower.
NY Daily News (Internet Archive)

Who They Were: Robert C. Shaler, April 30th, 2004

By April 30 2004, 52 of those aboard Flight 11 were identified, 45 by DNA. 26 of those on Flight 175 were identified, 26 by DNA.

Who They Were: Robert C. Shaler, June 3rd, 2004

Daniel Lewin, a former Israeli soldier, had been a successful dot-com businessman. He was also most likely the first to die after the World Trade Center attacks. According to an article in the Daily News on July 24, 2004, one of the cowardly hijackers stabbed him in the back when he tried to interfere with the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11. While he probably died on the plane before it crashed, by a twist of fate he was one of the last we identified, an identification that we did not complete until June 3, 2004...

CBN News, November 2nd, 2006

CBNNews.com -- NEW YORK -- New DNA testing has identified human remains recovered years ago from the World Trade Center wreckage.

The newly identified remains belonged to flight attendant Karen Martin of Danvers, Mass.; Douglas Stone of Dover, N.H.; and a man whose family asked that his name not be released,

The flight attendant and passenger were on American Airlines Flight 11, the first hijacked plane to crash on Sept. 11, 2001.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/51302.aspx

New York Times, April 11, 2007

The remains of an Australian man who died in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001, have been identified through DNA analysis, the city medical examiner's office said yesterday. The man, Alberto Dominguez, 66, a baggage handler for Qantas Airways in Sydney, was visiting family in the United States with his wife when the attack occurred. He was on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower. Mr. Dominguez, one of 10 Australians killed in the attack, had left his wife, Martha, in Boston to care for her sick sister. Mr. Dominguez's remains were among six identified in the past week. The families of the other victims whose remains have been identified declined to allow their names to be released.