(intercom chatter)
- On the screen,
when the Trade Center towers were smoking.
- We knew that this was
intentional from the beginning.
(sirens wailing)
(chaotic shouting)
- [Voiceover] The second
airplane just flew
into the World Trade Center.
- [Voiceover] Third aircraft hijacked
heading towards Washington.
- At one time, I believe there was up
to 29 potential hijacked aircraft.
- Another plane has been hijacked.
This one out of Dulles Airport,
and I realized,
the White House is very
difficult to see from the air.
It's not all that big of a building.
The Washington Monument's symbolic,
but silly.
Capitol Building would be symbolic,
but there aren't a lot of
people in the Capitol Building.
And, and then I just
kind of thought out loud,
and I said, "It's coming here.
"It's gonna hit us."
- We were conducting our meeting and,
it was my turn to speak.
- I went back to my desk and sat down.
- Suddenly, you hear a sound.
- It got to my turn to
pass information out.
That's when you heard a loud noise.
- And the sound grows in intensity.
And you recognize, yeah,
that's an airliner.
- A flash or something over to my left
will catch my attention.
When I look up, I see the airplane.
- And it keeps getting louder and louder,
and you say, "Is this really happening?"
- I turn my back to the airplane,
and I am running.
- This is not the way my
life is supposed to go.
Is this how it ends for me?
And then before you can even
really think much more...
(airplane engine roaring)
(exploding)
- You could see a fireball
coming through the floor.
Then the room start to fill up with smoke.
You could not see your hand,
if it's right in front of your face.
It was that dark.
The tiles were falling.
The walls were crumbling in.
You're trying to catch a breath.
(somber music)
We can't get out of here.
God, I'm gonna die.
God, take care of my girls.
- I feel the pressure from the explosion,
and then almost immediately,
I feel the enormous heat
generated by the fireball.
- The floor has dropped out from under us,
right in front of us.
- Mixed in that pile of steel
is, you know, human beings.
- How could anyone survive this?
- In a time of great chaos,
the Nation's future safety depends on
the Pentagon being able to function
as the military's command post.
- I'm gonna carry you out of here.
Because I am not telling
your children I left you.
- There's another plane coming in.
- Get back!
Get back!
- There is another plane inbound,
and it's, you know,
gonna hit the Pentagon,
in two minutes.
(fire roaring)
- And, it was coming,
louder and louder,
and I remember just every hair on my body
standing up on end.
(somber piano music)
- I just wanted my wife
and kids to know that,
if I did die,
I was dying doing something I loved doing.
(plane engine overhead)
