Personal texts, pages released from 9/11 attacks

“Crash at the World Trade Center. This is not a drill.” Those simple words were broadcast over an alpha numeric pager on the morning of the attacks, signaling the beginning of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Half a million messages from text pagers are being released on the website WikiLeaks . Text pagers are usually carried by people operating in an official capacity. Many of them are robotic messages sent out by computer systems when the planes hit, signaling a major malfunction.

Almost immediately after the first text, messages like this were sent: “Please call me ASAP. I need to know if you are OK.”

At 9:05, Flight 175 slammed into the south tower. One minute later, this text was sent: “I hope it wasn't you and Scott that crashed into the World Trade Center.”

For the next half hour, dozens and dozens of pages and texts were sent and received.

At 9:37 a.m. in Washington, Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon. Ten minutes later, this page was sent: “They just blew up the Pentagon in Washington.”

Two minutes later: “Leo, get the hell out of New York. The Pentagon has now been hit with something. All bridges and tunnels are shut. Get a car and go home.”

In the panic and confusion, bad information, some of it spread among government pagers, was sent, like this one: “Unconfirmed reports of plane crash at Camp David now.”

But many of them are personal. Messages like this one: “Goodbye my sweety. I’m going to miss you.”