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N.Y. Releases Recordings Of 911 Calls Made on Sept. 11

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"We have about 100 people here. We can't get down the stairs," said Hanley, 35. Later, he added: "We have smoke, and . . . it's pretty bad."

A dispatcher told him: "Just sit tight. Just sit tight. We're on the way."

"All right," Hanley said. "Please hurry."

Sally Regenhard, founder of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign and one of the relatives who joined in the Times lawsuit, said the tapes further illustrate the lack of preparedness of the city and the Port Authority, which owned the towers. Her firefighter son, Christian, 28, died in the building collapse.

"It wasn't because of Mr. Osama. It wasn't because the planes hit the building," she said, referring to many of the deaths and to Osama bin Laden. "It was the failure of the system to have an emergency plan. . . . We have to get the truth out there of how the system failed us."

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a statement praising the city's 911 operators for their "professionalism and compassion under the most trying of circumstances."

Staff writer Michelle García in New York and research database editor Derek Willis and researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

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