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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Nation Marks 25 Years Since 9/11 Terror Attacks; Former NYC Fire Commissioner Remembers 9/11; Interview With Aristide Economopoulos, Photojournalist At 9/11 Terror Attacks. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 11, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL WHATLEY, (R) U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE IN NORTH CAROLINA: Well, what I would say is that we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon that they can develop and deploy.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And tariffs too. You're 100 percent behind him on his tariffs policy as well.
WHATLEY: What I would say is we need trade policies that are going to help North Carolina farmers, manufacturers and small businesses.
RAJU: Manu Raju CNN, Fayetteville, North Carolina.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Thanks so much for joining us on this Friday 9/11. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:36]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening from Lower Manhattan, at the end of a clear, blue, gentle September day, almost identical to the one 25 years ago. Across the street behind me is the National 9/11 Memorial Museum and the footprints of the Twin Towers, which must have looked striking the late summer light that morning. But there was no real reason for anyone to take much notice, because it wasn't a special morning that day, just a nice one.
On the next block is Ten House. It's home to the New York fire department's engine and ladder company Ten. People have been gathering there all day and are gathering there now into the evening.
On September 11th, the day tour was about to start, just the same as any other day until it was not the same. Then nothing was.
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COOPER: Today at 8:46 A.M. for the 24th time since that day, a bell was rung at ground zero to mark the exact moment American Airlines flight 11 hit the North Tower. Then again at 9:03 for when United flight 175 hit the South Tower.
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COOPER: At 9:37, the bell rang again to mark American flight 77 impacted the Pentagon, and four times more with moments after each for United flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The fall of the towers and for the first time this year to remember the thousands who have died in the 25 years since. From exposure to toxic dust.
Almost 3,000 men, women and children were killed on the day itself. The first recorded fatality was Father Mychal Judge, a New York Fire Department chaplain, 343 firefighters lost their lives, six from House Ten behind me. They and other first responders saved so many lives. However, getting some 17,000 people to safety out of those towers before the towers came down.
But even as they did, and we certainly remember that tonight, we also remember the ambulances that waited on the streets behind us here for the waves of injured who never came, only the dead. Sometimes, one by one, day after day, each bringing the kind of pain that New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani anticipated just hours after the first plane hit.
He spoke to New Yorkers in the country in a way that's hard to forget, even now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK 108th MAYOR: Today is obviously one of the most difficult days in the history of the city and the country. The tragedy that we're all undergoing right now is something that we've had nightmares about. The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, today, 25 years later, at ground zero, the Pentagon, Shanksville children who lost parents that day are now parents themselves, firefighters who lost comrades that day now have kids on the job, soldiers who fought and lost buddies in the wars that followed are veterans today. The Presidents and lawmakers who gathered today who were in office on 9/11 in the years since then, have now had a quarter century to reflect on the challenges they confronted and the world their decisions, for better and for worse, ushered in.
Theres no such thing as closure. it's a word too often used that has no meaning. A door never closes on the pain felt by so many families, and it never closes on the love they feel for those they lost on this day and so many days since.
Just a half hour from now, a quarter century ago, this network and every major network was going live to the White House for this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief. Terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but they have failed. Our country is strong.
Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:06]
COOPER: As we mentioned, the seventh bell was added to the 9/11 memorial this year to honor the thousands of first responders and other survivors who have since died from illnesses related to the attack.
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COOPER: Joining me now is John Feal, a 9/11 first responder who works as a demolition supervisor at ground zero and has been a long-time advocate for other first responders who developed chronic and at times, fatal health problems related to the attacks here on September 11th.
He's also the author of the new book, "I Will Follow You Anywhere: The true story of the 9/11 responders who took on Congress." And boy, did you.
Thank you so much for being here. First of all, what is it like for you to be here today, to see and to hear that seventh bell?
JOHN FEAL, 9/11 FIRST RESPONDER: You know, Anderson, this was a rough week just leading up to today, physically, mentally, emotionally for so many people. But to hear that seventh bell, I think that was the floodgates opening where a lot of us cried and embraced and, that bell gives the 9/11 community that didn't perish on 9/11 from senseless violence. And those heroes that ran into harm's way and never went home. But that bill gives us validity.
And I think now the 9/11 community is complete and were now one, but it represents the past, the present and the future because so many people got sick and died, so many are sick and dying now, and so many are going to die in the future. And I think the 9/11 Memorial Museum; they got it right by adding it this year.
COOPER: We also learned this week the mayor released tens of thousands, more than 100,000 documents that city officials back then knew the air quality was as bad as many people worried it might be, even though they gave assurances time and time again.
FEAL: So, I was at the press conference. I've seen those documents. There's no smoking gun in there. But what Mayor Mamdani did was, I want to say he did what the other four administrations wouldn't and gave transparency.
But what bothers me and what bothers everybody that went to D.C. with me is, if they only came clean in the beginning, maybe 9,700 people wouldn't be dead. Maybe it'd only be 4,200. There's 57,000 people in the world trade center health program right now with a certified cancer, maybe only 23,000 would have cancer.
COOPER: There's 57,000 and above. FEAL: Yes, and of 55,000 enrolled in the program, you know, maybe they
could have said, you know what? The air isn't that safe. The water is not that safe. Let's not put those students back in the 14 schools in the geographic map that they considered toxic.
Maybe let's not open Wall Street six days later. Let's not force these people to go back to their apartments where their windowsills, their refrigerators were covered with dust. They were eating it. They were sleeping in it, you know, shame on the Giuliani administration because they knew, they knew better and shame on them.
COOPER: When you were down here, what, can you just talk about those days? Because, I mean, it stuns me. Like when I was a kid, you know, you'd see World War II veterans and I remember talking to them because I was a big buff of history and their kind of sadness that all these young people didn't know. And now we're growing up at a time when there's a lot of kids today and young people who don't have the memory of being here.
FEAL: That's been asked a lot today. And I was born 25 years after Pearl Harbor, 1966. I'm not going to fault anybody for being born after 9/11. That's not their fault. But, you know, whenever it is a historic event, man-made mother-nature terrorist deals, horrible events, the American people step up and join first responders in responding to that disaster while the federal government is slow in responding.
And then what happens? Advocacy is born. And I pray the younger generation, when this does happen and it will happen that they challenge their government, question their leadership, their morals, their humanity, their empathy, and make sure that they're doing the right thing by those who ran into harm's way.
COOPER: I was living in Chelsea when it happened. And I just remember the memorials. The ritual spaces, morning spaces that outside firehouses I remember being in a restaurant and some firefighters walked in for some food and everybody stood up and we all applauded. It was such an incredible time in the city.
FEAL: You know, at the initial shock, at the initial or of being attacked over the greatest country in the world, how can we, and then we witnessed that horror, that carnage, that destruction, that devastation on September 12th, we put it all aside, all our ideologies, our skin colors, our religions and we came together as one.
We weren't Americans, we were human beings. And the true sense of, the true meaning of being a human being, it's giving of yourself and we gave of ourselves.
And I pray today, tomorrow, and moving forward, we find that humanity again. Ive lived the last 25 years like that. I'm not going to conform because everybody finger-points or you don't fit someone's narrative and they're going to dismiss you so quickly. Never going to take no for an answer when human life is at stake. We need to value human life again because we don't value it like we used to. [20:10:46]
COOPER: John, it's really an honor.
FEAL: Thank you so much.
COOPER: Really appreciate it, thank you.
When we come back, the New York fire commissioner, who was in the North Tower lobbies as the South Tower fell, who lost 343 of his firefighters that day. We'll be back with more from the ground zero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Today, we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country.
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[20:15:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G.W. BUSH: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you and the people, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's President George W. Bush, three days after the attacks, 25 years ago down here at ground zero. Joining us now is Thomas Von Essen, who is the New York City Fire Commissioner on September 11th. He spent three decades with the department before becoming commissioner, he started training in 1970. He spent much of his career in the Bronx, the South Bronx. He arrived on the scene just minutes after the first plane hit.
He was standing in the lobby of the North Tower when the second plane struck the South Tower. Commissioner, I appreciate you being with us. I talked with Chief Joseph Pfeifer about being in that lobby of the North Tower.
From your perspective, can you just talk about what those early moments were like when you got there?
THOMAS VON ESSEN, NEW YORK CITY FIRE COMMISSIONER ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: Yes, I got there pretty quick and we thought it was a small plane. And when I got in the lobby, we knew the chiefs told me, the chiefs are as good as you get fire chiefs from anywhere. And they knew right away that it was a large commercial jet.
Some of the guys get up there quickly and elevators, and after that you have to walk up because you don't want to put any anybody in an elevator. But they realized it was an awful lot of fuel, tremendous impact. We weren't going to be able to put the fire out. So, the situation just evolved and just got worse, especially when the second plane hit.
COOPER: When that second plane struck the South Tower, did you know right away what was happening? Because Chief Pfeifer was saying to me, I mean, it went kind of black. There was smoke and debris in the lobby, and he heard the sound, but didn't know the tower had come down right away. Did you know?
ESSEN: Yes, well, I was standing at the command post there in the in the North Tower, and one of the guys came running in and they said, boss, the, the South Tower was hit, the Sears Tower was hit and the Mall of America was hit. And we were like, oh my God. Up to that point, we didn't know what we were in, but it was a beautiful, beautiful, clear day.
So, once we heard all that, we knew that we were in some kind of a military operation and it was going to be way past our capabilities. They took all the leadership or half the leadership from the North Tower, sent them to the South Tower. And I often say that Ray Downey, who was the biggest expert you'd find in the United States about collapse, we sent him to the South Tower and he said to me on the way out, he said, boss, you know, these buildings can come down.
But I know in my heart that he meant sometime today, three, four, five, six hours. If these buildings are going to burn all day, they're going to come down, not in 102 minutes, which I think was nothing. There was no fire chief, no expert anywhere who could have predicted both buildings come down that quickly.
COOPER: You came here this morning. What was it like for you on this this 25th anniversary?
ESSEN: You know, it's normally horrible. I go every year, stay till the end with Mayor Bloomberg. But today was especially horrible, I think because of the extra angst we had this year with the information that John was talking about being put out, the 25th anniversary, the additional people, you know, getting sick, it's just so much that made it that much worse this year than normal.
But it's always painful to me because it's always to me. It's always been about the families and the firefighters that I miss so much.
COOPER: You ordered oral histories to be taken from the firefighters and medics who were on the scene that day, which I think is such an interesting thing and a wise thing that you did to preserve the oral history from the people on the front lines. Why was that so important to you at the time?
ESSEN: You know, it was probably a week or ten days. I don't remember how soon it really sank into me that it was going to be such a life changing event for so many people.
I certainly not smart enough to know that, you know, everybody around the world would now be going through airport security because of what happened to us that day. But I knew it was a major world changing kind of situation, and I wanted to make sure that we got accurate information. I know how it works with unions and lawyers and everybody else, and advocates and people who all have a different view of this, of how imperfect people are, decisions that get made in the haste of, of chaos like that.
But I knew if the firefighters were asked sooner than later, we'd be getting good, accurate information and to me, you can't fix something if you don't get good, accurate information with people who are willing to take it on and fix it.
[20:20:46]
COOPER: Commissioner Von Essen, I really appreciate your time today. I know it's been a long day for you. Thank you so much.
ESSEN: You're welcome, thank you.
COOPER: When we come back, a photographer who documented this day as our special 360 coverage continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robert Henninger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Richard Al Penny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my dad, Thomas R. Clark. We love you, we miss you and we promise to never forget. May God bless you all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my grandfather Liam Callahan, we love you and we will continue to honor you and keep your memory alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[20:25:33]
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ARISTIDE ECONOMOPOULOS, PHOTOJOURNALIST, "NEWARK STAR-LEDGER": It was an incredible scene, we saw people that just ran out of their shoes, out of their house, and when the debris came down, a lot of people were caught outside. The smoke got into their system. They were coughing, having a tough time breathing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: At 8:55 in the morning of 9/11, Aristide Economopoulos, who was then a photojournalist for the "Newark Star-Ledger" got a call from his assignment editor that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. He grabbed his camera, quickly, made his way to the ferry, and that's when the second plane hit.
Aristide immediately started taking photos shortly after arriving in Lower Manhattan, the twin towers fell. He spent the day risking his life documenting the aftermath of the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor. His images from that day are extraordinary. They're haunting, they
capture the chaos, the fear, the grief of that September morning 25 years ago. Aristide Economopoulos joins me now. Thank you so much for being with us. Does it feel like 25 years? What did you feel today being today?
ECONOMOPOULOS: Today, I had a lot of mixed feelings. Yes, I know, it doesn't feel like 25 years. You know, it just feels like yesterday and a bad memory too. And, I'm doing a lot better. I've gone through a lot, especially this past year but --
COOPER: You were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
ECONOMOPOULOS: In May, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had surgery in July.
COOPER: Do you think it's from down here?
ECONOMOPOULOS: Definitely, and with that though, the surgery was very successful and hopefully I'll be cancer free.
COOPER: The photos, there's a photo of you running with the tower essentially collapsing behind you. Can you just talk about that?
ECONOMOPOULOS: Photographing, this was after the first tower fell and I hear this metallic groaning sound. I'm on Church Street --
COOPER: We're showing the picture right now.
ECONOMOPOULOS: I'm on Church Street, right across from it. And I just hear this groaning and it start splintering and I just start running the fast as I ever had in my life. And I see another photographer, Joe Tobacco, and he's actually the guy who took the picture of me. We dive by a bus; the bus gets smushed in half. And that saved our lives.
COOPER: Wow and there's another photo like a self-portrait you took.
ECONOMOPOULOS: So, I'm photographing in the Chase Bank on Broadway, and a lot of people are upset there. It's really dramatic and then they go to me and they're like, are you all right? Well, why don't you wash off to the bathroom?
So, I turn on the water, cut my hands, and then I look in the mirror and I was just shocked when I saw, drop the water. And this is before selfies, but I documented and what bothered me is like, why do I have this crazy smile?
I just outrun 110 story building and I was happy to be alive, but I definitely --
COOPER: It gives you a sense and people were here. They were ingesting all that debris. They were ingesting that lead. I mean, it got inside you.
ECONOMOPOULOS: Luckily, I was only exposed for four hours, but people who were exposed even shorter have gotten sick and died and so. COOPER: What else stands out to you from that day? What moments?
ECONOMOPOULOS: To me, there's one picture which means a lot. We're in the lobby of 2 John Street and I was photographing outside, and then the first tower fell and I ran into this lobby for shelter. And I hear these voices, and you're first a human being, so I go outside and say, come to my voice. So, there's about a half a dozen people there, and I have a picture of these ladies hugging, and she's screaming, oh my God, were alive, were alive. Oh my God, we're alive.
And I'm just thinking, low light, just hold your camera steady. And then she asked me, why are you taking pictures? And I said, we have to remember. We can't forget and then nobody else asked.
COOPER: This is that photo. That's an incredible photo.
ECONOMOPOULOS: Then also there was a gentleman, a paramedic, an orthodox paramedic, and he was doing his job. He was calming them down and talking to them and he turns to me and he takes his yarmulke off and at a time when I wasn't feeling anything, I was just, motor drive. See, yarmulke do come in handy and he brought a smile to my face. And which is very grounding and to people, it's about the humanity. But also, that day was about the lack of humanity so.
COOPER: Had you, I mean, you saw people, you saw people die.
ECONOMOPOULOS: It wasn't until the 20th anniversary that the flashbacks and I started really remembering. Your brain wants to protect you.
COOPER: You had blocked it out.
ECONOMOPOULOS: Exactly, and I saw somebody fall not too far from me. And it freaked me out. I ran about a block.
COOPER: Somebody who had jumped out of a window.
ECONOMOPOULOS: Yes, I ran about a block, recomposed myself, and kept on taking pictures.
COOPER: It's just an extraordinary record that you've, I mean, it's incredible what you've contributed. Your pictures, or some of them are in the 9/11 museum.
[20:30:27]
ECONOMOPOULOS: In the museum, and Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and everything.
COOPER: Yes.
ECONOMOPOULOS: And more importantly, though, is that it's a historical document, and I'm alive. So I'm not celebrating today by no means, though, but I've gone through a lot. And just, you know, happy to be here.
COOPER: Yes. It's an honor to talk to you. Thank you.
ECONOMOPOULOS: Thank you.
COOPER: For many of us who live in this city and were here that day, or lost family members or friends, it is hard to imagine, but there are so many Americans alive now who are not even born yet, or were so young they have no memory of 9/11. Because in order to never forget, we must remember and remind people of what happened that day.
Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are jumping out the windows. Over there, they're jumping out the windows.
RUDY GIULIANI, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The situation is that two airplanes have attacked them.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly 100 million people have been born in the United States since that September morning. One- third of the nation has no real memory of that terrible day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They made it all the way downstairs. And then, when we were just about to come out of the building, there was another blast.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And sharing the memories is growing more difficult. The greatest number of victims were in their mid to late- 30s, meaning many of their parents have passed away. Many spouses, partners and friends are approaching old age.
AARON BROWN, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: About an hour ago, about 8:45 Eastern time, one plane crashed into the tower, the World Trade Center tower on the right, the first of those towers that you can see behind me.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Some who were front and center are gone, too. And others have slipped from the limelight, including the man who heard the news at an elementary school in Florida, a half-hour from where some hijackers trained.
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
FOREMAN (voice-over): More than 3,000 children lost parents. Eight children died on those planes. The youngest, Christine Lee Hanson, was two. Her stuffed rabbit is now in New York's memorial, one of several sites tasked with maintaining the nation's collective history of 9/11. Another is at the Pentagon in D.C., and another in a Pennsylvania farm field, where the last plane came down. The voices of some victims can still be heard there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Well, I just wanted to tell you I love you. We're having a little problem on the plane. I'm totally fine. I just love you more than anything. Just know that. FOREMAN (voice-over): 9/11 led American troops to Afghanistan, hunting terrorists behind the attack. They would stay for nearly 20 years, even as the nation back home moved on in so many ways.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is new for me, this kind of heat.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Consider in September 2001, Tom Brady was in his first season as a starting NFL quarterback. Taylor Swift was 11. The iPod was about to debut. And an Illinois state senator was almost 10 years away from this historic moment.
BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.
FOREMAN (voice-over): A quarter century after any major event, collective memory starts passing from witnesses to historians, filmmakers and teachers. Yet on this anniversary, people who cannot remember that dark day are still gathering with those who cannot forget.
Tom Foreman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up, we mentioned him already, Joseph Pfeifer, the first New York Fire Department chief who responded to the World Trade Center scene, remembers the heroes lost that day, including his firefighter brother.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detail, and salute.
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[20:39:10]
COOPER: The firefighters of Engine and Ladder Company Tanja (ph) steps away from here earlier today. Joseph Pfeifer was the first New York fire chief at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th. He'd been nearby checking in a gas leak when the first plane hit the North Tower. And a documentary film crew happened to be following him and others from his firehouse that morning and captured the first plane going into the tower. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We checked the area with meters. And it was kind of routine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was 8:46 in the morning. That's when this stopped even resembling a normal day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit. (END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:40:10]
COOPER: And Chief Pfeifer is the author of "Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11." I spoke to him recently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: 25 years later, what goes through your mind when you see that?
JOSEPH PFEIFER, FIRST FDNY CHIEF ON SITE ON 9/11: It brings me back to that day, which started off as a routine, normal day. We were at an emergency, an order of gas. And then hearing the plane coming overhead at a very low altitudes, so low I could read American on the fuselage.
COOPER: Really? You could see --
PFEIFER: I could actually see it. And it was traveling at a very fast speed. I could hear the engines roaring. And then I saw the plane aim and crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. And in that moment, I knew it was no accident. I said it on the radio. My exact words were, the plane was aiming for the building.
COOPER: Everyone says you were the ideal person to be there first on the scene. What do you do in a situation like that?
PFEIFER: I had to be in this building a couple hundred times, so I knew it really well. And I knew the job was to evacuate the building and then regroup on the upper floors to get the people who were trapped by flames and by smoke. And that was the game plan.
But things were happening very, very fast that morning. And as I gave my -- the orders to my firefighters to go up, I also gave another order to evacuate the South Tower a little bit before 9 o'clock. But at 9:03, that second plane hit. So now we have two 110-story buildings with people in them and on fire.
COOPER: Your brother also responded, Lieutenant Kevin Pfeifer. Did you talk much? Did you -- I know you saw him. You write about this.
PFEIFER: When he came in, I was kind of surprised. I thought he was off that day. And then he came up to me, and we looked at each other without saying a word, wondering if we were both going to be OK. And then I ordered him to take his Engine Company 33 to evacuate as they were climbing the stairs and then to regroup on the upper floors. And as he turned around and took his Engine Company, that was the last time I saw my brother, Kevin.
COOPER: Your brother delayed his own evacuation in order to help others.
PFEIFER: After I called to evacuate the North Tower, he was coming down with the other firefighters and civilians, and he stopped on the ninth floor to redirect civilians and firefighters to a safer way out. And I know that because the captain of Engine 7 told me that if it wasn't for my brother, him and his company would have never got out of the building.
COOPER: So you called for the evacuation of the North Tower.
PFEIFER: Yes. The chiefs I was with, when the lobby goes completely dark, said, we've got to get out of here.
COOPER: How many people do you think got out of the building because you made that call when you did?
PFEIFER: I think that day, we had about -- in both buildings in the complex -- we had about 20,000 people. And as we all know, we lost about almost 3,000, which means that we saved 17,000 people that day. And I think that's the number we have to remember.
COOPER: The other thing that's so haunting is, I mean, I've seen the videos of the firefighters arriving, I mean, debris falling, people falling. It's just -- it's unimaginable.
PFEIFER: That sound is just a horrible sound. Where I was in the lobby, where my chief's car was parked, was right outside, and there was a plexiglass awning. And at one point, we would hear this loud thud, and that was someone jumping.
And I only could imagine what choice people had to make between burning to death and then jumping to their death. And then I heard the thud happening again and again, to the point that I ran over, picked up the PA system. And I don't know if it was still working, but I picked it up and I said, "If you could hang on, hold on. My firefighters are coming up to get you."
[20:45:08]
COOPER: You tried to speak to people throughout the tower?
PFEIFER: Yes.
COOPER: To try to tell them not to jump?
PFEIFER: If they could. But what a difficult decision people had to make.
COOPER: Thank you so much for talking to us.
PFEIFER: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Today in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew who fought back in the skies in United Flight 93 were honored. CNN's Randi Kaye visited Shanksville to see how the community is doing 25 years later and see why that quiet feel remains a sacred symbol of extraordinary American coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRAD SHOBER, PRESIDENT, SHANKSVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: I kept wondering where the plane was. The biggest piece that I saw was about the size of a car hood and had a few windows in it. But everything else probably would have fit in a shoebox.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A volunteer firefighter at the time, Brad Shober, remembers standing in the field not long after United Flight 93 went down just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It left a crater 40 feet deep.
SHOBER: I'm standing on the rim of the crater looking at it and I'm thinking like, there should be a plane. And I look at this big round hole and then I noticed you could see the imprints of where the wings were. It was like you -- I always describe it to people. If you took a model airplane and dropped it nose first in the snow, that's the print it would have made and that's what was in the ground.
KAYE: It's amazing to hear you talk about it because it's been 25 years and you talk about it like you just saw it yesterday.
SHOBER: You get to relive it every year and it flashes back like we were just right there.
KAYE (voice-over): Most people here, even decades later, have never forgotten that day. Shanksville Mayor Christopher Baeckel was just 15 and in school when the plane went down.
MAYOR CHRISTOPHER BAECKEL, SHANKSVILLE, PA: I was on the side of the building that overlooked the mushroom cloud and I was like, oh, like, it's somebody's house below. Because we all ran to the window and looked out.
KAYE (voice-over): Shanksville is a small rural town in western Pennsylvania, about an hour outside Pittsburgh, with a population of about 200 or so. Suddenly, the world was watching.
SHOBER: We're kind of thrown into the spotlight, but it's small-town America.
BAECKEL: That day was just a constant stream of who knows what trucks, between CNN and different news organizations, all the different government agencies, FBI, CIA.
KAYE (voice-over): The global interest only magnified the heartbreak here. Baeckel remembers the makeshift memorial his mother started in their front yard.
BAECKEL: Her and one of her friends put a sign out in the front yard which just said something simple like, we will never forget. People started stopping, looking at it, signing their names. Before you knew it, it was filled up, so they had to put another sign up, another sign up.
KAYE (voice-over): Hijackers took control of Flight 93 somewhere over Cleveland with a plan to fly it into a building in Washington, D.C. KAYE: 25 years have passed, but many of the people we met here in Shanksville told us they still find it hard when the anniversary of September 11th comes around each year.
They told us they stay here because of the bond they formed with each other and with the victims' families. They are united in grief.
TERRY SHAFFER, SHANKSVILLE FIRE CHIEF ON 9/11: Every year we open our firehouse on September 11th, and usually the same family members come every year to make sure they visit with us, but they're very genuine and very caring. The people I've met through Flight 93 and 9/11 have been just really awesome, and I don't want to lose them.
KAYE: Is that why you stay?
SHAFFER: Oh, yes.
KAYE (voice-over): On each anniversary, residents along with family members of the victims gather here at the Flight 93 National Memorial just outside town. At the entrance is the Tower of Voices.
DONNA GIBSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FRIENDS OF FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL: The tower is 93 foot tall, and inside the tower are 40 chimes, and each of the chimes are tuned to a different tune to represent the individual voices of the 40 passenger and crew members. But yet when the wind is blowing, it creates a melody to signify the unity of those 40 people on that day.
KAYE (voice-over): The brave passengers and crew banded together that day and fought back against the hijackers until the doomed flight crashed.
KAYE: If you take a look out in the field there, that boulder, that marks the very spot where Flight 93 went down, and essentially now 25 years later, this is still a graveyard.
GIBSON: They recovered DNA from all 40 of the passenger and crew members, so that was able to be given to the family members so that they could have their own burial for them.
KAYE: I mean, just standing here is really powerful.
GIBSON: Yes, it is.
[20:50:06]
KAYE (voice-over): In Shanksville, there is a profound sense of responsibility -- to protect the memory of those who died here and to educate future generations.
KAYE: Why is it important to you to have future generations remember what happened here?
SHOBER: It's our Pearl Harbor. It's our generation's Pearl Harbor. History repeats itself, and you need to learn, you need to remember. You need to remember what happened that day. You need to remember who was involved. You need to remember the heroes of that day.
GIBSON: The hundred million people have been born since September 11th with no lived memory. And we're doing what we can to try to bring this next generation into the fold. Remembering to me is thinking about those 40 people, how courageous they were, leadership, unity, kindness. Those 40 people gave it all for their country.
KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Shanksville.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: What a beautiful community.
Coming up, a son's movie tribute to his late father who died on 9/11 when he was just two years old. As we go to break, a musical tribute from cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Country singer Jennifer Nettles, her rendition of "Go Rest High on That Mountain." Each of the fallen on 9/11 had a family who loved them and who had thought about them and missed them every day for the last 25 years.
[20:55:09]
Elvin Romero worked on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He was the father of two young kids, Gabrielle and Alexander. Here's Alex today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX ROMERO, FATHER KILLED ON 9/11: And my father, Elvin Romero, although I don't remember you, I try to live my life in the way that I was told that you did. To live life fully, to treat everybody with kindness and respect. We all know here that life is painfully too short, and I believe he would want us to all value each day.
To find beauty in the ordinary, in the quiet moments, to go get the ice cream, don't wait for tomorrow. Don't be embarrassed to love boldly and loudly. Don't leave anything left unsaid, and try to make the absolute most of the limited time that we all have here.
I love you. I wish I got to know you. Please keep looking out for all of us and keep us safe. We miss and we love you mucho.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Alex Romero was just two years old when his dad died, and we spoke with him 15 years ago for the first time. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: Yes, I don't really remember anything about it. Sometimes I think it was a better thing that I didn't know him, and then he was taken away from me. Or if it was a worse thing, that I didn't get to spend like the little time I would have known with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Twelve years later, I spoke to him again just the other day. He's now 27 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Thanks so much for doing this.
ROMERO: Yes.
COOPER: How is this anniversary for you?
ROMERO: It's heavier than most. Sort of -- I've listened to your podcast, I've listened to your story a little, and similar to you, I've ran from my grief, I've ran from my pain, and I haven't faced it. I haven't grieved. I had a similar realization a year or two ago.
For the last two or three 9/11 anniversaries I've hit differently. I think this is the first time that I'm facing it head on and really feeling the emotions that for a long time I didn't.
COOPER: When you and I first talked years ago, I want to just play what you said.
ROMERO: I don't really know if it's gotten easier or worse, because I was just -- I never knew anything really. So it was just, after time, it was the same thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It was 15 years ago. When you hear that, what do you think?
ROMERO: It's fascinating how much has changed, and then how little has changed at the same time. So, you know, I have -- my perspective is totally different, but I'm still that 10-year-old boy. I still have that same anger, frustrations, rage, but then a calming acceptance of the loss. And it's taken a while to get there.
COOPER: You talk about waking up to the grief. Did you consciously bury it, or did it just sort of, it was just a natural thing for a child to do?
ROMERO: It was just a natural thing for a child to do, because I had no memories of him. But I started to grieve what I lost, what I didn't have. And --
COOPER: The absence of him. ROMERO: Exactly. So then over time, that's morphed to realizing, no, I did, I can grieve him, even if I don't particularly feel like I know him well. I don't know him as the father. I know stories of him as how he was as a spouse, as a friend, as an uncle, as a family member, but not from the perspective, to me, that matters, obviously, the most.
COOPER: You look a lot like your dad. When you hear that, what do you think?
ROMERO: Now, as I'm aging, I take it more as an honor to try to carry on his legacy, and things of that regard, but for a long time, it just made me angry.
COOPER: Yes.
ROMERO: I didn't want to hear that. I was my own person, and that came from not knowing him. But now I take it almost as a badge of honor, and I'm happy to look like him and carry that on.
COOPER: When this anniversary comes around each year, do you dread it?
ROMERO: I dread it. I -- the second week of August, my body reacts before my mind even gets there. The anger, the anxiety, the just -- the rage, and it's -- I'm not an angry person. So it's just so unique that this one time a year, it really stands out more than others.
That's what I'm dealing with now. Do I want to keep running and trying to, you know, avoid triggers, or do I want to sit with them and be at peace with it?
COOPER: You talked about the anger and rage. What is it anger at, or who, or what?
ROMERO: Just the idea that the world is a messed up place. But now, as I'm growing and I'm aging, I'm realizing, you know, the world's always been filled with death, horror, loss. It's not so much particularly about me and my loss. I'm just accepting the world is filled with crazy things, but the world is also filled with joy. You have to fight to see the positive.
COOPER: Is there anything else you want people to know?
ROMERO: The only thing I'd want people to know is that if you're grieving somebody, it's OK. It's OK to cry. It's OK to be sad. It's OK to be angry. It's OK to feel that. You're not being dramatic. You're not holding on to the past. You're simply human. It's OK.
So that would be just my message. It's OK to feel how you feel.
COOPER: Alex, thank you.
ROMERO: Yes. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And thank you for watching. That's it for us. The news continues, The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
