The Only Plane in the Sky

by Garrett M Graff

  Charles Christophe, attorney, Broadway: I called my office and the receptionist told me that my wife [Kirsten L. Christophe] called and said that the first tower was hit. I don’t know if she saw or she knew—because her office was on the 104th floor in the South Tower. She told my receptionist that she was safe and there was nothing to worry about, and she would call me later. I went back to my office at 225 Broadway. I was waiting for her call and trying to make calls. She was not answering. And we heard the second explosion.

  Louise Buzzelli, Riverdale, New Jersey, and wife of Pasquale Buzzelli, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: A lot of phone calls started coming in. At first, nobody wanted to ask me the question. One particular phone call I remember was from his cousin, Ralph. He’s like Pasquale’s brother. He goes, “Don’t worry. Pasquale’s going to get out. It’s okay.” He said, “Did you hear from him?” I said, “Yeah. We spoke. He said that they were going to be leaving.” As I was on the phone with him, we both saw the second plane hit at the same time. He was seeing it live from his building, and I saw it right on the television.

  Judith Wein, senior vice president, Aon Corporation, South Tower, 103rd floor: I walked my way down from 103 to 78, met up with my colleagues, and we were standing around in the Sky Lobby, waiting our turn to get in the big cattle car elevators to go down. When the second plane hit, I basically went flying to the total opposite end. I thought, So is this how it ends? Is this what life is—going to work, getting there like 7:00 in the morning, leaving at 5:00, taking an hour and a half each way to commute, and not having much of a life? Is this what it’s all about? I landed on my arm, which got smashed. I had three cracked ribs, a slightly punctured lung. I had abdominal bleeding. But I was okay. The arm broke my fall. Later, the doctor asked, “What landed on you?” I said, “Me.”

  Stanley Praimnath: I’m scared I’m going to get sucked out by the air pressure. I’m holding on to all this mangled furniture.

  Jean Potter, Bank of America, North Tower, 81st floor: We made our way into the Sky Lobby. That’s when the South Tower was hit. There was this other huge explosion you could see out the window. I saw fireballs and paper and it’s like, Oh God what is this? What now? We got back onto our original staircase and started descending.

  Joe Esposito, chief of department, NYPD: All the debris is coming down. We looked up and it reminded me of the old cartoon with the Road Runner when the Coyote is watching everything come down on him. The safe—or whatever the Road Runner would throw at him—would come down. It was getting bigger and bigger. The debris is getting bigger and bigger as it’s getting close to us.

  Lt. Mickey Kross, Engine 16, FDNY: It reminded me of those movies—those old Godzilla movies—where the monster would come out of the ocean, and everybody would be running and screaming and tripping and falling down.

  David Norman, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 1, NYPD: One of the landing wheels from the aircraft fell, burning, right in front of us. It was almost like the size of a Volkswagen landing in the street.

  Bernie Kerik, commissioner, NYPD: Debris and body parts and the plane and the building—it was all coming down right on top of us. I’m yelling at my staff to get aviation to close down the airspace. I’m screaming at these guys to get me air support. They’re looking at me like, “Is there a fucking number to call for an F-16?”

  Frank Razzano, guest, Marriott Hotel: The next thing I heard was a huge explosion, and this time I got up, I opened the drapes, I looked out the window, and I saw fireballs falling into the street. Cars were on fire. I turned on the television. I saw on TV that they were reporting that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. My thought was, This is very unfortunate. But this is going on basically 60 to 70 stories above me. It’s got nothing to do with me. I’ve got a case that’s going to trial in approximately one week. I’ve got a lot of work to do. My thought at that moment was, The fire department would come down, they’d put out the fire and, while this is a tragic incident, that’d be that. I turned on my heels, and I went into the bathroom. I took a shower, I shaved, and I got dressed.

  Fernando Ferrer, candidate for New York City mayor: We hear the report: a second plane hit Tower Two. I said, “Let’s go back to the Bronx. This is no accident.” Kalman [Yeger, my assistant] said, “No, we got a campaign schedule.” I repeated, “This is not an accident!” He said, “No, we got to head downtown! We got to—!” I said, “There is no more campaign.”

  Dan Potter, firefighter, Ladder 10, FDNY, at the study session for the lieutenant’s exam in Staten Island: I start going through the questions. Somebody came busting through the doors and says, “Holy shit, two planes hit the Trade Center.” Harvey Harrell’s phone rang next to me, real quick, and I heard him say, “Two planes. Another plane hit the Trade Center.” Harvey Harrell died in the Trade Center. He was from Rescue 5 in Staten Island. He called from the American Legion Hall back to the firehouse, “Don’t let that truck leave till I get there.” It was close. He was off duty, and he told them, “I want to get on the truck with you.”

  Bill Spade, firefighter, Rescue 5, FDNY: I heard them say on the radio, basically, “We have a huge fire. Send me four more Rescues.” To have four Rescues responding at the same time for the same fire was unprecedented. As I made my way up West Street—it’s only a short distance between there and the Trade Center—body parts were everywhere. I remember trying to go around them and I couldn’t. I said a little prayer. I said, “I’m going to run over them,” and I did.

  Joe Esposito: I go on the radio. I immediately say, “Central, we’re under attack. A second plane has just hit the second tower. We are under attack.”

  * * *

  At home in Riverdale, New Jersey, Louise Buzzelli, seven-and-a-half-months pregnant, waited for word on her husband, Pasquale, in the North Tower.

  Louise Buzzelli: I never left the television. I remember from the day before, he had his work shirt hung over the bedpost. I would always say to him, “Can you please pick up your things?” That day, I just wanted to feel him, and I took the shirt and put it on. We have a cross in our room, and I grabbed the cross, and I was praying to God that this would be over, and he could get out and this would all be something that we could get past and the world could get past.

  Pasquale Buzzelli, engineer, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: We actually watched a replay of the second plane hitting—it was a snowy picture—on one of the televisions in the conference room. That’s when we knew that this was no accident.

  Louise Buzzelli: He did call me one more time after the second plane crashed into the second building. I thought he was now downstairs, so I was like, “Oh, thank God.” I was like, “Oh, did you make it down? Are you okay? Where are you?” He’s like, “No, we’re still here.” I got so angry at him.

  Pasquale Buzzelli: She said, “What are you still doing there? Get out!” I said, “I know, Louise.” I said, “We’re fine here. We’re going to be leaving soon.” She kept saying, “Get the hell out!”

  * * *

  The second attack transformed—and complicated—the already massive rescue effort at the World Trade Center. At 9:10 a.m., the NYPD declared an unprecedented second Level 4 mobilization, summoning another 1,000 officers and supervisors to the scene. The FDNY similarly called a second fifth alarm, dispatching hundreds more firefighters, including 23 engines and 13 ladder companies. That number doesn’t include numerous fire companies, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics who continued to self-dispatch, and because the attacks took place around the time of the standard 9:00 a.m. shift change, many trucks were “riding heavy,” that is, carrying firefighters from both the night and day tours. PAPD officers flooded into the area around the World Trade Center, even as other colleagues moved to close the bridges and tunnels into New York City, part of a precautionary security procedure known as OPERATION OMEGA. PAPD’s superintendent, Fred V. Morrone, began climbing up the North Tower Stairwell B at 9:11 a.m. to assess the damage above.

  Cit
y officials struggled to organize a response to the attacks, in part because New York’s $13 million emergency command center was housed on the 23rd floor of Seven World Trade Center, and it was evacuated soon after the attacks—there was no backup location. The city’s leaders, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who quickly made his way to the area, instead improvised a response plan as they worked out of makeshift command posts.

  Dan Nigro, chief of operations, FDNY: The horror of the day had just multiplied exponentially.

  Capt. Jay Jonas, Ladder 6, FDNY, awaiting orders in the North Tower’s ground-floor lobby command post: I’m standing there. It was very loud—as you can imagine, the acoustics in the lobby of the World Trade Center weren’t really good, a lot of echoes—and all of a sudden it got very quiet. One of the firemen from Rescue 1 looked up and said, “We may not live through today.” We looked at him, and we looked at each other, and we said, “You’re right.” We took the time to shake each other’s hands and wish each other good luck and “Hope I’ll see you later,” which is especially poignant for me because we all had that acknowledgment that this might be our last day on earth and we went to work anyway.

  Juana Lomi, paramedic, New York Beekman Downtown Hospital: Now things started getting worse. I said, “Listen, guys, anybody you cannot quick triage—not breathing properly, chest pain, leg fractures, anything on the leg that they can’t run—they’re going to go on the ambulance. Nobody else is going on the ambulance. They’re going to run. They’re going to use their legs or whatever.”

  Monsignor John Delendick, chaplain, FDNY: The look on [Chief of Department] Peter Ganci’s face was really amazing because Ganci usually had two looks when he was at a fire. The first would be a look of defiance, saying, “We got you. We got you.” The second one was more of a jovial thing. Once things were settling down, and the fire was dark and down, he would joke a lot. He’d walk around, talk to people. This was a real look of fear. I never saw this on him before.

  Bernie Kerik, commissioner, NYPD: Mayor Giuliani made a comment to me, like, “We’re in uncharted territory. The city has never experienced anything like this.”

  Det. David Brink, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 3, NYPD: I was trying to cinch up my belt from my rope rescue gear. I felt a pat on my shoulder, I looked up, and it was Rudolph Giuliani. He said, “Be careful going in there.” I said, “Thanks.”

  Thomas Von Essen, commissioner, FDNY: I remember seeing Ray Downey, the head of Special Operations, in the lobby, and he said, “These buildings can collapse.” He said it in passing—not that these buildings will collapse in 40 minutes and we have to get everybody out, or not that they’ll collapse by tomorrow, or not that they necessarily will collapse at all—just that they can collapse. That was the first sense I had of the enormity of this.

  Capt. Jay Jonas, Ladder 6, FDNY: I was thinking that Chief [Pete] Hayden was going to send me over to the other building, because nobody was there yet. I said, “Another plane has hit the second tower.” He closed his eyes, nodded his head, and said he knew. He said, “Take your guys upstairs here and do the best you can for search and rescue.”

  * * *

  Across the region, even as the massive NYPD and FDNY mobilizations activated additional units, off-duty first responders and those who lived outside of Manhattan realized the magnitude of the disaster and began to make their way downtown. At 9:29 a.m., FDNY issued a full “recall,” bringing all of its employees back to work. Ultimately, 60 of the FDNY personnel killed on 9/11 were supposed to be off-duty that morning.

  Dan Potter, firefighter, Ladder 10, FDNY, in Staten Island: I ran to the front of the American Legion building. I could look right across the water and see the Trade Center. I saw the column of smoke coming out. There was a phone right there, and I dialed the phone real quick to see if I could get ahold of Jean. It went right into her voice mail. I ran right to my truck, and I raced back.

  Lt. Chuck Downey, FDNY: I was home, off-duty. I responded from Long Island, from Commack. The roads were really tough getting in.

  Capt. Joe Downey, Squad Company 18, FDNY: I was also home that day. I started getting phone calls from my mom—she wanted to see if we were working. She knew my dad [Ray Downey, head of FDNY Special Operations] was there because he went to work that morning, but she didn’t know if we were working. My company in Lower Manhattan would be one of the first two units coming in. My company was wiped out that day.

  Joe Graziano, firefighter, Ladder 13, FDNY: We got on a truck and it seemed like the city opened up for us. We got down there in no time. There were six of us, and I was the only one who came back.

  John Napolitano, father: I knew my son [firefighter Lt. John P. Napolitano] was with a rescue company and that he’d probably be going in. I wanted to tell him, “Don’t be a hero.” After several attempts trying to get through to him—busy, busy, busy, busy—I called my house to see if my wife spoke to my son. I said, “The phone’s busy, and I want to tell him don’t take any chances if he’s going to go down there.” My wife was crying and she said, “He’s already there.”

  “Is it War of the Worlds?”

  * * *

  Live, on Air

  As radio and TV stations interrupted their regular programming with footage of New York, word spread nationally of the attacks and transfixed the country. It was a shocking way to wake up for those not on the East Coast, and uncharted territory for broadcasters covering the event.

  Bob Edwards, anchor, All Things Considered , National Public Radio (NPR): I went into the studio and started doing our entire program live. I concentrated on words I was trying not to say. I didn’t want to use the word “terrorism.” I thought about the Oklahoma City bombing—how people speculated that Arabs were responsible.

  Preston Stone, resident, North Dakota: I woke to a friend’s voice on my answering machine—his speech was halting and anxious, and he was saying something about a car bomb at the State Department. I learned about the attacks in-depth from NPR. Bob Edwards was hosting, and I clearly remember his long pauses in response to the scenes being described to him by reporters in the field.

  Bob Edwards: I was also trying not to say things like “Holy shit!” In situations like this, your gut reaction is to use crude words that people say in everyday life, but you can’t say them into that microphone.

  Anne Worner, resident, Texas: I was out for my morning walk. Just as I got back into the house, the phone rang. My girlfriend called in hysterics, saying, “We are at war, we are at war. Turn on your television!” Shaking, I went into the living room and turned on the TV. I cried and cried, sitting there watching the coverage.

  Jason Fagone, resident, Ohio: I was on a long-distance cycling trip with some college friends that month, biking down the East Coast from Maine to Pennsylvania. We were somewhere in New England on the morning of September 11th. We happened to be close to a Best Buy, so we went there and watched the news on the TVs in the Best Buy. Every TV in the store was tuned to CNN or another live news feed, dozens of TVs showing the Twin Towers and the dark gray smoke. The employees let us sit on the floor and watch. They were watching too.

  Rosemary Dillard, Washington, D.C., base manager, American Airlines, and wife of Flight 77 passenger Eddie Dillard: I arrived at my American Airlines management job at Ronald Reagan Airport and went to a meeting. Early in the meeting, we heard screams from the Admirals Club nearby. We went to see what the commotion was and returned to the meeting after seeing a sketchy TV news report. About 15 minutes later, we heard screams again and saw that United Airlines Flight 175 had hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The meeting was adjourned and I walked to my office.

  Katie Couric, anchor, The Today Show, NBC: During a break when Matt [Lauer] was doing an interview, I ran into that back workspace and called my parents and told them to get into the basement. It felt like the world was coming to an end. I felt like, “Is it War of the Worlds?”

  “Everyone’s pager started going off”

  * * * />
  At Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida

  A thousand miles south of New York, President George W. Bush had arrived at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. At 8:55 a.m. he began what he thought was going to be a quick stop before heading back to Washington for lunch and the evening’s congressional picnic at the White House.

  Karl Rove, senior advisor, White House: We were standing outside the elementary school. My phone rang. It was my assistant Susan Ralston, saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center—it wasn’t clear whether it was private, commercial, prop, or jet. That’s all she had. The boss was about two feet away. He was shaking hands. I told him the same thing. He arched his eyebrows like, “Get more.”

  Dave Wilkinson, assistant agent in charge, U.S. Secret Service: Eddie Marinzel and I were the two lead agents with the president that day. The head of the detail was back in Washington. We heard, “There’s an incident in New York.”

  Andy Card, chief of staff, White House: We were standing at the door to the classroom, when a staffer came up and said, simply, “Sir, it appears that a twin-engine prop plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.” We all said something like “What a tragedy.” Then the principal opened the door and the president went into the classroom to meet the students.

  Brian Montgomery, director of advance, White House: Mark Rosenker, the head of the White House Military Office, said to me, “Dr. Rice needs to talk to the president.” There was this group of students, all young ladies in uniforms, and teachers, all oblivious to all of this.