The Only Plane in the Sky Read online

  As I got to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge, I said to myself, This press conference ain’t happening today. I knew all the firefighters in Engine 10—Ladder 10—who I spent the bulk of my career with—were going to be the first ones in that building, and they’re going to need as much help as they could get.

  Dan Nigro: I said, “Pete, this will be the worst day of our lives.”

  * * *

  In both the North and South Towers, office workers began to evacuate, while far below first responders arrived, took stock of the scene, and formulated plans for rescues. Almost immediately, heroes began to emerge inside the buildings, while spouses, family members, and friends tried to figure out whether their loved ones at the World Trade Center had been affected.

  Lila Speciner, paralegal, Port Authority, North Tower, 88th floor: Our colleague Frank DeMartini saved our lives. He was running all over the floor looking for people, gathering people. He came barging into the office and said, “You got to leave. Staircase”—whatever-it-was, I don’t even remember, A, B, or C—“it’s open and it’s clear.” Frank told us all, “Move!” We walked in a very orderly fashion. After we left the floor, there was still plenty of smoke and milling around and what have you. But everybody left. He stayed on the 78th floor lobby. He stayed because there was someone in the elevator, trapped, banging on the door.

  Edna Ortiz, wife of Pablo “Paul” Ortiz, superintendent of construction, Port Authority, North Tower: Mr. DeMartini and Paul were going office to office trying to let them out, because doors had jammed. The people they rescued remember them using crowbars to try to get the doors open.

  Joe Massian, technology consultant, Port Authority, North Tower, 70th floor: We made our way into a stairwell. At this point, it reminded me of an elementary fire drill—very calm, very collected, nobody pushing, nobody shoving.

  Harry Waizer, tax counsel, Cantor Fitzgerald, North Tower: I don’t know whether to think of it as an incredible sense of calm or a sense of unreality, but I was entirely focused. I did not have a clue how badly I was hurt. I thought, I have to get downstairs, I have to get to the lobby, and I have to get to help.

  Vanessa Lawrence, artist, North Tower, 91st floor: We had gone down the stairs. I remember the first few floors being filled with smoke and debris. The sprinklers were on. It was dark. Then I remember going down stairs further, and lights were on and people were coming out of their offices. The sprinklers were strong—I had my flip-flops on, and I took them off because I was slipping all over the place.

  Richard Eichen, consultant, Pass Consulting Group, North Tower, 90th floor: I said, “Okay, I better figure out how badly I’m hurt.” I felt that my face was all bloody. The left side of my head was open, and I could put my hand in there—I could feel my skull. I could actually feel the bone. It stung but didn’t really hurt, cause I think I was in shock. Then I said, “Okay, I’ve got to do something here.”

  Harry Waizer: As I was walking down, I caught a glimpse of my arm and saw a blackened flap of skin hanging down. It was almost matter-of-fact, telling myself: Okay, you don’t want to look at that again, just look at the feet, look at the steps, keep walking.

  John Abruzzo, staff accountant, Port Authority, North Tower, 69th floor: I’m a C5-C6 quadriplegic, so I’m able to function and get around on my wheelchair. I remember the building suddenly swayed, and that it swayed in one direction only. I looked out the north windows and debris was raining down. I must have been in a state of shock. The thing that brought me out of it was my supervisor shouting some expletive. He was outside my cubicle saying we had to evacuate.

  Peter Bitwinski, assistant manager, Accounts Payable, Port Authority, North Tower, 69th floor: I have known John for a long time. Our desks were side by side for many years in Accounts Payable, so needless to say, he was a close friend of mine. I said, “John, where’s your [evacuation] chair?”

  John Abruzzo: I had been there in 1993 when the World Trade Center was bombed. Different job, same floor. A group of Port Authority employees and two fellows from Cantor Fitzgerald, plus some other folks from Deloitte & Touche, were all there to help evacuate me. It took us six hours to get out. After the 1993 bombing, the World Trade Center purchased these evacuation chairs.

  Peter Bitwinski: He seemed to be in shock. He didn’t even respond to me. So again I said, “John, do you know where your chair is?”

  John Abruzzo: They made it clear I was going with them, one way or the other.

  Joe Massian: Back then, two-way pagers were big. Pagers were working. People were getting news through pagers of what happened: a plane crash. I didn’t realize it wasn’t a small plane.

  Edna Ortiz: I received a phone call. It was Paul, and what he told me was that something had happened, but he didn’t know what it was, and if I turned on the television, not to worry because he was okay. I said, “All right.” He said, “I’ll get back to you. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

  Joe Massian: We continued to file down. Occasionally you would hear, “Move left.” And “move left” meant that you would all push to the left side of the stairwell and actually look at the wall, because somebody was coming down who was burnt.

  Edna Ortiz: I turned on the television and saw what had happened. I picked up the phone and called him back. When he answered the phone, he asked me what happened, and I explained to him that it was a plane. He said, “Okay. There are things I got to do here, so I have to go right now. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.” He hung up. I called him and asked what he was doing. He told me he was getting people out. I asked him when he was done to get out too.

  Genelle Guzman, office assistant, Port Authority, North Tower: I worked in the Tunnels, Bridges, and Terminals Division on the 64th floor. I thought that it probably was an earthquake because back home in my country, in Trinidad, I had experienced an earthquake with that shaking. I came back to my cubicle and other coworkers were leaving. They said, “I don’t know what’s going on but we think some plane hit the building.” My supervisor came over and he said, “Genelle, we’ve got to leave. Grab your bag. That’s it. We’re out of here. A plane hit the building.”

  Pasquale Buzzelli, engineer, Port Authority, North Tower: I remember I was up late, watching Monday Night Football, so I was a little late getting into work. I didn’t get in until probably close to 9:00. I worked on the 64th floor. It was during the express [elevator] part of that trip that I felt what was the plane hitting the building, the impact. The elevator shook violently. The lights flickered. At my office, I went right over to my boss, Pat Hoey, at the time. I said, “Pat, do you know what happened?” He was like, “I don’t know. I’m trying to find out.” The floor was well lit. The phones were functioning, computers were on. Everything seemed pretty normal. So right away I phoned my wife, Louise—she was at home, seven-and-a-half-months pregnant.

  Louise Buzzelli, Riverdale, New Jersey, and wife of Pasquale Buzzelli, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: It was tough sleeping through the night because I was at the end of the pregnancy, and I would be up half the night, tossing and turning. The morning was probably my best time to actually sleep. It was about 8:30, quarter to 9:00, and the phone rang.

  Pasquale Buzzelli: She goes, “What’s the matter? Is everything okay?” I said, “No, everything’s fine. I’m here at work.” I said, “Don’t be alarmed. Turn the television on and tell me what you see. Something happened to the building.”

  Louise Buzzelli: I got up out of bed. Right away I turned on the television and I didn’t have to search at all—any station I went on, I saw the top of his building on fire. I said, “Oh, my gosh, Pasquale! Your building is on fire! Why are you calling me?”

  Pasquale Buzzelli: She said, “They’re saying that a plane hit the building.”

  Louise Buzzelli: He promised he was going to be leaving and he would call when he got downstairs. That’s when we hung up.

  Pasquale Buzzelli: Whatever was happening, the fire was above, there was nothing below, and no
t thinking of a collapse, I thought I was okay. Eventually, we were going to get out, so it wasn’t an issue. We were not on fire here, there was no smoke here. There was never a decision of, “Hey, let’s leave.” Part of that was because we probably wanted to keep the stairwell clear so we could allow access, have the firemen reach the point of impact. Why clutter the stairs even more?

  First responders flooded into the World Trade Center within minutes, many summoned by escalating alarms, but others simply saw what had transpired and, knowing the city faced an unprecedented calamity, made their way to the site. As the morning unfolded, rescue efforts encompassed not just the Twin Towers but the whole World Trade Center site, including the 22-story Marriott Hotel sandwiched between the two towers and the 48-story office building, known as Seven World Trade Center, that housed commercial tenants like Salomon Brothers, as well as numerous government offices for agencies like the Secret Service, the IRS, and New York City’s emergency command center, its Office of Emergency Management. The neighboring 39-story skyscraper known as the Deutsche Bank building was also affected. Given the scale of the tragedy, numerous specialty and elite rescue units were being dispatched, including the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and the FDNY’s special rescue units.

  Scott Strauss, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 1, NYPD: The Emergency Service Unit, or the ESU, is the SWAT and rescue team for the City of New York. We handle every kind of crisis, any large-scale event, from bomb jobs, hostage jobs, barricaded perpetrators, people jumping off of buildings, people jumping off of bridges. We cut people out of cars. We handle hazardous material incidents, weapons of mass destruction incidents. We’re the answer to the city police’s problems. If the precinct cops can’t handle the situation, they’ll give us a call.

  Det. David Brink, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 3, NYPD: We started making our way down to the Trade Center. I saw the building burning. I looked over to my colleague Mike Garcia, and I go, “I guess we’re going to get a lot of work in today.”

  Scott Strauss: Every police officer was working their way down to the Trade Center. Traffic was terrible. There were civilians directing traffic, trying to get the emergency vehicles through.

  David Norman, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 1, NYPD: There was a lot of debris falling from the building. Stuff was raining down on top of us when we initially pulled up. We gathered our equipment, donned our self-contained breathing apparatus, donned our rope rescue gear, our medical gear, and elevator equipment—things like that.

  Det. David Brink: The equipment that day probably went around 70 pounds. When we were walking toward the Towers, our arms were hanging heavy from all the equipment that we had on us.

  Det. Steven Stefanakos, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 10, NYPD: You could imagine the madness of the scene.

  Det. Sgt. Joe Blozis, crime scene investigator, NYPD: There were thousands of people running. The fright was etched in their faces.

  Dr. Charles Hirsch, chief medical examiner, City of New York: I will never forget seeing an airplane engine in the middle of West Street and then an amputated hand next to it.

  Alan Reiss, director of the World Trade Center, Port Authority: A detective, Richie Paugh, and I went out onto the plaza. We saw the gash in the Tower and people jumping. It really wasn’t safe to be out there, but we see a wheel of a plane, and this detective said, “That’s evidence. We have to take it back with us.” I said, “Are you crazy?” Richie said, “No, that’s it,” and drags this thing back into the Port Authority police desk.

  Tracy Donahoo, transit officer, NYPD: People were all streaming out of the building. My mind-set was, The fire department’s gonna get here. They’re gonna go upstairs, they’re gonna put out this fire, and that’s the end of the day. As we know, it wasn’t that at all. It escalated.

  Anthony R. Whitaker, WTC commander, PAPD, North Tower lobby: I ordered the cop at the desk to begin a full-scale evacuation of the entire complex.

  Alan Reiss: I spoke to the people up in Windows on the World, who I knew, telling them, “We’re going to see if we can get the fire department up there. But take a napkin, wet it with the water from a flower vase, and cover your face to breathe through it.” I didn’t think we were going to make it up there. I had my real doubts.

  Jay Swithers, paramedic, FDNY: A lot of patients were coming out of the plaza, and immediately the EMS crews on the scene were giving them triage tags we use to identify who should go first. They start out with green, which are people who are walking wounded, who could basically stay. Then it goes to yellow, which are people that basically will need an ambulance, but they’re not serious at the time. The next one is immediate—immediate is a red code. A lot of patients were hysterical, crying. The Millennium Hotel became very helpful. They were bringing out nicely padded chairs from the lobby—their beautiful chairs—for patients to sit down.

  Capt. Jay Jonas, Ladder 6, FDNY: I was heading toward the [ground-floor] lobby command post when I ran into Ladder 3 and Capt. Paddy Brown. Paddy was almost a larger-than-life type of person, very highly respected by everyone in the fire department. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a marine, got his discharge, and became one of the most highly decorated firemen in the history of the fire department. He’s very well-liked, very well-known, very compassionate guy. He said, “Jay, don’t even report into the command post—they’re just going to send you upstairs.” I almost said, “All right, I’ll go upstairs with you.” Instead I said, “Let me check in first. I’ll meet you upstairs.”

  I reported into the command post. I was standing there waiting to get orders, and I saw Commissioner Von Essen talking to Pete Hayden, who was the deputy chief running the fire. I heard Hayden say to Von Essen, “We’re not putting this fire out. This is strictly a rescue mission.”

  Jeff Johnson, firefighter, Engine 74, FDNY: As soon as we got into the Marriott Hotel, there were a number of companies and civilians in the lobby of the hotel. We asked a chief what we should do. He said, “Well, we have to check these reports of people in the Marriott.” There were a considerable amount of firemen in the building at the time. They looked like bumblebees. We took the elevator up to the 18th floor. We went up the south stairwell to the highest floor we could find. It is considered a 22-story building. The gym was on 22. As we were searching the area, I happened to look into one particular area, and it was a spa. A Jacuzzi—a big one. In the Jacuzzi was part of the landing gear from the plane.

  Anthony R. Whitaker: All that morning, I don’t think I really had a good understanding of what was going on. Whatever it was, it was bigger than us.

  Al Kim, vice president of operations, TransCare Ambulance: We had no idea the scope of what was going on above us. The buildings are so large and the footprint so big, and you’re at the base of it, you can’t crane your neck back far enough to see really what’s going on.

  Thomas Von Essen, commissioner, FDNY: Nothing could have ever really prepared us for what happened—or how fast the events would unfold.

  “United 175, do you read New York?”

  * * *

  The Second Hijacking

  The second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, also en route to Los Angeles from Boston, was hijacked minutes before American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center. United Airlines Flight 175 had nine crew and 56 passengers aboard. Moments before the American plane hit Tower One, the pilots of United 175 heard the distress call from American Airlines Flight 11 and reported it to air traffic control.

  8:41 A.M.

  United Airlines Flight 175: New York UAL 175 heavy.

  Air traffic control: UAL 175 go ahead.

  United Airlines Flight 175: We figured we’d wait to go to your center. We heard a suspicious transmission on our departure from BOS—sounds like someone keyed the mike and said “Everyone stay in your seats.”

  Air traffic control: OK. I’ll pass that along.

  United Airlines Flight 175: It cut out.

  8:51 A.M.
r />   Ten minutes later, air traffic control tried to pass along routine instructions to the flight. It never responded again.

  New York Center: United 175, recycle your transponder and squawk code of one-four-seven-zero.

  New York Center: United 175, New York?

  New York Center: United 175, do you read New York?

  New York Center: Delta 1489, do you read New York?

  Delta Flight 1489: Delta 1489, go ahead.

  New York Center: OK, just wanted to make sure you read New York. United 175, do you read New York?

  9:00 A.M.

  In the final minutes of the flight, United Flight 175 passengers phoned family members and left voice mails of care and concern. Brian Sweeney, a 38-year-old former F-14 pilot in the Gulf War, left a voice mail for his wife, Julie, back in Massachusetts. Peter Hanson, 32, traveling with his wife, Sue Kim, 35, and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Christine, called his father. Christine would be the youngest victim on September 11th.

  Brian Sweeney, passenger, United Flight 175: Hey Jules, this is Brian. Ah, listen. I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked. If things don’t go well, and it’s not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you, I want you to do good, have good times—same with my parents. I’ll see you when you get here. I want you to know that I totally love you. Bye, babe. I hope I call you.

  Peter Hanson, passenger, United Flight 175: It’s getting bad, Dad. A stewardess was stabbed. They seem to have knives and Mace. They said they have a bomb. It’s getting very bad on the plane. The plane is making jerky movements. I don’t think the pilot is flying the plane. I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don’t worry, Dad. If it happens, it’ll be very fast. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.