New aerial NYPD photos of 9/11 attack released
By Associated Press
Feb 10, 2010 9:29 AM CST
In this Sept. 11, 2001 photo made by the New York City Police Department and provided by ABC News Tuesday Feb. 9, 2010 smoke billows from a World Trade Center tower in New York, after terrorists flew two airliners into the towers. (AP Photo/NYPD via ABC News, Det. Greg Semendinger ) MANDATORY CREDIT   (Associated Press)

Newly released aerial photos of the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack show the towers coming down from a dramatic new angle.

The photos were obtained by ABC News, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Institute of Standards and Technology last year. The NIST collected the images as part of its investigation into the terrorist attack.

ABC said it was provided 2,779 pictures on nine CDs. Many of the photos, taken from police helicopters, have never been released before.

Twelve of the photos appear on ABC's Web site. One photo shows a close-up the upper floors of the burning towers. Others show the towers' dramatic collapse in a thick plume of smoke and debris and sweeping views of billowing smoke clouds.

See 11 more photos