INTERVIEW: CBS 8.52 am live feed Bryan Gumble talking to a man named ‘Stuart’:”we have an eyewitness on the phone....."
Transcription of the first interview by Bryan that day.
It was phone-recorded audio live feed while first images of Tower 1 played on screen,
so essentially, these are the first CBS moments regarding the 911 atrocity.
and can be heard at link:
http://www.archive.org/details/cbs200109110831-0912

BG. Whats your name?
Stuart
BG. Stuart. Where are you right now?
S. I’m working at a restaurant in Soho.
BG. alright. so. tell us what you saw if you would.
S. I literally - I was waiting a table and I literally saw...it seemed to be a like a small plane...I just heard a couple of noises and it looked like it just bounced off the building and then I heard a....I just saw a huge like ball of fire on top, and then the smoke seemed to simmer down and it just, um, you know, alot of smoke just coming out and, thats pretty much the extent of what I saw.
BG. A private aircraft?
S that, umm, I’m not sure if it was....it just seemed like a smaller plane and I don’t think it was anything commercial.
BG did you....could you tell us whether or not it was a prop or a jet?
S. I honestly don’t know. It happened too quickly.
BG. umm...Characterize the scene down there for us right now if you would.
S. Excuse me?
BG can you tell us about the scene down there right now?
S um. right now people are just on the street looking at the building....the building.... Theres just alot of smoke, um., its not too crazy down where I am.
BG How far away specifically form the WTC are you?
S I’m actually on Thompson st. North. I’m not too too far
BG its 8.54 right now. Can you tell me when this happened exactly?
S. I would have to say about 10 minutes ago.
BG About 10 minutes ago?
S yeah.
BG is this normally an area that is heavily trafficked by aircraft, or is this area that aircraft steer pretty clear of?
S Y’know, I really can’t really don’t know that information.
BG. Uhuh. Is this,....is there much panic around there?
S. um...just people in the street coming out looking. There was panic at first but it seemed to slow down right now.
BG. we’re looking at a picture of a great deal of smoke coming out if the building...um can you please tell us, was there.....after you heard this crash, was there um, smoke immediately??
S. um. No There was like a big ball of fire on the , um top of the building, and then as that simmered down and and there seemed to be a ton of smoke and....so..it seemed pretty much immediately -
BG. I hear fire engines in the background.um. Has that been going since you saw this crash or is that..., kind of late arrival?
S. it happened pretty much after we heard the crash, pretty quick, yeah, it was pretty quick when we heard the sirens you know., people acting on it.
BG Did you - were you looking up as the plane approached the building or did you - did it only call your attention , catch your attention after it crashed into the WTC?
S.I heard sort of a crashing sound, and I looked up quick enough to actually see something go into the building, but everything happened so fast I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at.
BG So there is no way you can know whether or not the plane seemed to be in trouble, before it crashed into the building?
S. No no. No I , no, I couldn’t tell.
BG. Its hard for us to tell from the picture whether we are seeing just, ah, how far , ah, down from the top that the plane crashed. Have you any better eyesight to it?
S. um not really. All I know is it definitely wasn’t the top top of the building because that seems to be intact from what I saw, um., I really can’t tell.
BG Can you tell us anything about how much debris , um, came crashing to the ground? and whether or not anybody was hurt as a result?
S. I honestly don’t know. I just saw alot of what just looked like tumbling glass maybe, just alot of stuff falling down, but, not.....I can’t tell you debris-wise
BG Uhmmm. Obviously the timing of this was...is important...um, it comes before nine o'clock, um, perhaps , perhaps, and we say that in hopeful fashion, perhaps not everybody was at work...um...because if that building was in-fact crowded with workers , we are looking at probably some casualties and injuries of considerable, ah, proportions but, um, right now theres no way of telling that. Um, Mister, ah...Stuart, just one more time and I know I am exhausting what little information you have, but we have people joining us every moment, take me through again where you were when this happened and what you saw.

S.um..I was serving tables at a restaurant and I just heard sort of like a boom sound....an almost sound.....almost like an earthquake sound , and I looked up and I saw literally some thing like....it might’ve even bounced off a little bit of the building and next thing I know I saw a big ball of fire on the top of the building and, just lots of smoke and what looked like to me, glass going down.....it happened really quick ....its really hard to..

BG. OK. Stuart, I thank you very much. I appreciate that sir.

S. Ok. My pleasure.

[end of interview]

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