Today's release Facing Ground Zero: A Dateline Special revisits the world's most shocking and disturbing incident, the 9/11 attacks. 25 years have passed since the al-Qaeda extremist group killed 2,977 people by crashing two planes into the World Trade Center in New York. In this special episode, WNBC cameraman Ralph Patterson reportedly shared his 9/11 horror experience when he was on Lower Manhattan election duty.On the special episode of Dateline, the cameraman opened up about hearing a heavy noise and scream of a woman. After hearing the sounds, he turned toward the direction she was facing and saw a cut in the North Tower, shaped like a narrow slit.He thought that a helicopter had crashed into the building. So, he called the station and reported the incident and the person at the other end told him to film it.The 9/11 attack became the deadliest strike on American soil since the sudden attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier. The attacks in New York happened during the busiest city hours of a normal working day. The strikes came one after another, and millions of people watched live on television.Continue reading more about the Dateline Special episode.Dateline Special: Ralph Patterson opened up about the 9/11 attack View this post on Instagram Instagram PostIn 2001, Ralph worked as a cameraman at WNBC, and on the morning of September 11, he had been sent on an assignment to Lower Manhattan. He shared that he was covering a polling place for a small job because it was voting day. He heard a sudden loud noise as he walked back to the car to pack up his equipment.To quote his words:"I heard a loud noise. And I heard a woman scream. I turned to where she was looking and I saw a hole in the North Tower. A slit."At first, he thought it was a helicopter that had crashed into the tower. However, later, the Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, formally revealed to President Bush that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.When he witnessed the incident, he consequently called the station and reported that the building had a hole with smoke and flames engulfing it. The station told him to record everything on camera.What happened on that day?On September 11, 2001, 2,977 people lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked two planes and crashed into both towers of the New York World Trade Center.Another plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington DC. A fourth plane was believed to be aimed at the White House, but it was stopped by passengers, leading to a crash in an empty field in Pennsylvania. After the first plane hit the North Tower, millions of people witnessed the tragic scenes on TV as the second plane struck the South Tower.Read more: Inside Dateline's probe into the disappearance of Ollie Letrell Cader in Northern California's Emerald Triangle.Also read: From protégé to president: Trump’s complicated ties to Roy Cohn.Follow Soap Central for more updates on Dateline.