NEW YORK, 29 August 2003 — They have been dead for two years, but the voices of at least 36 victims of the World Trade Center bombings come alive again with crisp professionalism in transcripts of taped conversations and frantic telephone calls made to and from the Port Authority that day, news reports said yesterday.
The aircraft attacks that destroyed the center’s twin towers killed nearly 2,800 people, including more than 300 police officers and firefighters.
The 36 victims identified in the 260 hours of tape being released yesterday include 19 of a total of 37 officers then working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who were killed in the attacks.
The Port Authority is the agency responsible for airports and tunnels in the region and the owner of the site on which the center’s 110-story twin towers were built.
Other people identified in the tape are 14 civilians of the Port Authority and three others who were not employees of the agency.
The Port Authority was to release 2,000 pages of transcripts of the tape under court order. The release was sought by news organizations.
“It’s absolutely stunning the degree of objectivity and professional interchange among everyone on the transcripts to get the deed done — to evacuate as many people as possible and rescue the injured,” said Lillian Valenti, director of the Office of Medical Services of New York City and a survivor of the attack.
Valenti is overseeing the review of the tape on behalf of families of the victims.
On Wednesday, the Port Authority issued a warning to the media to “refrain from publishing gruesome, gratuitous or personal details”.
“We also hope and expect the media will show appropriate respect for the families of heroes of Sept. 11, particularly as the second anniversary of that day approaches,” the Port Authority said.
News reports said the transcripts include recordings from radio transmissions between Port Authority’s police officers and civilian employees for department stores located inside the twin towers, and between the police command at the World Trade Center and Port Authority officials in New Jersey.
Newsday, a suburban newspaper, said some of the callers in the tape were civilians trapped in the twin towers trying to get assistance from police.
“You can really see why and how the evacuation of the complex was so successful,” said Catherine P. Pavelec, the Port Authority’s manager of administration and protocol.
“People are on their game, professional, no panic,” she told Newsday. “They’re there to do a job, and they to it.”
Pavelec, a survivor of the attacks, said, “You get a very real sense of how many people needed help and how short a period of time we had to help them.”
Port Authority said at least 25,000 people were successfully evacuated from the 110-story twin towers after terrorists slammed hijacked commercial airplanes against the towers early morning on Sept. 11, 2001.
