Do we really need to hear audio files that reveal Air Traffic horror of 9/11?

No, I do not. I have found from a trauma expert at Georgetown University (part of the non-stop coverage going on here in DC) that of the three common reactions to the trauma of 9/11, I fall into the avoidance camp.

I was shaving and watching our local news, when the first plane hit. After the initial shock, I woke my wife to come listen and watch the news. We both witnessed the second airplane strike the Twin Towers and I told my wife, “we are under attack”. I watched, like many other Americans, at the horror taking place before my eyes.

I did wonder what was happening onboard the airplanes before the final strikes. I did not know this then, but the tapes I am hearing now, put the final pieces of the puzzle together.

Was releasing the audio before the strikes necessary? No. But, just for me, I now understand the horror these people went through, before their death.

God will bless the dead and their families. One day, they will all be united together once again.

I don’t think anybody “needs” to, but plenty of people want to. It’s just the way certain folks minds are wired & boy do the powers that be in the mass media know how to plug into that shit. Terrible as that days events surely were, I don’t think horrific news is ever going to be buried from our consciousness. Whether we like it or not, the sickening images & sounds of that day are etched into the minds of most who witnessed them in some form or another. After all, who could possibly forget?

I thought there were already such tapes released, no? Maybe just the transcripts. I don’t “feel a need”, but it doesn’t bother me that it’s available, and I can see someone being interested. It was a fascinating event.

I was talking about this is another website. I think people want to move on, but when it keeps being brought up, it makes it harder. People that have lost their friends have said they don’t like seeing it in the media.

NPR has been non-stop 9/11 all week and I am really finding it difficult. It feels too close to be reminded of it so much. I guess it’s o.k. that the tapes are available for those who want to listen but I don’t.

How else would we celebrate our national day of fear? I think the fact that they’re being released to coincide with the 10th anniversary speaks volumes regarding what this is about.

I recently saw a special about 9/11 that heard some of the audio. Between the flight attendant who made a call to alert about the hijacking, and some of what the terrorists were saying over loudspeakers from the cockpit to passengers, and I actually was very interested in listening to the tapes. I compared/contrasted it to the call made by Captain Scully in his emergency situation when he needed to land on the river in NY. The incredible professionalism and knowledge exhibited by Scully and the tower was just amazing to me. There was a lack of it with the 9/11 tapes. I would not say there was total incompetence or anything, but it seemed there was not enough training or knowledge in the situation. Although, I will say some in the military did seem to have the response I would look for, but unfortunately our radar systems couldn’t detect such low flying planes.

I watch very few of the remembering 9/11 shows, I find it overwhelming. I never want to see film again of people jumping out of the buildings, I find it so horrific and sad. But, this special I saw gave the background of what went on behind the scenes, and that I did desire to see. I will probably not watch anything like it again for a long time, but I am glad I saw the documentary once.

I still have not seen a report or recap by the mainstream media about how the person in charge of the subways that morning got everyone out safely by ordering everyone off the platforms at the time the first tower was hit. Not allowing anyone to get off the trains at the stops near the towers, and ordering everyone onto the trains, whether it was the train they were waiting for or not, to get patrons away from the location. I want that guy to get more national credit.

@JLeslie I saw one the other day where they interviewed the head of Secret Service who evacuated the White House and he described the empty feeling he had standing there as they counted down the minutes and then the seconds out as the planes approached DC not knowing where they were going to hit.

@cruiser When I heard a plane hit the pentagon I thought the person who told me was joking, because I had said to them I called my mom to make sure she was not in a government building in or near DC as soon as I saw the second plane hit the tower in NY. That moment gave me the sickest feeling because I had been so right. Even though watching the second tower being hit created a sense in me that there would be multiple more attacks, the knowledge of the pentagon really drove home that it might be happening all over the US. It was like going from numb and disbelief, even though I knew it was happening, to a sort of chaotic uncontrolled reality.

@JLeslie I felt the same way. I felt terrorized when I saw the 2nd plane hit the tower. I called my husband at work and asked if he was coming home. He was planning on staying. I called him back when the Pentagon got hit and said “I think we’re at war”...he said the office was closing. He was home in minutes. We live in Wis

We had family stranded all over the place…on the East coast and on the West coast.

No, I don’t want to listen to the tape @Cruiser. I recall family members that were asked if they wanted to listen or not. I recall a wife that was interviewed that had listened. She wished she hadn’t.

@SpatzieLover Well, my mom was working in the offices that are leased out in a private building, not in a government building that day, so once I knew that I was not panicked about her well being, but still it did feel like anything could happen next. I do think maybe she was released from work early on 9/11 though? I don’t remember? In the DC metro area there is always huge concern for traffic, I don’t remember exactly how the government and other business handled the workday and early closings.

My daughter had visited NYC with some of her friends, and had lunch at “Windows on The World” raesturant on September 10th. On the 11th, they were stuck at the airport when all flights were grounded and had to walk back into the City. I didn’t realize how deeply this all affected me until she walked in the door about a week later. I grabbed her and wouldn’t let go. They finally had to pry me away from her.

My college closed down at 11 a.m and we all went home. My husband drove home from his business because he was worried about our son who had started at NYU the week before. When he moved into his 10th floor room he said, “And I can see the Twin Towers from my room.”

No, Not in the least. I believe we are what we think, and, once a visual or audio seed is “implanted” in our mind it becomes too easy to become haunted by that voice or vision.

I think we can all imagine what those last hours, minutes must have felt like to those poor souls involved.

To relive something like that is, at the least a form of unsavory voyerism at the worst rather sadistic and obscene.

Actually it was the 9/11 event/coverage that caused me to drop out of all TV viewing and media. I have only watched DVD’s of my choice for 10 years now.

One good thing about them is they help provide proof against the silly conspiracy theories.