Newly released aerial photos show the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 from an angle never seen before. You can see a slideshow of the images here.

The photos were taken from a New York Police Department helicopter by Detective Greg Semendinger. He and his pilot were first in the air to search for survivors on the rooftops. He said they watched the second plane hit the south tower from the helicopter.

Semendinger took three rolls of film with his Minolta camera, plus 245 digital shots. He said he gave the digital images to the 9/11 Commission that investigated the attack. The photographs were obtained by ABC News after the network filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that investigated the collapse.

ABC said it was provided 2,779 pictures on nine CDs. The network posted about two dozen of the photos on its Web site, and made them available to WNYC.