It was a Tuesday. Clear blue skies over Manhattan, the kind of weather pilots call "severe clear." Then, at 8:46 a.m., everything changed. Most of us didn't see the first hit live. We saw the aftermath—the jagged, smoking hole in the North Tower. But when that second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, sliced into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m., the whole world was watching. It’s arguably the most analyzed piece of film in human history.
Honestly, it’s hard to overstate how much that specific video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers fundamentally altered how we consume news. Before that moment, "viral" wasn't really a thing. Digital cameras were clunky. Most people still used film. Yet, because the cameras were already trained on the North Tower, the second impact became a shared global trauma, broadcast in real-time. It wasn't just a news report; it was a collective witness to a tectonic shift in geopolitics.
The Naudet Brothers and the Rarity of the First Hit
You’ve likely seen the footage of the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, hitting the North Tower. It’s grainy. It’s shaky. It feels accidental because, well, the filming was an accident. Jules and Gédéon Naudet, French filmmakers, were actually following a rookie firefighter named Antonios "Tony" Benetatos for a documentary. They were just checking a gas leak on the corner of Church and Lispenard Streets.
Suddenly, a roar.
Jules Naudet swung his camera up just in time to catch the silver flash of the Boeing 767 disappearing into the building. For a long time, people thought this was the only video of the first hit. It wasn't. Years later, footage from a "tallyho" camera and a few other amateur angles surfaced, but the Naudet film remains the definitive record of the moment the tragedy began. It’s raw. It lacks the polish of a news broadcast, which is exactly why it’s so terrifying.
Why the Second Impact Video Hits Differently
By the time the second plane arrived, every major network—CNN, ABC, NBC—was live. This is where the video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers moves from a "freak accident" narrative to something much darker.
If you watch the raw feeds from that morning, the anchors are speculating. Was it a mechanical failure? A small private plane? Then, in the background of a dozen different shots, United 175 appears. It’s moving fast—about 590 mph. It banks steeply. This wasn't a pilot trying to avoid a collision; it was a deliberate, high-speed maneuver.
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The physics shown in the video are staggering. The South Tower didn't just absorb the hit; the plane’s entry created a massive fireball as 10,000 gallons of jet fuel ignited instantly. Because the South Tower was struck lower and at an angle compared to the North Tower, the visual of the explosion was even more dramatic. It’s the image that burned into the psyche of a generation.
The Evolution of Footage: From VHS to 4K Remasters
Back in 2001, we were looking at standard definition. 480i. Fuzzy edges.
Fast forward to today, and the way we view this footage has changed because of technology. Amateur videographers like Evan Kuzans or Jim Huibregtse have had their original tapes digitized and, in some cases, AI-upscaled. This is a controversial area. Some people find the "smoothing" of AI-upscaled 9/11 footage to be eerie or disrespectful, while others argue it’s necessary for historical preservation.
There’s a specific video shot from a New York University dorm room that surfaced much later than the others. It shows the sheer confusion of students who started filming because they heard the first explosion. Their commentary—the transition from "Whoa, look at that smoke" to screams of "Oh my God!" as the second plane hits—is a brutal reminder of the human element. It reminds us that behind every pixel of that video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers, there were thousands of people living through a nightmare.
Debunking the Digital "Glitch" Myths
Because this footage is so widely viewed, it’s become a magnet for conspiracy theories. You've probably seen the "no planes" or "hologram" theories floating around the darker corners of the internet. They usually point to "glitches" in the video as "proof."
Let’s be real: 2001 broadcast technology was prone to interlacing issues.
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When a plane moves at 500+ mph across a screen being recorded on a CCD sensor or onto magnetic tape, you get motion blur. You get artifacts. Conspiracy theorists often point to a "nose-out" glitch where the nose of the plane appears to exit the other side of the building intact. In reality, that's just debris and a massive pressure wave punching through the glass and steel, obscured by low-resolution video processing.
Architectural experts and physicists have spent decades verifying the structural failures shown in these videos. NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used every available angle of the video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers to map exactly how the perimeter columns failed. The video is the evidence. It’s the data.
The Psychological Impact of Re-watching
Why do we keep looking? It’s a question psychologists have wrestled with for twenty-five years. There’s a phenomenon called "flashbulb memory." It’s a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential news was heard.
For many, watching the video is a way of processing a world that stopped making sense that morning. However, experts warn about the toll this takes. Dr. Roxane Cohen Silver at UC Irvine has studied the effects of repeated exposure to 9/11 media. Her research suggested that people who watched several hours of 9/11 coverage in the days following the attacks often reported higher levels of stress and trauma than those who were actually there but didn't watch the loop on TV.
The loop. That’s the key.
On September 11, the news networks didn't know when to stop. They played the hit over and over. And over. It became a visual rhythm of destruction.
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Historical Preservation and the 9/11 Memorial Museum
If you visit the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the use of video is very intentional. They don't just blast the impact footage on giant screens as you walk in. It’s tucked away in specific areas where you have to choose to see it.
They understand that for many, the video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers is a trigger. But they also know it’s the most important primary source document of the 21st century. The museum has archived over 2,000 hours of footage. This includes everything from the "standard" news clips to "lost" footage found on old camcorders in basements decades later.
One of the most haunting videos isn't of the planes at all, but of the people in the streets. Their faces. The way they all look up at once. That collective "gasp" captured on tape is arguably more powerful than the fireball itself. It shows the moment innocence was lost.
What We Can Learn From the Records
- Media Literacy Matters: Understanding how video is edited and compressed helps dismiss wild conspiracy theories.
- The Power of Amateur Journalism: 9/11 was the first major event where "regular people" with cameras provided as much historical value as professional journalists.
- Technological Limitations: We have to remember that 2001 tech wasn't 2026 tech. Those "glitches" are just how old TVs worked.
- Respect for the Victims: Every time we watch, we’re seeing the final moments of thousands of lives. Treating the footage as a historical record rather than "content" is vital.
Moving Forward With the History
We live in an age of deepfakes and generative AI, making the original, raw video of the plane hitting the Twin Towers even more precious. It is a grounding wire to the truth. When history starts to feel like a movie or a distant story, these videos pull us back to the reality of the wind, the noise, and the sheer scale of the event.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the history or the technical aspects of that day, don't just scroll through social media clips. Go to the sources that value context.
Actionable Steps for the Informed Viewer:
- Check the Source: If you see a "new" angle of the 9/11 attacks on social media, verify it through the 9/11 Memorial & Museum archives or reputable news databases like the Associated Press.
- Study the NIST Reports: If you’re curious about the "how" and "why" of the buildings' collapse, read the NIST NCSTAR 1 reports. They explain the physics using the video evidence in a way that’s much more reliable than a YouTube documentary.
- Support Digital Archiving: Organizations like the Internet Archive work tirelessly to preserve the original news broadcasts from that morning. These are essential for seeing the "as it happened" context without modern filters.
- Mind Your Mental Health: It’s okay to look away. Understanding the history doesn't require subjecting yourself to repetitive trauma.
The images of that day are a heavy burden for the collective memory, but they serve as a permanent reminder of a day the world stopped—and then started again in a completely different direction.