This should easily qualify as one of the most horrific 9.11 stories to surface to date. CNN.com this morning is carrying the story of a 90-minute audio tape from a wire worn by an FBI undercover informant. The tape contains the sounds of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the first tower, and continues through the second plane hitting the remaining tower, as well as the ensuing pandemonium.
"That was an explosion -- that was an explosion," says Stephen McArdle, a tax consultant who wore the wire for the FBI, just after the first plane hits. He is in a restaurant of the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, part of the Trade Center complex, where he and the suspect are having breakfast.
The loud "explosion" McArdle hears is followed by some 28 seconds of roars and fire alarms. The Daily News said officials believe the sounds are of the flaming jet fuel from the plane coursing down through the tower to the lower floors....
Glasses are heard clinking and McArdle has just asked for a glass of water when the muffled boom begins -- the sound of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the first tower.
"Oh my God, oh my God," comes the voice. "Let's get out of here!"
The room scrambles to get out, and McArdle begins to run. "Go! Go! Come on, go!"
Out on the street, someone asks, "What just happened?"
"They blew up the Trade Center," McArdle says....
"Oh, those are people," says a man as a woman screams. People inside the twin towers are jumping out and landing on the ground.
Seeing the people fall, McArdle repeats over and over, "No, no, no, no, no."
Roughly 10 minutes later, another explosion is heard on the tape, so loud that it distorts the tape. The time is 9:03 a.m., when United Airlines Flight 175 strikes the second tower.
In the background someone says, "It's another one, it's another one!"
"It's a second pilot!" McArdle says. "Holy S***!"
Someone then orders, "Everybody outta here. Everybody out. Go!"
A siren is heard, and then a woman cries, "I was up in the tower." McArdle asks, "Do you know what happened?" but she says no.
Then a woman is heard wailing, and a man tells her, "Don't be upset."
"That's my husband inside," the woman cries. The tape then ends.
Eleven months and one memorial service for a friend later, I still cannot wrap my mind around the enormity of this tragedy. I see, I take it all in visually, and I understand that it's real, but I just cannot begin to comprehend the reality and the scope of what happened. I don't know that I ever will. That's probably a good thing.
