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: Again, this all
began about an hour and 15 minutes ago here in lower
Manhattan, when the first of two planes crashed into the first
of the two towers behind me, at the World Trade Center. You
can see the smoke billowing out of the front tower now.
Then about a half hour later, just as emergency crews
were converging on the scene, as eyewitnesses were gathering
on the street corners, a second plane drove into -- and you
can see that plane coming around the building right now in
this tape, and there you can see the hit as it come through
what looked to me at least, and this is first time I've seen
that tape -- come through the backside of the tower. I guess
that would be the south side of the tower. And then the smoke
and flame coming out the front side.
Again, that was
about a half hour after the first attack, which was at about
8:45. Look, you want to be careful here. We don't want to get
too far ahead of this, but obviously this has all the
appearances of an extraordinarily well coordinated and
devastating terrorist attack here in the United States.
Certainly, nothing like it since Oklahoma City, and nothing
like it here in New York since the terrorist attack on the
same World trade Center buildings in February of
1993.
At the Pentagon, a plane or a helicopter has
crashed, apparently as part of whatever this operation has
been.
And Jamie McIntyre is there. Jamie, what are you
hearing?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well,
Aaron, there is a lot of confusion here at the Pentagon. It
appears that something hit the Pentagon on the outside of the
fifth corridor on the Army corridor. Several Army officers I
talked to reported hearing a big explosion, seeing shards of
metal coming past their window. The Pentagon has been
evacuated. The emergency services personnel were rushing to
reports of several people trapped in the building. Most of the
building's 24,000 people are outside of the building or in the
center courtyard. As emergency teams try to sort out what has
happened here.
There is, of course, thick black smoke
billowing from the scene. There was a lot of confusion. The
Defense Protective Service, which is the police force here in
the Pentagon, has been urging people to get out of the
building and move away from the scene, so they can handle the
emergency situation. Again, it appears that an aircraft of
some sort did hit the side of the Pentagon, the west front
which faces sort of toward Arlington National Cemetery. It's a
corridor where a lot of Army officers are located.
BROWN: Wow! Jamie, Jamie, I need you to stop for a
second. There has just been a huge explosion we can see a
billowing smoke rising. And I can't -- I tell you that I can't
see that second tower. But there was a cascade of sparks, and
fire, and now this -- it looks almost like a mushroom cloud
explosion. This huge billowing smoke in the second tower.
This was the second of two towers hit. And -- you know
I cannot see behind that smoke, obviously, as you can't
either. The first tower in front has not changed. And we see
this extraordinarily and frightening scene behind us of this
second tower now just encased in smoke. What is behind it, I
can not tell you. But just look at that. That is just as
frightening a scene as you'll ever see.
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