SEPT. 11 COMMISSION Report cites flawed communications

Some of the report was based on first-person accounts of survivors.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rescuers on Sept. 11, 2001, were forced to make rapid-fire, life-and-death decisions based on incomplete communications, according to a new report by the federal commission investigating the attacks.
Two days of hearings by the commission began today with a stark warning from the commission's staff: "The details we will be presenting may be painful for you to see and hear."
Within 20 minutes of the hearing's start, family members of the World Trade Center victims were dabbing their eyes and offering one another support. More than 2,700 people were killed in the attack.
There were scores of family members in the audience as the commission showed footage of the first hijacked plane slamming into the tower, and played videotaped testimony from survivors.
Revisiting the jarring sights and sounds of the attack and its aftermath was a vivid departure from previous commission hearings. Some of the videotapes showed the confusing, rushed recovery efforts.
One critical issue -- early public-address announcements in Tower 2 telling workers to remain at their offices -- was recounted verbatim by a survivor.
The panel's findings on planning and emergency response set the stage for two days of dramatic testimony at the New School University, about 11/2 miles from ground zero. Several current and former New York officials were to testify, including former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Survivor accounts
A 26-page staff report reconstructing events through first-person survivor accounts found:
UA fire chief failed to notice a critical second button on a device that carried radio signals up the buildings, leaving the chief to wrongly think the equipment wasn't working. It was, and was later used by other fire personnel in Tower 2.
UOther communications gaps that day included a lack of coordination between the police and fire departments, a crush of radio traffic that sometimes blotted out information, and an inability to share information effectively between on-scene officials and 911 phone operators.
UA helicopter rescue of trapped workers on the upper floors was not a practical option because of various equipment attached to the roof, and the heat and smoke of the fire below.
UAlthough many of the safety procedures put in place after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center helped employees escape, others proved ineffective or possibly even dangerous in response to a very different type of attack eight years later.
UOne survivor, Brian Clark, president of Euro Brokers Relief Fund, said the PA system advised: "Your attention please; ladies and gentlemen, Building 2 is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building 2. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may use the re-entry doors and the elevators to return to your office. Repeat, Building 2 is secure."
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