The Only Plane in the Sky

by Garrett M Graff

  David Kravette: It’s a comedy of errors that I’m alive. Everyone else in my office upstairs that day perished. They were all trapped. There was no way out.

  Meanwhile, hundreds of feet below the impact zone, people were still going about their day. The World Trade Center complex was so massive that those in the underground shopping concourses didn’t feel the plane hit and did not realize something terrible had transpired until they saw others fleeing.

  Alan Reiss, director of the World Trade Center, Port Authority: We went down to have coffee and a bagel at Fine and Shapiro, a deli-restaurant right near where the A train and E train entrance was. I was sitting with my back to the Concourse when my colleague Vicki [Cross Kelly] said, “Something must have happened. People are running like crazy on the Concourse—they’re panicked.” I figured that there was probably someone with a gun or some holdup. I hadn’t heard anything, didn’t feel anything, smell anything.

  Michael Lomonaco, executive chef, Windows on the World, inside the underground shopping complex underneath the Towers: They took me into the examining room at LensCrafters and did the examination. The doctor examined my old glasses. The optometrist left me in the examining room, closed the door. He came back in—burst through the door, really. He looked pale. He said, “Something happened. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Across the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site, neighbors in the South Tower, Two World Trade Center, watched the disaster unfolding in the North Tower. For some occupants of the Towers, the 2001 attack was the second terrorist attack on the complex they had experienced; in 1993, a small group of Islamic extremists had exploded a car bomb in the parking garage beneath the North Tower, hoping it would topple the building. The explosion killed six and injured around 1,000 and provoked numerous security and fire safety improvements in the complex—some of which saved lives on 9/11.

  In the initial aftermath of the collision, many occupants reasoned that the incident would be similar to the ’93 bombing; there wasn’t necessarily mass panic or initial concern—even from some above the impact zone, who figured they could evacuate from the roof or just wait for firefighters to extinguish the fire below. Occupants in the South Tower were quickly reassured by an official building-wide announcement over the P.A. system that their building was not affected and were told to remain at their desks. Similarly, guests in the Marriott Hotel between the two towers realized something had happened but continued to go about their day.

  Robert Small, office manager, Morgan Stanley, South Tower, 72nd floor: The explosion on 9/11 felt very similar to the explosion in ’93. I said to myself, Jeez, not again.

  Elia Zedeño, financial analyst, Port Authority, North Tower, 73rd floor: The building shook. I thought, This is it—I am going down, and immediately I thought, Earthquake. But, instantaneously, it was, Earthquake. 1993. There was no pause, thinking, What could it be? Nothing like that. It was, Earthquake. No, 1993. I immediately thought, In 1993 I didn’t have my keys to get home. Today I am going to have my keys.

  Herb Ouida, World Trade Centers Association, North Tower, 77th floor, and father of Todd Ouida, Cantor Fitzgerald, North Tower, 105th floor: When the building shook I knew immediately from the 1993 bombing experience to leave. No one could have dissuaded me. I knew, though, my son Todd was on the 105th floor.

  Harry Waizer, tax counsel, Cantor Fitzgerald, North Tower, 78th floor sky lobby: I was in shock. I got off the elevator. I was remarkably calm. I had my bag still with me. I walked over between two of the larger elevator banks, put it down, and said, “I can’t carry this right now,” and “I’ll get it back later.”

  Michele Cartier, Lehman Brothers, North Tower: I was working on the 40th floor for Lehman Brothers. Everybody started clearing the floor, and we began our descent. Nobody knew exactly what was going on. There was no indication that this was a terrorist attack. We pretty much thought you’d go back outside, you’d come out, you’d come back upstairs, and you would go back about your business.

  Jared Kotz, Risk Waters Group: One of my colleagues, Samara Zwanger, had the phone number for David Rivers, one of our editors, who was in the conference at Windows on the World. He told her that nobody knew what had happened. There had been a huge explosion, all the windows had fallen out, all the ceilings had come down, and everyone had been knocked to the ground, but everyone was okay, and everyone was going to be evacuated.

  Constance Labetti, accountant, Aon Corporation, South Tower, 99th floor: Our boss, Ron Fazio, knew he had to get us out of there. He said, “Go to the staircase.” I returned to my desk to grab my sneakers because I had 99 flights to descend. I started to climb down on the steps. I still had my heels on, and my sneakers in my hand. I remember hearing the PA announcement come on—the PA announcement said, “Do not evacuate. Stay where you are. We have no structural damage. There’s structural damage to Tower One, which we’re evacuating, but Tower Two go back to your workstations.” I caught up to a couple in the staircase—maybe the 90th floor, 92nd floor. I said to them, “Could you wait a moment while I put my sneakers on?” They said, “Of course, we’ll wait.” I was trembling so much that I couldn’t tie my sneakers. I remember the man saying to me, “Just tie your sneakers. Don’t worry. Don’t worry.” I tied my sneakers, then we continued on down.

  Judith Wein, senior vice president, Aon Corporation, South Tower, 103rd floor: It was a wide staircase, and we were going down two abreast. There was a little space in the middle. Every once in a while I saw somebody go up—come up. They would mumble, “Oh, I left such-and-such on my desk.” I’m always wondering in retrospect: Did they ever come back down?

  Robert Small, office manager, Morgan Stanley, South Tower, 72nd floor: People on my floor started to leave. A friend of mine and I started to watch it on television in one of the boardrooms. We walked north, looking out the windows, and you could see the smoke, you could see the flame. We started trying to guess what was falling. Was it a book? Was it a piece of paper? Was it a drape? Was it a chair? After a few minutes, we saw people jumping, falling, landing. That wasn’t good. After a few of those, we decided not to watch. Let’s go back, call our families, let them know we’re okay—still thinking everything was in the North Tower. Nothing was going to happen at the South Tower.

  Michael Lomonaco, executive chef, Windows on the World, in the shopping complex under the Towers: I got out into the corridor. There was an official from the Port Authority motioning with the arms. He was telling people, “Run! Get out!” I exited out onto Liberty Street, crossed over to Church Street. I turned and looked back to see what had happened. I could see the horrific fire in Tower One. I thought maybe there had been an explosion.

  Frank Razzano, guest, Marriott Hotel: I remember hearing a big bang. I got up out of bed. I opened the drapes on the windows on the Liberty Street side of the building. I saw papers fluttering down to the ground. I said to myself, Well, must’ve been a big wind that must’ve blown off the harbor and blew a pane of glass out in one of the buildings. I turned around, closed the drapes, and got back in bed.

  Michael Lomonaco: I thought, Oh my god—everybody at work. I thought, What’s happening on 106? Then the next thought was, Okay, I’m going to stay calm. They’ll go down the fire stairways. I had complete optimism that people were coming down.

  News of the crash reverberated across the city as New Yorkers struggled to understand what had happened. The attack interrupted primary day across New York City, as voters planned to choose a successor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The confusion was especially pronounced in Lower Manhattan, one of the most densely packed areas of the United States, as the crash was felt or witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people in nearby apartment buildings, offices, hospitals, transit terminals, schools, and across the financial district surrounding Wall Street, just blocks away.

  One of the schools closest to the World Trade Center—just three blocks south of the complex—was the High School for Leadership and Public Service (HSLPS), one of New York
City’s small specialty schools, home to about 600 students and 40 faculty.

  Ada Dolch, principal, HSLPS: At about 8:45, the lights in the lobby went out. Within 10 seconds, the lights went right back on, and immediately after that there was this very loud bang, this very loud explosion.

  Heather Ordover, English teacher, HSLPS: We all heard the scream of the engines, like a bomb in a war movie—then the flash. The kids ran to my back window. I ran to my back window. We saw burning paper, smoke, falling debris. I ran back to the front of the room, yelling to the kids to sit down and write about what they’d just seen—anything to get them away from the windows.

  Keturah Bostick, student, HSLPS: One of the teachers, Mr. Donnelley, ran into our classroom, saying, “Did you see that?” Everyone screamed, “What?” He responded, “The airplane went right into the tower, and we saw everything.” A few seconds later, Mr. Bronsnick came on the loudspeaker and said that the crash was being controlled by the firemen and didn’t affect us and that it would still be a full day of school.

  Razvan Hotaranu, student, HSLPS: There were papers everywhere, like the Yankees parade, and a lot of ash.

  Ada Dolch: Through the radio we could hear that something was going on at the World Trade Center. I knew that that’s where [my sister] Wendy worked [for Cantor Fitzgerald]. The words out of my mouth were very clear: “God, please take care of Wendy. I have to take care of the kids in the school.”

  * * *

  Fernando Ferrer, candidate for New York City mayor: The Twin Towers loomed large in the consciousness of the city. In 2001, it was even a part of the political and governmental dialogue of New York, because at that time they were on the brink of being sold. I had made a specific proposal that the proceeds of the sale of the Twin Towers would go toward a fund for affordable housing in New York City.

  We were on our way to Manhattan, coming down from the northeast Bronx, on the Bruckner Expressway to the Triborough Bridge toll plaza. My young assistant, Kalman Yeger, got a call from his wife, and I heard his end of the conversation: “There’s a fire in the World Trade Center?” Kalman told all kinds of jokes, good sense of humor. I thought he was kidding. “Fire in the Trade Center? Oh, there goes my housing plan!” Then he said, “No! This is for real.”

  Jillian Volk, preschool teacher, Lower Manhattan: I was on the corner of Church and Thomas, at work, about a five-minute walk from the Trade Center. My fiancé, Kevin Williams, worked in Tower Two for a small investment banking firm on the 104th floor. I felt something: my classroom shook. One of my students looked at me and said, “It’s thundering.” I knew it wasn’t thundering. A woman came running into the hallway and said a bomb had gone off in the Trade Center. I panicked. I called Kevin, hoping I would get an answer. He picked up his line and told me a plane had gone into Tower One, and he had to go because they were being evacuated. He wasn’t panicked or anything.

  Howard Lutnick, CEO, Cantor Fitzgerald, North Tower: It was my son Kyle’s first day of kindergarten. As I walked him upstairs, an administrator grabbed me and said, “Your office is looking for you. A plane has hit the building.” I jumped in the car, and as I got down there, I saw that huge, black, billowing smoke. The guy driving my car started crying.

  Jimmy Maio, driver for Howard Lutnick: We had a clear shot from the 40s on down, on Fifth Avenue, right at the World Trade Center. I knew all our people were above where that smoke was coming out of and would have no shot of getting out.

  Andrew Kirtzman, City Hall reporter, NY1: I was scheduled to host election night coverage on New York 1 that night, so I slept in that morning. The telephone rang, and it was my mother. She was incredibly agitated. All she said was, “Can you believe it?” I was like, “What?” She said, “Turn on the television.” It became apparent this was a catastrophe. I bolted out of bed and I had to decide—this sounds ridiculous—whether to take a shower. For months afterwards, I felt guilty about running into the shower. I took the fastest shower I’ve ever taken, got dressed, grabbed a pen, a reporter’s notebook, and my reporter’s press pass, put it around my neck, and went bolting out of my apartment.

  Rudy Giuliani, mayor, New York City: I was having breakfast at the Peninsula Hotel right off Fifth Avenue, 55th Street. We were beginning to stand up to leave the table. My staffer Denny Young came over and said, “A twin-engine plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.” I went to the men’s room because I thought I’d be at the crash site a long time.

  Andrew Kirtzman: I hailed a cab, jumped into it, and screamed, “Take me to the World Trade Center!”

  Rudy Giuliani: We rushed down in my SUV. One of the things that has always remained in my memory is we were passing Saint Vincent’s Hospital, in the Village, and I saw many doctors and nurses and attendants in the street with stretchers. It was the first time a feeling registered with me: This looks like a war zone. It must be worse than I thought. They must know something that hasn’t been conveyed to me about how bad this is.

  Outside the Towers, the sound and sight of the crash prompted an immediate call to arms by firefighters, police, paramedics, EMTs, and other first responders. For nearly 400 of them, it would be their last. At 8:58 a.m., en route to the scene, Chief Esposito issued an order for a Level 4 mobilization to the World Trade Center, the NYPD’s highest level of alert, summoning nearly 1,000 officers to the disaster site. That same minute, an NYPD helicopter, hovering over the Towers, reported that roof rescues—which had been successful following the 1993 bombing—would be impossible due to the volume of heat and smoke. Minutes later, Chief Esposito ordered that given the conditions no helicopters should attempt to land on the roof. Although they don’t know it, the fate of everyone above the 91st floor in the North Tower was already sealed.

  Sal Cassano, assistant chief, FDNY: On the morning of September 11th, I was at headquarters in Brooklyn. Sitting with me was Chief of Department Peter Ganci, Chief of Operations Dan Nigro, Donald Burns, Jerry Barbara. Jerry was killed. Donald was killed. Peter was killed.

  Dan Nigro, chief of operations, FDNY: I heard a loud sound; I thought someone had dropped something heavy in the office above me. The next thing I heard was Pete Ganci shouting, “Look out the window, a plane hit the World Trade Center!” We decided to go together—Pete Ganci and I—in his car, so we could talk strategy on the way there. We flew over the Brooklyn Bridge and arrived in about five minutes at the base of the North Tower.

  Tracy Donahoo, transit officer, NYPD: I had graduated from the police academy in May. It was my second day actually on patrol, in uniform, with a senior officer, in an actual job. My post was Broadway-Nassau, one block away from the World Trade Center, standing on the northbound 4 and 5 platform. We heard over the radio, “10-13, an airplane hit the World Trade Center.” We were like, What? We heard it again: “10-13 10-13! A plane hit the World Trade Center!” We ran up the stairs. A “10-13” means everyone run to the aid of whoever or whatever is going on.

  William Jimeno, officer, PAPD: Our police desk said all officers had to come back to the police desk. I met up with Dominick Pezzulo—he was a great guy—and he goes, “Willy, something must be really bad for them to call us all back to the police desk.”

  Capt. Jay Jonas, Ladder 6, FDNY: I could start to see from our firehouse in Chinatown the black plume of smoke going across the sky. I said, “Everybody get their gear on. Let’s get going.” Engine 10 transmitted a second alarm and a “10-60” signal, which is massive casualties.

  Lt. Mickey Kross, Engine 16, FDNY: Our computer went off, and we got the ticket: “Respond to Manhattan, Box 8-0-8-7, One World Trade Center. Signal 3:3.” That’s a third alarm. It was Engine 7, Engine 55, Engine 3, Engine 16—that’s my company—Ladder 5, Rescue 4. It said: “Respond to lobby command post, One World Trade Center.” It’s Incident 103—one hundred and third incident in Manhattan of that date.

  William Jimeno: Inspector Lawrence Fields, who was the commanding officer at the bus terminal for the Port Authority police, came in and said,
“We’ve commandeered a bus on Ninth Avenue—we need the following people to get on the bus.”

  Dan Nigro: As we approached Manhattan, we discussed what we were going to do when we got there. Chief Ganci transmitted a fifth alarm. It was already a third-alarm assignment, which would be approximately 14 engines and maybe seven ladder companies. The fifth alarm would give us a couple of additional chiefs, eight additional engines, and six additional truck companies.

  Francine Kelly, registered nurse and nurse manager, Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center, New York City: Other staff and physicians at Saint Vincent’s literally said they were walking into the emergency department, looking down Seventh Avenue, when they saw the World Trade Center get hit. Within two minutes, we were already calling our disaster code.

  Jeff Johnson, firefighter, Engine 74, FDNY: We knew we were going to something pretty catastrophic.

  Capt. Jay Jonas: It looked fake, to be honest. The sky was so blue and the sun was glistening off the metal of the exterior of the World Trade Center. You saw an airplane-shaped hole in the North Tower with fire and smoke coming out of the building, under pressure. It was boiling out. I still can’t believe how bad it looked.

  Meanwhile, uptown, FDNY Fire Education director Joseph Torrillo was heading to his press conference in Midtown Manhattan for the 9:00 a.m. unveiling of the Billy Blazes Rescue Hero.

  Lt. Joseph Torrillo: I was driving over the Brooklyn Bridge. I could see the North Tower, and I was like, Whoa! I could see about 10 floors of fire all around the top of the building. Now, as a firefighter, as an engineer, that’s an uncontrollable fire. Three college fire cadets were sitting in the back seat of my car to help at the press conference. Joe Broadbent, one of the fire cadets, said to me, “What do you think is going on?” I said to him, “Everybody on the top of the building is going to die.” I said, “The building is going to collapse.”