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Manhattan relives the horror of September 11

A Correspondent in New York

Across Manhattan, reaction to the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in a Queens suburb swirled from paranoid fear to angry cynicism. But the shared feeling among all was that the crash, only two months after the hijacked plane attacks that obliterated the World Trade Center towers, was no coincidence.

"Despite what the officials are saying, what's on every New Yorker's mind is that this crash was a terrorist attack," said Steven Ramos, 21, a waiter working in Times Square.

"We're all kinda scared after September 11," he continued. "They're probably not going to tell the public what really happened, because they don't want more people getting scared and panicking."

Locals like Ramos took little comfort in statements from authorities that there was nothing to indicate the crash, which killed all 255 passengers on board, was an act of terrorism.

Instead, they had their own suspicions of what-and who-brought the Airbus A300 down in the beachfront Rockaway neighborhood.

"The entire city and this country are at risk," said one businessman, who refused to give his name. "I don't believe that the terrorist organizations behind Sept. 11 have cast their last blow. This country needs to wake up to this crisis and protect its citizens."

He stamped his cigarette butt with his foot loudly as he watched the electronic yellow letters of the Dow Jones news zipper in the heart of Times Square.

"Look, see there, the FBI is looking into the explosion," he continued, as the information snaked by. "They don't know whether it was a mechanical failure, or sabotage. Before September 11, I'd have agreed that it was a mechanical failure. But now, I'm not so sure."

Aspects of the crash -- happening just as the day was starting -- were so painfully similar for a city still recovering from the kamikaze attacks that eliminated its greatest steel-and-glass landmark.

People immediately called and e-mailed loved ones to assure them that they were okay, an impulse that seemed almost rehearsed in the aftermath of September 11.

One of the first things that ran though Jose Rivieria's mind was concern for his friends inside the Empire State Building, where his company, USPack, occupies the 24th floor.

"I called them, to get out of the building right away," he said. "There still were some people in the office today, and all I was thinking was that they could get hurt, or worse."

Rivieria, a 34-year-old courier, admitted that the September 11 attacks, which he witnessed, had jangled his nerves quite a bit.

"I still am a bit leery when jumbo jets fly by," he said. "I look up, and if I spot it, I keep an eye on its course, and altitude ... I wish we were rather on the third floor now, to be honest."

"And I was going to fly out to Puerto Rico for a trip in a few days," he said. "I'm going to put that off now."

Police officers were milling around in front of the building's entrance, putting up steel barricades, and officers with dogs walked the perimeter, sniffing cars. The building was then closed, to the dismay of Katrina, who runs a travel agency inside the skyscraper.

"We just want to leave this building, but we can't get out of our lease," she said, refusing to give her full name.

"We are living with fear everyday. Now my day has been wasted, I can't get back into my office. This is bad for business ... people are scared to work here, people don't want to have meetings here."

Like other New Yorkers, she too had her own theories about the crash.

"Too many coincidences to be an accident," she said. "How can an engine just fall off a plane?"

Such suspicion gave way to an expanding web of security around nearly every New York landmark.

Wooden police barricades were being put up in front of the Chrysler Board and Madison Square Garden. Along 42nd Street, neon orange pylons split the road in half, creating an express lane for emergency vehicles.

New Yorkers, who had gotten used to the sight of camouflage-clad members of the National Guard, and their bulky Humvees, once again were quick to look when the siren of a police car, fire truck or emergency operations vehicle sounded off.

"It took me two months to get over the attacks on the World Trade Center," said Ishmael Moore, 27, a native of Brooklyn. "Now I'm getting a bit nervous. I don't know what's going to happen next."

Moore shook his head solemnly as he broke off from a crowd that had gathered around a window front display of televisions, with images of the Queens neighborhood burning.

"Right now, I'm considering whether I should stay in New York anymore," Moore said. "I just am angry, nervous, living on edge."

Others admitted that their confidence was shaken too, and that retribution was required.

"All this makes me wonder what the hell am I doing in New York," said Scott Warner, 39, as he watched the news flash by on a ticker. "I think I'll consider a move to the International Space Station."

He also felt the crash wasn't an accident. "No way, remember TWA Flight 800?" he said.

Warner said there was only one way to ensure that another plane would not fall under attack: "It's time to nuke our enemies, just finish this fight for good."

Mayor Rudy Guliani appealed for calm, and said that it was another test for New Yorkers to overcome, and they would.

Brown felt that Guliani was correct. "But deep down, there's this feeling, a need to understand what's going on," he said.

At another New York landmark, Michel Fuseau brought his daughter Edrinia for some peaceful respite from the day's events. As he watched his daughter play, Fuseau tried to put the recent tragedies into perspective.

"I've always thought that things happen in New York because of circumstance," the writer said, sitting on the beige granite steps of The New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

"I've never been a victim of crime, living in this city. Others have been shot and killed in the street. In New York, it's just about being in the wrong time, at the wrong place, whether it's a catastrophe, or a mugging."

He said he understood why so many people chose to ignore official explanation for the crash.

"All the things we've been through," he said, alluding to the September 11 attacks, and anthrax-laced letters, "and all the civil liberties we've given up ... still nothing can be done about these things.

"But what can you do," he said. "You go out, and try to keep on living. I guess you have to be more aware of your surroundings. If you don't look around, maybe you look above."

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