The miracle man of 9/11: How he survived the twin towers' collapse | 60 Minutes Australia

the evil that occurred on september 11 2001 will never be forgotten on that horrible day the world changed forever there was so much destruction so much loss that even now 20 years later it's hard to comprehend the magnitude of what happened but out of the utter despair there are also incredible stories of heroism and survival and none is more extraordinary than that of new yorker pasqual a miracle man whose spirit continues to offer hope to us all looking back two decades on new york was an obvious choice for the most despicable act of terrorism the world has ever seen brash and bustling dynamic and diverse the beating heart of the united states has always been an enduring symbol of liberty american 11 climate change when the planes flew in loaded with passengers and fuel their target was freedom itself oh my god i still remember the smell i still remember the sounds i could pretty much run through it in my head you know step by step you know like a video you feel like so much life has happened in this time right but then it feels like it was just yesterday [Music] like most of the journalists here we're having trouble finding words to adequately describe it to be there in the days immediately after the attacks was a surreal experience there were so many accounts of split-second decisions that meant the difference between life and death [Music] twenty years on one story of survival remains more extraordinary than any other incredibly pasqual biselli surfed the collapse of the north tower on a tiny slab of concrete fell 18 floors and somehow lived i still remember that feeling you know free falling when i woke up and i opened up my eyes i was like this is impossible i don't know how i could have possibly survived that the impact of that day remains etched in the manhattan skyline but for both pasqual and his wife louise they need no reminder you know at that time everybody said oh you know you're alive for a reason you must survive for a reason you had to do some amazing things um you do amazing things every day you do amazing no it's not i mean i mean i just our family yes and i just wanted to i just wanted to have a normal life and and be there for my family it sounds like a terrible pressure yeah is that what you felt you know given this second chance at life this terrible pressure to make the most of it yeah i guess so i mean i guess i wanted to make sure i didn't screw up you know not not you know here i am giving this gift and i wanted to make the most of it [Music] in the summer of 2001 life was good for pasquale and louise their dream of starting a family was on the way to being realized hi little baby this is where you are right now that's a big belly on the morning of september 11 louise was seven months pregnant with a daughter they'd already named hope a structural engineer with the port authority pascual had just arrived at work and was making his way to his office on the 64th floor of the north tower of the world trade center the elevator started to to move and we started to go up and then all of a sudden the lights flickered the elevator shook it felt like it dropped maybe you know a foot or so and uh we just looked at each other like what you know what just happened [Music] it was 8 46 a.m and unknown to pascual 29 floors above american airlines flight 11 had ripped through one of the most iconic buildings on earth so i called her and i said louise i said don't be alarmed i'm okay everything's fine just can you put the television on tell me what you see and she goes oh my gosh because a plane hit your building it's inconceivable now but pasquale and his colleagues did not immediately panic told by their boss to wait until they got the okay to leave they stayed for more than an hour cocooned from the horror of what was going on outside until pascual called home for a second time i said where are you and he said i'm still i'm here and i said you're still in the building i said get out why are you still there and i was so angry you know and he was like no no we're okay the floor is fine we're okay it's it's okay up here but urged on by the smell of smoke from the fire burning above it was time to go and we said you know what but what therefore we said what are we still doing here like yeah let's get out of here we gathered everything uh flashlights we wet down some towels and stuff and uh we started our way down the stairs this is as close as we can get to the base of the world trade center it was 9 59 a.m and the neighboring south tower suddenly collapsed a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us by now in the stairwell of the north tower pasqual and his co-workers felt the building shake but they were still completely unaware the south tower had fallen or of the terrible danger they were in we continued our way down um we passed a fireman they just said you know keep going it's a straight run keep going keep going and then we went down maybe a couple more flights and it was on the 22nd floor that all of a sudden you know everything started to shake i heard screaming you know uh people behind me screaming and then just everything went dark at first i thought it was just an accident when the first plane hit but then when i saw the second plane hit i knew it was an attack instantly as pasquale bouzelli and thousands of others were trying to make their way out of the world trade center michael moribito was making his way in michael was one of the 400 firefighters deployed that day when the twin towers were hit as soon as we got out of the mouth of the tunnel on the manhattan side we got hit with the dust cloud so we didn't even know the first tower had fallen so my boss had given a may day that they just blew up the brooklyn battery tunnel because that's what we thought happened when we got out that speaks to the chaos doesn't it of what was going on that day no one really knew what was going on it was just so much confusion in the north tower pasquale buselli was still in the stairwell on the 22nd floor it was 10 28 am suddenly and inescapably the floors above him started to disintegrate the building started to shake violent i heard all the loud rumbling from above i dove into a corner and i got into a fetal position and just buried myself up against the corner so if anything large or heavy was falling at least i had two sides that could protect me you know i felt the wall that i was laying next to just crack and the floor give away and i stayed tucked in the fetal position with my eyes closed the floors the walls the entire structure was collapsing 88 floors of pulverized concrete steel and glass raining down from above pasqual was now in free fall i felt this this wind rush as i was falling and um you know this abrasive sand blaster type feeling and um i just stayed tucked in i was being knocked around i saw you know a few flashes of light from being knocked in the head impacts and um you know just just the thoughts that ran through my head at that time i just remember saying you know my god i can't believe this is how i'm gonna die uh you know i i thought about my wife my unborn child you know and i said please god please take care of them and and make it a quick death that pascual did not ask god to save him speaks of the terrifying hopelessness he felt there was certainly no hope for louise watching from home as her world too caved in when i saw that second tower fall i thought to myself just think positive just think you know positive thoughts you know on top of all of this now you know don't don't lose this baby because because at that moment that's all i had left i went outside and i just couldn't believe how it was a beautiful blue sky day and i watched millions what felt like millions of people to me die and one of them had to be my husband because there was no way he got it i got out of there in time pasquale hadn't made it out yet but miraculously he had survived then it was finally one big flash and that was probably either when i finally landed or something during the fall hit me in the head so hard that it just knocked me out because when i came to i was sitting on a pile of rubble looking up at blue sky but in the mountain of twisted debris his life was still in danger pasquale would need another miracle to get out of there alive [Music] having survived the collapse of the north tower pasquale bouzeli found himself marooned on a concrete perch not much bigger than himself below a cavernous hole of smoking and twisted debris i would see some smoke and dust and then we get dark but in that initial wake up where it was clear sky i thought i was dead already i thought i was just going to float out of my body and you know experience something like that and i realized i was alive you know i was like oh my god i can't believe i actually survived this by his own estimate he had been knocked unconscious for three hours before he came to not only was he alive he was relatively unscathed but with fires flaring up all around he was still in terrible danger like picture yourself on the side of a mountain on the edge with like an open hole just of rubble um so it was just there was no way for me to go as you sort of looked around from your precarious pinnacle what did you think it happened to the world at that point is he looked at the desolation around you i didn't hear anything i didn't see anyone i didn't know if if the rest of manhattan was even you know there was further attacks or anything i just i didn't know at that point [Music] i could still hear some you know crackling some fires but other than that it was just like silent you know in the aftermath of pasquale's tower collapsing firefighter michael moribito got to work certain his own brother also a firefighter was among the dead i don't think you have time to grasp it it just happened so fast and all you just start thinking about is the task at hand i thought about my brother and i was like well he's got to be dead so don't think about it don't put it in your mind and just do what you have to do his brother john was stationed at ten house right across the road from where the twin towers once stood it was inconceivable he could have survived but michael never gave up hope he knew i would go to hella high water to find him excuse me sorry so then i continued to look for him and uh i would say about 12 o'clock i was taking a drink of water and i looked and i see my brother by a fire hydrant it was unbelievable that must have been the best side on the most awful day it really was at that point i saw him i said everything's gonna be all right and i was like john you're okay i'm gonna go into work now and then we proceeded in to uh ground zero [Music] by then of course the area in and around ground zero was an asphyxiating and alien world filled with the dead and the dumbfounded top floor has collapsed down michael and his partner decided to go into the epicentre of the attack in the hope of finding survivors did your chief want you to do that uh not really well disobeying the rules was perhaps your best decision that day yeah i guess so now looking back probably it probably wasn't the smartest decision but yes it worked out good these images from the day capture what michael and his partner faced like mountaineers in the midst of a nuclear winter they scaled the remains of the two once proud towers it was just twisted metal and fire and debris everywhere you couldn't walk you were climbing everywhere you went trapped on his perch of twisted metal pasquale buselli felt like he was the last man on earth at the mercy of fires flaring up all around he once again faced death but this time he was ready to take his fate into his own hands i looked around for anything sharp um that i could just you know do what i had to do in case that happened i wanted to get the hell out of there uh but if it was a choice between burning alive or or controlling my own destiny or fate and i was going to do what i had to do took us about an hour to get to the north tower and but when we finally made it there and then that's when we came across pasqual you know just sitting on very majestically that's what he was like a king on his throne yep looking over the pile how did you spot him was he calling out or doing anything no he wasn't calling out we were walking around and we looked up and we're like uh there's a guy sitting there and he was very calm i don't think he really still understood what was going on and then we started talking to him but on a very normal conversation like hey you all right and he was like yeah i'm like okay we're gonna help you out when you saw michael and his colleague what was your reaction in that instant i i thank god i mean i was i knew at that point i was gonna be okay i don't know i said he goes are you stuck or what you know i said i know i said i was in the building and it collapsed you know you know he's like oh who are you with i was like no i don't know i said i was in the building i just if if he goes he goes all his [ __ ] he goes oh god who goes better civilian here i guess figured out you know do you need a rope you need something i was like nah i don't know he's like what do you need i'm like uh you need to get out of here where he was was a very precarious situation so he was at the very top of the stairway for the north tower there was nothing above him he was at the top and underneath him was a giant crater of fire and twisted metal how big was that platform for him smaller than the chair i'm sitting on and when it finally settled he was still sitting on that it's unbelievable how would you describe that a miracle it's got to be a miracle someone was watching over him he needed to make it home it's there at home that louise biselli has lost all hope but pregnant and already grieving she's about to learn the most extraordinary news it's estimated pascual bousselli fell an incredible 18 floors that day he was one of only two people who fell with the towers and survived and one of only 16 who would be rescued from the rubble he had a broken foot and a few burns and scrapes but remarkably was otherwise unharmed they put me in an ambulance and you know i was like i'm okay i need a phone i said just give me a phone i said my wife is at home she's pregnant i said i just got to call her. what did you say pasqual what was what your first words to louise to louise said louise it's me oh my god yeah that's all i said louise it's me i'm alive i can't believe i don't know how i'm alive but i'm alive and so less than 12 hours after his miracle escape pascual bozelli was on his way home the moments before his arrival captured by a family friend on video say hi louise how you say hi hope say hello hi ho tell him why you're happy right now why are you happy right now because my father is alive all right here it is it was something louise thought she'd never see again her husband coming home [Music] oh my god he's really here you know he was home the same night how is that even possible [Music] i didn't wanna i didn't wanna let go i remember like we were in the car and everyone was you know i'm sure waiting to see him and i just i just didn't want to let go pasquale's rescuer fire fighter michael moribito also made it home after a day like no other so i didn't get home that night till about midnight and i was completely blind because of all the debris that had gone in my eyes throughout the day and when i got to my block all my friends were there waiting excuse me sorry i'm scared all my friends from my block and my family were there waiting and it was a nice feeling [Music] six weeks after their ordeal louise gave birth to little hope the baby daughter pasquale thought he would never meet i'm so glad that you came down me too yeah this is nice these days hope is all grown up and has a little sister mia i'm really blessed seeing them grow up to be amazing you know people i'm just lucky lucky to be a part of it for all of his gratitude being a survivor hasn't always been easy when he came home after 9 11 um it was very hard to find pascual through some of it you know just seeing him disconnect for a while you know that was really hard [Music] even now pasquale suffers underlying anxiety born as that day he avoids being in tall buildings and doesn't like to fly 20 years on what is the most enduring feeling about that for you i guess right now this day uh still feel blessed um still feel very lucky but also still feel very sad but i've kind of learned to i guess um you know not accept it but know that i feel okay with having survived um i don't feel i wasted the opportunity you know and i feel that you know i did what i sorry um i feel that i needed to do what i did as a father and as a husband it's hard i feel it too even having this interview because i feel so terrible about people who lost their families and it's hard to tell a happy story when there was so much tragedy that happened that day but pasquale's story is a story that needs to be heard i think pasquale's story does go to show people that there is always hope and to always hang on to life life is unbelievable and he's a perfect example of it not in 20 years has michael been back to the spot where the towers fell i actually haven't been down to ground zero since it happened i've never been to the museum i just don't go there because i don't like the way it makes me feel so i just stay clear of it but today he thinks it's finally time what's up my squad mate how's everything buddy the rescuer and the rescued together once again it really was the day that changed the world we all watched it we all remember where we were when it happened pasquale would give anything to forget it but 20 years on he's more grateful than ever for his second chance at life i'm just so thankful and happy i'm blessed so how do you approach this 20th anniversary i'm gonna spend it uh the same way i always do and that's with family with some people it's a day for them to remember that day for me i remember it every day you know it hasn't left we all got knocked down you know but is everybody pulled together so 20 years later you know i i hope we can pull together through what we're all living through now you know we saw the worst in people and we saw the best in people so um i mean that's my prayer for our children and our you know our future hello i'm tara brown thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on nine now dot com dot a u and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 1,292,038

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, 9/11, september 11, terror, twin towers, world trade center, al qaeda, terrorism, george bush, i shouldn't be alive, miracle, survivor, true story, survival, inspirational, rescue, pasquale, buzzelli

Id: eRVUvgJpi50

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021