Eric Shawn knew exactly where he was 25 years ago, on September 11, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center Towers.
Fox News’ senior correspondent vividly recalls his actions on that eventful day, which led to him being one of the reporters covering the aftermath of the destruction at Ground Zero for an extended period of time.
His tireless work in Lower Manhattan may have drawn accolades and praise, but it unfortunately saddled him with ongoing health challenges, resulting in him announcing he had cancer in September 2025 and respiratory illness from toxic dust exposure at the World Trade Center site.
Speaking to TVNewser, Shawn explained what it was like to cover 9/11, as well as the personal cost he’s experienced ever since.
That fateful Tuesday
Recalling where he was on that Tuesday morning 25 years ago, Shawn said that he was on his way to the network’s offices, walking from the Upper East Side, when he heard the loud roar of an airplane above him.
“The engines were going faster with more thrust, and I looked up, and I thought, ‘Holy sh*t. He’s low,” Shawn said. “I was shocked. I’m like, ‘He’s really low.’”
He said the plane continued to crab to the right, turning very sloppily, after which it disappeared over the city’s buildings.
As he proceeded to Fox News’ offices, he encountered TV news crews stationed outside a local political candidate’s headquarters, as that same Tuesday was a primary day. They informed him that a plane had just crashed into one of the twin towers, and he could see the smoke billowing out of it on one of their monitors.
Shawn put two and two together and made a mad dash to the office, where he confirmed to the assignment desk what type of plane he saw, and he subsequently appeared on air next to anchor John Scott, recounting what he had witnessed.
“I was out of breath,” Shawn said, adding that he immediately knew who the main culprits were. “It was Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, even before the second plane hit, because I had covered radical Islamic terrorism and terrorist attacks in New York for years. You had the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. You had the 1995 landmark bombing plot.”
Because he was part of the network’s morning coverage that Tuesday, Shawn was assigned to cover Ground Zero during the overnight hours as part of a 12-hour shift. He stayed covering it for the next month or so.
That exposure would affect him to this day.
