Chilling tapes capture horror of 9/11 attacks

PLEAS of “mayday” made by police officers just moments before their deaths in the World Trade Center appear on transcripts released of calls made on September 11 to emergency services before the Twin Towers collapsed.

A judge ordered the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade centre site, to release the nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts after a lawsuit was filed by The New York Times.

The transcripts record radio dispatches made by Port Authority officers and employees at the scene and telephone calls made to Port Authority police stations.

The Port Authority, which oversaw the trade centre’s operations, had its headquarters there and lost 37 of its officers in the attacks by the two hijacked jetliners.

On the tapes, according to an article in Newsday which first reported details of the transcripts, a police officer can be heard calling “mayday” just seconds before the south twin tower collapsed and killed him. Another officer can be heard asking someone to rescue his explosives-sniffing dog who was in a tower basement. The dog did not survive but the officer did, the newspaper said.

What is remarkable about the voices is their calm, even tone amid the chaos, said Lillian Valenti, an attack survivor and head of Port Authority’s Office of Medical Services. “It’s absolutely stunning the degree of objectivity and professional interchange among everyone on the transcripts to get the deed done, to evacuate as many people as possible and rescue the injured,” she said.

On the transcripts, 36 victims have been identified, including 19 of the Port Authority officers who died, 14 civilian Port Authority employees and three people who did not work for the agency. Some 25,000 people were evacuated from the trade centre complex, where 2,792 people were killed. The transcripts were due to be released to the news media yesterday.

The release resulted in mixed emotions among family members, some of whom were angered by the release while others believed the transcripts will be productive. 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.”