we now bring you an msnbc living history event, coverage from nbc's "today" show the day it unfolded 14 years ago today. here now, the msnbc special, as it happened. >> we have a breaking news story

to tell you about. apparently, a plane has just crashed into the world trade center here in new york city. it happened just a few moments ago, apparent le. we have very little information available at this point in time. on the phone, we have jenniferober steen, who apparently witnessed this event. jennifer, can you hear me? >> hello. >> hi, jennifer? >> hi, katie. >> can you please tell me what you saw and give me any information about what's going on there? >> yes, i have to tell you, it's quite terrifying. i'm in shock right now. i came out of the subway. i was heading to work in battery park at the ritz carlton hotel. i heard a boom, looked up and there was a big ball of fire. i'm now looking north after the world trade center and it's the left twin tower if i'm looking north. i'm in battery park. you can hear the fire engines and the emergency crews behind me. and it is unbelievable when the fire first burst, it was -- hello? >> go ahead.

we can hear you. >> it was in the air like i have never seen before. and you know, i used to work in news. i have never seen a fire like this in the air. pieces of the building were flying down. it looks like it's the -- 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? >> i didn't even know that. honestly, i was walking up and looked up and saw a boom and fire. i have to tell you, we were saying it was very interesting it wld be a bomb and 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 still things flying in the air. i mean, it's mind boggling, and

it's horrifying. >> jennifer, it's matt lauer. i would like to ask you, while you were close to the building or have you since the explosion, seen anyone who has 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 not gotten that close. i have to tell you that my father works in the world financial center and i called over there because 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 dangerous to get too close. i saw lots of debris coming down. and right now, i'm in battery park. i don't know, you know, it's only probably a five-minute walk from here to the trade center, but the smoke is incredible. 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 at pictures right now with a huge gaping hole on the side of the building and billowing smoke. >> 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're south of the building. is that right? >> correct. >> we're looking alt a picture that is looking at the north side of the building. >> i'm on the exact opposite side. >> it appears that's where the largest hole is. again, as you mentioned correctly, toward the top of the building, but on the north side. then on what i think is the 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 side of the building. >> can you tell us a little more about what you heard when you heard the explosion. describe it for us? >> absolutely. when i walked out of the subway, i looked at the twin towers because, i mean, i always look up there. and right when i looked up, there was a boom. it wasn't -- 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 that shock. i have never seen anything like it. it's 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, of workers. >> new york state governor has his city office there. >> and of course, given the time this has happened, it's only probably appropriate to surmise that people might have been in the building. >> and you know, we have seen story in the past where planes have hit buildings, small planes. it would be hard to imagine that a small plane could create that kind of a 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. again, we haven't talked to anyone close to the base of the building so we don't know what

kind of debris. >> matt. i'm sorry. i'm talking to a police officer here. he says, yes, he heard it was a plane. >> does he skr information about what kind of a plane it was or can he tell us more details? >> 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 where a short time ago, we're told that a plane crashed into the upper floors of the western most tower. you can see a gaping hole. that is on the north side of the building. and you can see residual damage on the west side of that building. and obviously, fires are burning right now in the world trade center. >> tall buildings have had a problem. back in the '40s, a plane hit the empire state building. in the '60s, a helicopter crashed. >> right now, we're getting information, al, it was a small commuter plane. of course, we'll let people know as soon as we have more

information as to what actually caused this. of course, on everybody's mind, who might have been hurt as a result of this terrible, terrible incident. we're going to be talking to more eyewitnesses coming up in just a few minutes. >> we're back at 9:00 eastern time on this tuesday morning. and we're back with dramatic pictures of an accident that has happened just a short time ago. you're looking at the world trade center in lower manhattan where just a few minutes ago, we're told that a plane, some reports are that 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 nort 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 the west side of that building, which is to the right saide of your

screen. this, of course, happens just before the morning commute, before people were heading into their offices and while i'm sure some people were already at work, immediately, there is speculation or cause for concern this is the world trade center that was the center of a terrorist bombing some years ago. so the questions have to be asked, was this purely an accident or could this have been an intentional act? either way, extensive damage has been done to this building. >> also looks like there's smoke coming out of the east side of the building in the shot we saw. white smoke billowing out of the east side. >> obviously, horrified commuters were absolutely devastating when they heard this explosion. we talked with somebody a moment ago about that, jennifer, and also another eyewitness, elliot walker, who was actually a producer here on the "today" show. elliot, can you hear me? >> yes, hi, katie. >> tell me where you are and what you saw. >> i live in this area, i returned to my apartment, but i was walking down the sidewalk, delivering my young daughter to school, and we heard a very loud

sound, the kind of sound you hear when a plane is, you know, going fast past you. followed by an enormous crash. and an immediate explosion. i don't think we could feel shockwaves, but we sort of felt like we did. we were in a position where we could see the trade center almost immediately between the other buildings. and an enormous fireball that must have been 300 feet across was visible immediately. a secondary explosion, i think, and then plumes of smoke. must have been a three-block cloud of white smoke. now, from where i was on the street a moment ago, you can, in fact, see smoke leaving the building on three 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 are just sort of floating like confetti. the area is swarmed with emergency vehicles. and sirens.

obviously, we're very sensitive to this kind of thing in this neighborhood. >> of course, because of the incident that occurred in the early 1990s. have you seen any evidence, elliot, of people being taken out of the building? you say that emergency vehicles are there. understandably so. but of course, the major concern is -- >> oh, my goodness. >> do you know if there were many people -- >> oh, another one just hit. something else just hit. a very large plane came directly over my building and there's been another collision. can you see it? >> yes. >> i can see it on this shot. something else. >> we saw a plane circling the building. we just saw a plane circling the building. a second ago on the shot right before that. >> i think there may have been another impact. can you tell? i just heard another loud bang and another large plane that might have been a dv-9 or 747 and i think it may have hit the trade center. >> i didn't get the impression it was that big a plane. >> it looked big from there.

>> i saw a plane go by, and it has now impacted the building. i'm trying to see if it's the different tower. >> i think it may have been. i think the first one was world center one. this looks like the second building. >> this is a piece of tape. we may see another plane enter the picture. >> i wonder if there are air traffic control problems. >> let's go back to jennifer. did you see this happen? >> hello? >> yes, did you just see this happen, jennifer? >> matt. i have never seen -- it looks like a movie. i saw a large plane, like a jet, go immediately heading directly into the world trade center. it just flew into it, into the upper tower coming frauom southo north. i watched the plane fly into the world trade center. a jet, a very large plane. it was going fast. it went bast battery park, almost hit it, and then went in. >> this is so shocking. of course, to everybody watching. >> i have never seen anything

like it. it literally flew itself into world trade center. >> obviously, now, we move from what appeared -- there it is right there. >> again, i'm looking from south to north. it went into the one on the right. >> that appeared to be at leave 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. but what we have just seen is about the most shocking videotape i have ever seen. >> what are the odds of two separate planes hitting both

towers? >> elliot, are you still there? >> hello? >> elliot. >> yes, i'm still here. >> elliot, what can you see right now from your perspective it. >> 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 we were hit before 9:00 a.m., but now it's after 9:00 a.m. i wonder how many people are in the offices. >> hopefully they were evacuated following the first incident. we can only hope that, that was a very short period of time from when we first learned about this was probably about 8:50 eastern time. the second incident occurred about 9:0 clook9:05. that would be a short amount of time to get people out of the building. ali is another witness who was on the ground. can you hear me? >> yes, hello. >> meez tell me what you're seeing. >> well, 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 financial center has exited and is walking north up to battery park north. there's just mass and mass of people walking north, uptown, of manhattan. i happened to look on the first tower, and i actually saw people waving where the plane crashed through, and then it was unbelievable seeing the 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 stations, because the ante antennas are on the world trade center. their backup towers are on the empire state building. television communication in new york city is probably pretty much knocked off the air. >> we're looking at a picture here where it appears because of the angle, i think, that the

towers are leaning. and i don't think that that is -- is actually the case, because after the first impact, it looked as if the left -- 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 perhaps they're buckling under the force of the collision. the hole that's resulted from the two planes. >> we're going to go to george, who is also witnessing both or one of the collisions. can you hear us? >> i can hear you. >> what did you see? >> i was in a car driving up, battery tunnel driving north on west street when an enormous explosion happened. i think it was larger than a construction explosion. i looked out the window and what appeared to be an enormous tire smashed 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 falling.

and i jumped out of the car and i ran south away from the building because i thought there would be further explosions. >> and have you seen anyone injured on the ground, george? >> a man next to me was 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. i can't verify that. all i i say is that a lot of debris was falling. it's very confusing because everybody immediately assumed a bomb had exploded and that sort of had people thinking that further bombs may explode. there was a rush away. >> did you see, george, the second plane, that jet? >> you know -- >> fly into the other twin tower. >> i heard two explosions, however. there was the first explosion that was louder and then a second explosion. and but i did not, i could not see that. i looked up. when i look up, i saw debris falling and the tire, as i said, a very large tire. >> well, of course, this is, as

we have said, completely shocking. video, and shocking turn of events. and we have been talking here that the first incident, one might surmise it was some kind of accident. then to have a second, what appears to be 727 jet, of course, the question of terrorist activity has to surface. and the question of whether this was an intentional terrorist act of some kind. >> you know, keep in mind that we're in an area where there are three major airports. you have newark airport, kennedy airport, and laguardia 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 the video if we could in the control room where we saw the jelt flying into the building, which was unbelievable. >> elliot 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, 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 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 because she was near a police officer. at least we could have perhaps gotten more information from that officer. needless to say, it's pand momian, i'm sure, down there. we gathered that from the eyewitnesses with whom we spoke

and how terrifying this was to see. yoz can only imagine as you get closer to the twin towers, a new york landmark, how what the seen must be like there. >> you talked about the building looks like they're buckling. they're designed to have a two-degree sway in either direction because of the height of the building and to be able to deal with wind and stress. but something like that is more than it's probably designed for. >> we want to go out 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 walking down sixth avenue this morning at 8:42 a.m. a group of us saw a plane veer through the buildings, 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 shot. and then about ten minutes ago, a second explosion in the second tower. lower down. that was not effected by the

plane, so i'm not sure what happened there. right now, there's a huge gaping hole in one of the towers and the other building is on fire. the team down here is incredible. people are out of their office buildings. watching, crying, taking pictures. i have 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 were told it was a small commuter plane? >> it looked -- 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 mention that when the impact hit the first tower, you would hope that people who were in the second tower were beginning to evacuate. especially if air traffic control had some indication this was deliberate.

you would hope they were starting to get people out of the other tower before this second plane hit that tower. >> although -- >> if you tried to go up, we have been upstairs in the towers, in the restaurant there, to try to get down -- >> i mean, the elevators would have been jammed. if there was an indication this was deliberate in the first case, you would hope they would immediate begin evacuation. >> we have another eyewitness we would like to speak with. dan is on the phone. dan, tell me where you are and what you're seeing or what you saw? >> okay, well, what i saw was one plane coming in low from the north. down over seventh avenue. it crashed into the top or the middle of one of the towers. ten minutes later, i saw another plane crash into the other side of the tower at a lower level. it looks to be a small, you know, commercial plane. the first plane that i saw. it crashed into the top of the

tower. and there was a huge fireball and there was a gaping hole in the side of the tower. 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 the middle of the other tower. i saw both planes, two separate planes crash into each tower. >> dan, again, the size of the planes, tell me about that. >> i would say that the plane was a midsized, looked to be a commercial airliner. i don't know, i thought perhaps, you know, a commercial airline. a midsize, not a jumbo jet. >> this, of course, is unconfirmed, but we're getting information from an employee of united airlines. and again, we want to emphasize, this is unconfirmed. 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 hijacked was then 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 south at about 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, with some wires just came out and said in 1945, an army air corps b-25, a twin engine bomber 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. >> you're welcome. >> we also 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 a 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. >> we were. >> i was at home in virginia watching it. in disbelief. now, it feels a bit like deja vu. this is so much more bizarre. >> no question. and keep in mind that killed six people, inskrred 1,000, and 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. also people on the planes. >> that's right, exactly, if they were hijacked and en route to a different destination.

of course, this continues, the story continues to unfold. bob joins us now. bob, where are you and what can you tell us? >> good morning. i'm on the north lawn at the white house. the first thing we looked for here in light of what's happened is whether there and 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 and we're hoping to hear from them as soon as possible. but katie, the reaction here to the pictures you're seeing and to the initial pictures when they came 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. mick, are you hearing more information from there? >> well, 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 had 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 war planes in the air, there's always a danger that they could misidentify a pilot's intention, although i believe, according to officials here -- >> i wanted to tell you guys, if you want to continue -- >> are now off limited 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 mick, 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 into the tower itself, is a clear indication to everyone here that this is not an accident. >> all right, jim miklaszewski, thanks. the coordination that took place to have two planes hit the towers within 18 minutes of one another. let's go back to the white house now. bob kerr is still standing by. >> it was interesting to listen to jim there from the pentagon. of course, the president has the authority to scramble military forces. and this is a case, obviously,

in which retaliation, if indeed it proves to be a terrorist incident, will be contemplated. but 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 origin 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? >> bob is exactly right. but what the primary concern right now is protecting the american public in the new york area right now. against any possible further attacks by the air. they have no indications there will be. but there is some concern that since this appeared to be such a

highly coordinated attack, that there may be other terrorist attacks that could be planned either in new york or elsewhere. this is absolutely the worst case scenario for the counterterrorist planners because apparently, according to intelligence officials, 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 -- >> 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 in so far as the president, we expect momentarily 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 and then we're told by white house officials he will quickly depart for washington. >> we should mention, david, that new york city airport or new york area airports have all been closed. the lincoln tunnel has been closed here in new york. while we're getting ready to listen to the president, let's go back to jim at the pentagon. jim, 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 respond to this kind of thing at, you know, right now, because it's unclear exactly who is behind it, and if there are any other potential attacks or incidents like this. this has 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 in the air to try to prevent any further attacks is these are, after all, open air spaces 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, according to officials here, is obviously going to be declared off limits in terms of any air traffic. but right now, officials here alt the pentagon are simply scrambling to find out first what happened. >> right. >> and what potential reaction the u.s. military could provide in terms of protection. possible further protection against any further potential attacks.

>> mick, it's important to note if these planes were hijacked, if they were carrying passengers, there isn't much military officials could have done. you can't shoot down a plane like that for risk of the people onboard. plus, for the injuries you could cause on the ground in a place like manhattan. >> that's exactly right. and 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 diz posal. he can do that. again, officials are pretty much wondering exactly what to do in terms of protection and how. again, to the counterterrorist officials, this is absolutely the worst case scenario because there right now seems to be not much they can do in terms of the aftermath. >> mick, we're scrambling for information here. i just want to read this reuters wire that says two planes crashed into the toweroffs the

world trade center on tuesday morning causing huge explosions and killing at least six people. cnbc tv said there were at least 1,000 injured. both towers of the lower manhattan landmark with 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 near the top of the 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. nick foltin, an eyewince, 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 telephone. our national correspondent with more information. what can you tell us? >> katie, i have 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 earliest stages. >> do they know, for example, if a plane was in fact 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, 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, 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.

1300 feet above the ground. the tower on the right was hit more probably two thirds to three quarteroffs the way up the tower. you can see fires burning in both towers. we actually saw a videotape -- we 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? and it's a large plane. we're told it was either a 737, some reports that the first plane was a 757. >> some kind of airbus. that was what the united worker told us, that apparently that had been -- 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 that we're trying to get as much information, but it is trickling in at a very slow pace. so all of this is unconfirmed. of course, speculation of a 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. secretary pace and lieutenant governor will take the podium and discuss education. i do want to thank the folks here at booker elementary school for their hospitality. today, we 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 have 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. and now, if you would 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, in long boat key. he was speaking at an elementary school. he had planned to be talking about literacy. obviously, he had to change. he mentioned that this is an apparent terrorist attack. he is traveling back to

washington. he said that he has spoken to the governor of new york as well as the vice president. but 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 have spoken to a top u.s. official who says that early reports to our intelligence community and to other officials within the administration are that this was a hijacked american airlines 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 u.s. government is being told by american airlines officials, apparently. they are assuming, and obviously, informed the

president that this is a terror attack. >> andrea, we have no information as to in what term of the flight this plane was taken over? how much warning that air traffic controllers may have had that someone hostile was at the controls of this plane? >> exactly right. they have 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. i was told en route to los angeles. so probably hijacked after it had taken off. as you know, those are very short flights, usually 737s or 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 there was no specific threat that the u.s. government is aware of. no specific terror alert other than the worldwide 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, it appears this was a well coordinated bombing or terrorist act because of the fact two planes were used. both substantial in size and the fact they both hit the world trade center within 18 minutes of one another. obviously, a lot of planning went into the attack. let's go to jim at the pentagon. what can you tell us? >> to add to what andrea just said, senior military officials here 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 from, to las vegas, and was headed to jfk. that was the initial information that officials had received when obviously, it did not go to jfk but veered off and headed toward the world trade center. again, no indication as to who may be responsible or who was at the controls of that plane when it rammed into the world trade center, matt. >> thank you. we're going to be obviously talking with you throughout the morning. but right now, we want to talk with larry johnson, a terrorism expert, the 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 it's

necessarily terrorism. i would be inclined based upon the preliminary reports we have seen to say that's the case. but there's always the possibility that you may find out after the fact that 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 plane hijacked from germany. 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 my concern now is that there's always, 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. then the pendulum swings out to an extreme. the next thing you hear is

people putting surface missiles on top of buildings to prevent this kind offend thing. this is a very rare event. it's liunlikely to be repeated, but we have to find who did this. in any country, any nation in the world that is in any way involved and responsibility if it turns out to be terrorism, will require a response from the united states. and 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? >> one of the steps is already being taken. i was at national airport getting ready to fly to lagar laguardia when this occurred.

they have shut down air traffic in and out of the city. apart from shutting down 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 we're going to be extra measures taken. one possibility is you can start putting up air cover and require that planes stay within a particular area and do not approach any closer. if they approach, you could go to the extremes of having u.s. air force intercept. >> larry, i wanted to ask, all morning, correspondents have also been saying, particularly bob kerr and jim micklaszewskmi and andrea mitchell, there was no waurning attached to this event. generally speaking, 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? >> this unfortunately is typical. it's only in the movies you get the advanced warning. you look at every major terrorist incident against the united states. whether you're talking pan am-103, the world trade center, the cold bombing, the bombing in saudi arabia, rarely do you get an advanced noting. >> jim has new information at the pentagon. i hope you'll stand by and continue to talk with us. >> i don't want to alarm anybody right now, 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.

and 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 seconds. the windows rattled. and 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 building shook, the windows rattled. and people, looking out the window now, and the construction workers are still keeping a good -- i'm sorry. the construction workers are still keeping a distance. that's all i can see. and i see no other extracurricural security activity right outside. 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. >> mick, 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 in long boat key, florida, where president bush was earlier this morning for an event on liter y literacy. he was going to a school to talk to kids. david, what can you tell us? >> a little bit more about how

all of this unfolded and what the president is going to do next. the president has declared this an apparent terrorist act. 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 and aides are telling us now that he will immediately convene a national security meeting to see what steps are taken next. >> 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 that he heard an explosion, and right now, we're looking at an aerial view of the pentagon. mick, can you talk to us? >> officially, nobody knows exactly what happened. i think the picture is pretty clear. according to one u.s. army officer who went running past me at a full trot, he said that it appears that a bomb was detonated at the heliport. the heliport is a helicopter

landing area right next to the hent gone. just adjacent to the e-wing. the offices nearest the heliport area are u.s. army, reserve officers, and the army reserve officers 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. 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 almost what you could smell when a fluorescent light goes bad. that kind of ballast smell. and authorities are clearing the building. 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. >> tell me again, i worked at the pentagon as well, and it is 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 heliport. the heliport, which is, as you sit in the pentagon, you have the potomac river and washington, d.c. on one side. and the heliport is located almost exactly on the opposite side of the building. along one of the highways. easily accessible. even though they have increased security here significantly at the pentagon within the past couple years. >> we're hearing, again,

unconfirmed reports that this 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, katie, if those are the initial reports, crashed into or the damage is on the roof of the building. at the heliport side of the pentagon, which is just opposite of the potomac river, as i just said. >> we're looking at the white house, mick, because we are learning that there have been some evacuations from the white house. i'm assuming that everyone is being evacuated from the pentagon? >> well, nobody has 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 right now when you hear aircraft go past. 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, mick? 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 some more information. please, again, be careful, mick. we're going to go to matt who is talking with jamie. >> katie, thank you very much. i'm joined by tom brokaw.

we'll try to recap what has been going on all morning long. we want to go right now to nbc's or "today's" national correspondent, jamie, with more information. >> matt, i just want to tell you that u.s. intelligence sources are confirming the reports that one of the planes was a hijacked 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 is back with us now, too. let's try to recap. 9:47 eastern time. try to recap what's going on so

far this morning. and the news is terrible. just before 9:00 -- >> at 8:42. >> 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 part of the building. then 18 or 20 minutes later, a second plane, a large plane, we saw it on tape, hit the left-hand tower of the world trade center, about halfway up. an enormous fireball on several sides of the building. people trying to be evacuated. there's the tape of the second plane hitting right there. even as people were trying to get out of the first building. we have confirmed reports now that there was one plane hijacked, american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles. and that is apparently one of the planes used in this crash. >> matt, there's a report on dubai television that in fact the group claimed responsibility is a democratic front for the

liberation of palestine. this comes ironically on a day where the israeli foreign minister is planned to meet with yasser arafat. the palestinians were accusing the israelis of racism. there hasn't been one specific incident. >> the israelis vacated the meeting as well. >> as well, but not one specific incident. it's also worth pointing out that terrorism always has two prongs 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 we do not know for sure who is responsible. >> and the capitol, by the way, the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. there have been evacuations taking place at the white house. needless to say, many people in the pentagon have left that

building as well. >> and here in this building in midtown new york, they have asked a lot of people at 30 rock to leave. it's another high-rise capital building, which is in new york, i came down the length of manhattan, and a lot of people were simply unaware of what happened. as you tuned in the unaware of happened. you tune in on the radio and you begin to get it. it's election day here in new york. >> primary day. >> what we have is something most americans thought could never occur. >> as larry johnson, a terrorist expert i just spoke with a few moments ago, the former deputy director of the office of counterterrorism claims this is a first, that he's never heard or seen anything like it. he talked about back in 1993 a german plane being hijacked and there were fears when it was flown to new york that it might crash or sgchomething. >> the federal aviation has shut down all air travel nationwide.

this country has been immobilized in terms of air traffic. we just ask that you stay with us so that when we get hard information, we can share that with you. there will abe lbe a lot of speculation. the president has described this as a terrorist attack. the american airlines flight boston to los angeles was hijacked. it is believed that is the first plane that went into the twin towers. >> let's talk to former director of fbi in new york. mr. palstrom, i'm sure you've never seen anything like this. do you have any information that might be helpful to us? >> well, not particular information on this tragedy, but certainly, what an incredible tragedy. all of us in law enforcement and prior law enforcement have talked for years. they've seen the hatred in the world, they saw the bombing of the world trade center, they've

seen the bombing in the 1990s, the bombings of our embassy in africa. we've known for some time now that this hatred exists, and now it looks like that it's cull y culminated in this absolutely horrendous act against the united states. >> as someone who has investigated some of these crimes in the past, and we think back in 1993 and the world trade center bombing, and we think about what it took to pull off that one bomb in the world trade center, can you speculate what it would take for what we think is a three-pronged attack this morning. >> it obviously took a lot of coordination. there are people who have the ability to pull off these kinds of attacks. as you know and most people should know, the united states is an open society. we've talked for years about the downside of having our borders basically open, and on any given

day, people fly into our airports undocumented and turn into the population. they're not terrorists, but -- we live in a free society and i'm not espousing we change that. it's very, very difficult for the fbi and law enforcement to keep track of this. >> jim, if you could stand by for a minute, because mick at the pentagon has more information for us. mick? >> here at the pentagon encountered some of those that survived whatever it was, whether it was a bomb or a plane crashing into the pentagon. one of the survivors who was reportedly injured and 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 the second floor buckled upward and then 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 reported that, in fact, it was a plane that crashed into the pentagon. >> mick, any idea -- i wasn't quite sure if you said this about the number of people who might have been hurt or worse in this? >> no idea at all, katie. as you know having worked here, on any given day, this is a small city, 25 to 30,000 people may be working here at any one time. that portion of the pentagon, by the way, had just been remodeled and just reopened. if the crash of it occurred a few months ago, the pentagon would have been virtually empty. but at this time of day, early

morning or mid-morning, the pentagon is very busy. it's impossible to say how many casualties there may be. but a large number of people cited being removed on stretchers. again, as one survivor said, the floor just buckled up under him and the roof caved in on him. >> all right, mick, thank you very much. we're going to move a couple miles away from you to the white house where bob kerr is standing by. bob, we understand that building has now been evacuated? >> that's true, it is utterly surreal. as soon as word came of the pentagon incident, we were rather forcefully removed from the white house. the scene was one of administrators, crooks, whatever running at fairly high speed out of the building. then we huddled for a while at lafayette parka cross the

street, and we've been moved now from there a block or so away. the officers along jackson place, which are across the street in the white mouse,ing lafayette has said, a white plane, a very big jet, was flying at an unusual pattern over the white house. it made one circle and 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 since flights have been cleared from u.s. air space and it was a totally white plane, it looked unusual to awful ull of us, tha was a government plane of some kind. >> we are looking as you speak at the world trade center because all the cameras have

been evacuated from the white house as well. when do you expect president bush to arrive there, bob? >> he's coming there directly, so you figure it's about a two-hour flight, so you can do the math. the reason i said it was so surreal because within about 20 minutes ago, they were still conducting tours. you had hordes of tours and things lining up to get in. there seemed to be no unusual activity outside the white house until word came of the pentagon. >> in terms of responsibility, tom and matt and brad, denied on tuesday the group had any connection to the plane crash. an anonymous caller had told television that it was behind the crash. quote, i emphasize the story released by an a nus and the

palette bureau is against hijacking planes and against endangering the lives of civilians who are not connected with the struggle of this region, is what he said. this is a task for investigators of extraordinary magnitude try to determine who. we have within, they're now citing transmission from the plane, so they have part evidence that. and then brought down here and made to fly into the tin straight hours. it bog gels the mind. do you have any evidence of what was said? >> they're just saying they're

citing transmission to know the. the faa has banned all takeoffs across merck. a good portion of the nation's capitol, the most powerful center in the world, has been immobilized as well. that was a description of the low-flying aircraft near the white house, and one just wornds if that was similar to the one in the pentagon. >> may we look at that picture, you'll see sgl. something major just happened at that building. watch what happens in the

left-hand to her. i don't know if this is the correct tape. there. something there is about to happen. >> one can only pope that the vehicles and the people who might have been injured early in the morning. >> you remember when the bomb went off in a basement in 199 # throughout much damage was done at this building, how much kay kay office. the upper reaches of t that will have an enormous structural effect. those buildings, i'm sure it's to say about. this is a reporter from new york, from wnbc. you talk about this flight was

taken. and for those not familiar with the geography of this area, the southern tip of man hat unanimous landing pattern near. it would have been difficult. >> in the, apparently an american airlines flight, and then do what he described as a sharp right turn right toward the world is he. unsaid they were getting off the path. police told him to get out of the building immediately. he. >> this footage shows that the damage is so severe. we had seen what seemed to be

two fairly contained craters before and now it appears that something bad happened to at least one of those towers. >> these pictures are beyond belief. >> we have reports that the second plane might have. the first one was apparently an american airlines flight from boston to los angeles. we're now seeing it from the harborview, this continuing damage and destruction to the world trade center. jamie may have more information for it. >> speaking to high intelligence, it does appear at the pentagon it was a plane. they believe now a third plane was involved at the pentagon. >> of course, this has been a

nightmare, katie, for trashl secure officials for a long time. we talk about nuclear bombs but everyone has been totally worried about the suitcase size of. and obviously no one had anticipated three airplanes that were in america. we can only hope that it's over today but officials are not taking any chances on that. they're evacuating all critical buildings, because as was said earlier, this is an open store. almost anyone can come in here. they have access to so many instruments that be that can be kusd for. >> let's go to nbc correspondent andrea mitchell. andrea, what can you tell us? >> the state department has been evacuated. there was a meeting going on in

the situation room at the white house. colin powell is in bogata, colombia, on a two-day trip. . i had been manipulating a. we are scheduled to fly back today commercially, so all those people are out of place. it's fair to say, according to sources we've talked to here at nbc, that the nbi rescue operations are really in chaos right now because they do not and you've got special efforts, stick number mont a real breakdown of the fbi and anti-terrorism coordination team which is the principal 2 team

and was so effective, and which turns out not to be terror. >> is the government taking this liberty from palestine seriously? are they giving any credence to it, are they dismissing it? how do they find out who was responsible for this. >> i think it's far too soon for them, even the government, to figure this out. they have one instant reaction, but it could be wrong. their 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's convinced tanzania that.

they approved their case to a jury, effectively, a& are able o gather a great deal of information from sources, maybe his attorney, so they believe, tom, that he's the more likely person. >> we want to help you scheduled to go to lax. it left at 3:45g train sigt, it was the airline involved, we can only, a passenger load of paejz and crew. we don't know about the second plane yet, nor do we know the origins of a third plane that deliberately flew itself into the pentagon this morning near the heliport.

we'll have to wait and see what we hear from him. >>. after the first impact we saw dramatic footage of a portion of one of the twin towers, tuging referring rrting it to your collapse. that building has collapsed. that tower just came down. >> let's talk to bob who is at st. vincent's hospital. >> st. vincent hospital is one of the hospitals closer to the world trade center. . >> they say the smoke inhalation close to getting to them yet. there is a triag.

the entire. across new york city they're standing it. as soon as the carnage is just the beginning, i spoke to emergency workers that are just part of the ice reed rice. >> what were they telling you about people? was there many people inside the building, or is it just too early to it will tell. >> there were problems even though it was before 9:00 and some of the usual work periods baz casualties is just enormous and they're beginning to sort it out and get to the first few they can get to. they go in as soon as they can get a victim and bring it up here right away.

>> we're also looking at manhattan, a whole. many. >> almost certainly, tom, i was actually standing and saw that collapse, and everybody here just gasped and 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 some started to cry. >> one wornds abonders about th unit set up. >> i'm several blocks from that area, and i don't know what it looks like, but one can only imagine. >> the rescues go on, not just the world trade center but the people who are trapped there. the ripple effect continues this morning as we all try to adjust

psychologically and intellectually to what we are witnessing here. it is difficult to comprehend, but this country, the strongest country in the world, has been the target of a major coordinated terrorist attack, and the end is not over yet. even if it's confined to just these three targets, everything is shut down, business has stopped across the country. >> who knows the human toll of deaths that will be part of this accident. 50,000 people, tom, work at the world trade center. >> and at 8:45 in the morning, if they're not in the building, they're around the building. that's a beehive of activity down there. there is no more active in terms of pedestrian traffic. >> i hate to keep going back to the collapse of this tower, but if you think this plane hit at

mid-structure, but tt. it takes a long time to come down over 100 stories and to think about the possible loss of lives that just occurred by the collapse of that southeastern tower is just amazing. mina kathuria is with the "today" show, and she apparently saw the collapse of one of those buildings. mina? >> hi, matt. >> tell me what you saw. >> it looks like just clouds of smoke everywhere, people running towards me -- because i was going towards the twin towers and it was just -- i've never seen anything like it. >> from where you were, mina, did you see any of the injured being treated? is there any indication as the type of perimeter that the ems

people are dealing with? >> no more and more emergency officials are coming in to help. >> can you give me an idea. >> everyone in tears. i met some. . just all crying, wondering if the people we know in the buildings next door, are okay. >> jane gamel with more information. jamie? >> the state house has been evacuated, the white house has been evacuated and the pentagon has been evacuated. officials tell me they do believe at the pentagon that

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 traded this plan. >> we do not have any of those details yet. they were kwutsd for a long time as with whether it's a bottom or a plane. they say now it appears to be a plane but they say that's all the information they have. as you know, the faa has shut down all aircraft now, and they are going back to try to sort that out. but they do not have any information on that yet. >> do they know what type of plane it might have been? >> unfortunately, they just

don't have that yet. >> all right, jamie. thank you very much, jake. we'll be talking to you. >> it goes without saying this is the more serious attack and certainly our damage today, within it's pearl harbor which triggered world war ii, but there has never been a mistake about traffic. the financial markets have been shut down. there is an untold loss of life here in manhattan to say something. -- can't remember. >> it looks like a movie, frankly, as this is unfolding and it combines the who railroad

of the 2013 murra and the federal building. >> i would guess everyone is up on the time zones of america. it's 7:45 a.m. those joining me from 7:42. 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, by a plane and an untold emergency of casualty believes that, carefully coordinat coordinated. the effect on human loss, especially in this country, are still to be determined. >> we want to go with kathleen.

can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> can you tell me about the injuries you're seeing and the number of people you've been treating. >> we've seen anything in the last hour and a half. many appear to be superficial injuries but i can't tell you i've seen most of the experience ones, so the anniversary. our first priority is on the care of those. we've also been fonding to family members and. just quickly, kathleen, how far is the hospital from the world trade center. we were the first responder was

so we had some medical experience. >> how many in the hospital could help with the injured? >> we are the only hospital south of 13th street in new york city. we serve a very large proportion of the city. for that reason. terms of responding to the patients, they're doing a really good job. zds what about the team unit on the ground there? are they a team of medical people on the scene as well? >> yes, there are. i cannot respond to that question because i'm not on the scene and i don't have that information. >> but you do have medical people, your personal, there at the scene they've avoided that

whole area because of one plane collapsing and now i'm hearing there may be another one swlt. it is more than 100 stories high. it wouldn't take much to bring it down. >> kathleen, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> we're told now that spokesman for yasser ara fat, member of the pa, they have confirmed what happened here in new york. they're completely shocked and appalled by what's happening. we don't who is responsible for this, but it was very carefully planned and coordinated, and it has bep devastatingly efficient

attack on the heart of this kru krunt. pat is on the groubd here the word trade center. >> he's having some audio problems, we'll. you have toj about the hijacked plaends and the terror to an hour before they realized something was wrong. then thinking they were going to the world trade center what . >> what is striking to me is we don't have any monitoring of the world trade center. this wasn't until after this happened -- >> the plane left for boston at

8:42 this morning, so 42 minutes later that this occurred. >> flying over manhattan, a number of people saw it at a very low altitude and took this sharp turn and wondered, according to eyewitnesses? first of all, the world strayed center was hit. now you're has been. we hope no one has been killed but it seemds likely there were probably casualties of a serious magnitude as well. sat department is getting evacuated. >> pat. smoke continues to billow out of that structure. it's unclear how many people were hurt and if, in fact, there was a pleen.

>> we cannot give specific information, except at this end i would said sufld. they're working their way down here to lower manhattan and basically try to get into this fray. we are standing right here about 10 to 12 blocks north of the world trade center. these firemen, you can see firefighters are walking down towards the site now, and they literally have been arriving by the dozens over the past hour or so. as we say, probably in excess of a thousand or more emergency workers from new york city and surrounding areas converging on this site now to try to make some sense of it. as you can imagine at this point there is a certain level of chaos because they're just trying to sort out who is alive, who is not. we did speak to, as i said

before, some of the emergency workers. they are police officers from the port authority in new york. that's the jurisdiction of those two cities specifically, as well as buildings and tunnels. i was down there when they suspected their building pz. >> most of them who had been oe waited, but on the other hand, there are literally hundreds of emergency workers who were down at that end. they have no idea of the level of loss of life at this point. . there may be my brothers' officers in there, there may be other people in there. those officers going in here. as you can see, all kinds of fireworks going and they're literally in the thousands now converging on. we can't you any educational.

if memory serves, i think each of those towers stands 110 stories. some of the dust, as you can probably see now, is blowing in our faces. it just really depends on which way the wind blows as to whether or not we're enveloped in some of the dust and smoke. as you can see from these pictures, the amount of dust from the fire that's still burning, flames and ash is extraordinary at this point, and at least a few emergency workers have said that, that they really aren't so sure that the other tower will stay up now. they really didn't think the keep as safe as you can on the other hand. they are going between those lines to try to rescue those m

pem. the original kroosh just happened at about the quarter to nine and when that tack place, the victims -- >> we're listening to pat dawson standing near the world trade center in lower manhattan. i was thinking as pat was talking, you both spent time at the murray. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you both, but we've gotten a tloort recall. again, that's an initial report i'm hearing from our producers in the control room. can we go to anyone with more information on that? apparently no more information on that. >> where is andrea mitchell?

is she at the state department? >> the state department has been evacuated, as well as the u.s. at that particular time although have as well, mick, what is the lest from the, they're not only evacuating but they're clearing the entire area. security forces have reported they have received information of another plane hijacking, that it's about 20 to 25 miles out of washington, d.c. headed in this general direction. secretary of defense donald rumsfeld a few moments ago was refusing to leave the building. we ran into the chief naval officer, adam vern clark, they were loading him quickly into a car to take him to an alternative command site. they were taking admiral clark to an alternative command site.

can you hear me? >> yes, we can. go ahead. >> i'm sorry. there is no confirmation of this latest threat but concerned officials here are taking it very seriously. we were standing. as soon as they got the report, they uttered into the. the pentagon had set up a kris team to deal with this situat n situation. but so far another plane has been hijacked and is headed in this direction. >> the faa says all international flights headed to the united states have been diverted to canada. this is a time when we're being told there is an unconfirmed report there's been another hijacking. all takeoffs were stopped but there were planes in the air, obviously, at the time of these

first two attacks on the world trade towers and now the pentagon. >> andrea mitchell is standing by. she was at the state department. an rea? >> the state department has been evacuated. secretary powell is on his way home from lima, peru. he did not get to his destination of bogota, colombia, today. he and his state officials are heading back. conde rice was earlier in the situation room. as we reported earlier, key fbi team members from their rescue efforts and coordinating team were stranded in monterey, against exactly this kind of revenge. >> let me interrupt for a second. can you tell us any more about reports we're getting that a car bomb has exploded outside the state department? >> i do not have con fir magsfif

that. they did evacuate the state department but we do not have news of a car bomb outside the state department. >> we're keeping our eyes peeled, but security just blared out on the loudspeaker that anybody at pentagon take cover immediately. there was indication that another plane may have been hijacked and headed in this general direction. so far all we see are security helicopters circling the pentagon. again, the skies are crystal clear blue, v. obvious obviously --

>> let's look at these live pictures at the world trade center, the other tower of the world trade center has just collapsed. you are looking at live pictures of the second twin tower at the world trade center collapsing as a result of the crash of an airplane into its side. that i believe was the first tower that was struck this morning at 8:42 a.m. eastern time. that has now fallen to the ground and collapsed. pat dawson, excuse me, tom, is down at the scene. pat? >> where is wade? where is wade? >> 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 sdpert r and the terror that is in that area as the trade center towers have

now collapsed. >> more than 100 stories of steel, concrete, electrical. that's a videotape replay. >> we are back at 10:30 eastern time on this tuesday morning, this horrific, incredible, not to be believed tuesday morning. you are 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, a plane crashed into the right twin tower of the world trade center about two and a third down with

tons of fire and billowing smoke. a second plane believed to be a 737 -- >> or 757, even. >> -- crashed into the second world trade tower. the plane was going from boston to los angeles. >> here's video, i think, of the second plane striking the tower. >> we're not sure of the origin of that second plane, as i understand it. the one that caused the hole the first time was boston to lax, los angeles. we have dwharmd that plane was hijack i hijacki hijacking remained, a half hour at the pentagon, reportedly another plane crashed into the pentagon, which is just you said washington, d.c. all air traffic

has been stopped. >> government buildings have been evacuated as well as other buildings across the country. . there is an unconfirmed report of a car bomb at the state department. we have not been able to pin that down. there is also. we share this with you now not in an attempt to in any way exacerbate what is already a terrible situation, but so much has come true today based on these earlier reports that we want you to have as much information as we can possibly get at pentagon. all people outside were told to take coverage, but jim said the skies were clear. >> we have another report of another hijacking with a plane headed toward washington. we don't want to sound alarmist. we also want to where he was

there to discuss an elementary school toll about. colin powell is also on his way back from lima, peru. he was probably scheduled it be. air force i is in the unusual situation to have an escort with it on its way back today. >> think about the loss of life we could have seen this morning when you think about the fact that four of the world trade centers hold 50,000 people. then shortly after. if you look at this picture, tom and katie, at lower man han. tht war on an attack on the

united states, two most conspicuous symbols of american. the state department has beenie vak waited. all flights taking off after these flights were grounded. >> it turns out it's transa lank gits going untold loss of life. it's going to be horrendous. we can only tell you by whacking at these pictures that that are not going toibl to slaep the. it and you think about how many people were still trying to

escape those buildings when first one, and then the they could. area hopped were all receiving victims, and 15,000 capacity when everybody is the building working at their offices. one man was reached by phone and was asked, what is happening there? and he responded, we are blanking dying here. >> it has. the damage is beyond our ability to tell you in great detail. >> here's what the president said. he canceled an education appearance in plor floflorida. here's what he said just a short time ago. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for america.

i unfortunately should go back to washington after my remarks. others will take the podium and talk about education. i do thank the booker school for their hospitality. today we 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 have 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'll join me in a moment of silence. >> 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 some pictures on the ground, or we were, at apparently some of the victims. let's go to pat dawson if he can hear us. he is on the ground. >> how extraordinary, these are the emergency workers coming up. it was just about 10 minutes ago that 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. it took probably no more than 50 or 60 seconds for that dust and smoke to literally make the five or six blocks up here and begin

to envelope us at which point we started to move away. there were literally dozens and dozens of firemen who are trying to run past us. in fact, our cameraman even got in his car and drove away. the people you see here are pretty much all emergency workers. them that i've seen in frl. the these. obviously in serious distress, breathing problems are the biggest problem for those who manage to make it safely. the world trade center probably stands about 10 blocks south of where i am at this moment. as you can see now, the dust is fwing to pick up here and it really matters whether or not the wind blows whether we -- in

the first few minutes, emergency workers were just trying to get out of there, to survive. the situation was so desperate they just wanted to get out of there. now many of them are beginning to regroup. a couple of them asked me where their commander might be. they're trying to get together and go back in there and try to take care of the people who obviously are in serious trouble. there's no other way to describe it. the language here, if at times i slip into language that seems a little melodramatic, forgive me, but this is a circumstance which is very, very difficult to describe in many ways without sounding melodramatic. certainly in more than 20 years of covering horrific events, this is something i've never seen before. as we say, the emergency workers now beginning to try to gather t themselves. you can see t.

many of them just happy which is, as we had, 110 stories each. i will tell you fell at. the skeleton was left at about 509th or 60th floor after the shell, the structure of the building, fell down. the steel skeleton was literally shooefd off and it took about another 30 seconds before the skeleton was in the street. that was the last we saw at the world trade center maybe ten minutes ago when the steel skeleton collapsed into the street. >> that was msnbc's pat dawson. he's standing about 10 blocks from where the world trade center towers used to stand.

we now have an ap news alert out of pittsburgh. officials at somerset county airport are confirming the crash of a large plane just north of the airport that is 30 miles southeast physical. noert of that airport which is located about 80 miles to the southeast srl related. >> matt, we just got word that state department security officials are rejecting pictures. they also said there is no sign of a car bomb. betsy stewart is very familiar with the state department. the building is stilley vac waited. officials are said to still be in the operations center. those are high in terms of

physical limitations and otherwise. colin powell was headed for lima, peru. there will be something taking place at noon at anderson air force base. the white house has been evacuated. especially with a report of another plane going down, this time in the pitburg area. we don't know how much more damage these terrorists had in mind. >> let's go to bob who is our information expert. bob, what kind of information are you getting from your sources? >> not a lot from the faa. they are not talk being about any possible hijacks. normally they can tell when a hijack is in progress because the original pilot of the plane has vir arrius buttons that can.

but maybe as a matter of security they're not. they did stop all takeoffs in the u.s. at 9:29 this morning. then for pilots in the air, trk. they will divert to an airport if that's what they wanted to do. personally i saw the blast at the pentagon, not the blast take place, but moments afterward. i had been to minnetonka. not only the white house and keath buildings, but at this point they've given all federal employees the word to leave their offices and get home. so there are traffic jams in

washington. >> but sfurm. >> katie, they're still clearing people away from the pentagon. security forces believe there may be another incoming plane in the washington region. but there was a very telling, dramatic moment just a second ago when a u.s. air force f-16 flew very low levels in a wide, sweeping turn at the pentagon and back over washington. there's one air force officer standing near and he said, my god, they're now covering air in washington. another milestone in what has been described already as declaration of terrorist war. >> let's go back where the situation gets worse, not better. it is a financial district of the world, also a residential area and commercial area. both collapses are now on the ground. the ripple effect goes on of

snow densely of that population area. it goes blow ground.

these groups are very hard to penetrate, people who have -- it doesn't surprise me that we didn't know this was coming. >> 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. benjamin, can you hear me? >> hello? >> hello, benjamin? >> yes. >> it's katie couric. can you tell me what you are seeing or have you seen? >> right now i'm in lower manhattan, but i work at the federal buildings behind city hall. and we were just sitting at our

desks and this morning we heard a big explosion. about five minutes or ten minutes later, we saw the other plane hit the building, the second tower, and we just evacuated. as we started to walk away, we turned around about maybe 15 minutes after we left the building and the second tower just disappeared from sight. i tell you, i've never seen anything so horrible in my entire life. >> did you see any people, any casualties, mr. levy? >> we bumped into a guy from tower 1 who said he had a chance to get into the building after the plane hit the building after the first one, he had a chance to get into the second one, but he said 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. >> well, obviously, that was -- >> was the whole federal

building evacuated? >> yeah, we started running out of the building as soon as we saw the second explosion. i work on the 22nd floor. as soon as we were down to the bottom, they sounded the alarm and they announced evacuation, but most of us were already out. >> how far physically are you actually from the world trade center? >> right now? >> no, when this happened. >> about six blocks away. >> six blocks away. and you were able to get out pretty easily and there were no kind of electrical problems in your building as a result of the impact of the fire or anything like that? >> no, we got out pretty good, thank god. >> as that whole area down there, the city hall, the federal building and all the other commercial buildings, they've all been evacuated as well? >> yeah, that's why we were leaving. the police were telling all the shop owners to shut down their shops and go home. >> that must be indicative of the smoke we see now because that covers all of manhattan, which is a large area not only physically, but in terms of the

financial networks, the commerce, a lot of residential areas. >> you could smell the smoke, and you could smell it, but it wasn't -- we were walking away from it. >> benjamin levy, thank you so much for talking to us. we appreciate it and we're glad you're safe. >> katie, i have a little rundown about what's going on around the country. the state department officials have been moved into the state department training center in arlington, virginia. the state department has been evacuated, obviously. georgia law field at international airport closed. the cnn headquarters was closed to the public in maryland. officials are tightening security throughout the state. that's the home of andrews air force base, navy installations throughout the hampton rows home of the largest air force base, has been placed under complete security. the liberty bell and independence hall are being closed as well. >> those are all national mon

um -- monuments, i believe, have been evacuated. >> the. it is now coming up on 10:59 east coast time. we'll give you a recap of what we've seen so far in just a moment. just a quick note from one of the hospitals downtown in new york city where they say that hundreds of people had been burned from head to toe. this is from dr. steven stern at st. vincent hospital in greenwich village. about 50 or 60 doctors and nurses standing by in scrubs. the entire entrance to the emergency room was lined with stretchers covered with white sheets. doctors said the victims mostly had burns. >> of course, they're being treated in a number of area hospitals, including st. vincent's nyu downtown. it's just about five minutes away as a spokesperson told us earlier they've had a lot of experience dealing with problems

at the world trade center from that february terrorist bombing in 1993, and obviously they have immobilized and 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 at what remains of the world trade center in lower manhattan. earlier this morning 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 are 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 of a 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 said so far this morning, this is a declaration of war by terrorists against the united states. >> tom, before we talk about terrorism, another large plane crashed as well just north of somerset county airport 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it was a boeing 767 and it 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 department has been

evacuated. there has been an attack on the pentagon, that's 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 of 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 brought to various hospitals. both world trade centers have crashed to the ground. that's a densely populated area, obviously. we don't know the number of casualties yet at the pentagon and we don't know the number of deaths of that plane that went down 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 en route from boston to los angeles. we had reports it had been to jfk and a short time later,

perhaps while feigning a landing at jfk, it veered into the world trade center. >> all air travel has been stopped. it is unclear if they've made emergency landings or if they're reaching their final destinations. the white house has been evacuated, the state department, the cia has been evacuated. of course, many, many buildings in manhattan and lower manhattan have been evacuated as well. >> and trans-atlantic flights to the country have been diverted to canada. no claim of responsibility that is verifiable or credible at this time. yassar arafat has decried this attack saying it is shocking and appalling. >> 1993 is when the bomb went off in the world trade center, killing several people. that, of course, was an amazing

scene, but this makes that minor. let's go to bob who has some information. bob? >> as you commented there about the various planes involved, the one that we know of so far, because it's confirmed by american airlines, that flight 11 which had been scheduled from boston's logan airport to los angeles, that flight was hijacked this morning and it was presumed that may have been one of the planes that went into one of the towers of the world trade center. there were at least two more planes involved in this because the other tower was hit, and the pentagon, there was eyewitness accounts it was a plane that went into the pentagon. so far we don't know the sources of those planes, whether they were commercial planes that had been hijacked, whether they were private planes, whether they had been hijacked at all. i would point out the report from somerset county, pennsylvania is so far local authorities commenting. the faa has not confirmed that

crash, so we're waiting to hear more. i'm hearing just now -- bear with me. faa is now confirming, so this adds to those earlier that there are several airplanes unaccounted for. there are rumors that there might have been other planes that were hijacked and we didn't know the outcome of it. now the faa is confirming that there are several planes unaccounted for that were evidently hijacked and has not come to a conclusion yet. >> bob, we would like you to get a list of those, as many as you can, as quickly as possible. we're going to replay a tape of the second attack on the world trade centers in slo-mo. there's the plane. as you can see, a large airline type plane. and now the collision.

flown deliberately into the second one. >> when they say several, did they give you any idea what they were talking about? >> that was just passed on to me a moment ago so i wasn't talking personally to the faa person, but several was the account that i had. >> and the american airlines flight 11 out of boston, do we know what kind of plane that was and how many people were on board? >> we do not yet, but i think we'll get some additional information from american. they were supposed to be adding comment to this 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 and so forth. i'd like to hear some more confirmation that a plane really has crashed in pennsylvania since the faa hasn't confirmed that. but i think one needs to be very careful here in this chaotic situation. >> we have a report here that osama bin laden, who is often identified as the world's leading terrorist more than three weeks ago, that he and his followers would carry out an

unprecedented attack on u.s. interests for its support of israel and arab journalists, he said tuesday in london. >> editor of the london-based al al-arabi newspaper said bin laden was most likely behind the attack in new york. osama bin laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack american interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one, they told reuters. >> he remains close with his contact, according to reuters. obviously it was a very sophisticated organization, carefully coordinated. it had to have its origin into this country. fbi director as he left office said that his continuing great concern with a number of terrorists that exist in

america, not just in some shado shadowy shadowy enclave in this country. >> let's talk a little more about osama bin laden, because as you say, he was involved in the 1993 world trade center bombing. why don't we talk about him and what he's done in the united states to give people a little bit of background. >> he is from saudi arabia originally, he's wealthy, he's very sophisticated in terms of using the new technology. we believe he is being harbored in afghanistan. no one knows for sure. a number of people have attempted to get to him and have been unsuccessful in that. they also believe he was behind the bombings in kenya as well. he is obviously a zoa of great, dark passion and most of it is directed at 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 web-orchestrated physical attack on the united states. >> of course, he would be interested in a short list of success pebttle. in something like this, we know what has happened, the who, what and why take a little longer to figure out. i have no doubt that ultimately we will be able to figure out who was responsible. until that time, we can only specula speculate. >> 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. >> while organization has in terrorism in recent years become more fluid, that is, you're not dealing with the identifiable

terrorist organization that we dealt with in the 1970s and 1980s, terrorists in the last decade has been a lot more fluid, and from the universes of like-minded fanatics, people have been able to put together the ad hoc conspiracy. nevertheless, the magnitude of this attack, the coordination of this attack does indicate a considerable amount of planning and organization. >> mr. jenkins, if you'll hold for a second, i want to go back to bob hager of nbc -- apparently we don't have bob. let's go to jim calstrom who is the former director of the fbi's office. we just talked that sooner or later we'll know who did this, but where does it start? in several cases we're talking about the train being the weapon, so to speak, but how do

we track who is responsible? >> someone said this is unprecedented. law enforcement will start from the bait day of what they have. that's why we need effective law enforcement, although in a free society as brian jenkins points out and i agree with him totally, it's very difficult to stop things like this. the first step would be to stop this horrific event, and the second goal is to save as many people as we can and find out who did it. 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 the guy who hijacked the american airlines flight? >> i would probably hai looked

the world trade center bombing and this is so much bigger than that. we're trying to make sense of it. we're trying to not let something like this happen again in the next 10 minutes, the next hour, the next two hours. that's on the mind of public officials in washington and locally. 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. our borders are open. we see them and talk about them on the news every night, not so much from a terrorism standpoint, from a work standpoint. people landed on major airports every day undocumented. so it's extremely difficult.

as brian pointed out, you know everything going on. that's not the case here. we've talked with law enforcement for over a decade. they tried to bring the world trade center down. they've blown up many, many other government symbols and they tried to blow up 11 jumbo jets simultaneously. >> jim, i'm sorry to interrupt. it's katie couric. we want to go to pat dawson at the world trade center with an official talking to that official. pat? >> yes, katie, forgive me, we're just trying to get -- as you can imagine -- they put the microphone on there. as you can imagine, this is a very difficult situation here. we are here with a couple of guests who can give us at least some insight as to what's going on there. this is chief william hall, police of new york. also alan rice, who is the

director of the world trade center zone. chief, do we have any idea how many people are in there? >> we have no idea. it's pretty much rush hour time this took place this morning, so the numbers we don't know yet. we tried to get almost everybody out that we could early on. >> after the first two crashes when the planes hit the building, there was roughly about, i would say, what, an hour, hour and 15 minutes from that and the point where the south tower collapsed. how many people were you able to get out, do you have any idea? >> we don't know. we tried to do a floor by floor search, the police did the best they could to try to get everybody out, but as you know, there were people still coming out after that. >> do you have any idea how many people would normally be in the building at 8:30? >> approximately 10,000 people in each tower. it would typically be a normal

business day and we get about another 5,000 visitors in the course of the day. so at that time the building should have been full. >> so 8:30 or 9:00, you figure the building was at full capacity. so we're talking about 8,000 people per tower. at this point, obviously, you've got a situation -- >> >> what's the first challenge? are you whether you trying to do now? >> i guess the next step is between my chief and myself and my staff, we're going to. then we'll look into evacuating people. >> are there any rescue workers in there now? >> i don't know. >> i don't know. >> if they were in there, fraps

it would. >>. >> and i was in building 5. we had to dig our way out to get out. >> dug your way out. what was that like? >> scary. >> scary, but 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 those people? >> we're going to have to wait and make the building safe. we have our engineers here, our law department here. we're going to keep the area clear. >> is any part of the building still standing? i can't see. >> i can't see, either. i don't know. >> you don't even know how much of the building is left? >> no. >> we're going now to assess the

condition. >> we appreciate you taking the time out. the latest report that we have at this point from those in charge of the building, speaking to the director of the world trade center and also the chief of the authority police, they are just at this moment, as they said, put together a plan to go in there and assess the damage. this sequence of extraordinary tragedies, of catastrophes, really. first the two crashes, and then in sequence, one power of the building coming down. obviously the first order of business is to try to go back in there that it doesn't happen again. >> those are the first numbers we've had this morning. they think there were about 20,000 people in the two buildings at the time of the attack to say nothing of the untold people on the streets or

in nearby buildings. they could have also suffered injuries or worse when the building did come down. this is tantamount to war. you're looking at the lower end of manhattan. they attacked the pentagon as well. there is a report of a plane that went down near pittsburgh. robert hager is tracking all this through the faa for us. robert? >> there is one confirmed hijacking that we know of and that's american airlines flight 11. it took off from boston logan to go to los angeles. they are confirmed. that's presumed to be one of the planes that went into the world trade center. the other activity those are

unknown flights. the pennsylvania crash which is still not the faa, but it's, they heard on the radio scan inners that it was a flight that originated in chicago and was headed to cleveland, but i cautioned md. it's very sketchy, sobering, unreliable, but it's the first report off the scanners. >> an fbi spokesman says there are four flights that were hijacked altogether. we know about 9/11. i'm not going to mention the characters on the others. are you getting any detail about that on the faa. a report was coming to me while i was on the air so i'm getting it secondhand and now i understand what they were.

in addition to the american airlines flight 11 and the other planes that went into those buildings, it does not mean to employ. it will leave the airports oem to allow. otherwise canada is allowing no takeoffs and it's not taking inbound flights from any other place except planes bound for the u.s. >> now we get word from american airlines that it had two aircraft in this tragedy. a boeing 677. a boeing 757 operating in l.a. with two flight attendants and two pilots. that's from al hinkle who is a

pilot in the dallas area from american airlines. >> now wn the identity of two of the flights involved in today's incidents. that leaves at least one more, and if the purported crash in. plainly there were two air liners that went into the towers as we saw on the videotape. >> they said there is a bomb in the school here. i was told by firefighters. >> that's awesome. let's go to lower manhattan. do you have report of another bomb? >> we are just being told. we've been told by firefighters here that there is a report a bomb here. they're moofg everyone away from this building. that is according to

firefighters on the scene and we're going to move out of here right now just to keep. . there is spoed to be a bomb in that high school. we are walking north to get out of the way. even the ambulances which are down there are being moved north. 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. do you have any idea what the problem is? >> there is a secondary -- >> it came in over our rail w s ways. a and, that school has been evacuated. >> well, i don't think there was anyone in the school, katie, this morning.

at this point i think everybody had been evacuated from here probably when the first events took place early this morning just because of the fact that t it's so close to the world trade center. most of these buildings around here have been evacuated, so i would imagine -- i never saw any kids going into that school this morning, so i'm going to presume they never even allow them to get to school this morning and any that were here at 8:45 were probably moved out within moments after the crash took place, because it literally is only about 10 blocks north of here and i haven't seen any students in or out. >> it's a big story that needs to be involved. we know two of them are here at the world trade centers, another plane reported in pittsburgh. .

we don't know for sure what flights they are or where they're headed. there's unconfirmed reports of them. we can only tell you that american 11 and american 77 have been identified by american airlines as two of the flights that took place. >> we just have to remember that two of these planes did arrive at the world trade center within 18 to 20 minutes of each other, just to point out the clarification of this attack. >> we're going down to tim russert with this latest information. tim? . >>. . i'm speaking to porter goss and we're trying to get him on the telephone here and continue our conversation on the air. he told me he was on the phone with house speaker hassert when

a code red appeared on the hill that the spokesperson moved to a safe place. congressman porter goss also said that this well-cared-for e eye. because of the magnitude of it, it will be relatively easy, as soon as we are able to identify exactly who. as it plays out, perhaps more to come. and he will be joining us shortly on the telephone here so we all can hear his word direct directly. he has access to to. sf your understanding that he

has arrived yet, or do you know his whereabouts at. . there are people in the white house doing their jobs and so are the pentagon. in the nerve cells above those facilities, high ranking officials are obviously monitoring this situation, making the determination of just how widespread this attack may be and hitting very hard and how we respond. >> we have secure areas for the president in case of a nuclear attack, immobilization. >> they obviously are on the highest state of alert. they understand the magnitude of this. they understand that the american people now are going to be waiting and watching for a response from washington other

than what the president gave in florida. as you might expect, even our most sophisticated communications 2001 era, it is still extremely difficult trying to get any kind of information because cell phones are down, many of the hard lines are down, but i've been assured at the white house they are in touch with each other and has the situation under control as best. they stimplly don't know yet who did this. >> you talked about porter voss. obviously the hospital was evacuated with other major buildings in washington, d.c. where are members of congress right now. what are they doing.

and. we're looking forward to a very difficult week in washington dealing with the economy. i'm told porter goss is on the telephone with me. congressman, can you hear me? congressman goss, can you hear me? we'll continue to effort that, katie, but most of the congress men and women have returned to their homes here in washington because the building itself has been evacuated. the leadership of the congress, specifically, is in place and he will be in conversation with the president and vice president being the number third person in the hierarchy. >> tim russert in washington. when you get mr. goss on the phone, maybe you can talk to us. >> we're speaking with people who were either inside the buildings or near the buildings when those planes hit. ashley? >> hi, i am just about between 5 and 10 blocks north of the actual site of where those two

towers have come down. we're having a little bit of trouble maintaining our position. or they are cars that me. >> i don't know if you can shoot past her but that's the cloud we were in 45 minutes ago or so. at the time we were there when the first trade tower came down. my producer and i were overcome by the cloud of deagree and smek th that. we had to break the window and go into the second door inside just to breathe. we were followed by a police officer and security guard from the world trade center area. there are no sell lines coming out of.

this is the type of debris we're seeing all over the ground. if you can see the address, 1 trade center -- >> obviously we're having technical problems with ashley banfield who is on the ground near the world trade center about five blocks away. >> here's the confirmation from american airlines. it confirmed one of its planes crashed in the pittsburgh area, a flight from newark to san francisco. no information on how many people were on board. most of those. so this brings to three the number of confirmed flights this track ij. from washington-dulles airport to los angeles with 50 people on board, and we have to say these

were relatively low on these first flights, and we just hope this was not a full flight. >> airplane. >> these days, as we know, tom, and learned from the twa tragedy, that oftentimes. it's been impossible to see them that you have in a typical airport. they can be very small and virtually undetectible which is another major problem for airport security. obvious obviously. we're concerned about who was in the world trade center when these two planes crashed into them, bob? tell me about the scenes of world 5 pulls up.

some of them are badly surnd. i've seen several. he's standing in the street to fwif him last. from all the new york hospitals people have lined up around the block, people -- dur oil. >> all the safe ways and commuters and bridges and tunnels have been shut down, so people not injured may be wanderring around aimlessly. they brought every office chair to put sheets on people. calls have gone out for burn specialists and it's going to be a very grueling several days

ahead. >> bob, i don't know if you can tell about traffic in the rest of manhattan because a lot of our major hospitals are well north of there, lenoxville, presbyteri presbyterian. >> tom, i had trouble hearing you at that time. there is a system in place here where there is triaging people in lower manhattan. they are putting tags around their neck to show people wandering up from lower manhattan who only have slight injuries and have been cleared, others are serious injuries. every hospital in this area have accepted a plan to take in injuries. the one i'm in is close to the maer major trauma center. >> bob, thanks very much. let's go back to washington and

m msnbc chairman of t? >> as chairman of the house intelligence committee, what have you seen so far? >> i'm devastated, obviously. we gtot a wake-up call again today. it's unbelievable that anybody would do an act like this and base their weapons on. our defense, legislative executive buildings here in washington. >> they're saying to themtsz, how does this happen in airport security? over the pentagon, the center of our military command, how could something be this vulnerable? >> we are a free democratic

society and we take pride in that. many times we fly over the pentagon. that building was taken advantage of today. as for commercial air liners lying around the air space there, they paid a price. anybody who knows before you get on a plane, you answer a few questions and show a photo i.d. that doesn't necessarily mean you can't do mayhem on the plane, as we've seen from time to time. we have great defense capabilities out there that keep us constantly on alert about these type with particular specificity on it this day with these targets, but i can tell

you we are scrambling all the time to assess information that would do harm to the united states and its people. we stop a lot, but obviously we don't get it all and we 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 very highly respected chairman of the house and intelligence committee, how many organizations, tariff 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 state-sponsored terrorists. i don't think we're dealing with state sponsored, i think we're dealing here with a loose association of people who have the same goal, which is an anti-united states goal who

found a way to get together a network and pull this thing off. part of the problem with it, and one of the terrorists have interpreted that we would have lots of confusion in the united states and there will be rumors of other things happening, and that will upset how we go about our behavior and how law enforcement reacts, et cetera. we will respond. the question is, against whom? we want to make absolutely sure when we're dealing with any, by and large, who are victims of this who respond appropriately and not pro. we get the people who caused this to happen. that requires good information and obviously we're in the process of trying to get that

information. >> but tt may take time to launch any investigation. >> that's certainly true. >> 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 and my prayers to the others. >> tim, thank you very much. we're going to talk to someone here in the studio in a second, but tom, you've got a phone number for people concerned about passengers on board those flights. >> american airlines has confirmed that two of its flights were hijacked, and for people who want to know, the number is 1-800-245-0999. united headquarters, you may not be able to get through, obviously, is 847-700-5533 high. >> apparently a united airlines was involved, right? >> in the accident in

pittsburgh. >> en route to work. >> we go downtown again, ashley banfield is talking. >> reporter: we're doing that now. i just to want ask you -- >> for emergency personnel, either law enforcement or medical. >> do you know anything about those extra explosions we heard? >> i do not. >> reporter: were they car bombs? >> i don't know, ma'am. >> reporter: were you told anything about it today? >> no. >> obviously, emergency workers are moving people out of th-- obviously, you worked downtown at some point because you have debris in your hair and on your jacket. what happened? >> we tried to get downtown and

cover the event for nbc, and as we're going across the street, i quarantine zone, actually. the buildings began to disintegrate. we looked up and began to see elements of the building coming down. we ran and it was a scene out of independence day. everything began to rain down. it was pitch black as though the winds were coming down. got into a car and it was nighttime for several minutes. >> was tht first tower that collapsed? >> i believe tfts the first tower. it was the south tower. as it was coming down, what that looks like there was mild as it compared to be at the center. >> was it smoke as well as dust? >> it was smoke, it was dust, just pieces of a disintegrated building. >> obviously there is a triage for people getting out of the

building, people who had been carried out of the building and been treated medically. were you close enough to survey the scene of the building? >> i was half a block from the building as it starred to come down. >> can you tell us what you saw? >> it was fairly clear. other than seeing police containing. after several minutes of paetsch darkness, what did you see type of thing you see in the movies with ash all over the ground, on police cars, on. we stayed there until a couple police officers and a few of the people inside the building were able to get into a vehicle. >> what were the injuries? >> one police officer had a deep gash in his forehead.

he was clearly a bit shocked. one lady had shrapnel in her arm. i don't know if it was that building because when that building came on. i imagine the collateral damage was enormous but we were two or three blocks on sh. it's really the most intense and frightening experience i've ever had in my life. >> you're monitoring different types of masks as well. >> we have united airlines confirms that united flight 175 from boston to los angeles is down as well.

. san francisco was down, no details. that's the one we think. the entrance in, as you might expect. chaotic. >> tom, jarz going to be a lot of scrutiny on the security at boston international airport, because it occurs to me that two of these people. >> thank you, you have no idea of other people down there in the epicenter around that and glovl. >> you heard cardinal and you can talk about the flight just outside this area. >> this is not just a national tragedy, but this is a national

security ercht of uncoming back. we are at war. this country has suffered a did he have pigt. . we're going to have to revisit all of our freedoms with this attack and then this is the fir first. from the west bank. it says, thousands celebrated. the u.s. government has become increasingly unpopular in the west bank gaza strip in the past year of israeli palestinian 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 places. this is the place today. this place remains the target of so many people. our freedoms and our sense of faurt. we want tolg and find out more what's being done. the lady that's joining me from washington, tell me what kind of resources you have. well, our chapters on the area a are. now are probably victimized bodies. we're also mobilize lg, we know taking god is an advisory

personal necessarily. people might be able to sem. you mungs. . maybe they can call and schedule an apartment to make sure disaster recovery is ready. they will be responding. this is going to be a long, long response. the emotional trauma, the moeshl impacts will last through the yerz. we're going to be working very hard on this for a -- >> let's go to katherine zichi of new york emergency hospital which is about five hours away. kathleen, i know we toek to you an hour or so ago. can you tell me what's going on

at the hospital now. >> apparently we're having some problems with kathleen, and i'm sure it's as chaotic there as it was at st. vincents where we heard from carl. first we want to go to dreen a mitchell once again in washington. andrea? >> i've been told the state department evacuation was precaution only. there was no car bombing that we know of. there are some officials being re did he pl redeployed to another location. officials have also evacuated the non-essential employees. the current working theory, as you have been reporting and speculating, is that there is only one terror organization in

this world that could coordinate this kind of event. he has been in afghanistan where he has been protected by the taliban. and see. if there was any attacks against the united states they would hold afghanistan responsible so we most likely will respect military retaliation. . how many possibly target there might be, any recall. i spoke to a former secretary of defense bill kohn and others who have been part of the anti-terror operation planning. i'm going to say those are the first lines of defense, to make sure there is not some other event unexpected, as this obviously was, was.

this is the first largest since the bombing of pearl harbor. tell me what the scene is like at your hospital? >>i >>ier. this is the first explosion that occurred some hours ago, we had people come through the door. we have information at this point of 3-plus fa tilts, 3 because there may be an additional time many. >> we have with regard a severe, physical injury, whole range of injuries from debris, smoking inhalation, respiratory issues

rela relatd. >> how many medical personnel, kathleen, do you have work rg. >> we have a medical staff of 500-plus physicians and they are workingwork. >> tell me again, kathleen, i know it's hard to estimate how many people you've 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. >> kathleen, thank you very much for that update. i'm sure we will be checking back with you a bit later on. thank you very much. katie, let's go to nbc's bob yeager. it's important to recount. a short while ago we were talking about four planes unaccounted for. it seems now we know what happened to all those four planes. isn't it? >> that's it. there's no plane at the moment that we know of that's outstanding that's unaccounted for. and now ntsb is able to match the particular flights to the

particular accidents or acts of terrorism. so the two planes that hit the world trade center were both takeoffs from boston. one belonging to american airlines. it had been bound for los angeles. the other belonging to united airlines. it, too, was bound for los angeles. those are the two planes. the american airliner first and then the. the other two flights trk one that went into the pentagon was an american airlines flighting for dulles to los angeles. the plane that's down southeast of pittsburgh is a united flight. it had been bound from newark to san francisco. i heard one report that it was newark via washington national to san francisco but i'm not sure of that. let me tell you the flight numbers. the boston takeoffs were american airlines flight 10. it had 92 aboard. that's one of the ones that hit the world trade center. >> let me interrupt you there for a second because we've been

reporting all morning it was american airlines flight 11. >> you know, i'm mistaken. you're right. 11. american flight 11. thank you very much. p 92 aboard. and then the united airlines that left from boston and hit the other world trade center tower was united's 175. i don't have a figure on how many onboard it. the flight that went into the pentagon was american airlines flight 77 bound washington dulles to los angeles. there were 64 people aboard it. and the united airlines flight that went down south of pittsburgh was united's flight 93 and there's no number on the number of passengers on it. but again, we have four flights known to have been hijacked, known to have crashed and no flights at the moment. they're out stand that we know of. >> bob, that crash that you just mentioned near pittsburgh, i just want to say that that is united flight that was on route from newark to san francisco. is that accurate? >> that's what i have and i've heard it two ways. newark to france.

i heard one report that there was an intermittent stop that it was to make at washington's reagan national but that's not confirmed so it might be erroneous. >> united is confirming that, robert. we also have a report from the mayor of cleveland, michael white, a boeing 767 out of boston made an emergency landing at cleveland hopkins international airport because of concerns it may have a bomb onboard but no confirmation. >> we also have, just because i have a personal friend who was flying from kennedy to los angeles this morning, that that plane was diverted to kansas city. so apparently many planes that were on route to certain locations have made special emergency landings in the wake of this. and because of concerns that there may be more problems aboard more airplanes. >> what happens in situations like this, it's a terrorist themselves don't call in to say there's a bomb onboard, you have twisted minds of other people who call in and say, by the way, there's a bomb onboard that flight.

there's chaos in the skies for those flights already in the air. other flights have been grounded. this country has been immobileized in terms of of where its attention is fous kd on new york city and washington, d.c. the tragedies in pittsburgh as well. no airline travel. to 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 on capitol hill, code red. the speaker of the house was taken to a very secure area because he's third in line to the president of the united states. we are, as we've been saying this morning in a state of war with terrorism. >> as a result, the army has been placed at threat con delta. that means that armed personnel will be guarding u.s. installations not only here in the united states but in other parts of the world. you're looking at the southern tip of manhattan island here in new york city and for so many years we've come akccustomed to seeing the world trade center in

the background behind the empire state building. those two no longer stand. nbc's pat dawson is close to the scene of that attack. pat? >> matt, if we are -- yes, i can, matt. if there is a war to -- a war against terrorism that started on going right now it start eed here 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. just moments ago i spoke to the chief of safety for the new york city fire department who is obviously one of the first people here on the scene after the 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 turry told me he was here just literally 10 or 15 minutes after the events that

took us place this morning. that is the first crash. he said that at one point he had roughly ten alarms. that would equate to roughly 200 to 225 new york city firefighters in the building. this was after the crash, trying to rescue civilians who were in there. earlier this morning on the "today" show we spoke to the director of the world trade center. he said at that hour of the morning you could have upwards of 10,000 people in each of those towers. that would be 20,000 people total in each tower. the chief of safety of the fire department of new york city told me that shortly after 9:00 he had roughly ten alarms, roughly 200 men in the building trying to effect rescues of some of those civilians who were in there and that basically he received word of possibility of a secondary device, that is another bomb going off. he tried to get his men out as quickly as he could but he said that there was another explosion which took place. and then an hour after this

first hit here, the first crash that took place, he said there was another explosion that took place in one of the towers here. so obviously, according to his theory, he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building. one of the secondary devices he thinks that took place after the initial impact was, he thinks, may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. the second device he thinks, he speculates, was probably planted in the building. so that's what we have been told by albert turry, chief of safety for the new york city fire department. he told me that just moments ago. now, we are continuing to hear explosions. we are continuing to hear explosions here downtown. and what we've been told by some of the fire officials is there are some gas lines that occasionally are exploding down there because obviously as you can imagine there are a lot of open gas lines down in the southern part of manhattan where

the world trade center towers used to be. as far as the situation right here, basically what we have are hundreds of new york city firefighters and other new york city rescue units who are masked here. there is a cordoned down just down there. we are not sure, to be honest, if some rescue workers have tried to go beyond that point as yet. we spoke to the head of the port authority police, that would be 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 there. but the bottom line is, that according to the chief of safety of the new york city fire department, he says that he probably lost a great many men in those secondary explosions and he said that there were literally hundreds if not thousands of people in those two towers when the explosions took place. he said everything above the

60th floor was extremely difficult to get to as you can imagine. >> pat dawson, thanks very much. we have some videotape, i understand, that we're going to show you 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 street chanting "god is great." people were throwing candy, distributing candy to passersby. the u.s. government obviously has become increasingly unpopular in the west bank and gaza strip because palestinians feel that the u.s. government has sided with israel. one man, abdul fatah, wearing the long black dress saying -- actually that's a woman, pardon me, saying she was happy, quote, america is the head of the snake, america always stands by israel and its war against us. meanwhile, yasser arafat emerged

to speak with reporters ahead of the palestinian liberation organization me said we are completely shocked. it's unbelievable, we completely condemn this very dangerous attack and i convey my condolences to the american people, to the american president, and to the american administration. not only in my name but on behalf of the palestinian people. >> perez was to meet today with yasser arafat on the west bank. there has been some criticism of the bush administration for not getting more involved in the peace making efforts in the middle east in the past few weeks from within the republican party as well. >> because it has gotten increasingly volatile. >> it has. there's been a steady escalation of violence, incursions by israelis in the palestinian towns and declaring martial law and then pulling back.

everyone thought that the bomb was ticking in the middle east. no one expected anything of these kinds of consequences to be visited upon this country in this horrific way that we have been witness to today. it is one more example as we have been saying this morning of events in far off places that have such an enormous impact here because the united states is, in the eyes of so many people who are opposed to our system of government and our alliances, is the devil incarnate. and today this is a very sophisticated, very cold-blooded, very wide spread attack carried out with the most chilling kind of efficiency on several of the great nerve centers of our system of government and our way of life. ♪ ♪ and the home of