Twenty-two years ago, terrorists hijacked four American commercial airplanes, according to the Department of Defense. Two were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, another into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the last, United Airlines Flight 93, was headed for Washington, D.C. Courageous passengers thwarted that plan, and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, sparing countless lives.
In a shocking development, a previously unseen video of the September 11 attacks has surfaced on YouTube, capturing a rare angle of the second plane striking the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The uploader of the video claims that it was “accidentally left private” for 20 years.
The nearly nine-minute-long video was made public last year and shows events most Americans have seen numerous times but from a different, and strikingly clear, angle.
The video was filmed by Kevin Westley, a combat veteran who served in the 2003 Iraq war as an aircraft commander, as he stood on a boat, surrounded by a crowd of stunned spectators, according to National World.
The footage initially centers on the flames engulfing the North Tower, but then dramatically shifts just in time to catch the second plane as it makes its direct approach into the South Tower.
“I posted this video in the 2000’s but accidently[sic] left it private for until now… I noticed the video was private and made it public,” said Westley, who made the video public in February 2022.
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While the emergence of the footage is noteworthy in its own right, critics argue that the circumstances surrounding its 20-year absence from public view raise unsettling questions.
This begs the question: How could such significant footage be accidentally left private for 20 years? With the anniversary of 9/11 regularly commemorated and innumerable documentaries and investigations still examining every facet of that day, it’s bewildering to think that this footage could have remained unshared for two decades due to a simple “accident.”