Terrorism Strikes In The United States in a Massive
Attack
Aired September 11, 2001 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS
FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH
TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
UPDATED. AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris Plant (ph),
a CNN producer, is at the Pentagon, where there is a
significant fire.
Chris, you're on the phone, can you
hear me OK?
CHRIS PLANT, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, I can hear
you just fine.
BROWN: Tell me what you know.
PLANT: Well, arriving at the Pentagon a short time
ago, there was a huge plume of smoke which continues to rise
from the west side of the Pentagon over in the area where
there is a helicopter landing zone. It's along route 27 if
you're looking at maps of the area.
The building is
currently being evacuated and police and emergency units are,
of course, responding from all around the building and from
the local Arlington County Fire Department. The plume of smoke
is enormous, it's a couple of hundreds yards across at its
base. It is billowing into the sky, hundreds of yards.
It's impossible for me to say from this side of the
building whether the building itself is on fire or up in
flames or exactly what caused this. I did not hear an
explosion but there is certainly a very, very significant fire
in this enormous office building on the West Front. The
building is being evacuated. The Defense Protective Service
officers, the police force for the Pentagon, are on a very
tight string right now. As I arrived I was held at gunpoint.
BROWN: OK, Chris, Chris, Chris, let me interrupt you
for a second, just hang on. Don't go anywhere.
We're
getting reports now that the White House is being evacuated as
well. We don't know precisely what is - caused that decision
to be made, whether that is precautionary, whether something
has happened at the White House.
Again the president
is in Florida this morning. So the president is not in any
danger, but the White House, of course, is fully operational,
whether the president is there or not. And we have reports
that the White House is being evacuated.
Getting back
to Chris in a moment, we also have reports now from Chris
Plant on the scene that the Pentagon is being evacuated as
well. All of this coming on the heels of a large fire at the
Pentagon. And we can't tell you at this moment whether that
fire is inside the Pentagon building itself or on the grounds
of the Pentagon.
And these two planes that you can see
behind us that hit the World Trade Center, That's Washington,
the Old Executive Office Building, I believe. And you can see
the plume of smoke behind it, which we will assume until we
are told otherwise that's the fire at the Pentagon. I believe
that's correct, as you look now at Washington.
So we've
got a major fire at the Pentagon, and the Pentagon being
evacuated, the White House being evacuated. And we don't know
precisely the circumstances there, what caused that decision.
And we have these two enormous explosions at the World Trade
Center here in New York, where two planes slammed into the
buildings.
We are also getting reports now that there
is a fire on the Mall in Washington, that part of the Capitol
that runs essentially from the Capitol to the White House in
kind of a straight line going up Washington, D.C. And we have
reports of a fire there. What you are looking at now is
Washington, at least if I can see the monitor in front of me,
it's a little tricky from where we are. But that looks to me
like the Old Executive Office Building, and then in back of it
you see the large plume of smoke. Here in New York, sirens
everywhere, people out in the streets staring at this
grotesque scene of the World Trade Center buildings.
It was in February of '93, if memory serves me
correctly, that there was an attack, a terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center. A bomb exploded in the garage of the Trade
Center on that day in February of '93. Now here we are in the
year 2001, and what appears to be deliberate attacks on the
World Trade Center. And then we have these two reports out of
Washington, the fire at the Pentagon.
Chris Plant is
still on the phone, I do believe - all right, we'll get to him
in a second. Greta Van Susteren is at National Airport in
Washington.
Greta, what are you hearing?
GRETA
VAN SUSTEREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I just got off my plane, I
was headed to New York, planes were stalled. I'm at National
Airport on the parking lot. I heard a huge the noise. I looked
over in the direction of the Pentagon, there is a huge plume
of smoke coming from that area. I can't verify it's the
Pentagon because there are these buildings in the way. You see
particles coming down in the air. Some sort of white
particles. I can't tell what that is. I'd heard a noise
slightly before I'd seen the smoke. I didn't know if it was an
airplane or it was a bomb, but it was certainly something. And
obviously there's a terrific fire going on.
The skies
are clear here except for the tremendous amount of smoke
that's coming from there, lots of sirens, from all different
directions, and of course, a lot of uncertainty here at
National Airport.
BROWN: Greta, thank you. I want to
just, again, recap as we pick up small pieces of information
along the way. Associated Press is reporting that a plane, it
was a plane that crashed at the Pentagon. And the Pentagon is
being evacuated. There's a large fire there, and that is the
smoke you see in the shot that you are looking at now. Whether
that fire is in the building itself or outside we have not yet
confirmed. There is a fire on the Mall in Washington. The
cause of the fire on the Mall in Washington we cannot yet tell
you. We can tell you that the White House has been evacuated.
And we can tell you that two planes have crashed into the
World Trade Center in New York, all of this began just a
little more than an hour ago, at about 8:45 Eastern time.
Chris Plant, tell me what you've learned since we last
talked.
PLANT: Well, and speaking to people here at
the Pentagon, as they're being evacuated from the building.
I'm told by several people that there was, in fact, an
explosion.
I was told by one witness, an Air Force
enlisted - senior enlisted man, that he was outside when it
occurred. He said that he saw a helicopter circle the
building. He said it appeared to be a U.S. military
helicopter, and that it disappeared behind the building where
the helicopter landing zone is - excuse me - and he then saw
fireball go into the sky.
I'm attempting to make my
way around to that side of the building in my car right now to
see if I can get a better visual perspective on the scene on
that side of the building. But I can tell you that security
has certainly clamped down. The U.S. Park Police another
federal law enforcement department, has arrived in force on
the scene. There is a Park Police helicopter overhead, every
car arrives at the gates where I was located was being stopped
by officers at gun point, everyone is being forced out of
their vehicles as they arrive at the Pentagon.
It's a
very tense situation obviously, but initial reports from
witnesses indicate that there was in fact a helicopter
circling the building, contrary to what the AP reported,
according to the witnesses I've spoken to anyway, and that
this helicopter disappeared behind the building, and that
there was then an explosion. That's about all I have from
here.
BROWN: OK. Let's do this, Chris, why don't you
continue reporting, and we will pass along a couple of other
things that we're picking up along the way. Trading at the New
York Stock Exchange, the stock exchange, as many of you
probably know, but some of don't, is in that part of Lower
Manhattan, not quite as far down as the Trade Center, but is
in that part of Lower Manhattan, and trading has been
suspended there. Bridges and tunnels coming into New York have
been closed. That will create a whole different set of
problems. We are also being told that the FAA has suspended
takeoffs and landings, and I want to make sure I get this
right, guys, that in all - at all airports around the country.
So air travel in this country has come to a halt this
morning as clearly people are trying, people in government,
people, police forces, fire departments are trying to figure
out what exactly is going on. There are several, now,
incidents that look for all that we can tell to be a major
terrorist attack here in the United States. So all airports,
all across the country are closed, all bridges and tunnels
coming into Manhattan are closed, the Pentagon has been
evacuated or is being evacuated, the White House is being
evacuated.
The president, who is in Sarasota today to
make a speech on education has spoken briefly to cameras and
is - will shortly make his way back to Washington. They are
checking out Air Force One now.
Let's go to Atlanta,
Chad Myers can talk to us a bit about the air traffic
problems.
Chad, are you there?
CHAD MYERS, CNN
CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, yes, all of the airports across the
country have been shut down. We started with zone New York,
which includes Islip, Newark, JFK, La Guardia, all the way
down to Philadelphia, and then IAH, Houston, and then San
Francisco, and then L.A. They were just falling like a deck of
cards. And then all of a sudden, the FAA just said we're
shutting down everything, all flights have canceled for
another seven hours, which is about 5:00 Eastern time. And
then we'll reignite there, we'll take a look what's going on
after that.
The probability of extension, as they call
that, is high, which means even after 5:00, the airports may
still be shut down. We'll keep watching it for you here from
Atlanta.
BROWN: Chad, just - and if you don't know,
just say you don't know. Can you recall a situation where
every airport in the country had been shut down?
MYERS: Absolutely not, except in wartime, of course,
Aaron, and obviously this is not that. But with all the
airports that - as they were going down from west to east, we
could see them, and then we could eventually see from New
York. And then they canceled Boston as we got the report that
the first flight, or one of the possible hijacked flights did
come out of Boston, and then it just started going down from
there. But never ever before have we ever seen all of the
airports shut down like this, not this quickly.
BROWN:
Chad, thank you. Stay on this for awhile, we'll get back to
you.
We know that many people are just joining us. We
want to get everyone on the same page before we move on. So,
one more time let's go through the sequence of events.
At about 8:45 eastern time, a plane crashed into the
foremost of those towers that are the World Trade Center.
That's Air Force One you see in Florida, the president
onboard. Obviously, extraordinary security around the plane
before the president got on, and the president is heading back
to Washington.
A short time ago, the president made a
statement. He said terrorism against our nation will not
stand. The government will hunt down those responsible. Mr.
Bush said today we've had a national tragedy. Two planes have
crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist
attack on the country.
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