NEW YORK (VINnews) – Retired Associated Press photographer Amy Sancetta reflects on her experience covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as the 25th anniversary approaches.

Sancetta was in New York City for the U.S. Open when she was sent to Lower Manhattan after reports that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. Her photographs captured people fleeing the collapsing towers and the devastation that followed.

Her images became part of the AP’s visual record of one of the most consequential stories in American history.