Prison Planet has posted a video just released through google. It was taken by some people just 500 yards from the North Tower. After all the docs, diaries, and politics these past few weeks, this is very intense to watch.
The video captures the surreal quality of the events that morning, opening with a nursery rhyme playing for the woman’s child in the background as she pans the North Tower, looking for the people she hopes to find making their way up to the roof. These parts are very difficult, as one hopes to spot any survivors up there or in the windows, in spite of the knowledge that they were all doomed, nonetheless.
We see the first Fire Engine pull up outside the North Tower—the one that Jules Naudet was riding in. Soon after, the soundtrack becomes quite chilling as NYC erupts with the sound of emergency vehicles piling into Lower Manhattan. She zooms in as the fire battalions pull up
At times, the witnesses seem quite calm about what they are witnessing, as if they are trying to make some sense of it all. The woman with the camera notes that they’ll need water-bombers to put the fire out (which seems a pretty reasonable assumption). As events unfold, the terror becomes quite clear. The South Tower is hidden from view by its twin, and when the second impact occurs, it is seen only as another very large explosion, the camera jerking suddenly with the surprise of it.¹ The same for the first collapse, which occurs just as she is zooming in on the area around the base of the North Tower. We see that horrible cloud of dust and smoke enveloping the streets, people running away, the exclamations of those in the room giving way to anguished appeals for those below to “run away, you peaople have to run away.” When the North Tower likewise collapses, we here their horror as she pans up and zooms out to capture that horrible scene, as well.
This is a very difficult film to watch. No, there are no bodies shown, no people jumping to their deaths. But, with that interminable searching of the upper storeys, and with hindsight, well, it’s quite chilling. The people responsible for it had resisted making it public all this time but have decided to release it to the Creative Commons and ask that it be used respectfully.
¹ Yes, they comment that “it was a military plane”, about the one that struck the South Tower. But there’s enough other footage of that to dismiss the comment. They were in a poor position (and it’s not on the video) given that the towers blocked their view, and the sun was shining towards them from the left that morning. Flight 175 probably appeared to be painted grey from their vantage.