‘Very rare’ news footage from 9/11 shows close-up of second plane hitting tower in sobering clip
People have commented on the rarely-seen angle of the devastating footage
Rare news footage of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on 11 September, 2001, has been unearthed online.
A CNN clip, originally broadcast on the day of the 9/11 attacks, was shared on YouTube 12 years ago, but some viewers are only just discovering it for the first time.
On the morning of 11 September, four planes were hijacked by the al-Qaeda terror group.
Two were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City, while another hit the Pentagon and a fourth – intended for either the White House or the US Capitol Building – was crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
The attacks killed almost 3,000 people, meanwhile, thousands more were injured.
The devastating clip shows the World Trade Center surrounded by plumes of black smoke, following the impact of this first plane – Flight 11 – into the North Tower.
Moments later, a second plane – Flight 175 – can be seen flying directly into the South Tower, hitting floors 77 to 85.
.jpg)
On the morning of 11 September, four planes were hijacked by the al-Qaeda terror group (Robert Giroux/Getty Images)
Within a period of 17 minutes, both towers had been struck, meanwhile crowds on the street could be heard crying and screaming at what they were witnessing.
“That angle really shows the speed upon impact, and the roar of the jet engine really freaked people out,” one person wrote.
While another commented: “The moment we knew this wasn’t an accident. This was the real end of the 90s. The world was never the same. Rest In Peace.”
And a third said: “This used to be the most showed angle of the second plane hitting but now I have to search so hard just to find this basic clip.”
Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: “This for me is one of the most symbolic pieces of footage from 9/11. It shows how deliberate and evil the spectacle was, but the screams and horror from the ground made it the most chilling.”
People commented on the angle of the clip (CNN)
Others said the footage reminds them just how real the attack was, with another adding: “Every single time I watch footage from this day, I have to remind myself that it’s real. That it’s not some poorly made action movie.
“This actually happened. 20 years later and I still cry. I was only 11 when it happened so I didn’t understand what was happening but now I understand better than ever. I wish I’d been older then so I could’ve understood it better in real time.”
Next week will mark the 23rd anniversary of the devastating 9/11 attacks and the world has never quite been the same since.
People were left in mourning, air travel was altered and security focusing on terrorism was totally ramped up.
But after the World Trade Center was left totally destroyed it wasn’t until a years months later when an odd finding was made there.
Under the 9/11 ruins, a mysterious shipwreck was uncovered.
It was found by construction workers when they were rebuilding the New York site in 2010 and found the old wooden ship in the rubble.
This, of course, spiralled into a mystery as people could not wrap their heads around how a centuries-old vessel ended up 22-feet below the Twin Towers.
Years after 9/11, a strange discovery was made beneath the rubble (ABC)
So, archaeologists got to work and after four years of digging, analysing, and studying, they were able to determine the ship had been built in the 1770s – around the same era as the Declaration of Independence.
Researchers also determined the type of oak used to build the ship would have come from Philadelphia.
Strangest of all was that the rings on the wooden hull matched other samples of wood rings that had been used to build Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed.
READ MORE:
HAUNTING 9/11 RECORDINGS SHOW HOW TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS TRIED TO HANDLE IT
MAN EXPLAINS WHY HE’S ONLY JUST SHARED 9/11 FOOTAGE
The mysterious ship was later identified as a Hudson River sloop, which would have been designed by the Dutch to carry cargo and passengers over the Hudson river’s rocky floor.
So, how on earth did it end up there?
Well, it’s believed that, after 20 to 30 years of service, the ship was sailed to the lower Manhattan area where it sunk.
Historians still aren’t sure whether the ship sank accidentally, or was purposefully submerged.
.png)
In 2010, when construction workers were rebuilding the site, they stumbled upon an old wooden ship (LMDC/Columbia University)
In the decades that followed, the ship’s remains were covered with rubbish, debris, and other materials like rock and soil that were used to expand the area of Manhattan.
Oysters were also found on the hull of the ship, suggesting it was submerged for quite some time before it was buried with trash and landfill to form the land that the Twin Towers would eventually be built on.
Speaking to CNN about the discovery back in 2014, archaeologist Molly McDonald, who was among those who first discovered the ship, said: “It’s such an intense site already based on its recent history, so to be in the midst of this urban, modern, very fraught location, and then to be sitting on what was a river bottom, with clams and fish, and the smell of low tide, was really an amazing juxtaposition.”
Today, the remains of the ship are being conserved and exhibited in Albany at the New York State Museum, so you can marvel at the bizarre discovery for yourself.
