On Sept. 11, 2001, when a hijacked plane struck the Pentagon, two WETA camera men and a NewsHour with Jim Lehrer intern rushed to the scene. As the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks approaches, they reflect on what they captured, and how it stays with them.
Geoff Bennett:
Less than an hour after the first airplane hit the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11, another plane flew into the Pentagon. Just a five-minute drive from the Pentagon are the studios of WETA, which have been home to PBS News for decades.
And on that day, two WETA cameramen and a “News Hour” intern headed toward the scene, capturing images of the attack and its aftermath that would become part of the historical record.
Twenty-five years later, they reflect on what they witnessed.
Jeff Rathner, WETA Cameraman on September 11: On 9/11, I was working as a cameraman for the “News Hour.” When I heard on the radio smoke was coming from the Pentagon, I was right at the exit for Washington Boulevard. About 10 seconds later, I came through. There was smoke coming from the Pentagon.
Josh Gershenson, “News Hour With Jim Lehrer” Desk Assistant on September 11: Our assignment desk person said: “I need a desk assistant to go with a cameraman to the Pentagon.”
I hooked up with this cameraman, Ed, and Ed had been a WETA cameraman and a “News Hour” cameraman for a long time, and he’s got this 24-year-old doofus that he’s just taking along to what will become a very intense day.
Ed Lee, WETA Cameraman on September 11: We jumped in the van. We followed the fire engines in to the Pentagon. And just right in front of us is this burning — and it was like a big animal that had been wounded.
Jeff Rathner:
I was there. I got there like — I figured it out, like nine minutes after the plane hit. There was no evidence of a plane anywhere. I had figured it had gone into the inner courtyard, but I didn’t have time really to think about that because I just started to grab my gear and shooting.
There was a heliport on that side of the Pentagon off Washington Boulevard, and there were a handful of bodies down, and I didn’t know if they were dead or alive or what. But they were probably just blown back from the explosion, I figured.
Josh Gershenson:
All these other people are going the other way, and we got to a certain point where the kind of security personnel said: “You can’t go any further. This is the farthest you can go.”
And Ed said: “No, we’re going farther. We’re — that we are here to cover this story. You can’t stop us.”
And the reason that line was drawn in the sand of where press could go, where they were pushing all the other people back to is because they had thought that, if another plane hit, that was basically where the blast radius would have been.
Ed Lee:
One thing that really struck me too, there were little pieces, like nuts and bolts and everything. These are — these are from the airport.
Man:
What’s it from?
Man:
It’s off an airplane, an airplane of some kind.
Jeff Rathner:
At one point, there was a small grouping of people pulling a body away, and then I noticed a man in a gray suit, and I thought that looked like Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, out there doing that. So it was like, wow, that’s something you don’t see every day.
Josh Gershenson:
The sky was blacked out with a black, thick cloud, and that fire just — it was like an oven. It just never stopped burning.
Jeff Rathner:
And, as I’m shooting, the flames burst out at one point. And that was a strong visual for everybody to get, and that burned for quite a while. And then all of a sudden, at one point, the wall came down.
Ed Lee:
You would just be seeing smoke coming up, and the smell of like jet fuel, diesel fuel, whatever, and it would be drifting by the Capitol. And you’re just thinking, oh, my God, suppose this had gone into the Capitol Dome. But, wait, it’s gone into the Pentagon, and how — how many people have been killed or injured?
And it was — it was something. All of a sudden, someone from the Pentagon says: “There’s another plane coming in. Everybody, run.”
Man:
Get back! Get back! They got another inbound plane!
Man:
Josh.
Man:
Everybody, get back! Get back!
Ed Lee:
I’m pretty sure that was the plane that the people made sure crashed in Pennsylvania.
Jeff Rathner:
It was total chaos. It’s something that stay — that will stay with me the rest of my life. I mean, I can still remember just about every detail.
Josh Gershenson:
It was a matter of kind of like just getting as much as we could, and I had a clipboard with me all day, just keeping track of kind of who we met, making sure that we did everything we were supposed to do.
I felt an obligation to preserve the moment. We were really proud that we had the best, closest footage that anyone else would ever have.
Jeff Rathner:
I was running on adrenaline. You run on automatic pilot. You know what you have to do as a news photographer. One moment, I caught my breath and just sort of went like that. It briefly overcame me.
And I thought about what the — what this really meant, being attacked on our own soil. It’s just it never happened before, and things are never going to be the same again, you know?
