ago. we have very little information. on the phone, we have jennifer who apparently witnessed this event. jennifer, can you hear me? >> hello. >> hi, jennifer. >> hi, katie. >> hi, can you please tell me what you saw and give me any information about what's going on there. >> yes, i have -- it's quite terrifying. i'm in shock right now. i came out of the subway at bowling green. i was heading to work at battery park at the ritz carlton hotel. and i come out and -- i saw a big -- i heard a boom, looked up and there was a big ball of fire. i'm now looking north at the world trade center. it is the left twin tower if i'm looking north. you can hear the emergency crews behind me. and it is unbelievable. when the fire first burst, it was -- hello? >> go ahead, we can hear you. >> -- like i've never seen before. and as you know, i used to work in news, i've never seen any

fire like this in the air. and pieces of the building were flying down. it looks like -- it's like the top -- i can't even tell you. maybe 20 floors. intense smoke. it's horrible. i can't even describe it. >> do you have any idea what kind of plane it was? >> i'm sorry? >> do you have any idea what hit the world trade center? >> what it was? >> yeah, what kind of plane? we're getting reports that an airplane hit the building. >> oh, i didn't even know that, honestly, i was walking up. i looked up and saw a big boom and fire. you know, i got to tell you, we were all saying around here it was very interesting that it would be a bomb and it would be so high up. so perhaps it was a plane. we have no -- no talk of a plane, however, i have to tell you, there's still -- there's something flying in the air. i mean, it's mind-boggling. it's horrifying. >> jennifer, it's matt lauer. i'd like to ask you, while you

were close to the building or have you since the explosion seen anyone who's been injured being taken out of the building? are there ambulances dealing with people on the sidewalk around the building? >> no, i have not. i have to tell you, my father worked in the financial center and i first called over there, it's next door, to see if he was okay. i couldn't get through. i'm far away right now. i thought it might be a little dangerous to get too close. i saw lots of debris coming down. and right now i'm in battery park. i don't know -- it's only -- it's probably a five-minute walk from here to the world trade center. but the smoke is incredible. i mean, i can't see the top of the tower. it's starting to cover the top of the second tower. >> in fact, we're looking pictures right now, jennifer, with a huge gaping hole on the side of the building and billowing smoke. so -- >> i'm right now -- yeah, i see major fire. i definitely see fire. >> jennifer, you said you're looking north at the building. in other words, you'rewe're loo

north side of the building. >> i'm on the exact opposite side. >> it appears that is where the largest hole is. you mentioned correctly, towards the top of the building. on west side of the building, we can also see some holes there that could have been from damage once the impact occurred. again, we've been told that this is a plane. we don't have confirmation on that. but there is an enormous hole in the north side of that building. >> jennifer, can you tell us a little bit more about what you heard when you heard this explosion? describe it for us? >> absolutely. when i walked out of the subway i looked at the twin towers because i always look up there. right when i looked up, there was a boom. it wasn't that loud. like, it wasn't huge. however, what was unbelievable was the amount of fire. it was a big ball of fire that just went up. and i looked around at people.

we were all horrified. i'm stuttering because -- i mean, it's shock, i've never seen anything like it, it's just horrible. >> of course this is real cause for concern because the world trade center is one of the busiest office buildings here in new york with hundreds, perhaps thousands workers who -- >> even the state governor has an office there. >> several thousand workers. >> given the time this has happened, it's only probably appropriate to surmise that people might have been in the building. >> you know, we've seen stories in the past where planes have hit buildings, small planes, and it would be hard to imagine that a small plane could create that kind of hole in a building like the world trade center and create the damage on the other side of the building from the sheer impact. small planes tend to crumple and then fall down the building. we haven't talked to anyone who is close to the base of the building -- >> matt? >> yes, go ahead. >> i'm just talking to a police officer and he said yes, he heard it was a plane. >> does he have any information about what kind of plane it was

or does he -- can he tell us any more details? >> yes, may i -- i'm going to put you on hold for one moment, okay? >> just to recap, if you're just joining us, you're looking at dramatic pictures of new york's world trade center in lower manhattan be where a short time ago we're told a plane crashed into the upper floors of the western most tower. you can see residual damage on the west side of the building. obviously fires are burning right now. >> there was, back in the 40s, a plane hit the empire state building. so -- >> right now, we're getting information it was a small commuter plane. we'll let people know soon we have more information as to what actually caused this. on everybody's mind, who was --

might have been hurt as a result of this terrible incident. we're going to be talk to more eyewitnesses coming up. we're back at 9:00 eastern time on this tuesday morning. we're back with dramatic pictures of an accident that happened just a short time ago. the world trade center in lower manhattan where we're told a plane -- some reports are, it was a small commuter plane, crashed into the upper floors of one of the twin towers. you can see fire and flames or smoke billowing from that tower. there's a gaping hole on the north side of the building. that's the side you're seeing to the left-hand side of your screen right now. and other damage to west side of that building, which is to the right side of your screen. this happened before the morning commute. while i'm sure some people were

already at work, immediately, there's speculation or cause for concern. this is the world trade center that was the target of a terrorist bombing years ago. so the question is could this be an intentional act. extensive damage has been done to this building. >> obviously, horrified commuters were devastated when they heard this explosion. another eyewitness, elliott walker, who is actually a today show producer. tell me what you saw. >> i was walking down the sidewalk, delivering my young daughter to school. we heard a very loud sound. the kind of sound when a plane

is going fast past you. followed by an enormous crash. i don't think we can feel shockwaves but we sort of felt like we did. we could see the trade center immediately between the other buildin buildings. an enormous fireball was visible immediately. a secondary explosion i think. now from where i was on street a moment ago, you can see smoke leaving the building on their sides. it seems to be coming out on at least four or five floors. the air is filled with hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper that is just kind of floating like confetti. obviously, we're sensitive to this kind of thing in this

neighborhood. >> have you seen any evidence of people being taken out of the building? of course the major concern is -- >> oh, my goodness -- >> -- human loss, do you know -- >> oh, another one just hit! something else just hit! a very large plane just flew directly over my building and there's been another collision. can you see it? >> yes, oh, my -- >> we just saw a plane circling the building. we just saw a plane circling the building a second ago on the shot right before this. >> i think there may have been another impact? can you tell? i just heard another very loud bang and a very large plane that might have been a dc-9 or 747 just flew past my window and i think it may have hit the trade center again. >> i didn't get the impression that it was that big a plane. >> it looked big from here. >> i did see a plane go by a second ago and it has now impacted the building. i'm trying to see if it's the

different tower. >> it's the second -- >> the first was world center 1. it looks like the second building was hit. >> this say piece of tarp. we may actually see another plane enter the picture here in a second. >> i wonder if there are air traffic control problems. >> let's go back to jennifer. did you see this happen? >> hello? >> jennifer, did you just see this happen, jennifer? >> matt, i've never seen -- it looks like a movie. i saw a large plane, like a jet, go immediately headed directly into the world trade center. it just flew into it, into the other tower, coming from south to north. i watched the plane fly into the world trade center. it was a jet. it was a very large plane. it was going fast. it went past the building being built in battery park, went right past, almost hit it and then went in. >> this is so shocking of course to everybody watching. >> i've never seen anything like it. it literally flew itself into world trade center. >> obviously now we move from

what appears -- there it is right there. >> again, looking from south to north, and it went into the one on the right. >> that appears to be at least a 727. we saw a second ago -- here comes the videotape that we just showed you. you will see what appears to be a large plane. it could be a 727. right there. maybe even bigger. flying right into the side of the world trade center. >> it was at least a 727. it was a jet. i couldn't believe my eyes watching it right above me. >> and now you have to move from -- talk about a possible accident to talk about something deliberate that has happened here. we're going to immediately check with air traffic control in the area to find out if they had contact with either of these planes before the accident. what we've just seen is about the most shocking videotape that i've ever seen. >> what are the odds of two separate planes hitting both towers? >> elliott are you still there? >> yes, still here, katie.

>> elliott, what can you see right now from your perspective? >> i don't face in that direction. i can't see anything personally. >> it is completely impossible to understand why this is happening and to figure out what the -- what in the world is going on. >> i think we have to be grateful the first one hit before 9:00 a.m. but it's now after 9:00 a.m. and i wonder how many people were in those offices. >> hopefully they were evacuated following the first incident and we can only hope -- it was a very short period time from when we first learned about this, was probably about 8:50 eastern time. the second incident occurred about 9:05. and so obviously that would be a short amount of time to get people out of the building. olley everhart is another witness on the ground. olley, can you hear me? >> yes, hello. >> please tell me what you're seeing. >> i live in lower manhattan. i face the north tower. the north side where the first plane crashed into the building. and right now, there's a lot of chaos on the ground.

a lot of emergency vehicles. everyone from the world final center has exited and is walking north up to battery park north. there's just mass and mass of people walking north up town of manhattan. i happened to look -- on the first tower and actually saw people waving where the first plane crashed through, and then -- it was unbelievable, seeing this second jet come crashing into the second tower. what is going on? >> unfortunately, here in new york, many of our stations cannot see this, local station, because the antennas are on the world trade center. their backup towers are on the empire state building. but television communication in new york city is probably pretty much knocked off the air. >> we're looking at the picture here where it appears because of the angle i think that the towers are leaning. and i don't think that that is actually the case, because after the first impact, it looked as

if the left-hand, the right-hand tower was leaning. and now somebody is saying -- we're getting a witness saying they are leaning actually right now. which will give you an idea of the type of impact we're talking about. >> and that perhaps they're buckling under the force of the collision, the hole that's resulted from these two planes. >> we're going to go to george shea, who has also witnessed one or both of these collisions. george, can you hear us? >> i can hear you. >> what did you say? >> i was in the car driving up, just out of the battery tunnel driving north on west street when an enormous explosion happened. it was larger than a construction explosion. i looked out the window. what appears to be an enormous tire smash into the ground. i believe it hit the car to the right of me. and it was just so scary. and there was also a ton of debris fall. i jumped out of the car. i ran south away from the building. i thought there would be further explosions. >> and have you seen anything

injured on the ground, george? >> a man next to me was actually hit by a piece of debris in his arm. and they said that someone had been badly hurt in a car ahead of me. i'm not certain if it was the car next to me. a lot debris was falling. very confusing because everybody i think immediately assumed that a bomb had exploded and that sort of, you know, had people thinking that further bombs may explode. it was sort a rush away. >> did you see, george, the second plane, that jet fly into -- >> i heard two explosions. there was a first explosion that was louder and then a second explosion, and -- i did not -- i could not see it. when i looked up, i saw debris falling and the tire, as i said, a very large tire. >> well, of course, this is, as we've said, completely shocking video, and shocking turn of

events. we've been talking here that the first incident, one might surmise, that it was some kind of accident, and then to have a second, what appeared to have 727 jet, of course, the question of terrorist activity has to surface. the question of whether this was an intentional terrorist act of some kind. >> keep in mind, we're in an area here where there are three major airports. you have newark airport, kennedy airport and la guardia airport all within several miles of the world trade center. it's very unusual for a plane to get into this area without being completely tracked or identified by air traffic control. so you would have to imagine that, a, if this plane were headed right for the world trade center, there must have been someone trying to talk or communicate with that pilot. and for it to fly right into the side of the building -- >> well, the smaller plane, you can understand almost, but a jumbo jet, a large jet, completely -- >> let's rerack that video if we could, down in the control room

where we actually saw the jet flying into the building. >> and i was mistaken -- elliott walker said it was a big plane, i was looking in the distance and saw a small plane, which might have been a helicopter. to see this plane come into the picture that is a big plane. >> there it is. >> and, i mean, it's hard to imagine, it's a 737 we're now being told. and flying directly into the midsection of the -- what would be the eastern tower of the world trade center. >> i'm wondering if jennifer is still on the phone. do we still have jennifer on the phone? she's actually not on the phone. she was near a police officer. at least we could have perhaps gotten more information from that officer. needless to say, it's pandemonium, i am sure, down there. we gathered that from the eyewitnesses with whom we spoke and how terrifying this was for them to see. you can only imagine, as you get closer to the twin towers, a new york land mine, landmark,

how -- what the scene must be like there. >> you talked about the buildings looking like they're buckling. they're designed to have a 2 degree sway in either direction because of the height of the building and to deal with wind and stress. but something like that is more than it's probably designed for. >> we want to go now to jane who i understand is a television producer here in new york. jane, can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. i'm down here near the world trade center. i was walk down sixth avenue this morning at 8:42 a.m. a group of us saw a plane veer through the building, then we saw a huge cloud of smoke. and then fire came out of one of the towers. here, it's near the upper floor, as you can probably see with your chopper shots, and then about ten minutes ago, a second explosion in the second tower. lower down. that was not affected by the plane so i'm not quite sure what happened there. right now, there's a huge gaping hole in one of the towers. the other building is on fire.

this team down here is incredible. people are out of their office buildings. watching. crying. taking pictures. i've never seen anything like it down here. >> jane, you said you saw the first plane. did you get a glimpse of what kind of plane that was? we are told it was a small commuter plane. >> well, it wasn't a cessna or anything like that. it was a larger plane. a midsized plane. and we could hear it very low. and walking down the street, a couple of us looked at each other, thinking, what's happening? then it veered drastically on its side through the buildings and then went into the upper floors of the world trade center tower. >> we want to just mention when the impact hit the first tower, you would hope that people who are in the second tower were beginning to evacuate. especially if air traffic control had some indication that this was deliberate. you'd hope they were starting to get people out of the other tower before this second plane hit that tower.

>> if you've tried to go up -- we've been upstairs in the towers, in the restaurant there, to try to get down -- >> i mean, the elevators would have been jammed no question. if there is an indication this was deliberate in the first case, you would hope they would immediately begin evacuate in the second tower. >> another eyewitness. dan detrick is on the phone. tell me where you are or what you're seeing or what you saw. >> okay, what i saw was one plane coming in low from the north. down over seventh avenue. ten minutes later, i saw another. it looked to be a small, you know, commercial plane i saw. it crashed into the top of the tower. there was a fireball. as we were waiting outside and

looking at it, another plane came in low. i believe from the other side. and hit the sort of middle of the other tower. i saw both planes, two separate planes crash into each tower. >> again, the size of the planes, tell me about that. >> i would say the midsize looked to be perhaps a commercial airline, a midsize, not a jumbo jet. >> this of course is unconfirmed, but we are getting information from an employee of united airlines, again, we want to emphasize this is unconfirmed, but there is speculation that an american airlines plane was hijacked and crashed purposely, on purpose, into the world trade center. and that the second plane was

another plane perhaps high be g hijacked, flown into the second tower. dan, tell me about people on the ground. are you at a vantage point where you can see what's happening on the ground? >> i'm farther up in the west village. i'm not on the ground near the base of the towers. >> where were you when it actually happened? >> i was walking down seventh avenue, at about -- oh, charles street, which is about 15 or 20 blocks north of the towers. >> well, obviously, this was a shocking thing for you to witness on this tuesday morning. you know, some wires just came out that said in 1945, an army air corps crashed into the 79th floor of the empire state building. that occurred in dense fog. this was a crystal clear day in manhattan. so it is completely unclear how there would be any kind of problems with visibility. dan, thank you so much for talking with us. hopefully, you can stay on the phone and we can check back in

with you at another point in time. we really appreciate it. we want to report, remind people that world trade center bombing that took place on february 26th, back in 1993, the product of a terrorist attack. the result of the terrorist attack that killed six people and injured more than 1,000. of course that happened on a friday afternoon. i think, matt, you and al were working that day. i know i was at home in virginia watching it in disbelief. now it feels a bit like deja vu. of course, this is so much more bizarre. >> keep in mind, that killed six people, injured 1,000. the explosion happened in a garage in the basement. this was a direct hit on the midsection or upper section of the tower. the potential for injuries and death much larger. of course, also some people on the planes. >> exactly, if they were hi jacked, if they were en route to a different destination. bob kerr joins us now. bob, where are you, what can you

tell us? >> katie, good morning, i'm on the north lawn of the white house. the first thing we looked for here in light of what's happened is whether there was any unusual activity out here. whether there's an unusual police or secret service presence, people on the roof, that sort of thing. we don't see that as we speak. i did try to call the national security office here. as you know, the president is out of town. he is in florida. we're told he has been informed of this. i can tell you that the white house national security staff that remains here is in a senior level meeting. we're hoping to hear from them as soon as possible. but, katie, the reaction here, ton pictures you're seeing, to the initial pictures when they kay up, even in what's called the lower press office here at the white house, was one of shock, i mean, people are just standing around television monitors, looking at this. when i say people, i don't mean just the reporters, i mean the people who are actually in the office who work here at the white house.

>> so very little information is coming out of the white house at this juncture. needless to say, if the speculation is true about some kind of terrorist event, this will be a major, major crisis for the bush administration. jim miklaszewski is at the pentagon now. mik, are you hearing any more information from there? >> according to u.s. intelligence officials, katie, there appeared, at least to their knowledge, to be no specific threat involving hijacking airliners or any attacks on buildings in the new york area. u.s. intelligence officials report this morning that there are, you know, they constantly are hearing about threats, possible terrorist threats against american targets worldwide. but as far as they know this morning, they have no early indications that anything of this nature could have occurred. pentagon officials are already calling this a terrorist attack.

they say that -- they have not yet ordered the scrambling of any military jets. if national guard were to be scrambled in that area, that would be at the order of the governor. now, of course, the president does have the authority to scramble american military forces in defense, but there's a problem here, what, now, do you defend against exactly. if you put warplanes in the air, there's always a danger that they could misidentify a pilot's intention, although i believe, according to officials here -- are now off limits and restricted, but so far, the u.s. military and pentagon officials are scrambling to get as much information as they possibly can to determine what course of action, if any, the u.s.

military would take. >> but, mik, they are describing this as a terrorist attack right now. >> there are some officials here in the pentagon who are calling this an obvious terrorist attack based on very preliminary information. the information that intelligence officials are getting in terms of a possible hijacked plane and of course the very horrifying video of the plane veering in to the tower itself is a clear indication to everyone here that this is not an accident. >> all right, jim miklaszewski, thanks. of course, the coordination that took place to have two planes hit the towers within 18 minutes. bob kerr, what can you tell us? >> it was interesting to listen to jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. of course the president has the authority to scramble military forces. this is a case obviously in which retaliation, if, indeed, it proves to be a terrorist incident, would be contemplated.

the usual course of events is it's an investigation, you know, unless someone steps forward, claims responsibility, the white house and other arms of the u.s. government will say we have to determine who is responsible for this attack, try to pinpoint it, and then the u.s. usually says someone is going to be made to pay. but that is a big if. if we can determine exactly the or jen of this terrorist attack. and so there are some implications to that. >> let's go back to jim miklaszewski. bob, thank you. at the pentagon, you have more information? >> katie, bob's exactly right, but what their primary concern is right now is protecting the american public in the new york area right now. against any possible further attack, by the air. they have no indications there will be. but there is some concern since this appeared to be such a highly coordinated attack, there may be other terrorist attacks that could be planned either in

new york or elsewhere. this is absolute ly the worst case scenario for the counterterrorist planners. apartly, according to intelligence official, there were no firm indications prior to this that anything like this could have happened. in terms of scrambling the u.s. military, it would be for protection for the time being and not necessarily even thinking right now about any kind of retaliation. >> all right, david gregory is now on the phone from longo key actually -- >> he's following the president. >> that's right. >> david. >> yes, katie, the president is about to begin an education event, which is obviously being canceled. the event will go forward. the president will come out and make a statement about this. he was made aware en route from his hotel to this school here in sarasota where he was going to talk about education. he'll make a statement. then we're told by white house officials that he will quickly

depart for washington. >> we should mention that new york city airport -- or new york area airports have all been closed. the lincoln tunnel has been closed here in new york. we're getting ready to listen to the president. let's go back to jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. you talk about counterterrorist measures that are in place. can you shed any light for us on what kind of things are in place in the event of an attack of this nature? >> well, katie, it's very difficult for the u.s. military to response to this kind of thing, you know, right now, because it's unclear exactly who's behind it and if there are any other potential attacks or incidents like this, because this has obviously not been officially declared a terrorist attack, but all the experts who are looking at these pictures say there's no doubt about it, this was a coordinated terrorist attack. but who, and why, is very much unclear right now.

and the problem with trying to then put planes on the air to try to prevent any further attacks is -- these are, after all, open airspaces for the most part. and it's difficult for the u.s. military to simply scramble jets and put them in the air and then, according to officials here, then do what? this area, of course, according to officials here, is obviously going to be declared off limits in terms of any air traffic. right now, officials here at the pentagon are simply scrambling to find out, first, what happened, and what potential reaction the u.s. military could provide in terms of protection. possible further protection against any further potential attacks. >> mik, important to note, if they were hijacked, if they were

carrying passenger there wasn't much military officials could have done. you can't shoot down a plane like that, plus the injuries on the ground in a place like manhattan. >> that's exactly right. the president, as we said earlier, does, in fact, have the authority to scramble the military to put them up in some kind of force protection mode. the governor has the air national guard at his disposal. he can do that. but again officials are wondering exactly what to do in terms of protection and how. again, counterterrorist officials, this is absolutely the worst case scenario, because they're, right now, seems to be not much, not much they can do in terms of the aftermath. >> we're scrambling for information here. this reuters wire read, two planes crashed into the world trade center on tuesday morning causing huge explosions and kill at least six people. cnbc tv said there were at least

1,000 injured. both towers where thousands of people work were the scenes of a bombing in 1993. the fbi told the associated press that it was, quote, foul play and not an accident. a person who answered the phone that was reported by abc. a person who answered the phone on the trading floor at inner dealer broker cantor fitzgerald located at the top of the world trade center said, we're blanking dying, when asked what was happening, and hung up. there was screaming and yelling in the background and a follow-up call was not answered. an eyewitness said just before the first explosion he saw a plane fly over his apartment in the soho district of lower manhattan. jamie is on the phone, our national correspondent with more information. what can you tell us? >> i've just spoken to top u.s. officials with the access to latest intelligence, and they said, quote, that this was clearly terrorist related.

no question about it. they said that they couldn't give any further details now, not because they didn't want to share it, but because they just don't know yet. they're at the earlier stage it is. >> do they know, if a plane was hijacked? >> they would not answer that. and i think that it's because -- i think that they just are getting the earliest details, and they're afraid of putting out misinformation. but they said, you know, that it was clearly terrorist related. >> all right, jamie, thanks. we're looking again, if you're just joining us, both towers of the world trade center in new york city. where two planes have crashed into the towers. one certainly before 9:00 eastern time. one shortly after 9:00 eastern time. and, as you can see, the tower on the left was hit just above the midsection point. they're both 110 floors high. 1,300 feet above the ground. the tower on the right was hit

more -- probably three quarters up the tower. fire burning in both towers. we actually watched the second plane hit the building. you'll watch it enter from the right portion of the screen and then make contact with the left-hand tower in what is shocking video. and here it comes right there. you can see the impact on one side of the building and the residual damage coming out of another side of the building. and one can only imagine that that one occurred shortly after 9:00 in the morning, how many people were in the building at the time of the impact. it's a large plane. we're told it was either a 737. some reports the first plane was a 757. >> some kind of air bus. that was what the united worker told us. apparently that had been -- that it was an american airlines plane that had been -- >> hijacked. >> -- hijacked from boston to los angeles, but we're just getting initial reports of that.

again, we must tell you, we're trying to get as much information, but it is trickling in at a very slow pace. so all of this is unconfirmed. and of course speculation of the terrorist attack is unconfirmed. although that is what some pentagon officials are saying. let's go to president bush right now. >> unfortunately, we'll be going back to washington after my remarks. the secretary and the lieutenant governor will take the podium and discuss education it i want to thank the folks here at booker elementary school for their hospitality. today, we've had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. i have spoken to the vice president. to the governor of new york. to the director of the fbi. and i've ordered that the full

resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. terrorism against our nation will not stand. now, if you join me in a moment of silence. may god bless the victims, their families and america. thank you very much. >> that, of course, was president bush, who is in florida, he was speaking at an elementary school. he had planned to be talking about literacy. obviously, he had to chance. he mentioned this is an apparent terrorist attack. he is traveling back to washington. he said he spoke to the governor of new york as well as the vice president. that all the resources will be brought to bear by the federal

government to determine who did this and who was responsible for this terrible, terrible event. and then of course it was followed by a moment of silence for the victims. >> we're going to go to andrea mitchell now who has more information on this tragedy. andrea. >> matt and katie, i've spoken to a top u.s. official would says early reports to our intelligence committee and to other officials within the administration are that this was a hijacked american airline, plane en route from boston to los angeles. one of the two planes they say was apparently a hijacked american airlines plane. they caution that early reports still need further confirmation, but this is at least what the government is being told by american airlines officials apparently. they are assuming and they've obviously informed the president that this is a terror attack. >> andrea, we have no information as to -- how this

flight was taken over, how much warning air traffic controllers may have had that someone hostile was at the controls of this plane? >> exactly right. they had no other information. just that at least one of the two planes was hijacked from boston en route to los angeles. presumably after it had already been in the air and en route. because i was told en route to los angeles. so probably after it had taken off. as you know, those are very short flights. those are usually 757s on that route. but this clearly, according to the u.s. government, is a terror attack. as you heard the president say. now, one of the things, matt and katie, we should understand is that there was no specific threat that the u.s. government is aware of. no specific terror alert. other than the world-wide caution that had been reissued in recent days because of the strife in the middle east, because of concerns over terrorists. of course, the best known is osama bin laden. but no alert coming from his organization. and as far as they know, as of

this morning, as of this minute, he is in afghanistan. >> as we should mention, andrea it appears this was a well-coordinated bombing or terrorist act because of the fact that two planes were used. both substantial in size. and the fact that they both hit the world trade center within 18 minutes of one another. obviously, a lot of planning went into this attack. let's go to nbc's jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. >> senior military officials at the pentagon are saying they are getting information that the american airlines flight 11 after it left boston apparently was hijacked, and was diverted apparently, the early information was, was being diverted to jfk for some reason. and then obviously nobody knows exactly who was at the controls of the plane, but it broke off

its route to los angeles and was headed towards jfk. that was the initial information that officials had received when, obviously, it did not go to jfk, but veered off and headed towards the world trade center. but, again, no indication as to who may be responsible or would was at the controls of that plane when it rammed into the world trade center, matt. >> mik, thank you. we're going to be talking with you throughout the morn. right now, larry johnson, a terrorism expert. a former deputy director of the state department's office on counterterrorism. mr. johnson, can you please put this into some kind of perspective for us and give us your insight on what might have happened here? >> well, you know, first, we need to be cautious before jumping to the conclusion that it's necessarily terrorism. i would be inclined based upon the preliminary reports we've seen to say that that's the case

but there's always the possibility that you may find out after the fact this was some suicide pact for some reason that had nothing to do with politics. that said this is a first. back in 1992, there was -- excuse me, '93, there was a lufthansa plane hijacked from germany and it ended up landing in new york. one of the concerns we had at that time was the possibility of that plane under the control of a hijacker flying it into one of the buildings. so, you know, my concern now is th that, you know, we ignore terrorism -- we talk a lot about it, but we ignore taking very practical steps on security fronts. until something like this happens. and then the pendulum swings out to an extreme. the next thing you hear are people talking about putting surface to air missiles on top of buildings to prevent this kind of thing. this is a very rare event. it's unlikely to be repeated.

but, and i think president bush put his finger on it, we have to find who did this. and any country, any nation in the world that is in any way involved and responsible if it turns out to be terrorism, will require a response from the united states. the united states has got to be willing to pay that price. >> mr. johnson, obviously, we're completely stunned when about 25 minutes after the first explosion or after the first plane crashed into one of the twin towers, another very large plane did the same thing, and we've been talking with our correspondents all morning about sort of if another incident could happen on the heels of these two. what kind of measures are in place to prepare for something else that could conceivably happen? >> well, i think one of the steps is already being taken. i was at national airport when this occurred. they've shut down air traffic in and out of the city. apart from shutting down the air traffic, you're talking about an

enormous disruption economically for the nation right now with the air traffic not going in. people are going to err on the side of caution. i think across the board you're going to look at the major hubs in the united states where there are large buildings, chicago, atlanta, los angeles, and they're going to be extra measures taken. one possibility is you could start putting up air cover and require the planes stay within a particular area and don't approach any closer and if they approach you would go to the extremes of having u.s. air force intercept. >> i wanted to ask -- all morning, correspondents have also been saying, particularly bob kerr and jim miklaszewski and andrea mitchell that there was no warning attached to this event. generally speaking, do we get some kind -- do u.s. officials, government agencies, get some kind of warning from a particular group or is this pretty -- i mean, fairly typical in terms of an event happening

without any foreshadowing? >> no, katie, this unfortunately is typically. it's only in the movies you get advance warnings. you look at every major terrorist incident against the united states. pan am 103, the world trade center, the "uss cole" bombing -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. jim miklaszewski has some new information at the pentagon. >> i don't want to alarm anybody but apparently -- it felt, just a few moments ago, like there was an explosion of some kind here at the pentagon. we're on the e ring of the pentagon. we have a window that faces out toward the potomac, toward the kennedy center. we haven't been able to see or hear anything after the initial blast. i just stepped out in the hallway. security guards were herding people out of the building. i saw just a moment ago, as i looked outside, a number of construction workers who had been working here have taken

flight. they're running as far away from the building as they can right now. i hear no sirens going off in the building. i see no smoke. but the building shook for just a couple of seconds. the windows rattle erattled, an security personnel are doing what they can momentarily to clear this part of the building. again, i have no idea whether it was part of the construction work, whether it was an accident or what is going on. we're going to try to find those details and get them to you as soon as possible. but interestingly enough, one intelligence official here in the building said when he saw what appeared to be the coordinated attack on the world trade center, his advice was to stay away from the outside of the building today just in case. now, again, nobody has any indications of exactly what happened. but it appears that there has been some kind of, it felt like

a small blast of some kind. again, the windows shook. the windows rattled. and people -- i'm looking out the window now. the construction workers are still keeping a good -- oh, i'm sorry, the construction workers are still keeping a distance. that's all i can see. i see no other security activity right outside. but to get more information, i'm going to have to break away and walk down the hallway and see what it is exactly that happened here just a few moments ago. >> mik, see what you can find out, please be careful and let us know what's going on there. meanwhile, we're going to go back to david gregory who is in long boat key, florida, where president bush was, going to a school to talk to kiddings. >> a little bit more about how this unfolded and watt president is going to do next. the president declared this

aapparent terrorist attack. he offered a prayer for the families. promised to hunt down, in his words, the people responsible for this. he will now travel back to washington. aides are telling us now he will immediately convene a national security meeting to see what steps -- >> david, i'm sorry to interrupt you. we're looking at live pictures of the pentagon where there is billowing smoke. jim miklaszewski just reported he heard an explosion. right now, an aerial view of the pentagon. mik can you talk to us? >> officially, nobody knows exactly what happened. i think the picture is pretty clear. according to one army officer who went running past me at a full trot, he says it appears a bomb was detonated at the help la port. the helicopter landing area, just adjacent to the e ring. the offices nearest the heleport

area are u.s. army reserve officers and the army reserve offices are located there. as you can see, it appears to be a pretty significant blast. to give you some perspective, we are almost on the opposite side of the building, the world's largest office building, and as i reported to you, we could feel the building shake and the windows rattle. as i was in the hallway just a few moments ago, i could smell an acrid kind of smoke, the kind of -- almost like what you'd smell when a flouorescorescent goes bad. i don't know if you can hear the sirens outside right now, but it appears that -- i think people here in the building are already describing as a highly

sophisticated coordinated attack. not only against the world trade center, but against the pentagon and u.s. military right here in washington. >> mik, tell me again, i worked at the pentagon as well. it's a huge building. i mean, it's miles and miles of offices. at what location did this seem to have detonated? >> it's at the helio port, which is, as you sit in the pentagon, you have the potomac river and washington, d.c. on one side and the helio port is located almost exactly on the opposite side of the building, along one of the highways, easily accessible. even though they've increased security here significantly at the pentagon within the past couple of years -- >> mik, i want to mention we are hearing, again, unconfirmed reports, this that was the result of a plane crashing in the area as well.

>> i have no idea, katie. all i know is that people who were in the building who came running from that part of the building thought it was a bomb of some kind. according to chris brown, my colleague who just came in, it appears that whatever it was, and perhaps it was a plane, if those are the initial reports, crashed into the -- or the damage is on the roof of the building at the helio port side of the pentagon, which is just opposite of the potomac river, as i just said. >> we're looking at the white house, mik. we are learning there have been some evacuations from the white house. i'm assuming that everyone is being evacuated from the pentagon. >> well, nobody's given us the official word yet. but i think that's probably a safe bet. thank goodness that was a helicopter that just flew by.

i'm just a little nervous now when you hear aircraft go past. but they have, in fact, evacuated that portion of the building. usually, they have sirens that go off in the building, alerting you to the fact that it's time to get out. i haven't heard those yet. but just judging by the pictures, it's clear that that part of the building that is not damaged at least has been evacuated. like i said, in the hallway, it was pandemonium. people were rushing from their offices, rushing outside -- >> you're in your office at the pentagon right now, reporting to us? >> i am in the office, but i'm at the opposite side of where this crash occurred. >> all right, why don't you see if you can gather more information. please, again, be cash freful. we'll go to matt. >> i'm joined by tom brokaw. we'll try to recap what's been going on all morning here in the east coast and in washington, d.c. we want to go to "today's"

national correspondent jamie gangel with some more information. >> i want to tell you u.s. intelligence sources are confirming the reports that one of the planes was a hi jacked flight, an american flight from boston to los angeles. they are also now looking into what's going on at the pentagon. they don't have any details. but they have now put government buildings around the city of washington on a heightened state of alert. i think part of that is happening formally but obviously people are seeing what's going on and some people are leaving buildings as well simply because of the concern following these latest reports from the pentagon. >> all right, jamie, thank you very much. again, joined by tom brokaw and katie's back with us. let's try and recap. it's 9:47 eastern time. try and recap what's going on so far this morning. and the news is terrible. just before 9:00 -- >> at 8:42 actually.

>> 8:42, a plane crashed into the right-hand tower of the world trade center. about three quarters of the way up. you can see the smoke billowing from that point of the building. and then about 18 or 20 minutes later, a second plane, a large plane, we saw it actually on tape hit the left-hand tower of the world trade center. we have confirmed reports now that there was one plane hijacked. american airlines from boston to los angeles. that is apparently one of the planes used in this crash. >> there's a report on dubai television that, in fact, the group claiming responsibility, is the democratic front for the liberation of palestine. this comes ironically on a day when the israeli foreign minister shimon peres is

scheduled to meet with yasser arafat. we've had the meeting in south africa for the last several days in which the palestinians were accusing the israelis of racism. the united states vacated that meeting. >> and the israelis vacated that meeting as well. >> but there has not been one specific incident. it's also worth pointing out terrorism always had two prong, to it. the physical threat and now the psychological threat. this does seem to be surreal but, in fact, it is real, when you have an explosion of undetermined origin at the pentagon, the most conspicuous symbol of american capitalism, the twin trade towers here in new york, two deliberate attacks on those towers today. >> and the capital, by the way, the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. evacuations taking place at the white house. many people in the pentagon have left that building as well. >> airports in new york -- >> here, in this building in midtown new york, they have asked a lot of people at 30 rockefeller plaza to leave.

it's another high-rise capital building. which is in new york. i came down the length of man hadden. a lot of people were simply unaware of what happened. as they tuned in the radio of w happened as you tuned into the radio and then they began to get it. it's election day here in new york. >> primary day. >> and you have happen what you never thought would happen. >> as terry johnson, the former deputy director of the state department office count counter-terrorism claims it is a first. he's never seen anything like it. he talked about in 1993 a german plane being hijack and there were fears when it was flown to new york there might be something. >> we have this as major development. the federal aviation has shut down all air traffic nationwide. this country has been immobilized by these terror attacks in terms of air travel today and we don't know where it goes from here. wi just ask that you stay with us so that as we get hard

information we can share that with you. there's going to be a lot of speculation. the president has described this as apparently a terror attack. they have determined that the flight from boston to los angeles was hijacked. that's believed to be the first plane that went into the twin towers. >> let's go to the former director of the fbi here in new york. mr. kallstrom, i'm sheer you have never seen anything like this. do you have any information that would be helpful to us? >> not as it relates to the tragedy, but certainly a horrible tragedy. a lot of us have seen the hatred in the world, have seen the bombing of the world trade center, they saw the conspiracy to blow up the tunnels in the united nations and fbi building back in the 1990s, the bombing of the "uss cole" and the

bombings in africa. they know that it exists but now it looks like it's culminated in this absolutely horrendous act against the united states. >> as someone who's investigated these crimes in the past, when we think back to 1993 and the world trade center bombing and what it took in terms of coordination and planning to pull off that one bomb in the world trade center, can you even speculate as to what it might take to coordinate this what we think so far is a three-pronged attack this morning? >> matt, it obviously took a lot of coordination. there's a lot of groups in the world who have the ability to coordinate these types of attacks. as you know and most people should know, the united states is an open society. i mean we've talked for years about the downside of having our borders basically open. on any given day, people fly into our airports, undock mustn'ted and turned into the population. they're certainly not all

terrorism. they're not terrorists. we live in a free society and i'm not espousing we challene i that. >> right. >> it's very, very difficult to keep track. >> if you could stand by for a motor vehicle because jim miklaszewski has more information for us. mik? >> katie, we encountered someone who survived whatever it was. one of the survivors who was reportedly injured, had various lacerations, was on the second floor of the d-ring. that is one ring inside the outer ring of the pentagon when suddenly there was this horrific blast. and he said that the second floor buckled upward and the third floor above him actually collapsed downward. the scene on the other side of the building as it's being described to us, there are people being removed on

stretchers. security forces are evacuating the building right now, and according to the officials here at the pentagon, they still don't know exactly what it was, but as you reported, katie, eyewitnesses said it was, in fact, a plane that crashed into the pentagon. >> mik, any idea -- i wasn't sure if you said -- of the amount of people hurt or worse? >> not at all, katie. on any given workday, it's a small city, 25,000, 30 thousand may be working at any one time. that portion of the pentagon, by the way, had just been remodeled and just reopened. if the crash had occurred just a few months ago, that section of the pentagon would have been virtually empty. but at this time of day early morning or mid morning, the pentagon's very busy. it's impossible to say how many

casualties there may be. but there have been a large number of people sighted being removed on stretchers. and, again, as one survivor said, the floor just buckled up under him and the roof caved in on him. >> all right, mik. thanks very much. we're going to move a couple of miles away from you at the white house where bob is standing. bob, we understand it's been evacuated? >> reporter: that's true. as soon as word came of the pentagon incident, we were rather forcefully removed from the white house. the scene was one of administrators, cooks, whatever, running at fairly high speed all the way out of the building through the top gates. then we huddled for a while in lafayette park across the street, and we've been moved now from there a block or so away. the offices along jackson place

which are across the street from the white house and adjacent to lafayette park also have been evacuated. and in the most surreal scenes here at the white house, a white plane, a very big jet, was flying an unusual pattern near the white house over lafayette park very slowly. it made one circle, and then we have not seen it since. there was a lot of concern about what that plane might be, but, again, it's only speculation. but most people say that since flights have been cleared from u.s. airspace and it was a totally white plane, looked unusual to all of us, that it was a government plane of some kind. >> we should point out that we're looking at pictures, bob, as you speak of the world trade center because all of the camera crews have been evacuated from the white house as well. when do you expect president bush to arrive there, bob? >> reporter: well, katie, he's

coming back directly, so you figure it's about a two-hour flight. you can do the math. the reason that i said it was so surreal is that within just about 20 minutes ago they were still conducting tours. you had hordes of tourists at the white house lining up outside to get in. there seemed to be absolutely no unusual activity outside the white house until word came of the incident at the pentagon. so it's been quite a dramatic shift here. >> you know, in terms of responsibility, tom and matt and bob, apparently a senior official from the radical democratic front for the liberation of palestine denied on tuesday the group had any connection to the plane crash. an anonymous caller had told television that it was behind the crash, but, quote, i emphasize that the story released on television by an anonymous person is totally incorrect. a senior official from the dflp bureau in the palestinian territories told reuters.

they're against hijacking planes and against endangering the lives of civilians who are not connected with this struggle of the region, he said. >> there are going to be a lot of claims and counter-claims in the next 24 hours or. so this is task for investigators of an extraordinary magnitude to try to determine who did this and how they got away with it. you think about it. an american airlines flight on its way from boston to los angeles was hijacked in midair. they have sightings of the plane and they have hard evidence of that, brought down here and made to fly into one of the trade towers. did one of the hijackers get control? did they shoot the pilot? it boggles the mind to figure it out. >> you talk about transmissions. i'm just curious. do you have any evidence -- >> they say they're sighting transmissions to know that the plane had been hijacked. we want to let everyone know

this is an exceptional development. the faa has banned all takeoffs at all airports across america. this country in terms of air travel has been immobilized. a goorks portion of the nation's capital, the center of the world, has been immobilized. >> that was a very haunting description bob kerr just gave of that low flying aircraft near the white house. one can only wonder if that was what ended up in the pentagon. >> we f we can see that. it looks like a live picture of part of the building falling away from the building. if we can rerack that. i don't know if it's another explosion or a portion of the building falling away but something major just happened that building. >> we have the tape. >> watch what happens in the left-hand tower. i don't know if this is the

correct tape. something there is about to happen, falling away right there. >> it looks like a big chunk of it has been peeled away. >> one can only hope that the area has been evacuated but you wonder about the emergency vehicles and the people who might have been injured early in the morning. >> you remember when the bomb went off in the basement of 1993, the damage in that building, how much chaos there was that time. these are two coordinated air attacks on the building, tupper reaches of it. that will have an enormous effect. those buildings, i think it's fair to say, will have to be brought down. it's too early to speculate but it appears there's been that kind of damage. >> we have somebody on the scene. >> we have a reporter from wnbc. the reports are that it was being diverted to jfk. and just for people who aren't familiar with the geography of this area, the southern tip of

manhattan would be very much near the flight -- the landing pattern for jfk airport. it could have been easy for the hijacker to pretend he was going to land the plane and then divert off. >> someone did what he described as a sharp right turn right toward the world trade center. then lost sight of it. >> one eyewitness sailed he was getting off the path train at the world trade center and saw bodies falling out of the building as he approached it. police told him to get out of the building immediately and he ran outside and watched people jump out of the first building and there was a second explosion. >> this footage we're seeing right now shows that the damage is so severe. i mean we had seen what seemed to be two fairly self-contained impact craters before and now it appears something much more dramatic has happened to at least one of those towers. >> these pictures are beyond

belief. >> we have a report that the second plane may have flown out of newark, new jersey. this is an official who was speaking on the commission of anonymity. again, there is no confirmation of that. we just know there were two planes that went in. the first was an american airlines flight from boston to los angeles. we're seeing it from the harborview, this continuing damage to the world trade center. >> incidentally, tom, i want to interrupt you for two seconds because apparently jamie gangel has more. jamie? >> reporter: we have spoken to officials of the highest intelligence and they're confirming it does appear at the pentagon it was plane. again, they're saying now a third plane was involved at the pentagon. >> and, of course, this has been a nightmare, katie. everyone has been terribly

worried about the suitcase-sized bomb of some kind or an airplane or an attack on our subways in the large cities, and this obviously no one had anticipated. three airplanes that were deliberately aimed at critical targets in america. we can only hope that it's open for -- over for today, but officials are taking no chances on all that. they're evacuating all critical buildings because as mr. johnson said earlier, this is an open society. james kallstrom from the fbi also pointing out that almost anyone can come in here. they have access to so many instruments that can be used as instruments of attack and terrorism and that certainly has been the case today. >> let's go to our state department correspondent andrea mitchell. andrea, what can you tell us? >> this from the fbi. the state department has been evacuated. there was a meeting going on. other top officials were in the situation room at the white house. colin powell is in colombia on a two-day trip.

but this is very interesting information, katie and matt, from the fbi. they had been maintaining a mavis resc massive rescue. thaw were scheduled to fly back today commercially. so all of those people are out of place. it's fair to say according to sources that we've talked to here at nbc that the fbi rescue operations and other operations are in chaos right now because they can't reach officials in new york. all of their phone lines are down and now you've about got all of their special experts on this stuck in mentor ray, california, trying to get a military flight back because there are no longer commercial flights. so they're seriously out of pocket and there's a real breakdown of the fbi anti-terror coordination team which is, of course, the principal team that would lead any effort and was so effective under james kallstrom during the world trade center bombing and the twa bombing

which, turned out nout to be terror. >> is the state department taking the blame for this from the palestines? seriously? are they dismissing it or who do they feel are responsible for this? >> i think it's far to early to figure this out. they have one instant reaction as you know but it could be wrong. an immediate reaction in a case like this would be to look toward osama bin laden and the collateral groups connected to him simply because he has proved with the embassy bombings in africa that he is the one terror leader who is capable of this kind of highly coordinated attack. the bombings went off in tanzania and kenya almost simultaneously. it was extremely well coordinated. they proved their case to a jury effectively and have managed to develop a great deal of information from sources from,

in fact, turning some former members of his network. so they believe, tom, that he is the most likely person but it's far too early to say anything. >> we want to tell you american airlines has confirm thad one of its airlines, flight 111 from boston's logan airpt scheduled to go to l.a.x. this morning, 45 minutes later it was diverted into the world trade center. it was the airline that was involved. we can only assume on a popular flight like that, that it probably had a capacity load of passengers and crew onboard. there was a hijacking. that was the first plane involved. there's a second and we don't know the origins of a third plane that deliberately flew itself into the pentagon this morning near the heliport. jim everybody shelf smiklaszew e

the building. >> this is about an hour after it. we saw a portion of one of the twin towers actually appearing to fall away from the rest of the building. can we go to the tape? right here. when you look at it, the building has collapsed. that tower just came down. >> let's go to bob bazell who's at st. vincent's hospital. bob, what can you tell us? >> reporter: it's one of the hospitals closest to the world trade center. in the last few minutes, ambulances have been coming in one right after another. most of the people they're bringing in have second and third degree burns. very severe burns. they say the smoke inhalation people will be the most serious but they're not even close to getting them yet. there's a triage unit in the unit. then tire staff of this hospital has come in from wherever they are across new york city. as soon as balances pull up,

dozens of medical staff rush up to it. the service workers i spoke to have been down at the trade world site. they say this is the tip of the iceberg. >> bob wi, what are they tellin you about the people? were there many people inside the building o sit too early to tell? >> reporter: it's too early to tell but there were thousands of people before 9:00, the start of the typical work area because it's such a large area. so the number of casualties is just enormous. the ambulances are lined up. they've been summoned and are in a queue. >> bob, we're also looking at the lower end of manhattan as the result of the collapse of one world trade center. that whole financial district is now engulfed in smoke and debris

and there's probably going to be a lot more smoke inhalation problems. >> almost certainly, tom. i was actually standing and saw that collapse and everybody here just gasped. even the medical workers and the ambulance attendants when they saw that, people who are used to tragedy, grabbed each other and hugged each other and one started to cry. >> one wonders about the triage un unit. >> exactly. close to a building trying to evacuate people. and when a building of that size falls, it does not fall in its own footprint. >> reporter: one can only imagine. >> the consequences go on. not just to the trade center and the peer people trap and caught there, but that, of course, is the heart of the world financial markets that's been shut down. so the ripple effect continues this morning as we all try to adjust psychologically and intellectually what's occurred here. it's difficult to comprehend.

but this country, the strongest country in the world has been the target of major coordinated attack and the end is not over yet. even if it's just confined these three targets. the ripple effect goes on. all air traffic has been shut down. no financial markets today, businesses have been stopped across the country. >> and, of course, who knows the human toll that will be the result of this action. matt just pointed out to me on any given day, tom, 50,000 people work at the world trade center. >> and at 8:45 in the morning, if they're not in the building thaerks're around the area. >> hate to keep going back to the tower but if you consider this plane hit at mid structure and would have taken out the electrical in the building where elevators didn't work and people are struggling to get out of the

tower and it takes a long time to come down a hundred stories and when you think of the collapse of the southeastern tower, it's just unbelievable. mina, hi. >> hi, matt. >> tell us what you saw. >> reporter: walking toward the twin towers it just collapsed. it looked like the building just demolished. smoke, clouds -- clouds of smoke everywhere. people running toward me. was going toward the twin towers. people were going away from the towers and it was just people running like -- i've never sohn a scene like it. >> from where you were, minna, did you see anyone being treated? >> reporter: no, matt. i hadn't gotten that close yet. they were sort of blocking off the street. now what they're doing is

clearing out the area and more and more emergency officials are coming in to help. >> can you just give me the reaction of people, the pedestrians? >> everyone is in tears. i met someone who was in the building to the right of -- where the first thing happened. all crying, wondering if the people they know in the building next door are okay. >> thank you very much. take care of yourself. jamie gangel, our national correspondent is now on the phone. jamie? >> reporter: buildings around town have been evacuated. the white house has been evacuated, the capitol and the pentagon. officials tell me they do believe at the opponent gone that was a third plane going down. they have had -- the

intelligence sources i talked to say they have not received any claim of responsibility yet. >> jamie, have you gotten any information from reagan national airport as to air traffic in the area this morning or anybody who might have somehow traced this plane or figured out where it came from or where it was going? >> reporter: they still do not have any of those details yet. it's almost impossible. they were confused for a long time as to whether it's a bomb or a plane. they say now it appears to be a plane but they say that is all the information that they have. as you know, the faa has shut down all aircraft and are going back to try to sort that out but they don't have any information yet. >> do they know what type of plane? >> reporter: there is no -- unfortunately they don't have that yet. >> all right, jamie. thank you very much, jamie. we'll be talking with you. >> it goes without saying this

is the most serious attack on the united states in more than 100 years, not during 1812 or the damage we did during the civil war has this country suffered this kind of damage within its interior. obviously pearl harbor, world war ii was hor riffic as well. but there's never been an event that has magnitude to the degree as this one. everything has been shut down. the pentagon has been attacked. there's an untold loss of life here in manhattan, the nerve center, to say nothing of the pentagon. >> this is a shot of new york city many people can't understand. one tower. >> it looks like a movie and it combines the horror of the twa bombing and the federal building

bombing. >> by this time i'm sure everyone is up across the world. for those of you just joining us at 8:45 eastern time, 8:42 eastern time, american airlines flight 111 from boston to l.a.x. was crashed into one of the world trade center buildings. 15 minutes later another plane hit the other one. that building has now collapsed. within an hour of those two attacks, the pentagon was hit now we're told but a plane. president bush has been on the air. he was in florida. apparently saying it was a terrorist attack. even believes that, coordinated from the air. and the consequences in terms of human loss hassy tote be determined. >> we want to go down to the hospital. they've been treating some of the injured. kathleen, can you hear me? >> yes,ky.

>> kel you tell us about the people you've been treating and the number? >> we've seen a steady stream of patients for approximately an hour and a half. i can't tell you i've seen the most serious ones because they're going through the ambulance bay. there's a high level of activity here. the first care is care of the patients. we do not have tally at this time because of the level of activity at the hospital. we have responded to family and friends who have come seeking information to the hospital. >> just quickly, kathleen, how far is the hospital from the world trade center? >> perhaps a five-minute walk from the trade center and we were the first responder after the attack in 1993 so unfortunately we have some experience. >> how many hospitals in the

immediate area are there? >> we're the only hospital south of new york city. we serve a large amount. our emergency room is the high priority of this hospital and the staff ha been doing a heroic job in term os responding to the patients. >> kalgt lean, what about the triage unit that's on the ground there? is there a team of medical nyu on the scene as well? >> yes, they are. i cannot tell you because i'm not on the scene. >> but you have your medical personnel at the scene. >> that is my understanding, yes. >> they've obviously evacuated the whole area. now i'm told that there's a concern about the collapsing of the second one as well. there's been a lot of damage on

the upper floors of all that and it ooh mess than 100 stories high. it wouldn't take much to bring it down. >> contact leap, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we're told the spokesman for yasser arafat, the leader of the palestinian -- the leading of the pla. palestinian organization that he has -- arafat has come dinned whoo has happened in new york. they're completely shocked md a apoint. it's a front that was later denied as well. we don't know who, in fact, is responsible for this but it was fairfully planned an coronado nated. we've had a an efficient attack on the part of this country. >> pat dawson is on the ground

near the world trade center. pat, are you there? pat dawson, can you hear me? okay. he's having some audio problems. we'll get to pat in just a moment. >> just amazing. you have to stop and think about the hijacked plane and the passengers on board as it could have been up to an hour that they realized something was dramatically wrong with this flight and then thinking that perhaps they were going to john f. kennedy airport here in queens actually and the plane suddenly veering into the world trade center tower. >> what's striking to me is we didn't have an earlier report. a lot of people monitor that. until this happened -- >> the plane left at 8:00 this morning. >> 42 minutes. >> it was about 42 minutes later that it occurred. a number of people saw it at the

low altitude and took the sharp right up the. moments later the world trade center was hit. it was about an hour after that that jim mick la shelfky told you, katie. and now we've ben on plane. there are people who circulate been hurt there, we hope no one was killed but it seems like a graig magnitude. the white house has been evacuated. >> here's the pentagon right now. let's take a look at the pentagon. smoke continues to bill lowe out of that structure. as tom said it's unclear how many people were hurt and if it was a plane. they suspect it was a plane. let's go to pat dawson. can you hear me? >> we cannot tell you much more in terms of specific information

other than to say there are perhaps hundreds, perhaps in the thousands of emergency workers in the last hour and half have managed way way to work down here. 6 we're standing here 10 to 12 blokts north of the world trade center. these firemen, you can see, firefighter are walks down toward the site now and they've bit rally been arrived by the past hour or so. probably in excess of a thousand or more from new york city and surrounding areas to converge on the site to try to make some sense of it. as you can imagine, they're trying to sort out who's alive, who's not. as i said before we did speak with some of the police officers. that's the organization that has

jurisdiction over the two buildings specifically as well as bridges and tunnels. i spoke to two of them who were down there when the building capsed. that loss of life had to be horrific, most of them who had been evacuated. they have no idea the level of loss of life. i asked him as he suited up why he's going in. he said it's my job and there may be some of my brother officers in there, there may be other people in there. so those officers going in there, as you can see, all kinds of firefighter s going in there converging on the site. we can't give you much of an organizational sense other than telling you what you already known, which is two separate aircraft have struck the two towers of the world trade

center. as memory serves, i think each of the billings stands 110 feet tall. it depends which way the wind blows as to whether or not we're enveloped in some of the wind and smoke. as you can see from the pictures the amount of dust from the fire is still burning. flames and ash are extraordinary at this point and at least a few emergency workers have said they're not really sure that other tower would stay up. they didn't think the first one was capable of coming down but it did. they're saying keep back as far as you can chld many, many hup dleds of these workers are heading out toward twain those buildings. the original crash took place just about quarter to 9:00 by my

reckoning. i don't know the exact time. but about quarter to 9:00. obviously the building wouldn't be packed but it was still early enough. >> we were-ing to pat dawson. katy and tom i was thinking while pat was talking. you both spechbt time at that building in oklahoma. how many stories was that? >> i'm sorry to interrupt. there's car bomb that exploded outside the state office. can that's from the control room? can we go to anyone for information on that. >> where is andrea mitchell? is she at the state department? >> the state department has been evacuated as well as the white

house. the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. obviously the pemt ot has as well. we'll go to mik. what is the latest from the pentagon? >> they've not only evacuated the area but they're clearing the entire area. security forces have report thad they've seened information of even hijacking. it's about 20, 25 miles out of washington, d.c., heading in this direction. donald rumsfeld was refusing to leave the building. we ran into the top naval officer, and they were loading him to take him to an alternative command site. they were taking admiral clark to an alternative command site. >> reporter: can you hear me? >> yeah, mik, go ahead.

>> reporter: i'm sorry. officials here are taking it very seriously. we were standing with secretary rumsfeld. that have set up an alternative command sight in the area. the latest reports are that another plane may have been hijacked and headed in this trekz. katie? >> we should also tell you, mik, this is tom brokaw, that all international flights headed to the united states are being diverted to canada, this at a time when jim mick la shelf i can tells us there's an unconfirmed report that there's another hijacking. all planes have beea been attac. >> andrea mitchell is standing

by. she has more information. >> secretary of state colin p powell is on his way from lima, peru. state department officials and the nsc have been evacuated as well. condi rice was in the situation room and cia george tenet has been holding office in langley, virginia. as i reported earlier, teams were stranded in monterey, california, where they were on a secret military exercise against this kind of event. >> to iner er erupt for a second, can you give us a report of a car bombing outside the state department? >> i cannot confirm that. we got information but it's not

confirmed. >> andrea, thanks. i'm sorry to interrupt. we're going back to the pet gone with jim miklaszewski. >> i've got my eyes peeled but security force over the area have blared out anyone near the pentagon to take cover immediately. there was earlier an indication that another plane may have been hijacked and headed in this direction. so far we see security helicopters circling the pentagon. again, the skies are crystal clear blue and i can't see the speck of an airplane but security forces here obviously alarmed enough and telling people not only to take some distance from the building but take medial cover. >> can you tell me a little bit more. let's take a look.

the other tower has just collapsed. you're looking at live pictures of the second trade center collapsing as a result of the crash of the airplane into the side. that is, i believe, the first tower that was struck at 8:42 eastern time. that has now fallen to. >> there's been a declare racing of war. >> where's wayne, where's wayne, where's wayne. >> pat, can you hear us? obviously there is pandemonium downtown. pat is not far from the world trade center as you can hear from the sirens and you can only imagine the confusion and terror that's in that area after not one but both trade center towers have now collapsed. >> more than 100 stories of steel, concrete, electrical.

there it is. that's a videotaped replay. >> we're back at 10:30 eastern time on this tuesday morning, this horrific incredible not be believed tuesday morning. you're looking at live pictures of the world trade center where just a few minutes ago within the last minute actually, the second twin tower collapsed. just to recap if you're just joining us, around 8:42 eastern time this morning here in new york city, a plane crashed into the right twin tower of the world trade center, about two-thirds of the way up the building leaving a huge gaping hole, a huge fire, and tons of bui billowing smoke. about 25 minutes later a huge jet, believed to be a 727 or 737.

>> or even reports of a 757. >> crashed into the second twin tower. the first plane incidentally was on flight from boston, massachusetts, to los angeles. >> here's the video of the second plane striking the tower. >> that right. we're not sure of the origin of that plane, is my understanding. the first plane that caused that hole on the righthands side in the other twin tower was from boston to l.a.x., los angeles. it was -- what followed was unclear. we should note about an hour after the first collision at the pentagon, reportedly another plane crashed into the pentagon, which is just outside washington, d.c., in northern virginia. all air traffic has been stopped. >> government buildings have been evacuated as well as other buildings in the country. the sears tower in chicago.

you can imagine other billings in major cities and small cities are going to be evacuated as well. >> there's been an unconfirmed report of car bombing. we have not been able to pin that down. jim miklaszewski has a report of another hijacking. we tell you that so that you have as much information we can possibly get. at the pentagon, all people outside were told to take cover just moments ago but jim miklaszewski say the skies are clear. >> there was an unconfirmed report that plane that was hijacked was headed for washington. we want to mention the president is on route from florida where he was there to visit an elementary school to talk about literacy. obviously his plans have change

dramatically. colin powell is also on his way back from lima, peru. he was scheduled to be in colombia. >> probably not at the white house. they'll probably take him to a sif location, some in the hills of georgia. "air force one" is a usual one where they have a fighter jet. that's where we stand. >> think about the loss of life that we could have seen this morning if you think about the fact that when full the world trade scepters hold about 50,000 people. no telling how many people were there before 9:00 this morning and then shortly after 9:00 in the other tower. but if you look at this picture here, tom and katie, at lower manhattan, it appears the terrorists have succeeded this time in doing what they wanted to do back in 1993. >> this is war, a declaration on the united states. the pentagon which is, of course, the headquarters of the

mighty military of the world balanhas been attacked as well. all flights taking off after these attacks were grounded. >> international flights have been sent to karen da. >> transatlantic flights going to canada now. there's been great chaos visited upon this country to say nothing as wow pointed out, matt, so importantly, of the untold loss of life and we know it's going to be horrendous. we don't know what the exact numbers are but we can only tell you by looking at the pictures that you can guess as well as we can that there are going to be a lot of people who aren't going to be able to escape that. >> back in 1993 when the bomb blew up in the basement of the world trade center, so many survivors told us how long it took them without power in the elevators to walk down the smoke-filled stairways. >> of course, the triage unit thats be's been set up.

area hospitals are receiving victims. and as matt said 50 thousand capacity when everyone is in the billing. but many people at 8:52 a.m. are at their desk in their offices. one young man was working at his devg when someone call and said what's happening and he said we're blanking dying here. >> there's a picture of lower manhattan, ladies and gentlemen, the most important city in the world in so many ways and now it's been attacked by terrorists at the world trade center, and the damage is beyond our ability to tell you in complete detail. >> let me tell you -- >> i was going to say. here's what the president said. he canceled an education appearance. here's what he said a short time ago. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for america. i unfortunately will be going back to washington after my

remarks. secretary rod pace and the governor will take the podium and discuss education. i want to thank the folks aet the booker elementary school for their hospitality. today we've had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. i have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of new york, to the director of the fbi, and i've order thad the full resource of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. terrorism against our nation will not stand. and now if you'll join me in a moment of silence. that that was george w. bush

about an hour ago speaking from long boat key, florida, he is en route to washington, d.c. we're looking at pictures on the ground or we were of apparently some of the victims. let's go to pat dawson if he can hear us hchl's on the ground. >> this extraordinary. these are the emergency workers coming back. it was just about ten minutes ago we described to you the possibility of that north tower collapsing. about five minutes after we went off the air, it did collapse. once again we have no idea at this point the loss of life. i can only tell you there were hundreds of emergency workers down there about five or six blocks. it took probably about i would say no more than 50 or 60 seconds for that dust cloud to make its way up here as it began to envelop us. we had to literally move out of the way. there were dozens and dozens of

firemen trying to run past us. in fact, even our cameraman got in his car and drove. the people who you see here are pretty much all emergency workers. many of them i have seen in the last two to three minutes quite frankly are coming out of here -- and remember this. these are professionals. they're coming out of there looking completely stunned, in shock many of them. struggling for breath. obviously in serious distress, breathing problems are the biggest problems for those who man amged to make it safely out of that area down below us. you can't see much more than a block south of me right now and the world trade center probably stands about ten blocks south of where i am at this moment. and as you can see now, the dust is beginning to pick up here. it really depends on which way the wind blows as to whether north we get heavy dust or not. but at this point i can tell you in the first few minutes emergency workers were trying to get out of there, just survive.

you could see that written in their faces. the situation was so desperate they wanted to get out of there. now many of them are getting ared to regroup. a couple have asked where their commander might be. they're trying to go back in there and take care of the people who are in serious trouble. it's no way to -- if i slip into language that seem as little mel oh dramatic, give me, but this is a circumstance that's very, very difficult to describe which certainly sounds melodramatic. this is something i have never seen before. as i say, the emergency workers themselves trying to gather themselves. you see a police emergency service unit. they're trying basically now to re-establish some kind of a safe perimeter. and many of the workers just happy to be alive. that picture tells it all.

happy to be alive after surviving what is an extraordinary event. as we said earlier, 110 stories each. i will tell you that what fell -- what i saw fell had to be at least 40, 50 stories of that building at first. the skeleton was left at about i would say the 50 or 60th floor after the shell -- after the structure of the building fell down, the skeleton, the steel skeleton was literally sheeved off and it took probably another 30 seconds before the skeleton collapsed into the street. that was the last we saw of the world trade center. and that was maybe ten minutes ago. when that metal skeleton collapsed into the street. >> that's nbc's pat dawson. he's standing ten feet from where the buildings used to stand we now have an ap news alert out of pittsburgh. officials at somerset county airport are confirming the crash

of large plane north of the airport. that's about 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh. again, officials at somerset county airport confirm the crash of a large plane north of that airport which is located about 80 miles to the southeast of the city of pittsburgh. we do not know whether that crash of that plane is related to what has become an obvious terrorist attack both here in new york city and in washington, d.c., at the pentagon. >> matt, we just got word that the state department security officials are denying those reports of car bomb at the state department. bet city stewart is at the c street area. officials are still believed to be in the operation center. those are highly secured areas in terms of penetration

physically. colin powell was headed for peru. he's headed back. we'll have a conference at 11:30 or noon. that is likely to take place at andrews air force base or another safe place. another plane reported to have gone down, this time in the pittsburgh area. there were planes in the air at the time there were orders nof more takeoffs wchl don't know how much more damage the terrorists had in mind. >> let's go to bog haiger who is, of course, nbc's aviation expert. bob, what kind of information are you getting from your sources? >> not a lot, katty, from the faa. they're not talking any more hijacking. they can tell a hijacking in progress because the original pilot can press buttons to set off a code but maybe as mat over security they another saying anything about that. they did stop all takeoffs in the u.s. at 9:25 this morning.

and then for pilots in the air, they were asked what to do about them. they were to continue on to their destination as long as it was not the new york or washington area or the airport if that's what they wanted to do. personally i saw the blast take place moments after i was trying to get up to new york, you could see the smoke billowing out of the pentagon. i can give you a little zrimgs of what it was like on the streets of washington. it was quite crowded trying to get back to nbc. they have not only given the white house but other buildings, but at this point they've given all federal employees to leave their offices and get home. so there are traffic jams in washington. >> bob, i'm sure you're going get more information to us momentarilier but first we want to go to jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. mik?

>> ka katie, they're still cleag people out. there was a very telling dramatic moment just a second ago when a u.s. air force f-16 flew very low level, did a wide sweeping turn around the pentagon and back over washington. and as one official said next to me, my god, they're now covering over washington. it's been described as a declaration of war. >> let's go back to manhattan where the situation only gets worse, not better. that is the financial district of the world. it's also a residential area, great commercial area. both twin trade tower buildings have now collapsed onto the ground. there is an untold loss of life. the ripple effect goes on with all the smoke and dust that's spread out across that very densely populated area. it goes down below ground as well as in the high rise buildings there. there are many residential

structures in that area as well. some heroic rescue workers were down there trying to get people out of the building when the first building came down and then the second building did as well. without any sound in looking at this, there is kind of a surreal quality, but that is the epicenter of great, great national tragedy and a great loss of life, no question about it this morning. >> we're talking about people who were hurt, perhaps killed in this blast. many of them have been brought to area hospitals including st. vincent's hospital. bob bazell is there. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, ka katie, ambulances continue to come in. roads -- streets have been closed off so they can continue to come in. several buildings that were not involved in the world trade center area have been shut down and people told go home. many wandering aimlessly on the streep, people openly weeping

and hugging each other. at times described as the beginning of war, but the casualties keep coming in. burns, smoke inhalation very severe. all the medical people i've talked to say this is the tip of the iceberg, we expect casualties to come in all through the night and way beyond. >> bob, if you can just stand by for a moment because we have this report from ap. large plane crash tuesday morning just north of the somerset county airport 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh. the plane 'peering to be a both 737 crashed. according to county 911 dispatchers wpix-tv reported. the crash came at the same time as two planes crashed in new york city city and the twin 110-story buildings collapsed. it also struck the pentagon although that was refuted. spread fear across the nation.

there wither no o'details and it was not clear whether the crash was related to the others. again, that was a report, a bulletin issued by the associ e associat"associated press." >> what's so stunning about all this, matt and katie, there's been no indication that this carefully coordinated massive attack was going to occur. there's been a complete intelligence failure here and there will be obviously down the road a price to pay for that. >> that's actually not all that surprising, tom. we talked in the past following every terrorist attack how vulnerable tl united states is and many experts saying how unprepared they are. the question is can you ever prepare for an attack like this. >> that's true. but we have people out there. but to have this kind of attack, this sophisticated, this efficient, striking at the heart of the nation's capital, new york city, now if this is true that this plane went down as a result of the attack, we don't

know whether that's the end of it. this is massively well coordinated attack of some kind that is nothing short but a declaration of war on this country. >> and terrorist experts and intelligence experts are saying there are a very few number of terrorist groups that are capable of planning and a couple of names come to mind. i'm not going to throw them tout because we don't have any reports. before i go to jamie gangel, some of the eyewitness reports are chilling. one man talked about getting off a path train, that's a subway train, and looking up at the first building after the explosion and seeing people jumping out of a window, hearing people jumping out of a window attempting to get to safety and when the second explosion occurred he felt the heat of the explosion on the back of his neck. jamie ganger, our national kropt, she's joining us on the

phone. jamie? >> reporter: matt, speaking of the intelligence officials you were just mentioning, now we can finally no longer reach anyone on the phone at the cia. apparently they have been evacuated. we knoll the national security agency which is the eavesdropping agency which is south of ft. meade, maryland, they have been shut down. which we've heard in both places is all nonessential personnel have been told to leash and i can only imagine they are trying to move some of their operations out of the buildings as well for backup procedure but in addition to whatever intelligence was or was missed in all of this, we now have perhaps some problems gathering intelligence as those buildings are now being shut down.

>> let's go back to the enormity of it. all planes in this country have been grounded. i mean you think about the impact that has. i mean is there ever a time we can imagine something like that ever happening before? >> the most powerful nation in the world and national security officials and terrorist experts have been saying for some time a small band of very willful and sophisticated people can bring us to a halt and they've done just that. there's a psychological terror as a result of all this as you can only imagine how it plays out across the country today. people not living in new york are dwirning what happens around me. it is hard to overstate the consequences of all this and this is just the beginning. we'll be living with this story and dealing with the consequences for some time. the united states will challenge as a result of all this. we already thought there was a lot of security at the airports and so on and yet there was a successful hijacking at boston

airport and the consequences we're seeing on the screen this morning so this is going to change this country profoundly in not just the coming days but coming months to say nothing as you've been saying, matt, on the horrific loss of life. >> on that subject, to complete a thought i start before, you both were out at the federal building in oklahoma city, a much smaller building and it took the rescue workers more than a week to find all in the wreckage. we have two buildings, each 110 stories. it's mind-boggling what it's going to take over the next few weeks to find survivors and victims. >> it continues to be a terrifying situation because there are a number of planes up in the air as this took place and a number of unconfirmed and frightening reports that we heard earlier through jim miklaszewski, that someone had

gotten word at the pentagon there was another plane north of pittsburgh. it's completely unclear. and it's unclear whether these planes en route were grounded themselves. in other words there were emergency landings or what. thing it's very difficult to get any communication with airports all across the country because they're i'm sure completely chaotic. >> katie, you know in your time with oklahoma city and spending time with the victims, the whole psychological feeling and in a way our sense of innocence, this is fortress america, it couldn't happen here. we said it about the more rah federal build and columbine high school. this is a whole different magnitude. >> i have to say i have never, ever witnessed anything quite as horrific, i hate to keep saying it because we have seen these types of things play out in movies, and, you know, in

worst-case scenario worst-case scenarios and in dramatic incidents, but certainly no one has ever seen this kind of thing unfold and it is really shocking. >> we want to go now on the phone. we have neil livingston who's an expert on terrorism. mr. livingston, can you hear me? >> i can. >> we were talking about what it would take in terms of planning and coordination to pull off an attack like this with so many prongs, aet least two attacks here in new york city, one in washington, d.c. we don't know if the crash of that plane outside pittsburgh is related, but give me an idea of how many groups in the country would be capable of something like this. >> there are very few groups in the world capable of this kind of action. you have to remember also that we have -- the people who hijacked these plane were going to a certain death as well. they were suicide bombers in effect. that suggests that it's not

something like the cartels who has the financial wherewithal and the infrastructure to carry out the coordinated attacks. i think obviously the finger of suspicion and we're also very conscious of pointing in that particular direction but we have to look to the middle east, we have to look to osama bin laden, some palestinian groups right now. >> but even in the past when we were talking about osama bin laden and his group, there had been intelligence experts who picked up conversations to give some kind of indication, even if we didn't understand them until after the attack, is it unusual with so many prongs to an attack that there wouldn't have been some type of warning through intelligence sources? >> it's a myth that we always know these things are. going down. part of the problem and we just had a warn gog out to our embassies and military bases in the far east, that could have been a diversion.

we've had so many warnings. . people tend to fade into the background noise. unless we have specific information we generally don't take action. these groups are focussed with bonds of kinship and focused for years. it doesn't surprise me that we didn't know this was coming. >> all right. mr. livingston, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> benjamin levy is at the scene near the world trade center. actually he's going to tell us precisely where he is and what he saw. can you hear me? >> caller: hello. >> it's katie couric. can you tell us what you've seen? >> right now i'm in lower manhattan. i work at the federal building behind city hall. we were sitting at our desks.

at about 9 chn 30 we heard an explosion and then we saw the plan hit the second building and we're evacuated. as we turned to walk away. 15 minutes after we left the building the second tower just disappeared from sight. i'll tell you i never have seen anything more horrible in my entire life. >> did you see any casualties, mr. leavy? >> we bumped into a guy from tower one who said he had a chance to get out of the building after the plane hit the first one. he had to get out of the second one. he said that people were jumping out of the windows to get away from the fire. >> where are you now, benjamin? >> i'm in a hair salon in lower manhattan talking to you guys. >> and was the whole federal building evacuated, mr. leavy? >> yeah. we started running out of fwilding as soon as we saw the second explosion.

and then -- i work on the 22nd floor. as soon as we were down at the bottom, they sounded the alarm and then they announced evacuation, but most of us were already out. >> how far are you physically actually from the world trade center? >> right now or when i worked? >> when it happened. >> about six blocks away. >> and you were able to get out pretty easily and there were no electrical problems in your building as a result of the impact of fire or something? >> no, we got out pretty good, thank god. >> the whole area down there, city hall, world federal building and all the other buildings have been evacuated as well? >> oh, yeah. as we were living the police were telling shop owners to shut their buildings and go home. >> that must be what was enveloped. that covered the entire lower end of manhattan which is a considerably large area, not only considerably but in terms of the financial network, the commerce and residential areas. >> you could smell the smoke.

you could smell it but we were walking away from it. >> benjamin levy. thanks for talking with us. i'm so glad you're safe. >> katie, we've got information about what's going on around the country. the state department has been moved to training center in arlington, virginia. in minneapolis, st. paul, minneapolis shut down. georgia, hart field. they're tightening security throughout the state. that's the home of andrews air force base. home to the largest base has been under complete security and philadelphia international airport has been closed and liberty bell. >> all national monuments. >> california has been put on the highest alert. they're on tactical alert.

the complex in oakland, tennessee, put on heightened security. >> it us now comi it now coming. just a quick note from one of the hospitals from downtown in new york city where they say that hundreds of people have been burned from head to toe. this is from dr. steven stern at st. vincent's hospital. the entire entrance to the emergency room was lined with stretchers covered with white sheets. the doctor said most of the victims had burns. >> they're being treat at a number of hospitals including st. vincent, nyu, downtown is five minutes away. as a spokesperson told us earlier, they've had a lot of experience after the terrorist bonling of the world trade center in 1993 and they have obviously all been mobilized and

the emergency crews are working feverishly outside the world trade center. >> you are looking at a live picture of lower manhattan at 11:00 east coast time on a day of tragedy and terror in the united states. you're looking what remains of the world trade center in lower manhattan. earlier this mooring just before 9:00 and just after 9:00, two planes in individual attacks struck each tower of the world trade center causing gaping holes in both towers. you're looking at a tape now after the first impact and there is the second impact of a large jet flown we now believe deliberately into the second tower. it was a short time after that that the towers collapsed. and then there was an attack in

washington, d.c. we now have confirmed reports that the plane crashed into the pentagon. we have no reports of confirmed injuries or death, however, it's clear officials all across the country are now saying this is a deliberate terrorist attack on the united states. as tom has put it so far this morni morning, this is a declaration of war against the united states. >> of course, we should mention, by the way, tom, before we talk about terrorism, that another large plane crashed as well just north of somerset county airport 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it was a both 767 that crashed around 10:00 this morning and it is unclear whether the crash was related to the other crashes that took place this morning. >> president bush is en route back to washington. the state didn't has been evacuated. the there has been an attack on the pentagon. that building has been evacuated. the white house has been evacuated. this is the most serious attack

on the united states since pearl harbor. there has never been a terrorist attack in this magnitude, in fact, on any country in the world so far as we can tell. the untold loss of life in new york alone. we only know there have been hundreds of burn victims have been brought to area hospitals. wi don't know the number of casualties at the pentagon and we don't know the number of death in the plane that went down as katie pointed out north of pittsburgh. >> we know for a fact that one of these planes that was crashed into the world trade center was hijacked from boston this morning. it was american airlines flight 11 in flight from boston to los angeles. we had reports it was diverted to jfk and later perhaps while feigning landing at jfk it diverted and flew into the world trade center.

>> all airports have been stopped. they have been stopped in terrells of planes departing or planes en route. it's unclear if their plans have been changed. the state didn't has been evacuated. the white house. the cia. many, many buildings in lower manhattan is has been evacuated as well. >> and they're being diverted to canada. still no claim of responsibility that is verifiable orab. yasser arafat has said it's shocking and appalling. >> in 1993 was the when the bomb went off in the garage of the world trade center, killing six people and injuring a thousand people. that, of course, was an unbelievable scene, but compared to this -- >> this is what they intinlded to do back then. >> let's go back to bob hager

who has some information for us. bob? >> as you comment about the various plains involved, the ones we know about so far because it's confirmed by american airlines, flight 11 that was scheduled from boston logan airport to los angeles, flight 11 was hijacked this morning and it was presumed that may have been one of planes that went into one of the towers at the world trade center. there were at least two more planes involved in this because the other building was hit. there were eyewitnesss that say plane went into the pentagon. so far we don't know the source of the plains, whether they were commercial, hijacked, whether they had been hijacked at all. i would point out that the plane that crashed, the faa has not confirmed that crash. >> faa is confirming -- >> faa is now confirming.

this adds to the rumors. there are several airplanes unaccounted for. there are rumors there might have been other planes hijacked that we didn't yet know the outcome of it and the faa is confirming there are several, the world i heard, several planes that are unaccounted for that were evidently hijacked and have not come to kuhn collusion yet. >> bob, we'd like you to get the list of as many of those as you can. we're going to replay a tape of the second attack on the world trade centers in slow mo. there is the plane. as you can see a large airlines-type plane. and now the collision. flown deliberately into the second one. >> and they say, several, bob do. they give you any indication of what they're talking about? >> reporter: well, the description that i had and that

was just passed on to me a moment ago so i wasn't talking personally to the faa person, but several is the count i had. >> bob, american airlines, flight 11 out of boston, do we know exactly what kind of plane that was and perhaps how many people were on board? >> reporter: we do not yet but i think we're going to get additional information from american. they were supposed to be adding comment to it from dulles airport here in a few moments so we might learn a little bit more about that. right now it's very important to worry about rumors. i'd like to hear more confirmation on the plane that crashed in pennsylvania. i think we need to hear more from that. >> we have a report here that osama bin lad whon's often identified as the world's leading terrorist warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack for their

support of israel. >> it was said a fundamental list was certainly behind the attack of the world trade center in new york. quote, it's most likely the work of fun damon stall lists. osama bin laden warned three weeks ago he would be involved in an unprecedented attack, a very big one. >> he has interviewed osama bin lad and he's maintained his contact. that's the first report that he may have been responsible. obvious lit was a very sophisticated organization, carefully coordinated. louie free, the fbi director as he left office said his continuing great concern with a number of terrorist cells that exist in america, not just in some shadowy enclave of afghanistan, they've taken route

in this country because it's so easy to get here. >> let's talk a little bit about osama bin laden because he was associated with it. why don't we talk about him and what he has done here in the united states, tom, to give the people a little bit of back ground. >> he's from saudi arabia originally, wealthy, very sophisticated in terms of using the new technology. we believe he's being harbored in afghanistan. no one knows for sure. a number of people have been successful in getting to him. they believe he's behind a number of bombings in kenya as well. he is obviously a zealot of great dark passion and mostly a the united states. >> brian remains on the phone. brian, tell us a little bit more about osama bin laden and if you think he might, in fact, have carried out this kind of well orchestrated horrific attack on the united states. >> well, certainly he would have

to be included in any very, very short list of suspects, but it is premature to be able to say with any confidence who might be responsible. in something like this, we know what has ha happened, where it has happened, who and why, it takes a bit longer to figure out. i have no doubt that we will ultimately be able to tied fie who's responsible but until that time we can only speculate. >> but, brian, in an attack of this magnitude that is so carefully coordinated and executed with such cold-blooded efficiency, it obviously had to be a very sophisticated organization. >> clearly this took organization and while organization in terrorism in recent years has become more fluid, that, is we're not dealing with the identifiable terrorist organization that we dealt with in the 1970s and 1980s, terrorism in the last

decade has been a lot more fluid and from these universes of like-minded fanatics, people have been able to put together these ad hoc conspiracies. nonetheless the magnitude and the coordination does indicate a considerable amount of planning and organization. >> mr. jenkins, if you'll hold for a second, i want go back to bob hager of nbc. apparently we don't have bob. let's go to jim kallstrom, former director of the fbi's new york office. jim, we talked about sooner or later we'll know who did this but where does law enforcement start? in several cases we talk about the plane as the weapon but when do we start to track who's responsible? >> well, matt, i think someone said out there this is unprecedented. law enforcement will start from

the base of intelligence that they hopefully have and hopefully have always hat. that's the result of it. we have a short memory in the united states. maybe that's good, maybe that's bad. that's why we need effective law enforcement. although as pointed out it's very, very difficult to stop things like this. the first goal would have been to stop this horrific, horrific convenient and the second goal is to save as many people as we can and to find out who did it. and thirdly and most importantly not let something like this happen again. >> jim, if you were starting the investigation tomorrow morning where would you begin with man who hijacked the american airlines flight? >> i'd probably have a hundred courses of action taken simultaneously. i'm sure that's what's going on. it's a bit of chaos. i look at the twa tragedy and

whee we responded the way we did. we were at a high threat for terrorism and it certainly looked like terrorism and this is so much bigger than. it's chaotic but law enforcement is trying to make sense out of it. they're trying to obviously not let something happen in the next ten minutes, next ten hours, next two hours. and, of course, a long range plan to see what we can do about stopping this. we live in a free society. people come and go. we see that talked about on the news every night, not so much from a terrorism standpoint but from a work standpoint. but people landed on major airports every day undocumented. so it's extremely difficult as brian point outer ler, these terror cells are very insulated from each other. it's not like the mafia where you put in a wire tap and you know everything that's going on.

that's not the case here. we know about this tremendous hatred. we talked about this within law enforcement for the last decade. they tried to bring the world trade center down. they've blown up many, many other government symbols. >> jim, i'm sorry to interrupt. it's katie couric. we want to go down to the trade center. pat talking with an official. pat? >> reporter: forgive me. we're trying to get -- obviously gorks ahead. put the microphone on there. as you can imagine, this is a very, very difficult situation here. we're here with a couple of guests who can give us at least some insight into what's going on here. this is chief william hall, the port authority police of new york. as we told you, they have jurisdiction over the trade center and also allen rice, director of the trade center.

do we have any idea how many are in there? >> we have no idea. it was rush hour time that this took place this morning so the numbers we don't know yet. we tried to get almost everybody out there that we could early on. >> after the first two crashes when the planes hit the building, there was roughly about, i would say, an hour, an hour and 15 minutes between where the south tower collapsed. >> give or take. >> how many people were you able to get out, do you know? >> we don't know. we tried to do a floor-by-floor search to do the best we could to get everybody out. as you know there were people coming out still after the building came down. >> do you have any idea how many people would normally be at the billing? >> possibly 10,000 people in each tower. 10,000 people in each tower would tippicably in there on a normal business day and we get another 5,000 visitors during the course of the day. so by 8:30, 9:00 the billing should have been full. >> so in other words by 8:30,

9:00 the building would have been fill kag passty with workers so we're talking roughly 10,000 people. >> per tower. >> per tower. now at this point you have a situation of these towers having collapse thad is bordering on chaotic. what's the first challenge? what are you doing at this moment? i see emergency workers try to go in there after the first couple of crashes and come running back out. what do you do now? >> i guess the next step between me and my chief and staff, we're going to determine whether it's safe enough to look into the building to continue looking and evacuating people. >> are there any emergency workers in there now? >> we don't know that. >> we don't know. >> if they are, they would have been trapped. >> it's possible. >> from what wi saw happen here, yeah, very much so. we were trapped ourselves in the building in the basement. the building collapsed and we came out of it. >> you were in the basement of

the south tower. >> no, we were in the building of building five? >> six. >> and i was in building five. we had to dig our way out. >> you had to dig your way out. what was that like? >> scary. but i was a volunteer fireman for years so you learn not to panic. >> one last thing. what do you do right now to try to get to those people? how long before you get to the people. >> we have to wait and get the building safe. we have our engineers here to make the building safe and we have rescue teams. we're breaking the men and women up into rescue teams and they're ready to go once the building is safe, what's left. >> when are you going do it? >> right now and i hope soon. >> is any part of the building standing? >> i can't see. i don't even know. >> you don't know how much of the building is left. >> we're going to assess the situation. >> we understand you have an emergency situation. we appreciate you taking the time out. the lastist report we have at this point from those who are in

charge of that. is speaking to the director of the world trade center and the port authority chief. they're as they said trying to put together a plan to assess the damage. the sequence of extraordinary tragedies, catastrophes, really. first the two crashes and then in sequence, one tower of the building coming down, another tower of the building coming down. obviously the first order of business is to try to organize themselves and go back in there that doesn't endanger more emergency workers because i can tell you from what i've seen there were a number put in harm's way. they'd have to to be. we'll three it back to you, tom. >> those are the first number. they think there were about 20,000 people in the two buildings to say nothing of the untold people in the streets. who could have also suffered

injuries or worse when the buildings did come down. this is tanlt mount to war. there is plane that attacked the pent gone and a report that plane went down outside of pittsburgh. robert hager has more information for us. robert? >> reporter: there's more c confirmati confirmation, flight 11. took off from boston, was to go to lachlkts american airlines confirmed it was hijacked and we have some first numbers how many on board. 58 passengers and a crew of 11. 69 people on that flight. that's presumed to be one of the towers in trld wo trade center, the other planes that we know of, the plane at the world crash center and the plane that crashed into the pentagon area, those are unknown flights. the pennsylvania crash which is still not the faa but it's local

authorities saying it. our affiliatiifiliate in pittsbs it was a flight that originated in chicago and was headed to cleveland but i caution that sort of information coming off radio scan irs is very, very sketchy and so unreliable. >> bob, an fbi spokesman is quoted as saying there were four flights hijacked all together. we know about american 11. are you getting any kind of detail like that at the faa? >> no. the faa is not getting into that kind of detail and a moment ago i said there were several planes still in the air. that report was coming to me while was on the air. i'm getting it second hand. now i understand what they're saying. flights that were unaccounted for. so that could mean in addition

to american airlines flight 11, does not mean others did. dan has shut all is airports down but will leave the airports open to allow incoming planes inbound for the u.s. and allowing them to die vertz into canada. otherwise they're not taking any other inbound flights. >> now we get word from american airlines, bob, that it had two aircraft in this. 18 passengers, nine flight attendants and two pilots. flight 77, a boeing 757 operating from washington dulles, 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilot. that's one of our guys in the dlal area from american airlines. >> yes. so now we know the identity of two of the flights involved in today's incidents, that leaves

at least one more and if the report of the crash at pittsburgh is accurate, that leaves two more that we don't have identified yet but it gives us those two that you messaged. >> both of these planes could have been into the twin trade towers because plainly they were two airliners that went into the twin trade towers that went up in here. >> are you listening to me? they say there was a bomb in the school i was told by firefighters. >> pat dawson, let's go to you in lower manhattan. you report of another bomb? >> we're being evac yatd. we've been told by firefighters there's a bomb that has been reported in this building. it's a high school. as you can see, they're moving everyone way interest fwiling. they say there's a bomb in the building. they're moving us to the north. that's according to firefighterings on the scene, we're going to move out of here right now just to keep ourselves

safe. we're going to walk north ourselves. there were reported of a bomb at stieverson school. these are the -- even the ambulances which were down there are being moved north. the firefighters are being moved north. everybody is being moved north. we're being asked by police to go north and get out of the way. >> it's the report of a secondary disease possibly in the area of the school so they're going to move everybody back. >> secondary meaning a bomb. >> possibly. >> where did it come from? >> over our radios, from the advisers on down. >> and they're evacuated. >> they're all evacuated. >> the school has been evacuated? >> i don't think there was anyone in the school this morning. at this point i think everybody

was evacuated early this morning just because of the fact it's so close to the world trade center. i would imagine -- i never saw any kid fwos into the school this morning so i presume they wouldn't allow them to go into the building and anyone who was here by 8:45 were probably moved out within moments after the crash took place because it literally is only ten blonls north of here. >> the big story obviously that's still to be resolve. there are reports of four. the twin towers, pittsburgh, another kachbd of plaind of pla the pentagon. we don't know what flights that are or where they're headed. we can only tell you american 11

and 77 have been identified as american airlines as two of the airplanes invofrmed in the incident. >> and the high jk the hijackings occurred far from each other. we're going to go down to nbc's tim russert who's standing by with more information. tim? tim? apparently tim can't hear us. tim do, you hear us? >> i can hear you now. kl owe. >> police given us your information. >> i've been speaking to porter goss. we're trying to continue our conversation on the air. he told me he was on the phone with house speaker has earth about the situation when a cold red was declared on the hill, that the speaker has moved to a severe place because he's in line of kmabld with our national

leadership. he also said that this extremely well coordinated attack could only be done by a very few people, very few organizations and that because of the magnitude of it, it will be relatively, easy, to, quote, see their finger prints and then we as a nation are going to have to make a diseasive evaluation of who it was. mr. doss hasn't seen anything like this. as it plays out, perhaps more to come. he'll be joining us on the telephone so we can hear his words directly. he'll be believed throughout the day because of his position. >> obviously president bush is on his way back to the nation's capitol. is it your understanding that he's arrived yet or do you know his whereabouts at this point.

>> i do not know that. there are people in the white house doing their jobs and so with the pentagon in the nerve center of both of those facilities. our highest ranking officials are monitoring the situation, making a daerlgs how wide spread this attack may be and trying very, very hard to get a handle on exactly who did it and just how we respond. >> tim wrks very secured areas in case of a nuclear attack in the past and the mountains of virginia not too far via a helicopter ride. any indication the president will have to go to with unof those facilities? >> i vchbhaven't heard that. they said wrks're not going there. obviously they're on the highest state of alert. they understand the magnitude of this. they understand the people are going to be waiting for a response from washington other than what the president gave from florida. as you might expect even our most sophisticated

communications 2001 era, it's hard to get any information. cell phones are down. hard lines are down. but i've been assured by people at the white house and pentagon that they have it under control the best they can. but like all of us, they simply don't know who did this. >> tim organization talked about porter goss. obviously the capitol was evacuated along with other major government buildings and monument monuments. where is congress right now? what are they doing and where are they? >> they said a prayer and recessed. many of the mens headed home. they were obviously lacking for

fit. i academy told congressman porter goss is on the phone. can you hear me? congressmans go, can you hear me? we'll continue to effort that frmgs most have returned to their homes here in washington because the building itself has been evacuated. the leadership of the congress as i mention speaker hazert is in a secure place. he's the third person in the hierarchy. >> tim, thanks very much. when you get him oob the phone, we'll get back to you. >> we're going back down with people who were inside the billings. ashleig ashleigh. >> i'm just about five and ten blocks north of where the two towers have come down. we're son russly having a bit of trouble right now mine taning our location because we just heard one more explosion.

that's about the fourth one. the police are telling us that they're car bombs or its overheated. every time it happens there's more activity. i don't know if you can shoot pad me. at the time we were there when the first trade tower came down my producer and i were overcome by the cloud of debris and smoke that came at us so rapidly we had to break down a window to an apartment building we had to break the window and go into the second door inside to breekts. we were followed by a accomplish and security guard from the world trade center area. i want to show you something if i can. i'm using a cell phone so i can hear you because there are no cell lines coming in. see if you can zero in on this right here. this is the kind of debris all over the ground. if you can see the address, one world trade center.

>> obviously we're having some technical problems with ashleigh banfield who's on the ground at the world trade center. >> here's the first confirmation from american airlines. near pittsburgh. flight 93, a boeing 767. from newark bound for san francisco. no information how many were on board. a 757 carries a lot of o folks. anyone flying from newark to san francisco know that most of those flights carry a full load. >> this brings to three the number of confirmed flights that have been involved in this tragic day. american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles, flight 77 from washington dulles errant to los angeles with 58 passengers on board and now the unite flight, tom, you just mentioned and you can say that number of passengers was relatively low on those first flights and we can only hope this was not a full flight, this united flight. >> you know there was a collapse not just of intelligence but

airport security that that many planes were hijacked almost simultaneously. >> although, tom, these days as we know from the twa tragedy, oftentimes some of these devices are absolutely -- it's impossible to see them in our kind of security x-ray machines at airports. some are made of palalastiques. we're going to go to bob bazell. obviously we're very concerned about the people in the world trade center when the planes crashed. >> katie, the wounded are starting to come in with great regularity. almost every 30 seconds an balance pulled up. cardinal egan, the head of the

catholic archdiocese is standing out on the streetses giving last rites saying god help us many time over. that there's call for giving blood. people are lined up around the block. everybody wants to help in some way. new york has become surreal is tick because of all the subways and commuter lines and bridges and tunnels are shut down. in the hospitals there's so many uninjurju injured. it's been an enormous amount of work for all the staff. people who were off have come in. calls have come on for your specialists. it's going to be a very grueling several days ahead. >> bob, the other thing ahead i don't know if you the tell about manhattan and the rest.

are the ambulances able to get through? we're in a tomb here in the studio in midtown. >> reporter: tom, i had trouble hearing you just that time. there's a system in place here where they're triaging people in lower manhattan. they're putting sometimes tags around their neck to people you see wandering up from lower manhattan who have slight injuries have been cleared. others have been severely injured. every hospital in the area has been involved in plan to take in some kind of patients. this one where i'm at, st. vincent's is one of the closest but every hospital is on alert. every hospital is taking what has become a sea of patients. >> all right. nbc's robert bazell. bob, thanks very much. let's go back to washington and tim russert who has a guest on the phone. congressmans go. >> you're exactly right. are you there? >> i am. >> as the official of the

intelligence committee, what do you think about what you've witnessed? >> i'm horrified. it's never 100% sure. with got the wakeup call again today. it's unbelievable that anybody would do an act like this, basically using innocent victims on commercial airlines against other innocent victims in our buildings in new york, legislative and executive buildings here in washington. >> when people are watching this at home, congressman, they're saying how could this happen at the united states of america, a complete breakdown in our airport security, a complete break down in the skurt. over the pentagon, the center of military command. how can this be? >> we're a free open democrat image society and we take great pride and we pay a great price for it.

you fly right over the pentagon. many times we have commented how vulnerable that building is. that building was vulnerable today. commercial planes flying near there, they obviously fly near the trade towers tochl say our airport security is 100%. you know that's not true. youancean youancean you answer a few questions and get on the plane. tragically some kind of an organization somewhere has orchestrated all this in an eventsive fax. we have a great abilities out there who keep us on constant alert of these types of reports. i knew of no specific reporting on this day with these targets, but i can tell you we're scrambling all the time.

as you know, we've seen our military installation subject to attack and others subject to attack before. we stop a lot of it, but obviously we don't get it all. and we're just gouge to have to rethink how we do business in today's world and deal with these kinds of threats. >> based on your experience as an honored cia agent and now as a highly respected chairman of the house intelligence committee, how many terrorist organizations in the world are capable of pulling off such a coordinated massive attack? >> i would say there's only a handful if we're not talking about state-sponsored terrorism. if you're talked state-sponsored, it could be more but i don't think we're dealing with state-sponsored. i think we're dealing with a loose net whork who have the same goal. they've found a way to get together, a network, and pull this thick othings off.

one of the hall marks of terrorism is confusion. the hopes is there'll be lots of confusion in the united states and there'll be rumors of other things happening and that will upset how we go about our business and our behavior and how law enforce meant to deal with. the president alluded we will respond. the question is against whom. we want to make absolutely sure when we're dealing with asim t asymmetrical war that we respond appropriately and not provoke any incidents that aret not warranted in the world. in that regard, good information and we're trying to do that. >> it's going to take some time to do that and get the fingerprints and launch a

retaliation. >> that's certainly true and one of the hallmarks is patience these days. >> we thank you very much. we'll be contacting you throughout the day and we very much appreciate you joining us this morning. >> thank you. my prayers to others. >> back to you. >> thank you very much. tom, you've gotten a phone number for people concerned about passengers on those flights. >> american airlines has confirmed that two of its flights wither hijack and for people who want to know, the number is 1-800-245, -0999. the headquarters 1-800-775-5538. american has said two of o its planes were involved in the hijackings today. >> apparent employ an american airlines was involved. >> i said that, in pittsburgh. >> right. from newark on route.

>> ron insana is here. >> nope. ashleigh banfield. >> we're giving out emergency numbers over the airways. i just wanted to ask you -- >> for emergency personnel. police or medical. >> do you know about those explosions. >> >> i have no, ma'am. >> are you told we have to move out of this area. >> i'm not aware of that. >> are they looking for bombs in sewers? >> all nonessential personnel. >> they're moving people out of that area. ron insana is here with us in studio. ron, you were downtown at some point because we see you have basically soot and debris on your hair and on your jacket. what happens? >> one of the msnbc cam aremen and wior trying to get down the street, having driven down. as we were going across the street and we're not terribly far from the world trade center.

as we were cutting across in quarantine zone the buildings zbak to disintegrate. we heard it and looked up and started to see the elements on the ground. honor usually it was like a scene from independence day. everything rained down. it was pitch black as the winds were whipping around. i detectived around the corner and got into a car that was open and it was nighttime before several things cleared up. >> was this the first tow their collapsed? >> i believe it was. as it was coming down, what that looks like there is mild compared to being at the center. it with was pitch black. >> smoke and dust? >> and piece os testify billing. >> obviously we're concerned about the triage unit set up there to help people get out of the build, ron, to help people who had been carried out of the building and who were being treated medically. were you close enough to survey

the scene? >> i was within a half a block of the building as it started to come down. >> can you tell us? >> it was fairly clear. there were areas with blood and debr debris. there were no longer people in area except reporters and police officers. >> once it began to clear out after several seconds of pitch dark, what did you see? >> deep smoke. the kind of thing you see in the movies with ash all over the ground, on tops of cars, police cars, windows. i made my way into a building under the one light i could see and stayed there until a couple of other police officers and people inside the building were able to get inside a vehicle. we picked up a few people with injuries and took them to the hospital. >> what were the injuries? >> one police officer had a deep gash on his head. he was okay but in shock and a woman had a piece of deep

shrapnel in her arm. don't know if it was glass or another part of the building. >> when that billing came down, one would only imagine all the pieces of steel and concrete that came cascading down as well and hit other places. >> i imagine the collateral damage was enormous, but we were probably i'd say two or three blocks away in a billing where we hold up for a time until we felt it was safe to come out. it was truly the most intense and frightening experience i ever had in my life. it was literally pitch black on the streets and people were, you know, obviously inhale gragt deal of this material as well. so people were having difficulty breathing and wearing face masks as well. >> we're glad you're all right. united airlines confirms the plane from boston to los angeles is down. no details yet. it's confirmed that flight 93, we believe from newark to san francisco is down. no details. that's the one we thing went down in the pittsburgh area.

i wish we could be more sps specific. there have been at least four airlines that have been hijacked. >> there's going to be a lot of security at boston logan airline because it's believed two flights were there and somehow someone managed to get on these planes and hijack them. >> this is an event where, ron, we're happy to see you. >> thank you. you have no idea how happy i am to be here? and then you think about the experiences of thousands of other people down there in the epicenter of all that and when it occurred. our hearts go out to them. >> and you hear about cardinal eagan delivering last reitz. >> the magnitude will go on for some time. this is not just a national tragedy but a national security event of an untold magnitude that the country is going to have to deal with. the president's coming back. we are at war. this country has suffered a

devastating attack that will cost us in a sense in the loss of life and also cost us in term os our psychological security we have in this country. we're going to have to revisit a lot of our freedoms as a result of this attack and then there's the whole retaliation, who's responsible and what do we do. >> this is an upsetting wire that came across the trance some. it said thousands of palestinian ys celebrated tuesday's. chanting god is great and delivering candy. yaer is arafat said he was horrified. the u.s. government has become increasingly unpopular in the west bank gaza strip in the last year, fighting with many palestinians, accusing washington of siding with israel. >> for those of you who think events in far off places like the middle east or afghanistan or the sub continue incandescent or in places in shay have no effect on us, this is the answer today. this place remains an enormous

target in the eyes of a lot of people because of the things that make us so great, our freedoms and our sense of security that we have. but america has been changed today by all this. >> we want to go and find out more about what's being done for those who were injured in these attacks. leslie van sanzandt is with the american red cross kc. can you hear me, leslie? >> yes, i can, matt. our chapters are local volunteers. they're, of course, the first ones on the scene. unfortunately some are probably also victimized by the event. we're transferring blood as needed. we're taking guidance from emergency management personnel on what assistance we can provide to them to make this, you know, response go smoothly. >> is there anything -- i know it's terrell after this has happened but is there anything people might be able to help you

out with in terms of donating certain things? you mentioned blood and those things. >> we're asking people who are in other parts of the country who are blood donors or maybe not blood donors, maybe they can call and schedule an appoint millionaire. our disaster volunteers, mental health volunteers are respo responding. as tom mentioned earlier, this is going to be a long, long response. the emotional trauma, impact is going to be felt, weeks, months, even years. so we're going to be working very hard at this for a long time. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> let's go to kathy with new york hospital, fine minutes away from the world trade center where many of the victims have been brought. contact leerngs i know we spoke with you about an hour or so ago. can you tell us what's going on now? apparently we're having problems

with kakts lean. i'm sure it's as chaotic as it was at st. vin sents with bob bazell where cardinal ee begin was outside delivering last rites to the dead outside the hospital. we'll touch base with kathleen in just a moment. but first we want to go to andrea mitchell in washington. andrea? >> i've been told the state department evacuation was precautionary only. there was no car bomb at leeftz reported or rumored not official. there are some officials being redeployed to another location in virginia. the cia is still operational. intelligence officials are still meeting at laj ngley, but those officials have also evacuated the nonofficial employees. the working thee as you have been reporting and speculating is there is only one terror organization in this world that could coordinate this kind of event than would be something operated by osama bin laden.

intelligence officials say he is in afghanistan where he's been protected by the taliban. and as you know they've warned them if there were any attack in the united states, they would hold afghanistan responsible. we will most likely respect military retaliation, but i think right now the full focus of the u.s. government is on finding out how many other possible targets there might be, how many vulnerabilities there might be, making sure there is no chemical or biological element out there. i spoke to former secretary of defense bill cowan and others, and they say those are the first lines of defense to make sure there's not some other event unexpected as this obviously was that could make americans vulnerable. obviously this is the largest intelligence failure since pearl harbor. >> andrea mitchell, thank you. we're going the check in with

kathleen zee chi of new york university hospital. tell us what it's like at your hospital. >> we're at n with you in lower manhattan and we've had a steady stream of patients come through the door since the first explosion hours ago. we have information on three-plus fatalities plus there may be additional fatalities that i've about not yet been informed of. we have had a severe burn case, one individual a amputee, near real surgical injury, full range of injuries from both debris, smoke, and inhalation, smoke, and respiratory issues to smoke and debris from the collapse of the two buildings. >> so how many medical personnel, kathleen, do you have working there at nyu hospital? >> we have a medical staff of

500-plus physicians. the entire medical staff has been mobilized as are the nursing staff and they're working as hard as it's possible to to work. >> tell me again. i know it's hard to estimate how many people you have seen so far? >> it's in the hundreds. our entire cafeteria has been transformed to a triage area and it is wall to wall people at the present time. >> thank you very much. >> let's go to nbc's bob haeger and it's important that we recount. we were talking about four planes unaccounted for. we know what happened to all those four planes? >> that's it. there is no plane that we know of that is unaccounted for. ntsb is able to match the flights to the accidents or acts of terrorism. the two planes that hit the

world trade center were both take offs from boston. one american airlines and it was bound for los angeles. the other belonging to united airlines bound for los angeles. those are the two planes. the american airliner first and then united plane that went into the world trade center. the one that went into the pentagon was an american airlines flight from washington's dulles airplanes to los angeles and the plane that is down southeast of pittsburgh is a united flight. it was bound from newark to san francisco. i heard one report that it was newark via washington national, but i'm not sure of that. i can tell you the flight numbers. boston take offense were american airlines flight 10 with 92 aboard. that's one of the ones that hit the world trade center. >> we have been reporting that it was american airlines flight 11. >> i am mace taken. it's flight 11.

thank you very much. with 92 aboard. then the united airlines that left from boston and hit the other world trade center tower was united 175. i don't have a figure of how many on board it. the flight that went into the pentagon was american airlines flight 77 bound washington dulles to los angeles. 64 people aboard it. the united airlines flight that went down south of pittsburgh was united flight 93 and there was no number on the number of passengers on it. you have four flights known to have been hijacked and known to have crashed. no flights at the moment that are out standing that we know of. >> that crash that you mentioned near pittsburgh, i want to say that is a united flight from newark to san francisco, is that accurate? >> that's what i have. i heard it two ways. newark to san francisco and i heard there was a stop to make at washington's reagan's

national, but it's not confirmed. >> united is confirming that. we have a report from cleveland. a boeing 767 out of boston made an emergency landing at cleveland hopkins because of concerns it may have a bomb on board, but no confirmation. >> we also have because i have a personal friend flying from kennedy to los angeles this morning that that plane was diverted to kansas city. apparently many planes en route to certain locations have made special emergency landings in the wake of this because of concerns that there may be more problems aboard the airplanes. >> what happens unfortunately is the terrorists themselves don't call to say there is a on board. you have the twisted minds of others what call in. it is chaos in the skies for the flights that were in the air. other flights have been grounded. this country has been

immobilized in terms of where the attention is focused on new york city and washington, d.c. the tragedies in pittsburgh as well. no air travel and financial markets. all national monuments are being evacuated. the president has been rushed back to washington, d.c. the pentagon has been attacked by an airliner in effect and capitol hill, code red. the third in mine succession to the president of the united states. we have been saying we are in a state of war with terrorists. >> they placed a threat on delta. armed personnel will be guarding u.s. installationed not only here in the united states, but the world. you are looking at the southern tip of manhattan island and for so many years we are accustomed to seeing the world trade center standing there behind the empire state building in the foreground. those two towers no longer stand after a terrorist attack this

morning. close to the scene of that attack, pat? >> reporter: if there is a war, it's a war against terrorism that started ongoing. right now it started here at about a quarter to 9:00 this morning. a big hole in the skyline at the southern tip of manhattan island where the two world trade center towers have stood for the last 25 years. 110 stories high. they are no longer there. moments ago i spoke to the chief of safety for the new york city fire department who was obviously one of the first people here on the scene after those two planes were crashed into the side we assume of the world trade center towers which used to be behind me over there. chief albert terry said he was here this morning after the first crash. at one point he had roughly 10

alarms that would equate to 200 to 225 new york city firefighters in the building. this was after the crash, trying to rescue civilians in there. earlier this morning on the "today" show, we spoke to the director of the wednesday and he said at that hour you can have upwards of 10,000 people in each of those towers. that would be 20,000 people total in each. the chief of safety told me that shortly after 9:00, he had roughly ten alarm, 200 men in the building affecting rescues of the civilians in there. he received word of the possibility of a secondary device, another bomb going off. he tried to get the men out as quickly as he could and said there was another explosion that koops and an hour after the first hit here, the first crash took place, there was another

explosion that took place in one of the towers here. obviously according to his theory, he thinks there were actually devices that were planted in the building. one of the devices he thinks may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. the second device he thinks was probably planted in the building. that's what we have been told by the chief of safety for the new york city fire department. he told me that moments ago. we are continuing to hear explosions. we are continue hear explosions here downtown. what we have been told by the fire officials is there gas lines that occasionally are exploding because as you can imagine, there a lot of open gas lines in the southern part of manhattan where the world trade center towers used to be. as far as the situation right here, what we have are hundreds

of new york city firefighters and other new york city rescue units who are massed here. there is a cordon down there. we are not sure if some rescue workers tried to go beyond that point as yet, but we spoke to the head of the port authority police, the organization that is in charge of the world trade center building itself. the port authority police chief told us that they were at that point about i would say 40 minutes ago about to make a decision on whether or not it was safe to send emergency workers back in. the bottom line is according to the chief of safety at the fire department, he said that he probably lot of a great many men in the secondary explosions and said there were literally hundreds if not thousands of people in the two towers when the explosions took place. everything above the 60th floor was extremely difficult to get to as you can imagine. back to you.

>> pat dawson, thank you very much. we have videotape from the west bank. these are palestinian celebrations in the wake of tuesday's terror attacks in the united states. apparently palestinians took to the streets chanting god is great and distributing candy to passers by. the u.s. government is becoming increasingly unpopular in the west bank because palestinians feel the u.s. government sided with israel. one man wearing a long black dress -- actually that's a woman, but he said he was happy because america always stands by israel. yasser arafat emerged to speak with reporters, head of the palestinian liberation organization and he said we are

completely shocked and condemn this dangerous attack and my condolences to the american people and the american president and the american administration not only in my name, but on behalf of the palestinian people. >> this comes on a day in which there has been a steady deterioration in the mideast. perez was to meet with yasser arafat on the west bank and there has been criticism for president bush for not getting more involved in the peace making for the past few weeks from within the republican party as well. >> it has gotten increasingly volatile. >> it has been an escalation of violence and incursions in the towns and declaring a martial law and pulling back. everyone thought that the bomb was ticking and no one