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CNN Live At Daybreak

What Live Cameras Didn't Capture in Crash of Flight 587

Aired November 13, 2001 - 07:54   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: It came two months and one day, almost to the minute, after 9/11. The nation watched in horror again as New York City became a victim of tragedy. We may have watched the horror of downed Flight 587 unfold on television, but there was plenty going on that the live cameras did not capture.

Listen now with Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've seen it from every angle, now listen to it.

JOHN BAXTER, WITNESS: Do you know what happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A plane crashed.

BAXTER: Where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Into the houses.

MOOS: These days, it seems the most dramatic pictures are captured by regular folks with video cameras who run towards trouble, rather than away from it, and sometimes act too much like real reporters.

BAXTER: Did you see the plane blow up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BAXTER: What happened when it blew up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. I saw it blow up. Yes.

BAXTER: What happened? What did it look like when...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, God! I can't. I can't right now. I'm too worried about everybody up there.

BAXTER: Kevin,. Want to make a statement?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, geez, not now, Uncle John.

MOOS: Uncle John is John Baxter. BAXTER: I ran to get my camera, my video camera, and when I got out again, I saw three smokes, not one. And I says, what in the heck is going on here?

MOOS: Some of that smoke came from the house of John's nephew.

BAXTER: Kevin, tell us exactly what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The room just exploded. My daughter got blown through the patio doors, my wife got blown into the living room, and I got blown out the patio doors behind my daughter.

MOOS: None of them were seriously injured. Folks with their video cameras captured not just the scene, but their own reaction to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I see the plane. The engine fall down, and the plane is falling. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wreckage spread all the way down.

MOOS: The smoke blocked the sun, it rose out of sewers like smoke signals of doom. A woman sat wrapped in a bedspread as rescue workers asked for sheets, perhaps to cover the dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, anybody that lives close, if you have any sheets, please (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got sheets, ma'am.

MOOS: The sirens at the scene contrasted with a moment of silence at the U.N. But no silence is too solemn for a cell phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ran in and dialed to try to dial 911, but the phone lines were all busy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't believe it.

MOOS: At one point, a rainbow appeared -- at its end, not a pot of gold, but a pile of wreckage.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: We are going to be speaking with the eyewitnesses who shot that video in our 9:00 hour.

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