David Paventi was on the 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit on 9/11.
Mr. Paventi, a banker from Charlotte, North Carolina, was in New York for work at the time: His company had new offices in the World Trade Center, but was still in the process of moving in, and although a TV mount had been screwed onto the wall, the TV had not yet been installed.
The previous day, Sept. 10, Paventi remembers gazing out the window of a high-rise building on a hot, humid day so foggy he couldn't see the street below.
“There was another guy there with me that day, and we went for coffee that morning, and we went upstairs, and I remember he said to me, 'How come a plane isn't going to hit this building?'” Paventi recalled.
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David Paventi's temporary ID card at the World Trade Center on 9/11. (David Paventi)
He didn't say much about the comments at the time, other than to say he believed there were air security and control measures in place to prevent something like that from happening.
The next day, Paventi said, was a harbinger of bright, crisp fall weather. Just before he and his team at the World Trade Center were scheduled to begin their morning meeting at a long table in a conference room on the 81st floor, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the 93rd floor of the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., just 12 floors above Paventi's office.
He said he had imagined what an earthquake would feel like, even though he had never experienced one himself.
“I remember looking up… and the light was flickering across the table,” Paventi said, “and my first instinct was to get under the table so the light wasn't hitting my head. And as I was doing that, everyone in the conference room literally got up from their seats and ran to the front of the room.”
Victims trapped in the Twin Towers on 9/11 called out for help for themselves and others.
Pedestrians in lower Manhattan watch smoke rising from the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Amy Sanchetta)
Some of those in the building that day experienced the 1993 bombing at the base of the World Trade Center.
Paventi followed his coworkers out of the office and down a few flights of stairs, which he remembers as crowded and very quiet, before deciding to wait for his friend Bob, who'd stayed behind to make sure everyone had left the office. Bob caught up with him a few minutes later, and the two of them walked down the remaining flights of stairs.
“We all know what New York people are like; they're loud and rowdy, so you would have thought there would be some commotion on the stairs, but there wasn't,” he said. “It was very quiet.”
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Firefighters walk through the rubble of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as an American flag flies from a traffic light pole in New York, September 11, 2001. (Doug Cantor/AFP)
He remembers a man with severe burns being helped down the stairs by several people who told him to get out of the way. He and Bob smelled something strange on the stairs, which they now believe must have been jet fuel.
After descending dozens of flights to the first floor, which was very stop-and-go due to the number of people trying to escape, Paventi said he and Bob seemed to share the same unspoken thought: Maybe they'd come to the wrong place, and maybe they should have taken a different staircase to get down faster.
“And every time any of us got ready to say something, the line started moving again,” he said.
“Thank goodness we never went down those stairs, because of course we were able to get out.”
They both had pagers, and by the time they reached the 30th or 40th floor, they started getting messages that a plane had hit the building. They later learned that a second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, had hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.
The Bank of America shirt that David Paventi wore on 9/11. (Paventi)
Paventi said it took him about an hour and a half to get from the 81st floor to the lobby, adding that his flight instinct kicked in rather than panic. He just wanted to get out. Meanwhile, he could see firefighters rushing into the building, moving in the opposite direction from where everyone was trying to escape. Paventi described it as a “sobering” memory.
Firefighters, in full gear and carrying heavy machinery, had to stop to catch their breath at the top of the stairs and urge people to keep moving as the first floor was open.
“I remember one of the firefighters … looked up and said, 'I can do all this work for $35,000 a year.'”
“I was like, 'Oh my God, this is for real,'” Paventi said.
They eventually made it to the building's lobby, which Paventi described as looking like a scene from “Die Hard,” with large windows blown out and debris everywhere.
A woman wearing what appeared to be an official police jacket told Paventi and Bob to “never look back,” which they did. At one point, Paventi turned around and saw a huge cloud of smoke coming toward them, but they rounded a corner and hid behind a building, barely dodging the smoke.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks killed approximately 3,000 people and injured thousands more. (Photo 12/Universal Image Group)
Getting out of the city was a logistical nightmare. After the attacks, Paventi didn't want to take the subway and thought the bridge would be the best way to get off Manhattan Island, so he walked to the nearest bridge. He remembers watching the South Tower collapse completely.
“I remember looking over where the Trade Center was and our building was gone, just rubble and smoke. I remember looking over and seeing a second building start to collapse and literally melt,” he said. “It was like it just blended into the rest of the city. It was… disturbing and eye-opening and… the strangest thing I'd ever seen.”
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He and Bob then hitchhiked to JFK Airport, thanks to a good Samaritan, rented a Chevy Blazer, and drove it first to Bob's parents' house on Long Island, eventually making it back to Charlotte despite numerous hiccups along the way.
Authorities found Paventi's burnt wallet and cards a year or two after the 9/11 attacks, identified them, and returned them to him. (Paventi)
Paventi's wife was fielding worried calls from family and friends while trying to make sure he was safe, but he wasn't able to call her until he arrived at Bob's parents' home on Long Island.
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Paventi said he felt anxious immediately after the attacks. He's not a particularly sensitive person, but loud noises frighten him. In recent years, he says he's thought back to the people whose lives he couldn't save that day, and the emergency workers who sacrificed their lives to save others. He also thinks about how much things have changed in terms of security since 9/11.
“It's sad that it takes something like this to make people realise the level of freedom we enjoy in this country.”
“Even after a few days…there were no flights, everything stopped and it was very strange…there was a really strong sense of patriotism. People had flags flying in their homes that you don't normally see. It's sad that it takes something like this for people to realise the level of freedom we enjoy in this country and to think about the freedoms that have been taken away in light of everything that's happened.”
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Nearly 3,000 people were killed and thousands were injured, some of whom still suffer from illnesses caused by powerful chemicals and smoke they were exposed to while responding to the devastating attacks that day and in the days and weeks that followed.
