Audio tapes reveal chaos in the skies on 9/11

This Sunday is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. A CBS News/New York Times poll out tonight shows 27 percent think about 9/11 at least once every week. And 83 percent believe that Americans will always have to live with the threat of terrorism.

Now for the first time, the complete air traffic and military communications of 9/11 have been compiled by researchers at the Rutgers University Law Review. Those radio calls are a window into the chaos, fear and surprise of the first minutes of the attack on America. CBS News correspondent Bob Orr puts them in perspective.

Two hours of horror and confusion began with American Airlines supervisor Nydia Gonzales telling her operations center of a chilling phone call from Flight 11.

Gonzales: "...the flight attendant is advising our reps that the pilot, everyone's been stabbed."

Just one minute later, lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, thinking he was talking to passengers, was heard over the radio.

"Nobody move," he said. "Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you will injure yourself and the airplane."

The jetliner turned south towards New York. Controllers asked the Northeast Air Defense sector for fighter jets.

Boston controller: "...we need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there to help us."

Military controller: "Is this real world or exercise?"

Boston controller: "No, this is not an exercise, not a test."

Nine minutes later, American Airlines 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Meanwhile, controllers were frantically searching for a second missing plane, which had also taken off from Boston. They finally saw United 175 just seconds before its impact.

New York controller #1: "Wow."

New York controller #2: "Oh my God. Another one just hit it hard."

New York controller #1: "Another one just hit the World Trade."

New York controller #2: "The whole building just came apart."

Fighter jets had not yet reached New York. Said a military controller on a recording: "...we need to get those fighters over Manhattan, cause we don't know how many guys are out of Boston could be two, could be more."

To the west a third plane, American Airlines 77 went missing. An Indianapolis controller said on a tape: "...I don't know where he is out there anywhere, yet, so we're still tryin' to get a hold of him."

For more than 30 minutes, the jetliner flew below the radar taking aim on Washington. A private pilot flying near the Pentagon watched as Flight 77 hit its target: "...it looks like that aircraft has impacted the west side of the Pentagon."

In the chaos, controllers had no idea how many hijacked planes remained in the air. But another radio call made it clear there was at least one more.

"This is the captain. I would like you all to remain seated." It was the voice of hijacker Ziad Jarrah, who was trying to talk to the passengers aboard United 93.

"We have a bomb on board and are going back to the airport and have our demands, so please remain quiet," said Jarrah.

Flight 93 soon crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The attack was over. And in one government command center, two technicians tried to put the day into some kind of context.

Technician #1: "Is today like a national terrorist day or something?

Technician #2: "Actually, ah, this is a day for a long time."

Technician #1: "September 11th, 2001."

The confusion that day went on for hours afterwards. Fighter jets, for example, never did get clear orders whether or not they could shoot down hijacked planes.

As for coordination between the FAA and the military, it's been greatly improved now. NORAD now monitors FAA radar data full-time and there's a hotline to coordinate responses.