CBC Digital Archives

Witnesses to 9/11

It was a day whose horrific events would be forever seared into the memories of millions. On Sept. 11, 2001, a group of Islamic extremists hijacked U.S. passenger jets and flew them into the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Ten years later, we present eyewitness accounts and survivors' stories from the day that has become known as 9/11.

Richard Lee, Bryce Storey and Mike Dilworth are three Canadian friends in their 20s who moved to New York City together to find success as investment bankers. On Sept. 11, 2001, they were all near the World Trade Center during the shocking attacks on the twin towers. Just two days after the horrifying event, CBC-TV's The National talks to the trio about what they saw. Lee fights back tears as he describes what it was like to watch people jump to their deaths from the towers. "It just echoes in my mind all the time," he says.
• USA Today estimated that at least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

• While the media focused a great deal of attention on the jumpers at the time of the tragedy, very little has been mentioned about them in later years, possibly because of the horrific nature of the act. As a New York Times article published on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks explained, "Those who came through the windows of the towers provided the starkest, most harrowing evidence of the desperate conditions inside. Since then, though, they have largely vanished from consideration. Newspapers rarely publish images of the falling people...The 9/11 Commission, which has compiled the most detailed history of the day, mentioned those who jumped only as they affected the people on the streets below."

Medium: Television
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: Sept. 13, 2001
Guest(s): Mike Dilworth, Richard Lee, Bryce Storey
Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Leslie MacKinnon
Duration: 8:58

Last updated: February 17, 2012

Page consulted on April 2, 2013

All Clips from this Topic

Related Content

Sept. 11, 2001: Attack on America

It was a day whose horrific events would be forever seared into the memories of millions. On S...

2001: Air traffic halted after four planes hi...

Following four airplane hijackings in the United States, thousands of travelers are stranded i...

1989: Canadians flee troubled Beijing

Three days after the Tiananmen Square massacre, the first planeload of Canadians has left Chin...

1993: World Trade Center bombed

A suspected car bomb triggers a massive explosion underneath New York's World Trade Center in ...

Universal surveillance

Since Sept. 11, 2001, citizens are on camera 24/7 in the name of stopping terrorism.

NATO: Guarding the peace in Afghanistan

For the first time ever, the NATO forces embark on a mission outside of Europe.