2002 Photo Contest, Spot News, 1st prize
Photographer

Robert Clark

Aurora Photos for Time

11 September, 2001

United Airlines Flight 175 approaches the World Trade Center above the Manhattan skyline, crashing into its south tower. The impact of the Boeing 767 ignites an explosive fire, as black smoke continues to stream from the north tower, hit earlier by another hijacked airplane. The 9/11 attacks came in the morning, as many of the 40,000 people who worked in the complex arrived at their offices. Two more American airplanes were hijacked the same day, one flew into the Pentagon in Washington, another crashed to the ground in Pennsylvania, killing all on board. US president George W. Bush accused members of the Al Qaeda network of carrying out the attack under the orders of Osama bin Laden. After Robert Clark saw the live television coverage of the first plane's strike, he hurried to the roof of his flat from which he witnessed and photographed the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, using a motor-driven camera. He offered his pictures to Time magazine, but getting his film from his Brooklyn apartment to the Time-Life building in Midtown Manhattan proved something of a challenge. Time published his pictures on a double page of their special edition on the attacks in New York and Washington DC.

About the photographer

Robert Clark

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