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CNN Live At Daybreak

Cockpit Transmissions From Hijacked Planes Give Chilling Insights into September 11

Aired October 16, 2001 - 08:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Excerpts from cockpit transmissions published by the "New York Times" paint a very chilling picture of exactly what happened on September 11th, in the moment before the horror began. The Times says, an air traffic controller heard these words from American Airlines Flight 11.

-- Quote -- "we have some planes. Just stay quiet and you'll be OK. We are returning to the airport." Minutes later, Flight 11 flew into Tower One of the World Trade Center.

And as we said this morning, we're just beginning to learn a little bit more about the final words from the fatal flights of September 11th. The chilling words are published in this morning's "New York Times."

CNN's Miles O'Brien is at CNN Center with the details. I have to tell you, Miles, I read through the transcript and it made me sick.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN NEWS: It is -- chilling is really not even a good enough word, is it, Paula.

These transcripts are difficult to read, especially when you consider the gravity of it. It's sort of like a fleeting glimpse of something that is really an enduring horror.

Normally, in -- when you -- there's an accident, the National Transportation Safety Board would release these transcripts, which are recordings of the air traffic control communications between pilot and controller, fairly quickly after any accident.

Of course, this is normal about this. These are criminal investigations. But the "New York Times" did get a hold of them. Let's take a look at -- our, some of the graphics we have put together, just to help you understand what's going on and what the timeline was, the departure of American Airlines 11, just around eight o'clock, United Airlines 175 at 8:14, flights continuing as they should have according to their flight plans at 8:20.

And then, at 8:38 AM, by this time, something had happened that was definitely wrong. American Airlines 11 drastically off course, was supposed to be headed out this way to Los Angeles.

And this is what the transcript indicates, the conversation coming down at 8:33:59 to be precise.

And apparently what had happened was, the microphone had been keyed open, either accidentally, or perhaps on purpose by the pilot trying to tip the hand of what was going on.

And the transcript says this, "nobody move, please. We are going back to the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves."

Now, let's continue on. And at this point, very shortly thereafter, at 8:44 a.m., it is now apparent that United 175, also supposedly headed to Los Angeles, is veering off course, headed in a southbound direction.

And that is when, about this time, right before controllers become aware of it, controllers ask if they know anything about American Airlines 11.

Let's look at the full-screen graphic on that for just a moment.

It turns out that United 175 responded to a general call for information about American 11 -- a little bit of irony here -- the unsuspecting crew not knowing they, too, would be hijacked shortly, radios back and says, sounds like someone keyed a mike and said, "everyone stay in your seat." So, the pilot unsuspecting, as we say here.

Then, as time goes on, here, we get a little closer to the event, at 8:53:23, American Airlines 11 has already disappeared from radar screens, having crashed into the first tower of the World Trade Center.

And air traffic control has this conversation amongst themselves at 8:53. The controllers say, "we may have a hijack. We have some problems over here right now." That's a conversation between two controllers.

And I should have you note, that at this juncture, there were fighter jets, F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base, en route to New York City by nine AM with United Airlines 175 closing in on the second tower.

They were still a good eight minutes away. So the controllers had gone through the procedures that they would normally go through in a hijacking situation. There just was not enough time to respond in this case.

Both planes had crashed in, and the fighters were still some 80 miles away from New York City.

Now, let's move down to Washington and American Airlines Flight 77. It, too, was headed to the West Coast, went off with -- pretty much without a hitch and headed out in this direction.

The radar tracking is not as complete on this, because of the fact that the transponder was turned off, as it was in the other cases. But then, it becomes apparent to controllers, that they see this blip, not aided by a transponder, headed in the wrong direction, and the controllers lost radio contact.

And the first clue that they saw -- knew that there was something wrong comes at 8:56, when the controller tries to raise American Airlines 77. "American seven Indy," which stands for the Indianapolis en route control center, which had the sector coverage at that point. "Indy radio check, how do you read?" They do this repeatedly, and to no avail -- no response from that aircraft.

And so then, American Airlines 77 apparently homing in on Washington, controllers at the -- pick up a hotline to the Secret Service, and let the Secret Service know that there may be some -- the White House might be in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, three F-16 fighters are scrambled from Langley Air Force base down near Norfolk. They are initially, before the crash of American 77, they are headed toward New York, because of the situation there.

They get veered off to Washington. And this is the conversation that we get as United Airlines 93 crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside, those F-16s waiting over Washington. And there is this kind of cryptic, sort of telling conversation from an unknown pilot, which says, "anybody know what that smoke is in lower Manhattan?"

So, as I say, Paula, fleeting glimpses, but in their own way very terri -- very terrifying. Sort of the clipped communication of air traffic control and the pilots, and yet in its own way, very, very moving. Paula?

ZAHN: Yeah, Miles. And the part that affected me the most was, I guess, was the fighter pilot later being interviewed, whose name was, of course, not identified, saying that the prospect of taking a plane of his fellow countrymen and countrywomen was something, you know, too distasteful to even think about after the fact.

O'BRIEN: Well, yeah, and it -- can you imagine that decision, to have to squeeze that trigger. Now these are military people and they are trained to follow orders, and at that juncture, the President of the United States had authorized orders to shoot down a civilian aircraft, if it was, in fact, going to harm a target on the ground.

I'm certain they would have followed their orders, but I'm sure that would have been a terrible thing. They would have obviously had visual contact before they would have fired off any missiles.

And that would have been something they would have remembered all their lives, for sure -- Paula.

ZAHN: Miles O'Brien, thanks so much. See you a little bit later on this morning.

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