Family Life

02.11.10 | FL News Team

The only known aerial photographs of the World Trade Center as it collapsed on September 11th, 2001 have been released to the public. The photos taken from a police helicopter show the twin towers falling amid huge billowing clouds of smoke, dust and debris that envelop downtown Manhattan. The 13 images were among thousands of pictures news organizations had sought from the government under the Freedom of Information Act. Other photographs of the disaster were taken from satellites, rooftops and other aircraft. However, these are the only ones known to have been taken up close from directly overhead.

Nearly three-thousand people died when terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the twin towers on 9-11. The aerial photographs had been partially published in the past but now are publicly available to researchers. The photos are available online at abcnews.go.com.