In mid-September 2001 Pyrate wrote an account of seeing the first and second jets (below).  His eyewitness report has the first aircraft going past his crew, on the 57th floor of the Pan Am building, so close "we can see the heads of the passengers".    He makes no mention of the second aircraft, until it hits the trade center.  

 

I have long been interested in the exact flight paths of the two aircraft over or near Manhattan, and I read his account to indicate that the first jet was flying above, perhaps, Sixth Avenue - and that the second aircraft was not even over Manhattan, but out-of-sight farther west, over or even beyond the Hudson. 

 

In "Grand Illusion" (the damning indictment of Mayor Guiliani's continuing stalling on radio acquisition to allow an inside deal to go ahead, and his careless attitude towards the Trade Center's evasion of building codes), Joe Libretti, an ironworker on the job on "East 77th Street", tells of seeing the first plane ("it just missed the Empire State Building antenna") but also the second plane, which passed them "even lower" than jet number 1 - "I mean, we could see people in the windows."    

 

Have others heard accounts of the exact paths of the aircraft over Manhattan on that morning?

 

Christopher Gray

 

 

 

Pyrate, 9/2001:

"Eight am yesterday morning we are hanging rigs at the 57 floor; its a busy morning we are on the Vanderbuilt side with commanding views of lower Manhattan. The Hudson is majestic in the September sun. The Circle line and the tugs dart and ply the island like it was a holiday. Office workers pour into there buildings many with coffee in hand. Its a Tuesday its warm yet you can feel a cool Canadian front upon us.

"Up high my foreman Tiny grins with his missing eye tooth. His rig rests over the side of the 57th floor; appox half the distance in height of the twin tower. We are gamming on about the weather; and and what we "gotta do"...When Tiny (who weighs 275) breaks conversation and sez 'Getta load of this asshole'.

"With that all eyes focus on this incoming 757 wagging its wings coming over the Pan Am just 200 feet from our deck. As the huge jet approached it veered slightly to the right; the sparkle of the sun glistened its wings and the rays warmed its fuselage our men who hang precariously off the sides of buildings are outraged at the total disregard for safety; stand and yell obscenity at the pilot shaking their trowels as the jumbo careens over Broadway just broadside of us. [to the west of the building - CG]

"The sun is very bright just now we can see the white shirt of the pilot and in the direct sun we can see the heads of passengers at their assigned windows - I distinctly see a blond woman at her seat.

"This is unbelievable - perhaps another low level tourist ride; perhaps he came low to avoid another aircraft; perhaps ... perhaps .... as we watch the plane pass the Empire State Building and then diminish in size until ...until.....poof, a large ball of flame emerges from the twin tower....all at once everyone is screaming.

"We are slack jawed in disbelief; all at once everyone is screaming...radios crackle ..."It hit the Trade Tower...Tower Hit...a plane just hit Trade center!!! We are slack jawed in disbelief; there is a deafing silence as we glance at each other in momentary stillness; radio calls are coming in from below asking for information..we watch the burning and tug at cigarettes and hang nails.... minutes pass and we observe what appeared to us an observer plane coming in for a 'look see'. But suddenly it too plows into the other tower ... explosion ... fire ball ... no mistake this time ... that's deliberate ... all of a sudden it becomes apparent that we are a potential target ... everyone starts yelling ... 'get down ..get down' like submarines under depth charge attack, huge hanging rigs and their crews drop down the ides of the building in fits and starts ... cussing and yelling as they push off the building face and scale down in record time."