'I was there'

The personal accounts of Karl Warmington ­ a Jamaican vacationing in New York

"I heard an unusually loud engine, I looked up and saw the belly of a plane brushing the tops of buildings close to the towers "

By Barbara Ellington
Staff Reporter

Like many other Jamaicans, Karl Warmington went to the United States for his summer vacation and on the morning of September 11, decided to drive to Manhattan to visit friends before heading home.

He had just got out of the car and was standing on the sidewalk one block away from the World Trade Centre buildings when, "I heard an unusually loud engine, I looked up and saw the belly of a plane brushing the top
of buildings close to the towers," Warmington told The Gleaner.

His heart began to race and his first thoughts were that the plane had lost control but then came the explosion and he shouted. To Warmington, the events seemed like a scene from a movie and thinking quickly, he opened the car door and grabbed his Canon EOS 3000 camera and began taking pictures.

"I had a pair of binoculars in the car and kept looking from camera lens to the binoculars. Another friend, who was in the car with me said this is war, as I looked up and saw the big hole in the tower. I continued clicking away and then the other plane hit."

At that point, Warmington decided to leave the area as people had begun to run away and shout and scream. He continued taking pictures while his friend drove but once safely home, he could not bring himself to watch the unfolding events throughout the day. But he returned to the Brooklyn Bridge the next day to capture some more of the horrifying scenes on film.

"Looking across the East side at the skyline where the twin towers were located the day before, would be like going downtown Kingston and not seeing the Bank of Jamaica or the Scotia Centre," he said. It was then that the reality of what happened sunk in.

Warmington said he was scheduled to return to Jamaica the Saturday after the attack but when he got to the airport the lines were so long he had to return home.

Demonstrating true Jamaican initiative, Warmington went back to the airport shortly after midnight on Saturday and slept there overnight in order to be first in line for the first flight on Sunday morning.

Security was tight; there were US marshalls assisting with check-in, state troopers and members of the New York police force. In spite of the horrible tragedy, Warmington says he would go back to New York tomorrow.

REUTERS PHOTOS Top Right: The pain of the attack took its toll on this woman as she grasps her flag and cries.

Above: World Trade Center was set ablaze after suicide attacks by terrorists.