The Only Plane in the Sky

by Garrett M Graff

  Col. Matthew Klimow, executive assistant to the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, Pentagon: About 10:30, Secretary Rumsfeld joined us. He immediately asked for an update, especially on the rules of engagement. We explained the policy we had agreed with General [Ralph] Eberhart: we were going to try to persuade a potentially hijacked plane to land—but if it was headed to a large city, take it down. Everybody was calm and cool. Rumsfeld then confirmed with Vice President Cheney what the ROE was. It was around 10:30 that we received a report that there was an unknown aircraft about five miles out. It was a blip on the radar screen that had disappeared. We thought this was it. The plane was minutes, maybe even seconds away from hitting us.V

  * * *

  I. This may have been more garbled communication about Flight 93, which government officials in Washington still didn’t know had crashed in Pennsylvania.

  “The spooky music was playing”

  * * *

  In Between Collapses

  The 29 minutes between the collapse of the South Tower and the collapse of the North Tower were filled with tension for those inside the remaining building—as well as for loved ones waiting for word on whether their family members could or would escape. Due to faulty communications, not all of the firefighters inside the North Tower received the order to evacuate, so even in the final minutes of the North Tower’s life, some FDNY firefighters trudged upward toward the crash zone. Others, though, heard the warnings and simply refused to leave.

  Thomas Von Essen, commissioner, FDNY: To understand all this, it is important to understand what it means to be a firefighter. Firefighters do not run away. They do not leave if they think they can stay.

  Capt. Jay Jonas, Ladder 6, FDNY: The period of time between the two collapses was the scariest. The unknown was about to come up and get you. It was like watching the old Frankenstein movies when you were a kid, and you had the spooky music playing in the background. Well, the spooky music was playing, because that monster was about to come up and get you. That was the most anxiety I had the whole day.

  Joe Graziano, firefighter, Ladder 13, FDNY, North Tower stairs: They told us to evacuate Tower One. We ran into a fireman, Billy Kasey, from Engine 21. He was carrying a gentleman who was having heart problems, a big guy, and Billy was having trouble. I turned to my captain, Walter Hynes, and said, “Cap, I’m going to help this guy down.”

  Capt. Jay Jonas: Over the radio I did hear Chief [Pete] Hayden calling for an evacuation, for guys to get out. In particular, he engaged Paddy Brown. He called him by name: “Capt. Paddy Brown. Command Post to Ladder 3. Capt. Paddy Brown. Evacuate the building.” Paddy got on the radio and he said, “I refuse the order. I’m on the 44th floor. I got too many burned people here. I’m not leaving them.” Even in that high-anxiety situation, I thought, Wow! That’s unbelievable! That was an incredible act of bravery.

  David Norman, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 1, NYPD: We started to move quickly down the stairs. We would inform everybody on the way down, other fire department units that were on these floors, “Listen, we’ve been told to evacuate. We’re leaving.” We ran into some Port Authority personnel who were in disbelief. They seemed to think that if they are 20, 30 stories below the affected fire floor, they’re safe. They said, “I don’t know why you guys are leaving. It’s not that bad.”

  Joe Graziano: Billy and I coaxed the gentleman down. We said, “Look, we’re not going to leave you. We’ll get you out.” We didn’t think there was any urgency at all. The man’s name was Ralph. That’s all I remember about him. Ralph was a trooper. I remember passing other firemen in the stairwell. I passed all the guys from 2 Truck, and Capt. Freddy Ill, who I knew. The strap on my mask was falling down, and I said, “Freddy, do me a favor and fix my strap.” He tugged it, and I kept on walking.

  Bill Spade, firefighter, Rescue 5, FDNY: A police officer, John D’Allara, came over to me and we start talking. I certainly was never aware that the fire department was evacuating the buildings. People were filing by, walking through the block strewn with debris. Then there was only a trickle of people coming by. Officer D’Allara said, “Maybe we should go back to the doorway and see how many are in that stairway.” I said, “Yeah, I guess we should.” We went back to the staircase and his boss was there, Sergeant [Sean] Curtin. As soon as we got to the staircase, he said, “I think we should leave now.” It was only the eight of us in the staircase at this time. I said, “We go together, we stay together.”

  David Norman: When we got down to the bottom I realized the magnitude of everything. I thought, There is no building. There is literally no building left. I said to the rest of the team—and I think they saw the urgency in my face—I said, “Listen. We got to go and we got to go now. There’s nothing left of that building.” When you’re told that and when you see it are two different things.

  * * *

  Capt. Jay Jonas: We were heading down the stairs and right around the 20th floor we ran into Josephine Harris. She was standing in the doorway. She was crying. She was one or two weeks shy of her 60th birthday. She had made it down from the 73rd floor—she was a bookkeeper for the Port Authority—with the help of somebody from her office. She told them to go ahead. She probably physically couldn’t make another step.

  Billy Butler, firefighter, Ladder 6, FDNY: When we came upon Josephine, somebody said to me, “Help with this woman.”

  Capt. Jay Jonas: Tommy Falco looked at me and said, “Hey, Cap, what do you want to do with her?” I looked at her, and it seems like an easy decision to make: “Of course we’re going to help her.” Every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out of this building. That spooky music was playing. Looking back on it now, yeah, it was an easy decision to make. But it really wasn’t, because not only was I endangering myself, I was responsible for five firemen and their families. That’s not an easy decision to make. I looked at her and I couldn’t say no. I said, “All right. Bring her with us.” And we did.

  Billy Butler: I started down with Josephine.

  Capt. Jay Jonas: Now we’re going very slow. What was once a normal gait going down the stairs, now it’s only one step at a time. We were creating a logjam of people behind us. On a couple of occasions, we had to step aside to allow that logjam to clear, and then we would continue.

  Billy Butler: Everybody was trying to push us along and it was a very slow process.

  * * *

  Following the two attacks and the first building’s collapse, worried family members across the region began to hunt for their loved ones—some heading straight to the World Trade Center—even as the survivors fanned out into a city still unsure of what had transpired.

  Dan Potter, firefighter, Ladder 10, FDNY: My focus was to try to get to [my wife], but as I was trying, there were a lot of firefighter duties I had to do also. When somebody said, “Check that escalator,” I went and checked the escalator real quick. But there was always that ring in the back of my head: I have to find out what she’s doing. Still, there were victims in the Deutsche Bank that I helped out. You had to do your job as a firefighter. You are dressed to represent New York City as a firefighter. Yes, I’ve got to take care of my wife, but I still have to be a firefighter.

  John Napolitano, father of FDNY firefighter John Napolitano: When the South Tower came down I tried to get into the city from our house in the outer boroughs, but I couldn’t. I said, “My son’s very good at what he does. He’s probably somewhere safe or has people somewhere.” I didn’t want to think the worst, obviously. I went to my daughter-in-law’s house.

  Dan Potter: I crossed Greenwich Street and went right into the Deutsche building. I walked into that building and there was a woman shuddering. I said, “Okay, go to the back of the building and you’ll be okay.” Five or six people came around the building, all bloody—all different faces, hands, and all covered in gray. They were walking like zombies. I said, “Just go to the back.”

  Jeannine Ali, controller, Morgan Stan
ley, South Tower: We walked up to the Seaport. There was a Pizzeria Uno—this is actually a very funny story—on the second floor of the Seaport. There were chairs and stuff outside. We put our stuff down on the chairs, and we went to go inside this Pizzeria Uno—it was locked. The bartender was leaning against the bar, watching the television with his back to us, cleaning a glass. We were pounding on the door, like “Let us in! Let us in!” He turned around and said, “We don’t open till 11:30.” I said, “Look at the TV! Let us in!” He kept saying, “We’re not open yet. We don’t open until 11:30.”

  Dan Potter: I saw a children’s nursery, so I ran in there real quick to see if there were any kids in there. There was too much debris. I had to go back to Greenwich Street. I thought, I’ll go around, try to get to the command post, get to the North Tower to save my wife.

  John Napolitano: My daughter-in-law was at work when it happened. She worked for Computer Associates, and a lot of colleagues knew that her husband was a firefighter. They said, “You better take your kids and go home.” When I got to the house, a lot of their friends were already there, and Anne was sitting there and their two little girls were playing. Elizabeth was going on six, and Emma was going on three.

  Dan Potter: I came out of the Deutsche building and I ran into an old friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in probably 17 years, a fire marshal, Mel Hazel. He didn’t recognize me because I was covered in everything. What he did recognize was the 31 on my helmet, because he had worked there as a fireman. He said, “Hey, 31, you all right?” I realized who he was, and I said, “Mel Hazel. Mel it’s me, it’s Dan.” He said, “Oh my God, I couldn’t recognize you. Need a hand?” “I have got to find Jean. Jean’s on the roof of the first tower. I’m convinced she’s up there. Can you help me with that?”

  * * *

  Capt. Jay Jonas: On the way down I ran into Lt. Mike Warchola from Ladder 5, and this was to be his last day in the fire department. He was going to retire on September 12th. I knew Mike. We were firemen together. He and two of his firemen were working on a man in the stairway having chest pains. I looked at him. I said, “Mike, let’s go! It’s time to go!” He said, “That’s okay, Jay, you have your civilian, we have ours. We’ll be behind you.”

  We kept going and made it to the fourth floor and Josephine Harris fell to the floor. She was yelling at us to leave her, to leave her alone. We weren’t going to leave her.

  Billy Butler: The whole building started to rock.

  Capt. Jay Jonas: The floor started having little wavelike ripples in it.

  Billy Butler: Then everything went black.

  “It was like a mushroom cloud”

  * * *

  The Second Collapse

  At 10:29 a.m., 102 minutes after it had been hit by American Airlines Flight 11, the North Tower collapsed, its level-by-level pancaking almost exactly the same as the South Tower’s. Hundreds were caught inside the building, including many people trapped in or above the impact zone. Thousands more who had just evacuated, or were watching the events unfold, were caught in the vicinity around the World Trade Center.

  Richard Eichen, consultant, Pass Consulting Group, North Tower, 90th floor: There was a ring of EMTs by the door—they started to come for me, and I said, “No, take her,” because Lucy was now on my back again. I handed her off to an EMT. We were four steps on the sidewalk when someone behind me said, “Watch out!” I remember turning, like, What the heck do you want now? I saw he was looking up. I looked up. That was the building starting to collapse.

  Joe Graziano, firefighter, Ladder 13, FDNY: Billy and I finally got Ralph to the lobby. As we got outside, Tower One came down. I could see the building come right at me. I still had no idea that the South Tower had already come down.

  Bill Spade, firefighter, Rescue 5, FDNY: There was an overhang, I believe, at Six World Trade Center. So we were trying to get through that courtyard area. Things were still coming down from above. NYPD officer John D’Allara said, “I’ll go first.” We all followed him.

  David Norman, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 1, NYPD: We went, almost like you’d see in the war movies, in groups of two. Someone would run and get to a point safely, then that person would look and cover for you while you moved.

  Bill Spade: We weren’t out of the Trade Center 30 seconds, and I heard that noise again.

  Pasquale Buzzelli, engineer, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: I was probably on the 22nd floor when all of a sudden the building started to shake violently. There was a huge sound from above, this loud, loud noise. I must’ve dove down about five or six stairs and pushed myself right into the corner. I basically curled up in a fetal position, and I covered my head with my hands.

  Genelle Guzman, office assistant, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: The dust, the building, the walls just opened up.

  Lt. Gregg Hansson, Engine 24, FDNY: It was a complete white-out in the courtyard. It reminded me of being in a blizzard. All of a sudden, there was this thunderous roar. My first thought was that it was another plane coming in, that’s how loud it was. It felt like it was right on top of us. Then it went completely dark. To this day I don’t know how it’s possible we survived. The police officers behind us were killed in that collapse. I know Bill Spade and two of the police officers had taken the rear.

  Stephen Blihar, officer, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 10, NYPD: I heard this sick cracking noise. I looked up and Tower One was curling over my head like a wave.

  Dan Nigro, chief of operations, FDNY: The same sound, the same dust cloud. My brain and my body couldn’t deal with it this time. I knew we lost hundreds of firefighters.

  Juana Lomi, paramedic, New York Beekman Downtown Hospital: We ran to the corner. By the time we got to the subway steps, there were so many people trying to walk in there that we ended up being pushed all the way down. Everybody fell. It was like a ball of people falling on the steps.

  James Luongo, inspector, NYPD: I was running and running and running. I came up to a fireman who was also running, a tall skinny guy. I looked over and I saw that it said “Chaplain” on the helmet. It was Fire Department Chaplain John Delendick, from St. Michael’s Church in Brooklyn. I was running with him, and I said to him, “Are you a priest?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Are you a Catholic priest?” He said, “Yeah.” “How about absolution?”

  Monsignor John Delendick, chaplain, FDNY: This police officer came up next to me, running with me, and said, “Father, can you hear my confession?” I told him, “This is an act of war, so I’m going to give everyone general absolution,” which I did. General absolution in the Catholic Church is forgiving all at one time.

  James Luongo: As you’re running, you’re looking over your shoulder—you could feel some of the shrapnel flying by. I saw a cop in front of me fall. I figured he got hit with a piece of shrapnel. I reached down and picked him up by his gun belt, because he was going to get trampled. I said to him, “You all right? Where did you get hit?” He said, “No, I dropped my pen.” It goes to show you how people’s minds go—here he is running for his life and he bent down to pick up a pen that he dropped.

  Bill Spade: I remember getting picked up and blown into the wall. I hit my face so hard, I thought I lost my eye. I said, “I’m not dying here.” I found a window and rolled into it. Inside was an office. I put my head under the desk. Everything was coming down. I said goodbye to my wife and kids.

  David Norman: I found a fire truck and I jumped underneath the rear axle. I was the only one, initially, underneath the fire truck, and then every inch of that fire truck was occupied by somebody doing the same thing. Debris started hitting the fire truck. I thought to myself, Man! I’m going to get crushed by this fire truck. I ducked under here for cover, and now I’m going to get crushed by it.

  Pasquale Buzzelli: I heard people screaming. It was loud, like boulders, safes, whatever, a freight train type of noise. In that next split second, I felt the wall that I was laying next to give way and crack open.


  Louise Buzzelli, Riverdale, New Jersey, wife of Pasquale Buzzelli, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: The phone rang and it was one of Pasquale’s aunts. As I was on the phone with her, I started to see his building change—something was changing about it. The smoke started to get blacker and bellow out more. I started to see the antenna move and then I knew: that’s it—his building is now going.

  Pasquale Buzzelli: I found myself freefalling. I felt this wind, abrasive wind. I stayed tucked into a fetal position. I saw flashes of light from impacts hitting my head—five or six. I was seeing those stars you see when you get hit in the head.

  Louise Buzzelli: I spoke with him maybe 25 minutes before that, so I knew that there was no way that he made it down from the 64th floor with a whole crowd of people. I kept screaming, “No! No! No! No! No!” Every ounce of energy in my body drained out of me. I collapsed on the floor, screaming uncontrollably. Watching it come down and thinking, Our baby will never get to know her father. She’ll never get to meet him.

  I couldn’t watch anymore. I went outside. I don’t know what was worse—being outside in the beautiful sunshine on a gorgeous day where there were September flowers and peacefulness and birds chirping or being inside with the horror, watching that. I couldn’t fathom how I was in my garden and my husband—I watched him die, along with thousands of other people.

  Lt. Col. Tim Duffy, F-15 pilot, Otis Air Force Base, Cape Cod, Massachusetts: We went over by Kennedy and turned a plane away that was over there. I was going to check out the North Tower and see how it was doing. I flew by. I was looking straight at it; I realized it was exploding right before my eyes. It was the sickest feeling I’ve ever had.