Aaron Brown, the CNN anchor who was rushed on the air when a plane crashed into the World Trade Center than documented attacks live all day has died, the network said Tuesday. He was 76. Brown had not even been meant to be broadcasting on the morning of September 11, 2001. He rushed to the roof of the network’s midtown Manhattan building to report on what was happening downtown–and stayed on screen for 17 hours. He told viewers of the moment the first tower went down, saying, “The South Tower, the second tower. The one on the left collapsed. It collapsed in a cascade of smoke and sparks. This is devastation.” Brown won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage, but in 2016 told the network that at that moment, nothing prepared him for reporting on what was happening in front of his eyes. “It’s the only time I thought, ‘Maybe you just don’t have what it takes to do a story like this.’ Because it just had never occurred to me,” he said. Brown went on to anchor CNN’s “NewsNight” from 2001 to 2006 then became an influential journalism professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School. A three-time Emmy winner, he had been the first to anchor ABC News’ “World News Now” before joining CNN. He is survived by his wife and daughter. CNN’s Anderson Cooper paid tribute to “a great writer and broadcaster.” “Thoughtful, funny, and diligent, he had a truly unique talent and a beautiful way with words,” he told CNN.
