When Pavel's marriage ended in divorce, he wanted to move back to his hometown of Brno in the Czech Republic and buy an apartment. However, he lacked the funds to do so. Repeating in the footsteps of his brother in law, Jiri Kukla, he decided to temporarily move to New York in search of work and 'the American Dream'.

After working odd jobs, he finally met Mike Cohen whom he decided to go work for over the next 3 years. He made a good living and was able to set aside 2 week's worth of wages every month.

Eager to show his family back home what life was like in America, he decided to buy a Sony camcorder only a week before 9/11. Pavel's brother, Josef, had also flown in from out-of-town. On 9/11 the 3 were on their way to a job site in Pennsylvania but decided to take the congested, scenic route that would take them past the Twin Towers since his brother had never seen them up close. 

Normally, Pavel would be in the back seat, but this time Mike offered to move him to the front with his newly purchased video camera for a better vantage point. While constantly zooming in and out on the tallest buildings of New York, Pavel would simultaneously relay to his brother their awestruck height of 411 meters as they glistened in the distance.

Upon their approach to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, Pavel zoomed in yet again and caught - by complete chance - Flight 11 slamming head-on into the North tower. However, he wouldn't know that until 2 weeks later because the LCD screen was hard to see in day-light.

With traffic stopped when they emerged from the tunnel, Pavel got out and continued filming. It wasn't long after when he caught footage of Flight 175 careening into Tower 2. 

Pavel is the only one to have caught footage of both planes hitting the Trade Center Towers.

Sometime later, he realized the importance of what he had recorded. Pavel approached several news organizations and attempted to sell the footage - but couldn't agree on a price. His boss eventually found out and was adamantly against the idea. "Three thousand people died in that place" he retorted, "I told him the day he's gonna sell that film, he's not gonna work for me anymore."

Cohen then released a version gifted to him by Pavel to ABC for free who, in turn, broadcast it without Pavel's permission. As a result, the two split - and have not spoken since. A legal battle over copyright infringement then ensued, whereupon ABC eventually settled out of court with Pavel.

Personally, I sympathize with both positions. A news agency should have just taken the hit and given close - always bargain though haha - to whatever Pavel wanted since it's so priceless. Take it out of the CEO's year end bonus - i know i would have offered. And their improved ratings would have more than compensated...

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"I don't care about my name day at all. I don't even experience birthdays that way. But i'm always on the lookout for 9/11 in August, and i'm like, 'Wow, it's coming. Another anniversary.' And it's unbelievable how it flies. I still have that day in my head. I remember where we were, what we did, how it happened." - Pavel