http://www.cincypost.com/attack/cissel091201.html
'I saw the faces of some of the passengers'
By Kimball Perry, Post staff reporter
As former Cincinnatian James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon Tuesday morning, he saw the blur of a commercial jet and wondered why it was flying so low. ''Right about the time it was crossing over the highway, it kind of dawned on me what was happening,'' said Cissell, son of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Jim Cissell.
In the next blink of an eye, he realized he had a front-row seat to history, as the plane plowed into the Pentagon, sending a fireball exploding into the air and scattering debris - including a tire rim suspected of belonging to the airplane - past his car.
''I've been in life and death situations before ... You can't count your thoughts. It was very surreal. It wasn't slo-mo. It was surreal. I think I was in kind of a state of shock,'' Cissell said.
A former photojournalist who, for the last three years, has worked for the Freedom Forum Museum in Arlington, Va., Cissell was listening to his car radio and the news of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center while sitting in traffic.
''I was thinking, 'If anything happens to the Pentagon right now, I don't have my (photo) gear with me,' '' he said today.
He usually cuts through the Pentagon parking lot to get to work, but was stuck on Interstate 110 because of extra security at the Pentagon following the attack on the World Trade Center.
''Out of my peripheral vision,'' Cissell said, ''I saw this plane coming in and it was low - and getting lower.
''If you couldn't touch it from standing on the highway, you could by standing on your car.''
In the next seconds dozens of things flashed through his mind.
''I thought, 'This isn't really happening. That is a big plane.' Then I saw the faces of some of the passengers on board,'' Cissell said.
''I remember thinking, 'The World Trade Center was just the beginning, there's going to be more.' ''
He remembers the helipad the plane flew over before smacking into the Pentagon was close enough to him that ''I could have thrown a baseball at it and hit it.''
Then the plane, which was taking out telephone and power lines on its way in, hit the building.
While he remembers seeing the crash, Cissell remembers none of the sounds.
''It came in in a perfectly straight line,'' he said.
''It didn't slow down. I want to say it accelerated. It just shot straight in.''
Publication date: 09-12-01
'I saw the faces of some of the passengers'
By Kimball Perry, Post staff reporter
As former Cincinnatian James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon Tuesday morning, he saw the blur of a commercial jet and wondered why it was flying so low. ''Right about the time it was crossing over the highway, it kind of dawned on me what was happening,'' said Cissell, son of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Jim Cissell.
In the next blink of an eye, he realized he had a front-row seat to history, as the plane plowed into the Pentagon, sending a fireball exploding into the air and scattering debris - including a tire rim suspected of belonging to the airplane - past his car.
''I've been in life and death situations before ... You can't count your thoughts. It was very surreal. It wasn't slo-mo. It was surreal. I think I was in kind of a state of shock,'' Cissell said.
A former photojournalist who, for the last three years, has worked for the Freedom Forum Museum in Arlington, Va., Cissell was listening to his car radio and the news of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center while sitting in traffic.
''I was thinking, 'If anything happens to the Pentagon right now, I don't have my (photo) gear with me,' '' he said today.
He usually cuts through the Pentagon parking lot to get to work, but was stuck on Interstate 110 because of extra security at the Pentagon following the attack on the World Trade Center.
''Out of my peripheral vision,'' Cissell said, ''I saw this plane coming in and it was low - and getting lower.
''If you couldn't touch it from standing on the highway, you could by standing on your car.''
In the next seconds dozens of things flashed through his mind.
''I thought, 'This isn't really happening. That is a big plane.' Then I saw the faces of some of the passengers on board,'' Cissell said.
''I remember thinking, 'The World Trade Center was just the beginning, there's going to be more.' ''
He remembers the helipad the plane flew over before smacking into the Pentagon was close enough to him that ''I could have thrown a baseball at it and hit it.''
Then the plane, which was taking out telephone and power lines on its way in, hit the building.
While he remembers seeing the crash, Cissell remembers none of the sounds.
''It came in in a perfectly straight line,'' he said.
''It didn't slow down. I want to say it accelerated. It just shot straight in.''
Publication date: 09-12-01