9/11 video of plane crash that only emerged 20 years after Twin Tower attacks - shows impact in clear detail

An astonishing 9/11 video that was ‘kept private’ on YouTube for 20 years emerged on the platform showing the September 11 attacks in clear detail. The near nine-minute long clip, which surfaced decades after the atrocity, shows a previously unseen angle of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, driving two of the planes into the upper floors of the North and South Towers. Meanwhile another was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

Footage from that grim Tuesday morning, where 2,996 were killed, circulated across the world and many became accustomed to seeing the horror’s through the limited snapshots available. However, army veteran Kevin Westley never planned to withhold his footage - he accidentally left it private shortly after uploading to the platform in the 2000s.

The staggering footage was captured by Westley while he was on a boat amongst a crowd of shocked onlookers. During the footage, the camera focuses on the fire in the north tower before panning around in time to capture the second plane heading straight for the south tower.

In a post accompanying the video, Westley wrote: “I posted this video in the 2000s but accidentally left it private for until now. I noticed the video was private and made it public.”

Westley - who served in the 2003 Iraq war as an aircraft commander - shared his thoughts about witnessing the atrocity first hand. “In an instant, I saw 2,763 die. 25,000 injured,” he said. “As I was caught in the dust cloud of the collapse, I remember seeing a picture of a child (and am now wondering) if I now was looking at an orphan.”

Among other eye-witnesses at the time and considered one of the first to see the attack was Tony Arrigo. The New York native saw the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, hit the World Trade Centre as he was innocuously just taking his rubbish outside from his home.

Tony Arrigo is now part of September 11 folklore due to his first eyewitness account of the attacks, with his words recorded just moments after the first plane crashed into the north Tower.