NEW YORK (AP) -- As smoke filled the elegant dining room of the restaurant atop the World Trade Center's north tower, the assistant general manager called Port Authority police four times, begging for help, because ``the fresh air is going down fast!''
Christine Olender died along with 72 other Windows on the World employees and nearly 100 people who rode the elevators to the 106th floor restaurant for breakfast that morning. Among the diners were stockbrokers who worked in the towers, executives attending a conference and Neil Levin, the executive director of the Port Authority.
``We're getting no direction up here. We're having a smoke condition ... We need direction as to where we need to direct our guests and our employees, as soon as possible,'' Olender told Officer Steve Maggett, a Port Authority police officer who fielded numerous frantic calls to a police desk based at the World Trade Center.
The calls were part of transcripts released Thursday by the Port Authority, providing an inside look at the devastation at Windows on the World.
In one call, Maggett asked Olender if the stairways were blocked. The 39-year-old Chicago native replied that the stairways were full of smoke and that the phones to the trade center fire command station were not working.
She pleaded for the officer to tell her if there was an area where she could direct people to get away from the smoke.
Maggett told her to call back in two minutes.
``Call back in two minutes. Great,'' Olender said.
In her next call, Olender pleaded with Officer Ray Murray to tell her where to guide the trapped people at the restaurant.
``Right now we need to find a safe haven on 106 _ where the smoke condition isn't bad,'' Olender said.
``All right, we're sending ... we're sending people up there, as soon as possible,'' Murray said.
``What's your ETA?'' she asked.
``As soon as possible. As soon as it's humanly possible,'' Murray said, and she hung up.
Her next call was brief: She told Murray it was Christine from Windows on the World calling again. He told her he had notified rescuers to ``get up there.''
She hung up.
In what appears to be her last call to the police desk, she began by telling Murray that the situation ``is rapidly getting worse.''
Murray told other officers in the background that he had a fourth call from Windows on the World, and repeated what Olender said.
She told Murray, ``We ... we have ... the fresh air is going down fast!''
``I'm not exaggerating,'' she added.
Calling her ``ma'am,'' Murray assured her he knows she was not exaggerating. He told her he was receiving a lot of similar calls, and promised to send the fire department.
``What are we going to do for air?'' Olender asked, wanting to know if it was OK to break a window.
``You can do whatever you have to get to, uh, the air,'' Murray said.
``All right,'' she said, and hung up.
