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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview with Matt Pitta
Aired August 28, 2002 - 06:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So, what's the buzz at the water cooler this morning? We like to find out what our viewers are chatting about around the country. We call it The Talk of CNN. And this morning we're checking in with Matt Pitta at WQRC Radio in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
He joins us now on the phone.
Good morning, Matt.
MATT PITTA, WQRC CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, good morning. Good morning here from the East Coast.
COSTELLO: Oh, thanks for joining us this morning. We so appreciate it.
PITTA: Glad to be here.
COSTELLO: Lots of interesting things to talk about. For example, the first time since 9/11, the two pilots who scrambled from the Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod speak out.
What did they have to say?
PITTA: I'll tell you, this was a real interesting event this week. It took place, as you said, at the Otis Air National Guard Base. It's one of the main military outposts here for the East Coast. And the two pilots who took off just moments after word that those planes had been hijacked out of Boston, those two pilots scrambled in F-15 fighter jets from the Otis Air National Guard Base here on the Cape.
Now, it was a couple of days after 9/11 until we found out that two of the planes here from the Cape were so much invested in that effort.
Well, they kept silent for a good 10 months, mainly for security reasons. And they also wanted to keep their privacy. Well, finally both of these pilots -- and we can only refer to them by what are their handles, "Duff" and "Nasty" spoke out for the first time this week and talked about their experiences.
They were just, Carol, seven minutes away from getting to the World Trade Center site before the second plane went into the World Trade Center. They say there was nothing they could have done from seven minutes out. But it was such a clear day. If you remember here on the East Coast on 9/11... COSTELLO: Oh, it was a beautiful day, wasn't it?
PITTA: It was such a clear day that they could see the smoke billowing out of those towers from 70 miles away when they were just about seven minutes or so away from the area.
COSTELLO: Matt, did they address what they would have done had they made it there sooner, before that plane hit the tower?
PITTA: Well, you know, Carol, they said that they had to go through their chain of command, which is normal for the military, of course, and they did not have any orders to shoot down.
Now, things have changed since then. They wouldn't give us exact details about what the military protocol is now, but they do say that there is new protocol in place in case this, god forbid, ever happens again. They did say that they were going to go there. They originally were heading out there for a report of a hijacking. And they thought perhaps that the plane had a mechanical problem when the first one hit the tower. It was just very unclear. They said it was very much chaotic in those first few minutes.
And one of the comments made by one of the pilots I think was really telling. The pilot who goes by the name of Nasty said that he knew he was witnessing something worse than Pearl Harbor. When he saw those towers go down -- and, you know, none of us in those moments as those towers were going down knew how many people were still in there -- but he in his gut felt that there were probably 30,000 people in those towers. Obviously there weren't. But that was his feeling as he went over.
And one of the pilots, Duff, he was right above one of the towers as it collapsed. And he said it was the most sickening feeling he's ever had in his life.
COSTELLO: Any guilt feelings attached, because so many people, even if they couldn't help out at all, feel guilt simply because they couldn't do anything?
PITTA: You know, Carol, an interesting question, and we did ask these pilots those questions about their emotions. And both of them, you know, pretty stoically said look, we're combat veterans. One of these pilots did combat in Kosovo, the other did combat in Desert Storm. And they've been through combat before. So this is really part of what their job is. They're used to this.
But they were still, as I said, one of the pilots, Duff, said he was just sickened by what he saw. He knew that there was nothing they could do and what's interesting is they were the only two fighter jet pilots that really remained in the skies over New York City -- they told us that this week -- in the hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center, and that it took a while before the military was, you know, getting themselves fully in gear to figure out what to do.
But those two F-15s were the main line of defense for New York City for a couple of hours after the World Trade Center attack. COSTELLO: Oh, I can only imagine how they were feeling.
Thank you very much, Matt Pitta from WQRC. And we'll check back with you next week at this time.
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