CBS2 Classics

By Philip O'Brien
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Just after noon on Friday, Feb. 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in an underground garage at the World Trade Center, killing six people, injuring hundreds of others, shaking the city and the nation with the shock of terrorism, and becoming the historical precursor to the total destruction of the Twin Towers eight and a half years later.

The explosion came with no warning at 12:18 pm in the parking garage on the second level basement of the north tower. The blast reverberated throughout Lower Manhattan, knocking out the Port Authority Police command and operations centers for the trade center.

Click here to see a CBS2 Classic on the first report from the World Trade Center

PATH service into the center was halted and traffic throughout the area was quickly made chaotic. Most broadcast televison stations were knocked off the air; in fact, only CBS2 was able to bring news to an anxious public through its other transmitter atop the Empire State Building.

Click here to see a CBS2 Classic on the evacuation of victims from the WTC shortly after the bomb blast

The six people killed- five men and one woman - were caught in the blast that sent cars in the garage flying like toys and left behind a crater 60 feet deep, exposing the bowels of pipes and beams and shaftways under the massive tower.

They were: Robert Kirkpatrick, 61; Steven Knapp, 47, and William Macko, 57, all workers with the center's maintenance staff; Monica Rodriguez Smith, Mr. Macko's assistant; Wilfredo Mercado, 37, a worker at the restaurant Windows on the World who was in the basement checking on deliveries, and John DiGiovanni, 45, a dental supply salesman who was parking his car.

Immediately after the explosion, choking black smoke rose through the 110-storey structure. Police estimated some 50,000 people - office workers, vistors and tourists - were in the towers at the time. Thousands began descending stairwells to get to the street level as a huge force of police and fire responders descended on the snowy scene.

Click here to see a CBS2 Classic on victims of the explosion at the World Trade Center

New York City and the United States had been pushed into a new era of domestic terrorism with such incidents as the Oklahoma City office bombing and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 still ahead.

Within hours of the explosion on Feb 26, NYPD and FBI investigators were already beginning to put together some of the pieces. They quickly determined the bomb was contained in a car or van parked in the garage. Several claims of responsibility were received by authorities that afternoon; none of them from the terrorists actually behind the attack. Other bomb scares spread across town; one in particular caused the evacuation of the Empire State Building. But there were no other bombs.

Click here to see a CBS2 Classic on the first phase of the city/federal investigation to find out who was behind the terror attack

Mayor David Dinkins was in Japan on an official trip. He appeared via satellite television that evening to speak with New Yorkers. Afterwards, he rushed back to New York.

A joint-terrorist task force was assembled combining investigators from the FBI, NYPD and other agencies. Within weeks, the case broke when a man was picked up in New Jersey after he repeatedly tried to recoup a deposit he had placed on a van he rented to use on Feb. 26. The man told the rental firm the van was stolen.

It was later cocluded the van was the one packed with explosives and cyanide gas that exploded under the north tower.
At a trial in 1994, the plot was revealed. It's aim: to explode a bomb and release cyanide gas into the north tower and cause it to topple onto the south tower. Four Muslim fundamentalists were convicted in the attack and sentenced to life in prison.

The cyanide burned up in the heat of the explosion and the bomb was not strong enough to bring down the tower. However, damage to the infrastructure of #1 WTC was extensive and losses for businesses amounted in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The World Tarde Center reopened for business a month after the attack as repairs continued. A study of the complex's evacuation plan concluded the strategy was poorly planned and ineffective. New evacuation plans were put in place in case of another disaster or terror attack.

That next attack came on Sept. 11, 2001, when two airline jets crashed into each of the twin towers, causing each to collapse in a heap of death and destruction.

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