Two Russians who survived the September 11 attacks spoke about their rescue

The National Memorial and Museum 11 September, located on the site of the twin towers. Photo: depositphotos

11 September marks the 15 anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack in world history. On an autumn day 2001 of the year 2 passenger aircraft captured by terrorists rammed the towers of the World Trade Center, the third aircraft was sent to the Pentagon building, and the fourth fell in the state of Pennsylvania. Almost 3 killed thousands of people.

Among the victims of a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks were Americans, Canadians, British, French, Japanese, Chinese - people of different ages and nationalities, including 25 immigrants from the former USSR.

Some miraculously managed to escape. Two of the surviving Russians, Andrei Tkach and Alexander Skibitsky, shared their stories.

Andrey Tkach, a native of Novosibirsk, lives in the USA

“At 8:45 I was at work, on the 72nd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I had just grabbed some coffee and was about to sit down to write my report. Even before it shook, I heard some strange whistle - then, remembering, I realized that it was the noise from the engine of an airplane approaching the tower. And immediately after that the whole building literally moved several meters, no one could stay on their feet, everyone fell. The first thought is an earthquake. We froze, not understanding what was happening. I went to the window, and for some reason papers and some burning garbage were falling from the sky. There is no smoke or fire visible, and it is completely unclear what is happening. What to do next - too.

We got through to the Rescue Service. They said: you need to stay in their places and wait for instructions. My colleague Duck Keenan, who worked for the longest in our company, said then: the main thing is not to panic, because in 1993, during the terrorist attack, many more people died not because of an explosion, but because the crowd rushed to the exit . And now you need to behave calmly and act in an organized manner.

And then my wife called someone and said: according to CNN, they say that a plane crashed into us. I immediately said: "We must go down." I objected that it was better to wait for instructions. All the same Duck said that if they go, then to the roof, because the last time people were evacuated from there by helicopters. Began to argue, leave or not, and where. We decided to find out in the Rescue Service. For a long time it was impossible to type - there was no connection or was busy. And when they finally phoned, they ordered to stay on the ground.

And then I saw a men's suit flying past our windows. Honestly, in the first minute I did not understand who and why it occurred to me to drop the suit down. And then he suddenly realized that it was a man. I decided to spit on everything and leave. The rest remained to wait for instructions or rescuers.

When he came out into the corridor, there was already smoke. The staircase was also tightened by it, it was dark and very hot, almost unbearably hot. Several dozen people descended from above, while quite a bit. Some were injured, with burns - the rest helped them, encouraged them. Down we walked slowly, because with each floor passed, people arrived: they appeared from the side exits, it was necessary to stop and skip the new batch. Especially a lot of people on the stairs became when they finally announced a general evacuation. Some doors twisted and jammed, we helped to open them.

It was impossible to overtake those who walked - the stairs are very narrow, you will not warm up. Because of the smoke and dust, it became harder to breathe - people were coughing, choking. I very much regretted that, as the last idiot, I didn’t have thought to wet the clothes in advance to roll my mouth and nose, but now it was too late, there was nowhere to take water. He covered his face with a handkerchief. Then for the first time the thought occurred to me that a person’s life is not measured by years lived, but by the number of breaths taken. I wondered how many more breaths I could manage before I died.

Somewhere in the middle of the road we met the first firefighters who were going up. They were in full gear, carrying equipment. It seemed that they were infinitely many. Due to the counter-flow on the stairs it became even closer. When they got up, water from fire extinguishers began to pour over us.

I do not know if it seemed to me or not, but gradually the building began to crackle and sway. Some kind of animal fear appeared, he pushed, said: “Run!”. If it were not for the crowd blocking the way, I would have run, but there was no such opportunity. We went down more and more slowly, and the fear grew stronger. When we were almost at the bottom, it shook so much again that many fell off their feet. We were suddenly hit in the face by a terrible stream of red-hot dusty smoke. I did not understand what happened. Then I found out - this is because the South Tower collapsed.

As soon as we got to the exit from this vertical hell and the opportunity to run appeared, I ran. Human bodies were falling nearby. When they hit the ground, people broke like watermelons. A man who ran a few meters in front of me was crushed by a fallen concrete block, only blood spurted. Then I didn’t really see what was around, rushing, without looking back, like never before in life.

When I was about five hundred meters away, I was suddenly lifted into the air and carried above the ground. It collapsed North Tower, but then I did not know about it. Falling, flew head over heels. When I got up, for about ten seconds I could not find out where to run further. Everything looked like a black and white film about nuclear winter. Dust and ash in clubs, everywhere a thick layer of dust and concrete chips, paper and garbage whirl in the air. A little further down the street is a fire truck turned upside down. And for some reason, her wheels spin in the air.

I was stunned. I remember: I stood and, without stopping, looked at these wheels. I do not know how long I stood. Then a man approached me, touched my shoulder and asked if everything was all right with me. Then I finally came to my senses, dusted off the dust and went. I do not remember how I got to the Brooklyn Bridge. There were already thousands of people there - the metro did not work, everyone walked. The crowd was huge, but it was very quiet. Everyone's mood was depressed: New York, after 9 / 11, generally stopped smiling for a while. Above us in the sky with a whistle flew fighters.

In Brooklyn, a car stopped near me, the driver offered to take me home. I wanted to pay the fare, but he refused flatly. He said that he had already taken a few people and was going to deliver those who managed to get out of Manhattan unharmed until the evening. On the way, we saw the first American flags hung from balconies and windows. Then these flags became a lot.

The smoke over Manhattan remained for four more days, until rain fell on September 15, and the smell of burning remained in the city until the spring, until the last of the debris was removed.”

Alexander Skibitsky, a native of Krasnoyarsk, lives in Canada

“September 11, 2001 was a beautiful day - it was Indian summer, which in the States for some reason is called Indian summer. I was in a corresponding, elated mood: over the weekend, my wife and I were going to leave our son with a nanny and relax for the first time in a long time - go to the Hudson. I remember that I even hummed to myself when I started the computer. My desk in the office on the 65th floor of the South Tower was next to the window, and I loved that on a clear day you could even see the curvature of the horizon. Before getting down to business, out of habit, I went to the window, stood, admired the view, and drank coffee.

I did not see the plane crashing into the North Tower, the explosion too - the windows of our office looked out to the other side. But the explosion, we felt everything: shook. What happened, no one really understood.

As soon as it became known that the North Tower was burning, everyone immediately grabbed the phones and started calling their relatives. They told me that everything was fine with them, that they had not suffered. And I had one thought: “I’ll call you later, but now I need to take care that everything is really good with me.” Immediately decided - you need to get out as quickly as possible, and then you never know what. Suddenly the North Tower will collapse on ours or something else will happen.

Of course, I could not even imagine that soon another plane would crash into our tower. No one imagined that the neighboring tower was attacked on purpose, everyone decided it was an accident. I remember still wondering how you need to be an idiot to crash into a skyscraper with such excellent visibility as it is today.

Speakerphone announced that we are not in danger, evacuation is not required. You need to stay on the ground so as not to interfere with the police and firefighters working around the North Tower. The chief decided to hedge himself and ordered just in case to start packing the documentation and computers. My buddy, Wally, and I, as a Bangladeshi friend, talked to one side and decided: all the same, what they say, we must get out.

On the high-speed elevator went down. There, guards blocked the flow of people and declared that everyone should return to their workplaces immediately, the South Tower was not in danger. Disciplined Americans turned back and began to climb up the elevators, and Wally and I slipped out. Having gone down, I tried to call my wife, to say that I was alive, but the mobile connection was no longer working.

Below, everything was littered with broken glass and concrete, the wreckage of the aircraft was burning. We had to literally step over them. Sirens of fire trucks and ambulances roared around, helicopters circling in the sky. When they moved away to a safe, as it seemed to us, distance, they stopped to see what was happening. Smoke poured from the North Tower — never before had seen so much black smoke. We managed to make out how at the top, above the line of fire, people get out and somehow hold on, clutching at the columns. Seen as a few people jumped out or fell out of the windows. One pair fell, to the last to hold hands.

And here we heard the sound of a low-level aircraft - it seemed that the subway train was approaching us at great speed. And immediately after that there was an explosion. We looked away and saw that our tower was burning, South. A ball of fire literally shot up above her. I mentally crossed myself: "Well, that got out." And a man standing next to me, exhaled: "This is war." And then I realized that he was right.

Around hell began. People ran out of the towers in crowds, in soot and dust, bloodied. They fell from the tops of the towers and crashed to the ground. Some fallen bodies were burning, they were trying to extinguish. The police tried to organize the evacuation, calm and organize the crowd, but it didn’t really work out.

Behind the cordon line many were already waiting for relatives who had time to rush over to Manhattan after seeing the news of the attack. I still remember how one guy literally jumped to embrace him, his wife and two children. Together they fell to the ground, lay and laughed with happiness. Those who did not wait for their relatives prayed. Women were crying.

The south tower, which collapsed first, collapsed so quickly that for some time the smoke retained its shape. You see: it was no longer there, but there was smoke at this place. The crowd around us just managed to exhale in one voice “Oh, my God!”, As it was all over. A huge shaft of smoke, ash and dust fell on us. This shaft looked exactly like the special effects in the movie, but only it was all for real. It was hard to believe, it did not leave the feeling that it was all a dream, scenery, it does not happen in life.

When the dust had settled, it seemed to me that everything seemed to be covered with snow. Like a house of cards, one on one lie upside down cars. Glass homes broken. Pieces of paper are flying in the air. It was impossible to make out who was around you - all were covered with a thick layer of dust. It seemed to me that the same thick layer of dust is now inside us. The lungs were completely clogged - I then thought that I would never be able to breathe normally, I would not get rid of this dust.

A man standing nearby was wounded by a debris. I approached the policeman, saying: “There is a wounded person”. He turns to me - and he has a layer of dust on the face of the groove from tears. For some reason, this is the picture I remember most. Wally and I helped the wounded man get to the nearest ambulance.

I also remember how some elderly woman was rushing along the street, rushing to each passerby, asking with despair and hope in her voice: “Frankie?”. I tried to wipe the dust off my face to see if it was or not. People in response only shook their heads negatively - nobody could speak. I do not know who this Frankie was to her - a son, a husband, a brother?

We were lucky to get a taxi. Along the way, the taxi driver stopped two more times and picked up walking people covered in ashes. He even put a man in the front seat, something New York taxi drivers usually never do. Only in the taxi did I truly believe that I was alive. We thought then that not thousands, but tens of thousands of people died in the World Trade Center towers. It sounds cynical, but it was very lucky that there were much fewer victims.”

See also:

The terrorist attacks in New York and Moscow: how to protect the memory of those killed in the United States and Russia

The US declassified the last part of the report on the September 11 attacks

Save humanity: бен Laden wrote a letter to the american people

In the US, remember the victims of the September 11 attack. A PHOTO

Sentenced for September 11 attacks blames Saudis

The dog, who saved people 11 September, arranged a birthday party

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