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Family hears son's WTC 911 calls

BY SAMUEL BRUCHEY | Newsday Staff Writer

March 31, 2006

Handout photograph of September 11, 2001 victim Christopher Hanley. A tape of Christopher's call to 911 after planes struck the World Trade Center's Twin Towers was released to his parents. (Photograph by Charles Eckert from Handout / March 30, 2006)

When they first learned about a recorded call their son Christopher had made to 911 from inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Joe and Marie Hanley did not want to hear his voice.

It would only bring back the terrible violence, chaos and heat of those last, smoke-filled moments before their son's death.

"I wasn't looking forward to it," Joe Hanley said outside his Manhattan apartment Thursday. "But I said I owe it to him to hear it."

After a three-year court battle, the city Friday will release eight hours of 911 calls made on the morning the World Trade Center was attacked. In CDs to be issued by the New York City Law Department, the voices of callers have been redacted and only emergency operators can be heard.

Twenty-eight callers -- including one survivor -- were identified on the tapes. Those families, which include the Hanleys, were notified this week about the tapes and given the opportunity to hear their loved one's unedited call. But in a last-minute legal wrinkle, a temporary stay was granted by a State Supreme Court judge on the release of the names of callers spoken by the operators.

For the 28 families, the calls are more than just a link to the hysteria of the attacks. They are disturbing pieces of evidence likely to support conclusions reached by the 9/11 Commission in July 2004 that the 911 system was overloaded and operators were insufficiently prepared or informed about the attack to assist callers.

Brian Clark experienced this first-hand. An employee of Euro Brokers, Clark, 58, of Mahwah, N.J., who was in the south tower, was put on hold twice and had to speak to three separate operators during a 911 call that lasted more than three minutes.

"That was a frustration at the time," said Clark, who was not among the 28 people identified on the tapes.

The 9/11 Commission's report concluded some callers were unable to get through to emergency operators and heard an "all circuits busy" message. Transfers to FDNY dispatch operators were delayed or disconnected. And, because they were not given information by NYPD aviation officers, operators did not know the magnitude of the attack, were unable to tell callers if they were above or below the fire, or if it was possible to reach the roof of either tower.

"They didn't know what they were dealing with," said Norman Siegel, a Manhattan attorney who represents the nine victims' families who joined the New York Times in the 2002 lawsuit against the city's Fire Department that successfully forced the release of the tapes.

Monica Gabrielle, a member of one of those families, said she hopes making the tapes public will lead to improvements to coordinated response, evacuation and 911 protocol.

"My hope is that we can push for the obvious changes that need to be made," said Gabrielle of Baiting Hollow, whose husband, Richard, did not escape the south tower.

Debra Andreacchio, who was notified that her brother, Jack, had called 911 before dying in the attack, said the tapes should have been released years ago.

"It's very distressing that it's taken this long," she said. "9/11 will be with us forever. It constantly keeps going."

Sarah Garland contributed to this story.