Return to Transcripts main page

Breaking News

Plane Crash: Interview With John Baxter

Aired November 12, 2001 - 15:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Jason Carroll has been -- we're very close, by the way, Jason, to -- at least we believe we are, to the mayor coming out. So why don't you start? If I have to interrupt you, you'll understand, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Understood, Aaron.

We have actually moved in a little bit closer to the scene of the crash here. Still not close enough to get really a good view of what's happened inside there. But I want to bring in someone who has viewed at least part of what happened with this accident. This is John Baxter.

John, let me have you step in here. Now, part of the plane actually fell in your nephew's backyard on a boat. And when you're talking about this, I'm hoping that we can actually, Aaron, roll some of the home video that John shot not too long ago.

John, explain for me, if you will, what you saw.

JOHN BAXTER, WITNESS: Well my nephew, Kevin, was sitting at the table with his wife, Eileen, and their two children, when the -- what we found out later was the engine of the plane hit the corner of his building, knocked him and the wife and the kids into the other room. And they went all in separate directions.

This is the miracle of miracles that nobody got killed here. This is one of the few miracles that you will find coming out of this crash. Thank God it was my nephew and they're all fine and safe. But the engine wound up in his backyard.

CARROLL: What did your nephew and his family say to you about what happened, what they saw, what they heard?

BAXTER: You know, I got there right after -- pretty soon after it happened, and there were in a complete state of shock. I finally got a chance to interview him a little bit and he didn't want to talk to anybody. But finally he came around and he said, "OK, Uncle John, I'll let you -- I'll tell you what happened." And he told me what happened. And it was pretty frightening, actually, literally frightening.

CARROLL: And the sight must have been incredulous for you, too, being out there and shooting it with your home video camera out there and watching this as it's all happening.

BAXTER: Well, you know, what I saw first was people running away from it, because the smoke was so horrendous. It was thick. It was smoke like I never seen in my life. And it was coming from three different places and we didn't know what the heck was going on.

I thought first, when I first heard it, it sounded to me like a -- I thought I heard a shotgun. And then about a second later I heard this tremendous -- actually two shotguns. And then about maybe, I don't know how many seconds later -- 10 or 15 seconds -- I heard this tremendous explosion. And I got up from my desk at 116th Street and I walked out on the street and I saw this smoke coming up and I ran back in to get my video camera.

And when I got out to get my video camera, then I saw it coming up in three different places. And I started down here -- this is 116th to 130th Street -- you're talking about 13 blocks. So I got to 129th and I walked down the street and I saw this guy trying to put out a hunk of lead in the yard or what looked to me like a piece of metal. And I said to him, "What is that?" and he wouldn't talk to me.

So he was, I couldn't understand. And I said it's just a possible part of the airplane or is this something else that happened? And then I went down to my nephew's place and the people were all out on the street running in different directions. And the fire department was just arriving and they chased everybody away.

And then when I went back later to find out what happened to my nephew, that's when I videotaped the backyard with the engine in it.

CARROLL: And so there are two different spots: One where you saw the man trying to put something out, and then another spot where you had the incident with your nephew.

BAXTER: And that was just, that wasn't the main spot. The main spot was on 130th Street, which I wasn't allowed to go anywhere near. Because, by then, with all the confusion, the police started to come and block everybody off. And it was complete chaos in the community. It was sad to see the people running and screaming, and just being very upset because we just went through one tragedy with the World Trade Center. As a matter of fact, the smoke came over this community like I have never seen, until today, since or before, so much smoke in this area.

CARROLL: And in fact, people here in this community lost a number of people...

BAXTER: I've got a big family living in this neighborhood. That's the reason I went down. I have family living on 131st Street, 126th, 27th, 28th. And my brother-in-law, who lives two doors away from my nephew, Kevin, he came out and told me, which I got on video also, that he saw a lot of papers flying from the sky. I don't know what that was all about.

CARROLL: Well, we're certainly glad that your family is OK. We want to thank you again, John, for talking to us again this afternoon. BAXTER: Thank you.

CARROLL: Thanks so very much. We really appreciate it.

Again, that's John Baxter. He was able to use some of his home video. He showed it to us. Absolutely incredible that someone from his family was not hurt during that incident there.

The mayor is saying that several homes in this neighborhood were destroyed because of what happened here. And the mayor also saying at this point that he has no word about any survivors -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jason, hang in there for a minute. We're waiting on the mayor and he will have more information, we think, shortly. And at this point what "shortly" means is -- your guess is as good as mine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com