Transcripts of 9/11 Radio Transmissions Released

The Port Authority has released to the public transcriptions of audio transmitted among its officers and others in and around the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Audio was not made available.

Comprising about 2,000 pages of documents, the records give voices to some of the people who helped save many who might not otherwise have survived the terrorist attacks. Mostly transcribed radio transmissions, the text shows how people planned escapes for themselves and others. Many of the people who completed the radio transmissions did not survive the collapse of the towers.

Many of the transmissions were garbled or incomplete, but 260 hours of tape give an idea of what went on from the time just before the first plane struck at 8:46 a.m., until almost two hours after the WTC collapsed at 10:28 a.m.

After formally requesting a transcript of radio transmissions from the Port Authority in March 2002, the New York Times sued for the release of the records.