Left on the split screen is the Chopper5 footage, which missed the event (for the most part). On the right, however, veteran reporter Dick Oliver and his cameraman were set up in front of the car wash at 124 Ave of the Americas. They had been first to report the attacks; and even recorded the first plane hitting (audio only). They also captured the North Tower’s demise from this location.
As the “collapse” occurs, senior anchor Jim Ryan in the studio told us “We had a report indicating that – uh – that there was an explosion on the lower floors.” The source of this is unknown, but others have verified the event at street level as the destruction began (See some “collapse” witnesses. CBS’s Carol Marin described her experience in close proximity. Better, Ron DiFrancesco told of ground level fireballs as the WTC 2 “collapse” began. He knew they were real because they burned most of his body as he escaped. Ron also appeared in the 2002 doc “A Tale of Two Towers,” sepecifically part 8 at 4:15.
NIST Cumulus files come from the TV broadcast: WNYW_BroadcastWNYW 2Clip10L and WNYW 2Clip10R (last 2 clips in folder, each cut short)
WNYW FOX5 Dick Oliver
YouTube 1
