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A reporter saw the plane overhead
A jet over Fifth Avenue
Eric Shawn was heading downtown on a clear blue morning, near 53rd Street, when he heard a plane that was extra loud, like a jet engine. It was crabbing sideways at a sloppy, odd angle before it turned and slid out of sight behind the building line. He figured it was coming down from Canada to swing left into LaGuardia, and for a moment he thought it was going to hit an office building above Penn Station. Then his mind talked him out of it.
News on the street
A little farther on, near 51st Street, it was primary day, and the Women's Republican Club was a campaign headquarters with local news microwave vans out front. Shawn had been a local reporter in New York for a long time and knew the crews. One of them yelled that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and on their screen he saw it. He ran the rest of the way to the Fox News Channel on 47th Street.
Going on air
Inside, the screens showed the tower and its smoke, and Vernon Gross, a former NTSB official, was on the phone saying it was probably a small plane like a Cessna that got lost in the sun. Shawn went straight to the assignment desk and told them he had seen it, that it was an airliner, maybe a 737. Within moments he was running up to the set, where John Scott was anchoring, and he went on the air out of breath. He reported what he saw and said he believed it was a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
How does crabbing work when a plane lands?
In a crosswind, a pilot points the nose of the plane partly into the wind so the aircraft tracks straight along its intended path. From the ground, the plane looks as if it is flying slightly sideways, and that angle is called a crab. Just before touchdown, the pilot uses the rudder to line the nose up with the runway. Airliners are certified to land in crosswinds of a set strength, which varies by aircraft type.
Why did voting stop that morning?
New York City held primary elections for mayor and other offices on September 11, 2001, and polls had opened when the attacks began. The state suspended voting that morning. The primary was rescheduled and held on September 25, 2001. The mayor Rudolph Giuliani was barred by term limits from running again, so the primary was choosing his successor's party nominees.
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