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CNN Saturday Morning News
Some WTC Victims Contacted Loved Ones Before Building Collapsed
Aired September 15, 2001 - 06:51 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.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: And back to our coverage of America's new war. We've heard the accounts of victims of Tuesday's attacks making phone calls to their loved ones. There were many I love you's, the last thing that people were hearing. And many also called and found answering machines.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: You can well imagine that families are holding onto those words, reflecting and treasuring what they've heard. Thelma Gutierrez reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 11, American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the north tower. Jill Gartenberg's husband is inside.
JILL GARTENBERG, HUSBAND MISSING IN WTC: He called my office. I got to my office probably two minutes after he left his first message on my machine saying there was a fire in his building, on his floor. He didn't know if he was going to make it.
GUTIERREZ: Eighteen minutes later, United Flight 175 slams into the south tower. Laurie Van Okin's (ph) husband, Kenneth makes a final call home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just horrible. It was really just horrible. I could hear the terror in his voice and he was trying to sound like he was calm for us. But you could hear the chaos in the background and the terror in his voice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I live.
GUTIERREZ: Some 30 minutes later, somewhere above the Pentagon on American Airlines Flight 77, Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted, and tells him hijackers have taken over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED OLSON, HUSBAND OF VICTIM: She told me that she had been herded to the back of the plane. She mentioned that they had used knives and box cutters to hijack the plane. I had to tell here about the two airplanes that had hit the World Trade Center.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Why?
OLSON: I just felt that I had to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTIERREZ: On United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, Thomas Burnett calls his wife.
THOMAS BURNETT SR., FATHER OF VICTIM: And he said that somebody was already dead, that they had stabbed somebody and that they were all going to die and that they were going try to do something.
GUTIERREZ: Mark Bingham calls his mother in the midst of chaos.
MRS. BINGHAM, MOTHER OF VICTIM: He said, "I just want to let you know that I love you all. There are three men on board who have taken over the aircraft and they say they have a bomb." And at that point, we were cut off. He wasn't able to say anything else.
GUTIERREZ: Moments later, the plane went down and families forever lost their chance to talk with one another.
ANNALISA VAN KIRK, USC UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Some family members will take comfort in the fact that they were able to say their goodbyes, that they were able to express certain feelings that they have, you know, such as I love you.
GUTIERREZ: And Annalisa Van Kirk is a medical social worker who deals with trauma.
VAN KIRK: ... that they were able to communicate with the people in their lives that were important to them. And that, we can take comfort from.
GUTIERREZ: One of the last things Melissa Hughes did on September 11 is call her husband, Sean.
MELISSA HUGHES, VICTIM: Sean, it's me... I just wanted to let you know I love you... and I'm stuck in this building in New York... a plane hit the building, or a bomb went off, they don't know... but there is a lot of smoke... and I just wanted you to know that I love you always.
GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Grief counselors say that everyone mourns in their own way. But what's hardest for those pacing New York streets is that they're still waiting to find out if they have someone to mourn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're still hoping. It's getting harder to hope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And people are realizing that they may not ever have knowledge of where their loved is. And I think that's been devastating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just saw names of, you know, people confirmed safe and that was it. But his name, unfortunately, wasn't on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't lost hope since 9:15 in the morning on Tuesday. And I'm not going to lose hope until I get the call that my brother is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt relieved because he is not on the list. So therefore, there is still a possible chance that he is alive and is, at least, somewhere in some of the hospital systems and unidentified.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they haven't opened up because they're all in mourning for New York City, for Washington, for everybody that's been struck by this devastation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some people who are being very stoic and perfunctory just going through the process. There are other people who are in very high levels of emotion, who are very grief stricken and distraught.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hoping and praying for miracles but they become very difficult. I think reality's sort of setting in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the days goes on, you see hope dissipating and you see people coming to the realization that the magnitude of this event has caused on them and the city and the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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