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(AP) NEW YORK (Aug. 28) - Accounts of falling bodies, pleas for help and warnings to flee the World Trade Center fill thousands of heart-wrenching pages of transcripts of Sept. 11 emergency calls that were released on Thursday.
According to transcripts, a male caller from the 92nd floor of the second tower told a Port Authority police officer, ''We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there's an explosion.''
The officer asked if there was smoke on the floor, and the caller replied that there was not.
''Should we stay or should we not?'' the caller asked.
''I would wait 'til further notice,'' the officer replied.
''OK, all right,'' the caller said. ''Don't evacuate.'' He then hung up. A second, similar call - with the same police response - came in a short time after the 8:46 a.m. crash in the first tower.
Most of the 2,792 people who died were trapped in the 110-story towers above the level where the two hijacked planes struck. The first jet slammed into the north tower at the 94th and higher floors; the second jet hit the 78th and higher floors of the south tower. No one in the top floors of the tower survived after the second plane hit around the 80th floor shortly after 9 a.m.
The transcripts provide the first look at the extraordinarily difficult decisions faced by both occupants of the towers and Port Authority personnel as they struggled to respond to the attack.
''In general, they show people performing their duties very heroically and very professionally on a day of horror,'' said Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor.
The transcripts included phone calls and radio transmissions involving 33 Port Authority employees and three other people. Last week, a judge ordered the Port Authority to release the transcripts at the request of The New York Times.
In other calls, a man reached police from the roof of one building, while the assistant manager of the Windows on the World restaurant called to report people stranded on the 106th floor. ''We need direction as to where we need to direct our guests and our employees, as soon as possible,'' she says, citing increasing smoke.
''We're doing our best ... we're trying to get up to you, dear,'' replied a PA officer. ''All right, call back in two or three minutes, and I'll try to find out what direction you should try to get down.''
There were also accounts of people, in disbelief, calling about people plunging from the buildings to their deaths.
''Yo, I've got dozens of bodies, people just jumping from the top of the building onto ... in front of One World Trade,'' says a male caller. ''People. Bodies are just coming from out of the sky. ... up top of the building.''
''Bodies?'' replied a female operator.
The sounds of bodies hitting the ground were so loud that one police officer said he thought they were exploding bombs. The scene "resembled the biblical description of hell," one police sergeant said.
Some of the victims identified themselves by name on the tape, while others' voices were recognized by co-workers.
The transcripts resulted in mixed emotions among family members, some of whom were angered by their release while others believed they will be productive in trying to determine what happened. Some declined to even view the transcripts before their release.
''It's not that I don't have an interest,'' said Theresa Riccardelli, whose husband, Francis, was killed. ''I can't.''
The Times had initially sought Port Authority tapes, transcripts and reports on emergency response from that day, but the agency argued that would be insensitive to the victims' families. A deal was finally reached where the Port Authority would provide transcripts rather than tapes.
The agency, claiming the transcripts would be offensive to the families, tried to back out of the deal. The Port Authority opted not to appeal the judge's decision last week.
The transcripts include communications between Port Authority police officers and department employees, along with calls between command centers at the trade center and several sites in New Jersey.
The Port Authority records are not the first recordings of radio transmissions to be made public. Last year, the agency released a 78-minute tape of fire department transmissions that included the voices of several lost firefighters.
Shortly after the attacks, unofficial tapes and transcripts of 911 calls from people in the towers were broadcast and published.
According to transcripts, a male caller from the 92nd floor of the second tower told a Port Authority police officer, ''We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there's an explosion.''
The officer asked if there was smoke on the floor, and the caller replied that there was not.
''Should we stay or should we not?'' the caller asked.
''I would wait 'til further notice,'' the officer replied.
''OK, all right,'' the caller said. ''Don't evacuate.'' He then hung up. A second, similar call - with the same police response - came in a short time after the 8:46 a.m. crash in the first tower.
Most of the 2,792 people who died were trapped in the 110-story towers above the level where the two hijacked planes struck. The first jet slammed into the north tower at the 94th and higher floors; the second jet hit the 78th and higher floors of the south tower. No one in the top floors of the tower survived after the second plane hit around the 80th floor shortly after 9 a.m.
The transcripts provide the first look at the extraordinarily difficult decisions faced by both occupants of the towers and Port Authority personnel as they struggled to respond to the attack.
''In general, they show people performing their duties very heroically and very professionally on a day of horror,'' said Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor.
The transcripts included phone calls and radio transmissions involving 33 Port Authority employees and three other people. Last week, a judge ordered the Port Authority to release the transcripts at the request of The New York Times.
In other calls, a man reached police from the roof of one building, while the assistant manager of the Windows on the World restaurant called to report people stranded on the 106th floor. ''We need direction as to where we need to direct our guests and our employees, as soon as possible,'' she says, citing increasing smoke.
''We're doing our best ... we're trying to get up to you, dear,'' replied a PA officer. ''All right, call back in two or three minutes, and I'll try to find out what direction you should try to get down.''
There were also accounts of people, in disbelief, calling about people plunging from the buildings to their deaths.
''Yo, I've got dozens of bodies, people just jumping from the top of the building onto ... in front of One World Trade,'' says a male caller. ''People. Bodies are just coming from out of the sky. ... up top of the building.''
''Bodies?'' replied a female operator.
The sounds of bodies hitting the ground were so loud that one police officer said he thought they were exploding bombs. The scene "resembled the biblical description of hell," one police sergeant said.
Some of the victims identified themselves by name on the tape, while others' voices were recognized by co-workers.
The transcripts resulted in mixed emotions among family members, some of whom were angered by their release while others believed they will be productive in trying to determine what happened. Some declined to even view the transcripts before their release.
''It's not that I don't have an interest,'' said Theresa Riccardelli, whose husband, Francis, was killed. ''I can't.''
The Times had initially sought Port Authority tapes, transcripts and reports on emergency response from that day, but the agency argued that would be insensitive to the victims' families. A deal was finally reached where the Port Authority would provide transcripts rather than tapes.
The agency, claiming the transcripts would be offensive to the families, tried to back out of the deal. The Port Authority opted not to appeal the judge's decision last week.
The transcripts include communications between Port Authority police officers and department employees, along with calls between command centers at the trade center and several sites in New Jersey.
The Port Authority records are not the first recordings of radio transmissions to be made public. Last year, the agency released a 78-minute tape of fire department transmissions that included the voices of several lost firefighters.
Shortly after the attacks, unofficial tapes and transcripts of 911 calls from people in the towers were broadcast and published.