It's a heart-breaking bird's eye view of New York's worst tragedy. Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, a shocking and powerful 17-minute video taken by an NYPD helicopter on that fateful day surfaced Monday on the web.
Haunting 9/11 Video Captured by NYPD Helicopter Shows World Trade Center’s Twin Towers Collapse
It’s a heart-breaking bird’s eye view of New York’s worst tragedy. Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, a shocking and powerful 17-minute video taken by an NYPD helicopter on that fateful day surfaced Monday on the web.
Obtained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and leaked to the web, it shows the chopper flying close to and above the Twin Towers engulfed in clouds of smoke – and the stunned reactions of the cops when they suddenly collapse.
“The whole tower, it’s gone,” one officer is heard yelling. “Holy crap, they knocked the whole fricking thing down.”
Consternation quickly sets in as an officer wonders out loud, “How could it go down?”
Earlier in the footage, the officers take a panoramic tour of the unfolding pandemonium – and get perilously close to the black roiling smoke.
Then the chopper touches down in a nearby park and stunned officers gaze up at one of still-standing towers, it’s top shrouded by smoke.
The video then shows the chopper back in the sky – and the aftermath of the now-fallen tower.
“We got out of there at the right time,” one officer can be heard saying.
“I know,” another officer replies.
Back on the ground, the chopper crew watched in the distance as the North Tower falls.
“The North Tower is down,” one of the officers radios.
“Holy —-,” another officer can be heard saying.
The NIST obtained the footage through the Freedom of Information Act.
The organization – a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce – investigated the collapse of the World Trade Center towers after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
In particular, it looked into the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, which house then Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s new state-of-the-art command center.
The group concluded the fires – unchecked for hours by sprinklers because the water mains shut down – weakened steel supports in the building. When a critical support column failed, the whole thing collapsed.
Conspiracy theorists still insist that only controlled demolition could cause such a large building to fall so quickly straight down.
BigBen
I was there on that fatefull day and saw the first tower come down with my own eyes. We were engulfed in that gray/black smoke as we walked to the bridge.
We felt helpless to do anything for the people who were trapped in the towers.
As this video proves the cops were helpless too. The video also proves how unprepared NYC and US government was for this kind of disaster. Rudy Guliani himself got out of that area only minutes before the collapse.
Never Forget 9/11
Esther
oh my goodness, there is no way to say how crazy that was… heart rending. I have never seen that kind of footage before,and it will truly put me in a different perspective…
??
why are you posting this now?
To #3
Because it was just released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.
Honestly, that was a really insensitive and ignorant comment. But that’s just me.