Day of terror in N.Y., Washington

Planes crash into Trade Center; explosion rocks Pentagon

An explosion rocks World Trade Center Tower 1 as Tower 2 burns from a previous plane collision.

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 — Americans reeled in horror
Tuesday as the worst terrorist attack in U.S.
history saw two planes crash into the World Trade
Center, toppling the twin 110-story towers. An
explosion later rocked the Pentagon in
Washington, where the White House and all other
federal buildings were being evacuated. Military
jets patrolled the skies while the FAA grounded all
civilian aircraft nationwide, but not before reports
of another plane crashing in Pennsylvania.
President Bush vowed to “hunt down the folks
who committed this act"

THE FATE OF those in the twin skyscrapers was not
immediately known. Authorities had been trying to evacuate
the thousands of people who work in the towers when they
collapsed, trapping rescuers and workers. Much of
Manhattan was being evacuated.
“I swear I’ve never seen anything like this,” said
MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield. “This whole place is like a
complete war zone.”
At the Pentagon, officials said an aircraft crashed into
part of the sprawling complex. Walls were later seen to
have collapsed.
At the State Department, an earlier report of a car
bomb proved to be unfounded.
In New York, the aircraft struck minutes apart, starting
fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers.
The top of the south tower later collapsed onto the street
below.
The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET.
MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside
one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud
bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the
building.
When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the
building and people could see debris falling and many cars
outside were damaged. “It was sheer pandemonium, people
were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of
the falling debris,” Wolk said. “We looked up and it looked
like the top 20 floors were in flames.”
Another bystander described a barrage of debris
raining down on the sidewalk below.

Shortly after 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen
crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already
watching the scene filmed the second plane as it slammed
into the tower and exploded in a huge fireball.
A half hour later, President Bush made a brief
statement to reporters, calling the disaster a “national
tragedy” and attributing it to terrorists. He did not cite any
specific terrorist groups but vowed to “hunt down the folks
who committed this act.”
U.S. military jets reportedly took to the skies to shoot
down any unidentified aircraft, and congressional leaders
were taken to secure locations. A plane was reported to
have been circling the Capitol building before the
evacuation.
American Airlines later acknowledged that one of its
flights had been hijacked Tuesday morning shortly after
leaving Boston en route to Los Angeles.
The second plane might have flown out of Newark, a
U.S. official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
In the wake of the crashes, New York airports and the
Lincoln Tunnel were closed as precautionary measures. The
stock exchanges in New York also did not open.
Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story
buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the
smoke.
Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office
paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from
the tower, one witness said.

In an earlier terrorist attack, the center was bombed on
Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000
others. Terrorist Ramzi Yousef and three others were
convicted of orchestrating the attack. Three other indicted
co-conspirators remain at large.
Traffic entering New York City from New Jersey was
at a standstill approaching the Holland Tunnel as motorists
stood outside their cars watching the fire.
Across the country, highrises like Chicago’s Sears
Trade tower were being evacuated as a precaution.
Buildings were also being evacuated in London.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.