The devastating moment President George W. Bush learned the 9/11 attacks had happened was caught on camera

Footage has captured the emotional moment former US President George W. Bush found out about 9/11.

The day when four coordinated terrorist attacks were carried out by the Islamist extremist group Al-Qaeda remains etched in the memories of many people.

And at the time two planes crashed into the North and South Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania, then-President George Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida.

Bush, the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009, had already been informed that a plane had struck the World Trade Center before arriving at Emma E. Booker Elementary School that morning. However, he believed it was “pilot error.”

It was only when he was sitting in a classroom about to take part in a reading session that he realised the scale of the tragedy – the devastating moment being caught on camera.

The video shows Bush settling in and getting ready to read a book called The pet goatHowever, then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card intervened.

He is seen leaning over and whispering to the president: “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.”

And Card later spoke about the moment he had to inform Bush of the attack.

Speaking to Sky News in 2021, he said: “I looked at the president and I honestly believe he was thinking about the burden he accepted when he was sworn in. I like to say that’s when he became president.”

After hearing these words, President Bush remained seated and participated in the children’s reading exercise for seven more minutes.

Later he would learn the extent of the tragedy: nearly 3,000 people had tragically lost their lives.

Card continued: “I was very impressed that he did nothing to instill fear in these students.

“He did nothing to create fear in the media, which would have satisfied terrorists around the world.”

Bush himself also spoke about the moment in a 2021 BBC documentary: September 11: In the President’s War Room.

He said: “Andy Card comes up behind me and says, ‘The second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.’

“And I watch a child read.

“And I see the press in the back of the room starting to get the same message that I just got.

“I could see the horror etched on the faces of the journalists who had just heard the same news.

“So I waited for the right moment to leave the classroom.

“I didn’t want to do anything dramatic, I didn’t want to get up suddenly from my chair and scare the class full of children.

“And so I waited.”

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