On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in the United States, crashing three into buildings (the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania) and killing some 3,000 people.
It was Tuesday evening in Australia (Tuesday morning in New York City), and the only late-night TV news at the time was Sandra Sully for Channel Ten’s evening news from Sydney. The other Australian commercial stations soon went to air too, but Sandra Sully and Ten News beat them all.
Ms Sandra Sully and Ten News went live to air at the time, with Ms Sandra Sully at the newsdesk being fed information from newsroom journalists and ‘the wires’ as the attacks unfolded. As Channel Ten was taking a live feed from its US affiliate CNN station in New York City, Ms Sandra Sully continued reading the news bulletin, live footage showed – live to air – the second plane hitting the World Trade Center and the towers collapse, live to air.
