BBC says: We didn't get told in advance that buildings were going to fall down but we still managed to report WTC7 had collapsed 23 minutes before it happened!
The following snap is from a BBC World News stream supplied by the BBC to archive.org. It features BBC World news coverage from 11th September 2001, circa 5pm.
Notice the caption at the bottom of the picture which states "TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US" and "The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed." The caption, however, is not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that just over the reporter Jane Standley's left shoulder is - wait for it - the 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre which, according to the news report from which the still image came, is the building that BBC World is announcing has collapsed and no longer exists. Something which BBC World News reported as much as 23 minutes before it actually did collapse.
The original footage stream has disappared from where it was once hosted on Google Video and also from YouTube, but the original BBC News stream is still available from its original source on Archive.org (warning 1Gb file size).
An edited version of the footage, including some caption overlays detailing the sequence of events, the original broadcast times and the timing of the WTC7 collapse can be found as a BitTorrent file: 911 - WTC7 Collapse - 23 Minute Warning! Below is a transcript of the 23 Minute Warning BBC World footage (note the transcript refers to on-the-scene-reporter 'Jane Stanley', without a 'd'):
Segment Broadcast
11-Sep-2001 16:54 to 17:36 (Eastern Daylight Time; GMT -04:00)
0:14:50 [START TRANSCRIPT]
BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]
PRESENTER: Now more on the latest building collapse in New York. You might of heard a few moments ago that was talking about the Saloman Brothers building collapsing and indeed it has,
Editor's Comment [WTC7 Collapsed? - It's only 5:07pm EST [EDT]]
Apparently that's only a few hundred yards away from where the World Trade Centre towers were and it seems this was not a result of a new attack, it was because the building had been weakened during this morning's attacks. We'll probably find out more now about that from our correspondent Jane Stanley. Jane, what more can you tell us about the Salomon Brothers' building and its collapse?
BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]
STANLEY: Well, only really what you already know. Details are very, very sketchy. There's almost a sense, downtown in New York behind me, down by the World Trade Centre of a .. just an area completely closed off as the rescue workers try to do their job. But, this isn't the first building that ...erm... has suffered as a result. We know that part of the Marriott Hotel next to the World Trade Centre also collapsed as a result of this huge amount of falling debris from a 110 floors of two ... the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. As you can see behind me the Trade Centre appears to be still burning,
Editor's Comment [ooops it's still there. Someone Press Released too early]
we see these huge clouds of smoke and ash. We know that behind that there's an empty piece of what was a very familiar New York skyline, a symbol of the financial prosperity of this city, but ... er... completely disappeared now
BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - JANE STANLEY. New York]
and New York is still unable to take on board what has happened to them today.
BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]
PRESENTER: Presumably there were very few people in Salomon building when it collapsed, there were I suppose fears of possible further collapses around the area.
BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]
STANLEY: That's what you would hope because this whole downtown area behind me has been completely sealed off and evacuated, apart from the emergency workers, that was done by the Mayor Ruidi Gulliani, much earlier today, because of ... of course the dreadful collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. But ... er ...
BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed.]
New York very much a city still in chaos, the phones are not working properly, the subway lines are not working properly, and we know that down there near the World Trade Centre there are three schoools that are being turned into triage centres for emergency treatment and I know that over in New York Harbour where the famous Statue of Liberty is, there's a field hospital where 1500 people are being treated and we have heard, though it's unconfirmed as yet that a hundred New York City police officers have been taken there as well for treatment but we do need to confirm those figures for the officers.
BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed.]
PRESENTER: It's now what some eight hours since the attacks, is there any estimate yet available of the number of casualties in the World Trade Centre.
0:17:40 [END TRANSCRIPT]
And, some 23 minutes after BBC World first announced that WTC7 had collapsed, sure enough, it collapsed:
It very much appears as though someone (a senior Al Qaeda leader, of course) press-released the WTC7 collapse about an hour too early. And, of course, there's nothing suspect about the fact that the live-link between studio and on-the-scene reporter Jane Standley fizzled out and broke five minutes before WTC7 was due to collapse on-screen and right behind her.
So, now what?
Update: The BBC responds - Richard Porter - DOG ATE MY TAPES OF THE DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD! In a shock revelation the BBC says: We didn't get told in advance that buildings were going to fall down but we still managed to report WTC7 had collapsed 23 minutes before it happened! #
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