'Should we stay or ... not?' - From restaurant on high, 4 quick calls about smoke

[New York, NY] -- In the chaotic moments after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, desperate workers trapped inside the flaming towers begged for instructions and help. Husbands and wives at home flooded police phone lines, frantic for information. On the streets, bystanders described an apocalypse of fire, debris and falling bodies.

Transcripts of phone and radio communications released yesterday by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey provide a frightening portrait, albeit a fragmentary one, of what it was like in and around the landmark towers on Sept. 11, 2001, before they crashed to the ground, killing 2,792 people.

The documents, ordered released by a judge last week, reveal glimpses of chaos and confusion, heroism and grace at one of the darkest hours in U.S. history. Transcending words on paper, the transcripts also convey the emotion of men and women expressing their love for one another at a time of supreme stress.

In many cases, the transcripts show terrible indecision about what to do and where to go after American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked by a team of al Qaeda- trained terrorists, bore into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., obliterating five floors in a fireball.

People in the South Tower, for instance, were told initially to remain in their offices after the first impact.

"We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there's an explosion," an unidentified male caller on the South Tower's 92nd floor told a Port Authority police officer.

The officer asked if there was smoke on the floor, and the caller replied no.

The Port Authority would quickly reverse itself, with some dispatchers instructing callers as early as 8:59 a.m. to evacuate both towers. But in a reflection of the confusion in the midst of catastrophe, the transcripts show that for minutes afterward some people were told to remain inside.

The Port Authority's instructions to stay in the South Tower -- based on the theory that the building was safer than the streets, where debris from the North Tower might hit them -- has been the subject of debate and criticism in the two years since the attacks.

At 9:02 a.m., 16 minutes after the first impact, United Airlines Flight 175, hijacked by a second team of terrorists, carved a path of destruction through floors 78 to 84 in the South Tower. Few people who were above the 84th floor escaped.

The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., 57 minutes after it was hit. The North Tower held out longer, collapsing at 10:28 a.m., one hour and 42 minutes after impact.

Several panicked calls came from Windows on the World, the famous restaurant atop the North Tower, as smoke from the raging fire below grew thicker by the moment.

"We need direction as to where we need to direct our guests and our employees as soon as possible," one of the restaurant's assistant managers, Christine Olender, told a Port Authority officer.

"We're doing our best. ... We're trying to get up to you, dear," the officer replied. "All right, call back in two or three minutes, and I'll try to find out what direction you should try to get down."

More than 100 people in the restaurant -- including Neil Levin, the Port Authority's recently installed executive director -- died in the collapse.

The horror was no less evident on the ground, where one man phoned police to report that bodies were plunging to the ground from the North Tower.

"Yo, I've got dozens of bodies, people just jumping from the top of the building onto ...in front of One World Trade," the man said. "People. Bodies are just coming from out of the sky ... up top of the building."

Dozens of people are believed to have jumped or fallen from the 110-story towers, most of them from floors where fire and smoke were heaviest.

In a separate conversation, two Port Authority employees spoke of the carnage wrought by the twin impacts and presaged the further disaster to come.

"It's over," the unidentified male employee said. "Those buildings are white elephants."

Amid the confusion, some people believed a missile had been fired from the roof of the Woolworth Building, a few blocks northeast of the trade center. One Port Authority police officer, James Ludlow, thought he had come under fire.

"We made our way to Chambers and West streets when I heard what appeared to be gunshots," Ludlow wrote in a report detailing his activities that day. "I thought to myself, 'Not only did they crash a plane into my building, now they're trying to shoot us.'"

Other reports of possible terrorist action flowed to Port Authority police officers. A bomb threat was reported at the George Washington Bridge. Officers stationed near the Holland Tunnel were instructed to look for a tan Ford van seen with "possible terrorists inside it, with explosives."

"They may have another plane heading in towards the trade center," an unidentified officer said. "Advise all units, there may be another plane heading in that way at this time, right now."

The transcripts, along with incident reports filed by surviving police officers and letters recounting the heroism of Port Authority workers, were ordered released last week by a Superior Court judge in Bergen County after a court battle between the Port Authority and the New York Times.

Numbering nearly 2,000 pages, the transcripts were culled from 259 hours of recorded audio transmissions, made by radio and phone, to the Port Authority's police command center at the trade center, to Newark International Airport and to Port Authority installations in Jersey City.

Thirty-three Port Authority employees whose conversations are contained in the transcripts are identified by name, along with three people not associated with the agency. Hundreds of callers are not identified.

"This is a sad day for the men and women of the Port Authority," Greg Trevor, a spokesman for the agency, said before releasing the documents.

The Port Authority lost 84 people in the disaster: 37 police officers, 38 civilian employees, eight contract workers and one retired worker.

Some anguished wives are captured on tape, desperate for any information on their husbands.

Among them is Jeannie McIntyre. In a conversation with a Port Authority police sergeant, McIntyre pleaded for information about officer Donald McIntyre, who had told her in an earlier conversation he was heading upstairs in one of the doomed towers.

"Is my husband in that building that just collapsed?" she asked. "He was going up."

The sergeant assured her that, at the moment, there were no reports of injuries to Port Authority personnel. McIntyre, not yet aware she was a widow, seemed not to hear the sergeant, repeating four times: "He was going up."

One of the documents released yesterday, a letter from a man named Roger Fernandez, told of the heroism of officer Paul Laszczynski, who died in the second collapse.

Lost and disoriented in the smoky gloom of the North Tower, Fernandez wrote that he had all but given up hope of survival when a flashlight cut through the murk. It was Laszczynski, who showed Fernandez the way out and then returned to help others.

"His bravery and selflessness saved many people that day," Fernandez wrote. "Had he chosen to retreat ... many others and I would not be alive today. I will always be grateful and I will never forget him."

Conditions were equally bleak on the streets outside the trade center, where the transcripts reflect the sounds of screams and sirens mingling with the repeated crashes of falling bodies.

One man identified only as Frank, patched through to his wife or girlfriend by police, described the horror of the moment as he sobbed into the phone.

"There was these rocket attacks, or planes crashed into the building. And then I ran for my life, because the whole building started coming down on me. And I wasn't doing anything," he said.

"It's real scary, honey," he said. "I wanted to say I love you. Honey, when the building started coming down, I ran for my life, honey."

On a Port Authority police desk at Newark Airport, Officer John Kannuzo's phone rang constantly. Many were officers asking or being asked to report. Some were callers with relatives in the buildings, desperately seeking more information.

At one point, Kannuzo took a call from his wife. His son, Anthony, wanted to talk to him.

"A terrible thing happened, Anthony," Kannuzo told him. "Some very sick people."

The officer explained he couldn't come home right now, that people needed his help.

"Daddy's not home, so you are the big man in the house. So you help Mommy and keep her happy, okay?"

Staff writers Ron Marsico, Mary Jo Patterson, Tom Feeney, John P. Martin, Steve Chambers, Amy Ellis Nutt, Robin Gaby Fisher and Brian Donohue contributed to this report.

From restaurant on high, 4 quick calls about smoke

[New York, NY] -- With smoke filling the swank dining room of Windows on the World, high atop the World Trade Center's North Tower, the assistant general manager had a series of increasingly frantic conversations with rescue personnel.

"The fresh air is going down fast! I'm not exaggerating," Christine Olender said near the end of her final conversation.

Olender died Sept. 11, 2001, along with 72 other restaurant employees and nearly 100 people who were gathered for breakfast or business meetings. Among the diners were stockbrokers who worked in the towers, executives attending a conference, and Neil Levin, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

None of her high-powered diners are mentioned by name in the transcripts of brief, increasingly tense conversations that began shortly after American Airlines Flight 11 ripped a fiery path across floors 94 to 98 of One World Trade Center, just eight floors beneath the restaurant.

Olender, 39, voices concern for both her customers and fellow employees in her first of four calls.

"We're getting no direction up here," she tells Port Authority police officer Stephen Maggett, who is mentioned in transcripts as responding to countless people trapped above the point of impact. "We're having a smoke condition. We have most people on the 106th floor, the 107th floor is way too smoky."

"Okay. We're doing our best," Maggett reassures her from the police desk at the World Trade Center. "We've got the fire department, everybody. We're trying to get up to you, dear. All right, call back in about two or three minutes, and I'll find out what direction you should try to get down."

Asked whether any stairways are clear, Olender tells Maggett: "The stairways are full of smoke, A, B and C. ...The condition up on 106 is getting worse."

Olender begs for some direction on where she and the others might be able to relocate where the smoke is less intense, and Maggett calmly tells her to call back.

"Hi, this is Christine from Windows on the World," she says in a call minutes later to another officer, Ray Murray.

"Okay, uh, ma'am, as soon as is possible," he tells her. "I've notified everybody to be notified to get up there."

Olender hangs up, but minutes later she calls back to report that the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Murray then relays the information to unidentified officers in the background.

"We ... the fresh air is going down fast! I'm not exaggerating," Olender says.

"Uh, ma'am, I know you're not exaggerating," Murray says. "We're getting a lot of these calls. We are sending the fire department up as soon as possible. I have you: Christine, four calls, 75 to 100 people, Windows on the World, 106th floor."

"What are we going to do for air?" Olender asks, then seconds later asks permission to break a window.

I can't read the transcripts of 9/11 phone and radio communications as they are too painful and personal for me to bear.

I did do both links you posted and thank you for them. We must never forget the sacrifice of our victims and the pain our American society underwent that sad day. We must face a difficult future with firm resolve that such things should not again occur.

worth repeating:

Photo montages for those with high bandwidth:

http://www.cantcryhardenough.com/

http://www.kaosweaver.com/flash911.html

This anniversary of 9-11 seems to be especially hard for me. I've found that I've occupied myself with the wars in the Middle East and have shoved the memories of 9-11 to the back of my mind. These transcripts and images of that day are bringing everything back--hard.

God Bless America.

Njal spoke to them and said, "Keep up your hearts, nor utter shrieks, for this is but a passing storm, and it will be long before ye have another such; and put your faith in God, and believe that He is so merciful that He will not let us burn both in this world and the next." (Njal's Saga, Chapter 128)

At one point, Kannuzo took a call from his wife. His son, Anthony, wanted to talk to him.
"Just tell him we are really busy," Kannuzo replied.
"I know," she said, "just..."
The officer relented and then tried to explain the morning to his young son.
"A terrible thing happened, Anthony," Kannuzo told him. "Some very sick people."
"Are they dead?" his son asked.
Yes, Kannuzo replied. "Thousands, Anthony, thousands."
The officer explained he couldn't come home right now, that people needed his help.
"Will you do me a favor, Anthony?" he asked.
"Uh-uh," the boy replied.
"Daddy's not home, so you are the big man in the house. So you help Mommy and keep her happy, okay?"

"Okay, okay."

As I sit here with tears streaming down my face, I know I will never forget.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.