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TESTIMONY OF ALAN REISS
BEFORE THE
NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES
May 18, 2004

Thank you Chairman Kean, Vice Chairman Hamilton and distinguished members
of the Commission for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Alan
Reiss and I am currently the Deputy Director of Aviation at The Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey. Prior to assuming my current position, I was the Director of the
agency’s World Trade Department, which operated the World Trade Center. Mr.
Chairman, I know that you are familiar with the Port Authority, but for the benefit of the
other members of the Commission, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
operates many of the busiest and most important transportation links in the New York-
New Jersey region. Most important to the Commission’s work, the Port Authority built
and operated the World Trade Center and continues to own the 16-acre World Trade
Center site in Lower Manhattan.

<snip>

Mr. Chairman, on the morning of 9/11, I was on the World Trade Center
Concourse when the first plane hit. I responded immediately to the World Trade Center
Police Desk, which was in the immediate vicinity on the plaza level and was told that the
police had a report that a missile had been fired at the World Trade Center from the
Woolworth building. A PA detective and I immediately left the police desk and headed
out to the plaza through Five WTC to see what had really happened. We observed the
north face of the north tower with a large gash across it and multiple floors fully engulfed
in flames. We realized that this was not a missile, based on what our minds could
conceive of the damage, and then we noticed part of a large plane’s wheel assembly on
the plaza. We dragged the assembly back to the police desk and informed the desk
officer that a large commercial plane had hit the tower. I then assisted the desk officer in
answering calls, checking with the fire command stations and OCC and keeping the desk
officer informed as to the situation. We were stunned when 2 WTC was also hit by a
plane. The police officers and I rushed to the rear emergency exit and looked up at the
tower and realized we were at war. I remained at the police desk until Two World Trade
Center collapsed without warning, trapping me and the officers at the police desk. We
thought the loss of power accompanied by this tremendous roar was a secondary attack, a
bomb. After we finally escaped, I made my way to the police command post on West
Street, and it was only as I walked west on Barclay Street, that I realized through the
smoke that Two World Trade Center had collapsed. At the Port Authority Police’s
request, I then returned to the vicinity of 6 World Trade Center to assess the condition of
One World Trade Center with then-Captain Whitaker, commander of the PA Police at the
WTC, just as the tower began to collapse. We were both enveloped by this churning
black debris cloud as we ran north on West Street. It was darker than any burning
building I have ever been in as a volunteer fireman, and it was next to impossible to
breathe due to the debris in the air.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/9-11_commission/040518-reiss.pdf