102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers (34 page)

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Authors: Jim Dwyer,Kevin Flynn

BOOK: 102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
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Portions of
102 Minutes
draw on interviews conducted by the authors for this book, for a 1994 book on the World Trade Center, and for several articles that appeared in
The New York Times;
the citations include interviews for those articles by
New York Times
reporters Ford Fessenden, James Glanz, and Eric Lipton.
Authors’ Note
North tower hit first:
The times here are those established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (hereafter NIST).
Beyond the hijackers’ designs:
Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, said in a taped interview that was discovered a few weeks after the hijacking that they had not expected the entire buildings to collapse, only that there would be localized collapses.
2,753 people died:
The official count of people identified as dead by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City as of May 2011.
Estimation of the dead:
An analysis by NIST in July 2004 is the source for the numbers of passengers and the number of first responders who died; the estimate of 600 people on the floors where the planes hit is by the authors, using the span of impact as described by NIST, and the number of people who worked on those floors and did not escape.
 
 
Prologue
First into the office:
Interview with Dianne DeFontes by Jim Dwyer, August 25, 2003.
… one of 14,154 people:
The number of people in the towers has been consistently and substantially overestimated, often merged with the total population of all seven buildings in the complex, along with the commuters who passed through the concourse coming or going from one of the six train lines that connected to the complex. The average turnstile count was provided by Alan Reiss, former director, World Trade Department, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; surveys of the actual building population on the morning, performed by the
New York Times
and
USA Today,
are consistent with that figure. In July 2004, NIST estimated the total population of the towers as no more than 17,400.
Another 940 were registered:
Kathy Duffy, Marriott, interview by Jim Dwyer, June 2002.
On 88, Frank and Nicole De Martini:
Nicole De Martini, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 26, 2003.
… his colleague, Jim Connors:
Mak Hanna, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 25, 2003.
Alan Reiss ran world trade department:
Alan Reiss, interview by Jim Dwyer, April 30, 2002.
Most of the 91st floor:
Mike McQuaid, interview by Ford Fessenden, May 2002.
Tom McGinnis, who normally worked:
Iliana McGinnis, interview by Jim Dwyer, May 2002.
… the firm’s managing director, David Kravette:
David Kravette, interview by Joseph Plambeck for the authors, July 13, 2004.
Yasyuka Shibata had arrived:
Yasyuka Shibata, interview by Jim Dwyer, February 26, 1993.
The pursuit of bombers:
Jim Dwyer, David Kocieniewski, Dee Murphy, and Peg Tyre,
Two Seconds under the World: Terror Comes to America
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1994).
Not long after the bombing:
NIST,
Progress Report on the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster,
Gaithersburg, Md., May 2003.
The structural engineer explained:
Leslie E. Robertson, interview by Jim Dwyer, February 27, 1993.
As Liz Thompson arrived:
The description of the morning at Windows on the World is based on interviews by Kevin Flynn in 2002 with Liz Thompson, Geoffrey Wharton, and Michael Nestor, as well as with relatives of people who died, and with members of the restaurant staff who had not yet arrived that morning.
A few strides behind:
The compelling story of the last elevator out of Windows on the World was first reported by Lisa DePaulo in “The Last Day of Windows on the World,”
Talk
magazine, December 2001.
 
Chapter 1: “It’s a bomb, let’s get out of here.”
A bomb, Dianne DeFontes thought:
Dianne DeFontes, Walter Pilipiak, Akane Ito, Rob Sibarium, interviews by Jim Dwyer, May 2002 and August 2003.
Mike McQuaid, the electrician:
Mike McQuaid, interview by Ford Fessenden, May 2002.
In the lobby, David Kravette:
David Kravette, interview by Joseph Plambeck for the authors, July 13, 2004;
The Early Show,
CBS News, September 19, 2001.
She dropped the phone:
Louis Massari, Laurie Kane, Abigail Carter, interviews by
New York Times
staff members, October 2001–May 2002.
At another breakfast:
Alan Reiss, interview by Jim Dwyer, April 30, 2002.
As soon as Gerry Gaeta:
Gerry Gaeta, interview with Jim Dwyer, August 2003.
Down the hall, Nicole De Martini:
Nicole De Martini, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 2003.
A window washer named Jan Demczur:
Jan Demczur, interview by Jim Dwyer, October 4, 2001.
In fact, its lower wing cut the ceiling:
NIST, “Progress Report on the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the WTC Disaster,” June 2004, Gaithersburg, Md., p. 5.
Aviles worked for the Port Authority:
Ezra Aviles, transcript of voice mail, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, September 11, 2001.
Then he phoned his wife:
Mildred Aviles, interview by Jim Dwyer, April 2002.
In the police bureau:
Reiss, interview.
Flight 11 had hit 1 World Trade Center:
NIST, “Progress Report,” p. 5.
The plane itself was fractionalized:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (hereafter FEMA),
World Trade Center Building Performance Study,
May 2002, pp. 2–30.
The impact registered:
From the website of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, report on the World Trade Center disaster, noted at
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/LCSN/Eq/20010911_wtc.html
.
 
Chapter 2: “It’s going to be the top story of the day.”
The 1993 bombing:
Jim Dwyer, David Kocieniewski, Dee Murphy, Peg Tyre,
Two Seconds under the World: Terror Comes to America
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1994).
Sheehan ran Nemeth down:
Michael Sheehan, interview by Jim Dwyer, December 5, 2003.
He left a voice-mail message:
Tape of voice mails provided by Beverly Eckert, April 2002.
Richard Fern neither heard nor saw:
Richard Fern e-mail to Eric Lipton, May 2002.
On the trading floor:
Patricia Emerson, interview by Jim Dwyer, December 26, 2003.
The place was crammed:
Pictures of the Euro Brokers office at 2 WTC posted at
www.ebi.com
.
Mardovich and nine others:
Emerson, interview.
More fire wardens appeared:
Brian Clark interview by Jim Dwyer, August 5, 2004; interview by Eric Lipton, May 2002.
These wardens, like Jose Marrero:
Mike Hurley, fire-safety director, World Trade Center, interview by Jim Dwyer, April 10, 2002.
After fires in two new skyscrapers:
Comments on proposed building code revisions by O’Hagan in 1966 to the 1968 code were provided by Tom Lally, who oversaw building code issues for the Fire Department. O’Hagan served simultaneously in the 1970s as both the fire commissioner, a position appointed by the mayor, and as chief of department, a civil service title.
But when it came to complying:
Michael Goodwin, “Trade Center Getting Sprinklers at $45 Million Cost; Only One Major Fire; Noncompliance Is Rampant,”
New York Times,
March 13, 1981, p. A1.
… the fitful role fire-safety issues:
Mike Hurley, interview by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, February 2004.
A private contractor:
Graham Rayman, “Sky Lobby Questions; Could Safety Officers Have Helped Towers’ Evacuation?”
Newsday,
April 11, 2002, p. A4.
Instead he contacted his counterpart:
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, transcript, World Trade Center, Channel 17, September 11, 2001.
The messages had been delivered:
Michael Otten, interview by Lauren Wolfe for the authors, December 11, 2003.
For Stephen Miller:
Stephen Miller, interview by Lauren Wolfe for the authors, December 8, 2003.
Perhaps more important:
Otten, interview.
Joined by a group:
Katrina Brooker, “Starting Over,”
Fortune,
January 21, 2002, p. 50.
They began operations:
Christian Murray, “To Honor Those Who Have Died,”
Newsday,
September 8, 2003, p. F6.
On the morning of September 11:
Gorsuch account from Murray, “To Honor Those Who Have Died”; yachts, description of Sandler, from Brooker, “Starting Over.”
But one of his partners:
Brooker, “Starting Over.”
Nearly 200 feet below:
John Duffy and Mary S. Schaeffer,
Triumph over Tragedy
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002), pp. 5–38, 132.
The board of KBW:
Duffy and Schaeffer, p. 36.
A veteran of the 1993 bombing:
Linda Perry Thorpe, interview by Jim Dwyer, May 2002.
Vadas had just called:
Kris McFerren, interview by Ford Fessenden, May 2002.
Will De Riso, a salesman:
“Former ND Athlete Sprints down Tower,”
South Bend Tribune,
September 13, 2001.
He heard other traders:
Duffy and Schaeffer, p. 54.
Bradley Fetchet, a twenty-four-year-old:
Audio tape played at the 9/11 Commission hearings on March 31, 2003.
Of the eight Mulderry children:
Peter Mulderry, interview by Jim Dwyer, May 2003.
 
Chapter 3: “Mom, I’m not calling to chat.”
Gerry Wertz, a purchasing manager:
Gerry Wertz, interview by Joseph Plambeck, June 3, 2004.
The worker in McQuaid’s crew:
Mike McQuaid, interview by Ford Fessenden, May 2002.
Eugene heard his brother put down the phone:
Eugene Meehan, interview by Jim Dwyer, October 2001.
Garth Feeney did not work in the trade center:
Judy Feeney, interview by Kevin Flynn, April 2002.
Actually, the restaurant was well above:
NIST, “Visual Data Collection and Analysis,” December 2, 2003.
Doris Eng, who had spent the first part of the morning:
Lisa DePaulo, “The Last Day of Windows,”
Talk,
December 2001.

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