I believe it's a reference to two occasions. First, December 4, 2001, when President Bush's account does seem to indicate that he saw the first plane--and it contradicts the earlier story that he'd heard about it from Secretary Rice. From White House transcript:
Q One thing, Mr. President, is that you have no idea how much you've done for this country. And another thing is that, how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack? (Applause.)Secondly, on January 5, 2002, President Bush very explicitly said that he saw the first plane hit:
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jordan. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. [Note: Principal of school says there was no TV there.] And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.
But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."
...]Anyway, I was in the midst of learning about a reading program that works. . . . I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff - well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on.[...]Looks like President Bush made an error of recollection, but if you'd like to read more of the conspiracy theories about it, with links to video, etc., check out:
http://www.thewebfairy.com/killtown/sawplane.html
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bushlie.html
I agree. Thanks for the information.
As I recall it, news coverage (on CNBC, at least) didn't switch to a live shot of the WTC until several minutes (possibly as much as 10 minutes) after the first plane had hit. There were a few minutes spent showing the fire in the first tower when the second plane entered the frame and hit the second tower. I'd have to review a timeline to be sure I'm even accurate at that.
I doubt that any other stations were much faster than CNBC was.