The doors open up,
and I'm about to leave— get out of the elevator,
that is— and the security guard says,
"Where you going?" I said, "Well, I'm going home." "No, your building
is safe and secure. Go back to your office." The doors are closing. Nobody's coming out
of the elevator. And Manny Gomez is holding on
to one side of the door, Jack Andreacchio
on the other side of the door. "Come on, Stan the man. You're not scared
to go back up." And I'm still not sure
why I should be scared up to this point. Had I known that a plane
had hit the first building, I would never have gone back. I step back in that elevator. The doors close and
I'm looking at all these faces. We'd all just smile,
not realizing it's the last smile
I would ever have. Then we just went back up. Got out at the 78th floor,
walked across, took the local elevator,
went back to the 81st floor. One man stepped out
in front of me. The man had forgotten
his laptop, and he's going back to get it. He walks into the men's room.
Never seen the man again. I walk back into the office. I'm standing up.
The phone is ringing. A young lady from Chicago.
"Stan, get out." "Get out for what?" "Stan, we don't have the time.
Please, Stan. Please, get out. Get out." And I'm still not sure why. "Stan, you're not locked
at the computer. "You're not watching
the monitor. Go, Stan. Go, go, go." And assuring her that,
"Look, I'm fine. You've got to tell me why,
then I'll go." I'm standing up looking,
and somehow or the other I just looked towards
the Statue of Liberty, that direction. And what I saw is a giant plane
coming towards me, eye-level eye contact. So fast, this is happening.
And your mind is going so fast. And all I can remember doing is, "Lord, I can't do this.
You take over." And I can still in my head now
hear that sound, that revving sound
this engine is making as this plane
is coming towards me. Last minute
before I dove under the desk, I saw the plane starts tilting. And the next thing I know,
the bottom wing took out from maybe the 79th
to the 82nd floor, the four floors we occupy. And I'm in that big orange glow. Upon impact,
the floor above me collapsed. Looks like
a giant wrecking ball came and ripped
the entire place apart. Looks like somebody
took a giant bag of cement, just threw it in the air. A huge chunk of the plane
is stuck in the office doorway, probably 20 feet from
where I was under the desk. The only desk that stood firm was the one
that I'm hiding under. Everything else
was totally demolished. All the cables that are hanging
in the ceiling drop. The sprinkler system came on.
And you can see the blue sparks. And one way or the other,
I'm going to die. And I'm screaming,
"Lord, I don't want to die. Please send somebody,
anybody, to help me." And that first time I scream, I'm poking my head out
from under the desk, trying to push the debris
more, more, more. Somebody heard that scream
on the other end of the floor. And I'm saying to myself,
what is that chance? I couldn't hear,
because I got temporarily deaf. The sound was so great
it just popped my eardrum. I started to crawl. I crawled the entire length
of the loans department, through the lounge,
the computer room, communication room, and that's
the farthest I could've got. And as I got closer,
I can hear that sound. The person's saying, "Bang on the wall!
I'll know where you are!" Knocked on the wall,
and the person said, "Well, now you've got to climb
over the wall." Hollow ceiling. About 10 feet sheetrock wall—
drywall, that is. I can't do it. He said, "You've got to think
about your family. Got to do it." I tried to jump on, grab on, on top
for the first time. Missed, and part
of the hanging loose sheetrock caved in, and I did like this. And a black sheetrock screw
just went in, got stuck on the other side. The person said,
"What happened?" I said, "A nail
went through my palm." "Bite it out. Try again.
Can do it. Is it attached
to a piece of wood?" "Yes."
"Hit the wood. "The nail is going to come off.
Try again. I'll catch you
on the other side." Up he jumped, and I grabbed him
up and over the wall. All the rest of that story
is right, although he missed the part
where he gave me a big kiss. And he said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" We dug our way through rubble
to about the 74th floor. And see, these are the details that this man seems to forget—
understandably. I mean, he saw
a plane explosion. I knew I was fine
the whole time. And then we got down,
ran to Trinity Church. That's where Stanley stopped,
full turn around, and said, "I think
that tower's coming down." And that's when I,
with my engineering degree, said, "There's no way.
That's a steel structure." And then wiggle, wiggle, boom. And we ran to 42 Broadway. And that's where the wave
of smoke caught up to us, that's where we got to know
each other, and we were able
to stay in contact ever since.
This guy is also interviewed on the national geographic series that just aired about 9/11
Holy shit, this is incredible.
What the fuck. 20 years later I hear or see something new and think "this shit is fucking nuts."
From the thumbnail I was wondering what Richard Dawkins was doing there
If anyone wants to learn more about the attacks but finds it too difficult to watch the actual videos, here is a short animation that covers the subject - Escape From New York: Getting Out of the City on 9/11
A miracle he is alive, a hugh 767 jetliner weighing tons created a fireball.
If you haven't seen "Worth" on Netflix then check it out. It's a tear jerker.
It’s weird seeing these faces and having them being so recognizable.
Is it the Nat Geo special “as it happened” or something?
I feel like I’ve watched it through once or twice a year since it came out 10-15 years ago.
These stories were super impactful. Also the cameraman who just walked around shooting. And he never said a word until the person was leaving and he asked their name. So surreal.