Haunting images of the moments following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center emerged as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released 2,000 pages of transcripts from emergency phone calls and radio transmissions made that horrific morning.
The transcripts, released Thursday, provide the first look at the extraordinarily difficult decisions faced by both occupants of the towers and Port Authority personnel as they struggled to respond to the attack.
The documents were released after a ruling from Judge Sybil R. Moses as a result of a lawsuit filed by the New York Times seeking access to the 2,000 pages of documents.
“The settlement with The New York Times was that it would be transcripts only,” said Trevor. “There will not be audiotapes.”
The Port Authority scrambled Thursday to get copies of transcripts into the hands of family members of the Port Authority police officers and employees who died in the attack.
Some of those families had opposed the release of the transcripts.
“The only thing this did for me and my family was take away the peace that we worked so hard to get in the past two years,” said Laurie Tietjen, whose brother, Kenney, died working for the Port Authority Police Department.
“Especially with the anniversary coming up, we should be celebrating their lives, not rehashing their deaths,” Tietjen said.
Difficult Decisions; Confusion:
The transcripts depict Port Authority employees attempting to coordinate rescues inside the Trade Center and diverting traffic on the commuter train lines that led to the complex. The officers in the Port Authority’s command center sometimes sounded as confused and worried as the many office workers looking for information and help.
There were references to howling sirens in the background, while callers repeatedly spoke over each other after the airliner crashed into the first tower. Many callers were inaudible, yet their horror and hysteria jumps off the typed pages.
According to transcripts, Port Authority police told callers from the top floors of 2 World Trade Center to remain where they were after a plane steered by hijackers struck the first of the twin towers.
The evacuation of 2 World Trade Center — and when it began — has been a source of some anguish to relatives of those who died. Some survivors have said they were advised to remain in the building.
The transcripts reveal that a male caller from the 92nd floor of the second tower told a Port Authority police officer, “We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there’s an explosion.”
The officer asked if there was smoke on the floor, and the caller replied that there was not.
“Should we stay or should we not?” the caller asked.
“I would wait ‘til further notice,” the officer replied.
“OK, all right,” the caller said. “Don’t evacuate.” He then hung up. A second, similar call — with the same police response — came in a short time after the 8:46 a.m. crash in the first tower.
No one in the top floors of the tower survived after the second plane hit around the 80th floor shortly after 9 a.m.
Jeannine McIntyre, whose police officer husband Donald died in the attack, saw the first tower fall and immediately called one of his co-workers. “Is my husband in that building that just collapsed?” she asked. “He was going up.”
Although she was told that there were no reports of hurt Port Authority police, she repeated her sad mantra four times: “He was going up.”
From 1 World Trade Center, the assistant manager of Windows on the World, who was trapped with 100 people near the top of the 110-story tower, made four phone calls pleading for help.
“We’re doing our best ... we’re trying to get up to you, dear,” replied a PA officer. “All right, call back in two or three minutes, and I’ll try to find out what direction you should try to get down.”
The transcripts included phone calls and radio transmissions involving 33 Port Authority employees and three other people. Last week, a judge ordered the Port Authority to release the transcripts at the request of The New York Times.
“In general, they show people performing their duties very heroically and very professionally on a day of horror,” said Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor.
In another call, a man reached police from the roof of one building. There were also accounts of people, in disbelief, calling about people plunging from the buildings to their deaths.
“Yo, I’ve got dozens of bodies, people just jumping from the top of the building onto ... in front of One World Trade,” says a male caller. “People. Bodies are just coming from out of the sky. ... up top of the building.”
“Bodies?” replied a female operator.
Some of the victims identified themselves by name on the tape, while others’ voices were recognized by co-workers.
The transcripts resulted in mixed emotions among family members, some of whom were angered by their release while others believed they will be productive in trying to determine what happened. Some declined to even view the transcripts before their release.
“It’s not that I don’t have an interest,” said Theresa Riccardelli, whose husband, Francis, was killed. “I can’t.”
The Times had initially sought Port Authority tapes, transcripts and reports on emergency response from that day, but the agency argued that would be insensitive to the victims’ families. A deal was finally reached where the Port Authority would provide transcripts rather than tapes.
The agency, claiming the transcripts would be offensive to the families, tried to back out of the deal. The Port Authority opted not to appeal the judge’s decision last week.
The transcripts include communications between Port Authority police officers and department employees, along with calls between command centers at the trade center and several sites in New Jersey.
The Port Authority records are not the first recordings of radio transmissions to be made public. Last year, the agency released a 78-minute tape of fire department transmissions that included the voices of several lost firefighters.
Shortly after the attacks, unofficial tapes and transcripts of 911 calls from people in the towers were broadcast and published.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.