The video shows both planes hitting the World Trade Center.
NEW YORK (AP) – ABC News said Wednesday it had acquired the only known video footage of both planes hitting the World Trade Center, and expects to begin airing it on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Its agreement ends a dispute over the footage that had scuttled ABC’s plans to show it nationally on “This Week” on Sunday.
ABC News, which thought last week it was getting the rare footage for free, paid for its use. Neither ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider nor lawyer Bob Reicher, representing owners of the tape, would reveal how much.
The first expected airing is Thursday on “Good Morning America,” Schneider said.
The videotape was shot by an immigrant construction worker who had been making a sightseeing tape for a friend, and its existence was not widely known until reported in The New York Times on Sunday. The cameraman, Pavel Hlava, was riding in a sport utility vehicle from Brooklyn to Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
The first impact was caught on tape as the vehicle was approaching the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Upon emerging from the tunnel, Hlava pointed the camera at the burning north tower and caught the second plane hitting the World Trade Center.
Only one other tape, by French filmmakers who had been making a documentary on firefighters, is known to exist that shows the first plane hitting the tower. No other known video shows both impacts. Federal officials are said to have interest in the video because it could help determine the speed of the first plane as it approached the World Trade Center.
ABC made plans to air it Sunday morning on “This Week.” It was shown in New York City, where the Sunday political show airs earlier than in the rest of the country, and host George Stephanopoulos made a point of saying the network hadn’t paid for it.
ABC immediately heard from Walter Karling, a freelance photographer acting as an agent for Hlava, who called into question ABC’s right to air the video. ABC quickly rearranged the broadcast so the footage was not shown in the rest of the country, Schneider said.
Karling said that ABC was made aware on Friday that it did not have the right to show the video for free. Schneider said that ABC believed it was dealing “in good faith” with the person responsible for the video.
Karling said he was working to get the video released and to protect Hlava’s rights to the material.
“Any financial remuneration is of last and least importance,” he said.
Rights to air the video were offered to both CBS and NBC News over the weekend, according to executives at both networks who spoke on condition of anonymity. At one network, the figure of $40,000 was mentioned. At another, talk of a six-figure fee was bandied about.
Both networks rejected the overtures.
Although the Hlava video is unique, all the networks have compelling footage of the second plane hitting the towers, the buildings burning and eventually collapsing. Because that video is upsetting to many viewers, the networks have used it very judiciously since after the first few days following the Sept. 11 attacks.
For that reason – despite the curiosity value – the monetary value of Hlava’s tape was considered limited by some network executives because of limited opportunities to show it.
ABC News was interested “because it’s a unique piece of video,” Schneider said. “It’s an important historical document.”
AP-ES-09-10-03 1858EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
