The accidental filmmaker who captured both 9/11 plane impacts on a single tape
In short: Pavel Hlava, a Czech maintenance worker in New York, was testing a new video camera on September 11, 2001, when he inadvertently recorded the most significant footage of the day. His accidental home movie remains the only known video to capture both the North and South Tower plane impacts.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Pavel Hlava was driving toward Pennsylvania with his brother and boss, Mike Cohen, to work on a construction project. Hlava, a Czech national living in New York, had recently purchased a Sony Hi-8 camera and intended to film a video postcard for his family. While driving through Brooklyn, he began recording the city skyline. By pure chance, his camera was zoomed in on the World Trade Center at 8:46:40am, capturing the exact moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Hlava, who was watching the camera's small LCD screen rather than the viewfinder, remained unaware of the historic event he had just recorded.
The footage continues as the group exits a tunnel and witnesses the aftermath. At 9:03:11am, Hlava’s camera captured the second impact—United Airlines Flight 175 hitting the South Tower. This segment is considered one of the clearest recordings of the event. The FBI later utilized this specific footage to analyze the flight path and bank of the second plane, concluding that the pilot, Marwan al-Shehhi, intentionally maneuvered the aircraft to maximize structural damage and fuel dispersion. Hlava’s tape also recorded the collapse of the South Tower at 9:58:59am, providing a critical timestamp for investigators attempting to reconcile conflicting reports regarding the exact timing of the attacks.
The journey of the tape from a living room drawer to national television was fraught with legal and ethical conflict. After initially being rejected by a Czech television station, the tape was nearly lost when Hlava’s son accidentally erased a portion of it. Years later, after a photographer named Walter Karling helped Hlava realize the footage's significance, his former boss Mike Cohen stole the tape and provided it to ABC News. Hlava eventually sued for the theft, leading to an out-of-court settlement. He used the proceeds to purchase an apartment in Brno and open a bar. In 2026, twenty-five years after the attacks, Hlava returned to New York City to visit the memorial site.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Pavel Hlava film
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