The day of September 11, 2001, is etched in our memories as a day of unimaginable tragedy. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost in a series of coordinated attacks that shook the world. Amidst the devastation, however, there are stories of incredible luck, resilience, and sheer chance. These are the tales of individuals who, against all odds, survived the horrific events of 9/11. Let’s explore the unbelievable accounts of ten such lucky survivors.
10. Ron DiFrancesco: Last Man Out of the South Tower
Ron DiFrancesco, an executive at Euro Brokers, was on the 84th floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 hit. The plane struck just below his office with its right wing slicing floors above. He was trapped by fire and smoke.
Showing incredible courage, Ron used a piece of broken sheetrock as a shield. He pushed downwards through intense heat until he heard a firefighter’s voice. This firefighter guided him below the impact zone. As Ron neared the ground level, rescuers were directing people to exit through the basement due to falling debris. Just as he was about to make it out, at 9:59 am, the South Tower began to collapse.
Ron saw a massive fireball and then lost consciousness. He woke up in a hospital, suffering from severe burns all over his body. His contact lenses had even melted in his eyes. Ron DiFrancesco is recognized as the last person to escape the South Tower before it fell.
9. Joseph Lott: Saved by a Tie and Fashion Advice
Joseph Lott was staying at the Marriott Hotel, located between the Twin Towers, on September 11th. He was a sales representative for Compaq Computers and was scheduled for a presentation at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower.
His unique hobby of collecting “art ties” played a crucial role in his survival. Before his presentation, a colleague, Elaine Greenberg, gave him a Monet tie. Joseph liked it and planned to wear it. However, Elaine, with her keen fashion sense, told him, “Well, not with that shirt. You’re not going to put on a red and blue tie with a green shirt.”
After breakfast, Elaine went up to Windows on the World. Joseph returned to his hotel room to change his shirt. As he was leaving his room, the first plane struck the North Tower. Holding his lucky tie, Joseph was among the first to evacuate the hotel. Tragically, everyone at Windows on the World, including Elaine Greenberg, perished that day.
8. Jan Demczur & Five Others: The Squeegee Escape
The Twin Towers had nearly 200 elevators. On 9/11, about 200 people tragically died in or near them. Some elevators fell, others were engulfed in flames, and many were trapped when the buildings collapsed.
At 8:45 am, window washer Jan Demczur was in an elevator in the North Tower with five other men: Shivam Iyer, John Paczkowski, George Phoenix, Colin Richardson, and another unidentified man. They were heading up from the 44th-floor Sky Lobby when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building. The elevator shook violently and stopped.
Realizing they needed to escape, they pried open the doors but found a solid wall marked “50.” Jan tapped on it – it was sheetrock. Using the only tool they had, Jan’s squeegee handle, they painstakingly scraped through inches of sheetrock and then smashed through tiles behind it. They crawled out into a bathroom on the 50th floor. They quickly found a stairwell and reached the street at 10:23 am, just five minutes before the North Tower collapsed. The life-saving squeegee is now at the National Museum of American History.
7. Sheila Moody: Clapping for Life in the Pentagon
The Pentagon, despite being shorter than the Twin Towers, is the world’s largest office building by floor area due to its five concentric rings. This design likely saved lives, as did the fact that American Airlines Flight 77 hit a section under renovation, which was less populated. Still, 184 people at the Pentagon died.
Sheila Moody was in the E Ring, the outermost circle, when the plane hit at 9:37 am. She heard a “whistling sound… then a rumble, and a large gush of air and a fireball.” The blast threw her across the office. Though the hole created by the plane was nearby, thick smoke made it impossible to see. She tried to call for help but couldn’t breathe enough to yell.
Overcome by smoke, she started to black out. In a desperate act, Sheila recalls, “So, I started clapping my hands.” Staff Sergeant Chris Brahman heard her, fought through flames, and carried her to safety. Sheila was hospitalized with burns across her body, including her hands that clapped for rescue.
6. Steve Scheibner: The Pilot Who Was Bumped
Steve Scheibner was an experienced American Airlines pilot with a decade of service, plus prior experience as a Navy pilot. He was the kind of pilot you’d feel safe flying with.
On September 10, 2001, Steve logged into the airline’s system and found an open assignment for the next day: an early flight from Boston to Los Angeles. He booked it. However, in the American Airlines system, a pilot with more seniority could “bump” another pilot from a flight within half an hour of it being claimed. It didn’t happen often because of the short window.
But this time, it did. Tom McGuinness, a colleague with slightly more tenure, took Steve’s spot on what would be American Airlines Flight 11. The next morning, hijackers stormed the cockpit and, minutes later, crashed the plane into the North Tower. Steve Scheibner’s story is a chilling reminder of how a small change in plans can alter a life.
5. Elise O’Kane: A Keystroke and a Frozen System
United Airlines also used a computer system for flight assignments. Flight attendant Elise O’Kane usually worked the Boston to Los Angeles route. In August, while setting her schedule, she accidentally typed in the wrong code numbers and ended up with a different schedule than planned.
She managed to trade flights for most of her usual assignments, except for one: Flight 175 on September 11. So, on September 10, Elise tried to request that specific flight. As fate would have it, the computer system froze. By the time her request went through, it was one minute past the deadline for changes. Her request for Flight 175 was denied. She had to take a flight to Denver instead.
The next morning, Elise O’Kane’s plane to Denver departed from Boston’s Logan Airport between American Airlines Flight 11 (which hit the North Tower) and United Flight 175 (which hit the South Tower). Elise later changed careers and became a nurse.
4. Ling Young: Rescued by the Man in the Red Bandana
The 78th-floor Sky Lobby of the South Tower was a busy transfer point for elevators. When United Airlines Flight 175 crashed directly through this area at 9:03 am, around 200 people were there. Only a very few survived. Ling Young was one of them.
“I flew from one side of the floor to the other side,” Ling remembers. “When I got up I had to push things off me.” Her glasses were filled with blood, and she saw devastation around her. She herself had severe burns. Then, she heard a young man’s voice saying, “I found the stairs. Follow me.”
Ling noticed he was carrying another injured woman over his shoulder and was wearing a red bandana. She followed him down. At the 61st floor, he put the other woman down, told them both to keep going, and went back up into the chaos. He was never seen alive again. The hero, known as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” was later identified as 24-year-old Welles Crowther, an equities trader.
3. Genelle Guzman: 27 Hours in the Rubble
Genelle Guzman worked as an administrative assistant for the Port Authority on the 64th floor of the North Tower. She felt a massive crash from above and saw a fireball out her window. Initially, she and about 15 colleagues stayed put because an announcement over the PA system told them to await instructions.
However, when the South Tower was hit at 9:03 am, they decided it was time to leave. The evacuation was slow. Stairwells were crowded with people and ascending firefighters. Then, at 9:59 am, the South Tower collapsed, sending smoke and debris into the North Tower.
Genelle and her group had made it down to the 13th floor when, at 10:28 am, the North Tower itself came down. Tragically, everyone with her died. But Genelle survived. Her head was pinned between concrete pillars, and her leg was severely injured. She remained trapped in the smoldering wreckage for an astonishing 27 hours. Firefighter Paul Somin and his rescue dog eventually found her. Genelle Guzman was the last survivor pulled from “the pile” on September 12th.
2. Stanley Praimnath: Dodging the Plane Itself
In the North Tower, no one at or above the impact zone of Flight 11 survived. All escape routes were cut off. In the South Tower, however, 18 people who were at or above the impact zone of Flight 175 (floors 78-84) managed to survive. Stanley Praimnath, an employee at Fuji Bank on the 81st floor, was among the most fortunate.
After the first plane hit the North Tower, Stanley had gone down to the South Tower lobby. A security guard told him the building was secure, a tragically common piece of misinformation that day. So, Stanley returned to his office. Moments later, while on the phone, he glanced out the window.
“And that,” he said, “was when the plane caught my eye.” He saw United Airlines Flight 175 heading straight for him. He dove under his sturdy desk just as the jet ripped through the walls. The impact destroyed everything in his office – except his desk. A piece of the plane’s wing was even wedged in his office door. Buried in rubble, Stanley cried out for help. Brian Clark, a colleague from another office, heard him and managed to free him from the debris.
1. Josephine Harris: Her Rescue Saved Her Rescuers
Josephine Harris’s story is incredible because a group of firefighters believe saving her also saved their own lives. Josephine, a bookkeeper for the Port Authority, started evacuating from her 73rd-floor office in the North Tower after the first plane hit about 20 floors above her. An old leg injury from a car accident made her progress slow and painful.
Meanwhile, Ladder Company Captain Jay Jonas and his crew had climbed 27 floors of the North Tower when they felt a massive rumble – the South Tower collapsing. They immediately started heading down. On the 20th floor, they encountered Josephine Harris. They couldn’t leave her behind. Their descent became agonizingly slow, one step at a time, helping Josephine.
By the time they reached the 4th floor, Josephine was in so much pain she urged the firefighters to leave her and save themselves. They refused. As they paused to let her rest, the building began to shake violently again – the North Tower was collapsing around them. They ducked and prayed. Miraculously, the way the building fell created a pocket of survival in the stairwell where they were. “God gave us the strength and courage to save her,” Captain Jonas later said, “and unknowingly, we were saving ourselves.”
The stories of these ten individuals are powerful reminders of the human spirit’s resilience and the unpredictable nature of fate. On a day marked by so much loss, their survival shines as a testament to courage, quick thinking, and sometimes, sheer, unexplainable luck. They carry the memory of those lost, and their stories continue to inspire awe and reflection.
What are your thoughts on these incredible stories of survival? Do you know of other miraculous escapes from that day? Leave your comment below and share your reflections.
