Jerry, a mid-forties office worker, had just entered an elevator, when the plane hit. He felt the elevator shake and start to give way. He dived out of the open doors as the elevator fell; the top of the elevator just missing his legs as he did so.
Safety devices halted most elevators with the consequence of trapping the occupants inside. Some elevators inexplicably did not stop but fell, crashing downwards into the sky lobby147. In one lift, flames blasted through the elevator door burning the occupant badly.148
Knowing the building well, when she left the meeting, Katherine knew she was not far from the sky lobby and had elected to use the stairs. She had descended several flights before the explosion. She was knocked down, bruised and cut. The stair case two floors immediately above her were wrecked. She was covered by a rocky debris and a thick layer of dust.
* * * *
“Impact,” Orange stated.
“Terminate Flight 11 transmissions,” said Planner sadly.
“175 Drone ready,” said Magenta.
Planner responded deadpan, “Black out the airliner. Tag as Old-175. Start spoof 175 transmissions. Inform ground team.”
Magenta gave a thumbs up.
“Spoof 11 terminated, 175 transmissions started,” said Orange.
Bates asked, “What’s happened to 93?”
Ochre reported, “Flight 93 has just taken off!”
Bates sighed. Bad news travels fast and Flight 93 could have been grounded.
“Old-175 to follow behind Flight 93,” commanded Planner.
“We’re getting visual confirmation from Flight 93’s chase plane,” said Magenta.
“Yes, Closet Point of Approach is one mile in 5 minutes,” said Orange.
“Ok, Make it so.” Said Planner.
“Vectors passed to Old-175, it is now following 93 to Cleveland,” said Orange.
“Very good. The only way anyone could spot that on radar would be if they had AWACS,” winked Purple.
* * * *
An elevator arrived at the North Tower 78th floor sky lobby with a ding, the door opened and a burnt occupant crawls out. A helpful man rushes to his aid. He could still walk and they started towards a stairway. They hear another person banging on another elevator door. After a few minutes trying, the helpful man calls out, “I can’t… I can’t get these doors open, Buddy. You’ll have to hang on for a bit longer, ok. I’ll bring help. I won’t forget you.”149
* * * *
Over in the South Tower on the 97th floor, a group of workers at the Fiduciary Trust Company looked in horror at the fire in the North Tower.
“What was that?” exclaimed one. “It must have been a bomb!”
A loudspeaker voice announced over the tannoy, “The office is secure. Please return to your offices.”
Another worker said, “Secure? No, I don’t like this. We ought to evacuate.”
Another one said, “They’ll be busy enough down there without us getting in the way.”
The insecure worker said, “I’m getting out of here. Suppose there’s another bomb?”
A loudspeaker voice repeated its message, “The office is secure. Please return to your offices.”
Continuing on, he said, “Aren’t you worried you’ll be trapped?”
“From here?” said the first. “I’d get out onto the observation deck! Get picked up by helicopter. Just like Ninety-Three!150”
* * * *
There was smoke swirling around the ceiling, the air was acrid; it was difficult to breath. At the stairway leading up to fire escape onto the roof, a queue of people, all covering their mouths with cloth, found the exit door was locked.
“It’s blocked! Somebody go get a fire axe,” said the man by the door.
“I thought you said you had a key,” said the man behind him.
“I do have a key. But there must be a second lock,” said the first man.
“Who the hell would lock a fire exit?” shouted someone further below.
The women behind the first two started to panic, “This smoke is going to kill us, we have to get some air!”
“Smash a window,” someone called.
A black man at the bottom of the stairs, “If you’re smashing a window then I’m getting myself a table-cloth and parachute out.”
“You’ll kill yourself,” said the man next to him.
“Break a leg, for sure. Still better than this,” he retorted.
“Someone get me an axe!” yelled the first man.
Another man said, “Or climb onto the roof? It’s been done before…”151
* * * *
Orange looked up from his radar screen, “Chase plane reports that Flight 77 has missed the rendezvous point.”
Planner shot a look over to Magenta, who looked embarrassed. “Slow down 77 and get the drone to circle around.”
Bates said “Er… what’s happening with the 175 drone? Look at the screen.”
The radar display showed Flight 175 closing towards Delta 2315. A collision detection warning was flashing on the display.
* * * *
Scoggins and Cooper were having an animated debate concerning the loss of radar contact with Flight 11 and other anomalies such as ghost tracks appearing on their screens. Within the bank of radar screens at the FAA Air Traffic Control Center, a controller was monitoring Flight 175. Mildly distracted by the commotion at the other end of the office, he noticed the potential for in-flight collision.
He waved his hand to attract his supervisor’s attention, saying “We’ve got another one”. He turned to bark into his headset microphone, “Delta 2315, Take evasive action. Aircraft heading for you on starboard side. Take evasive action.”
The pilot’s voice was calm but concerned, “Control, I can see nothing. What evasive action is recommended?”
The controller was frantic, “Aircraft descending from starboard to your altitude. On collision path! Go port”
The Pilot snapped back, “Understood! diving to port!”
* * * *
Orange looked grimly at his radar screen showing the two tracks touching and then move away. He checked the data returns from both aircraft, they were both still flying. Through gritted teeth, he said, “We just had a near miss.”
Planner said, “175? How near?”
“About as close as you can get152,” said Orange.
Planner winced, “Keep the number of fake hijackings and simulated tracks down until the drone hits.153 Let the FAA steer other craft away. What’s happened with Flight 93? 175 is supposed to be following that to Cleveland!”
Magenta called out, “77 drone swap complete.”
Ochre reported, “Completing Flight 77 swap. Indigo, how’s the contact group transmissions going?”
Indigo trembled, “Slight delay on that. Deleting references to cell phones in the scripts and losing some tapes. Doing the best I can. I may need to keep in some key conversations. With Cell phones. They are pre-recorded, we can’t mimic them.”
Planner and Bates looked towards Indigo grimly.
“Ok, do it! Do the best you can,” said Planner. “We’ll sort out the loose ends later.”
* * * *
Katherine, covered in fine concrete dust, clothes ripped, limped into the lift lobby via a stair well. The air was full of smoke. Jerry who was directing other survivors down another stairway, came up to her.
“Are you ok?” he said.
Katherine stared back at him blankly.
Jerry said, “I thought that stairway had collapsed.”
Katherine nods and coughs, “It has.”
“Come this way,” he said. “Stairway C seems to be clear. Can you make it? We’ve got everybody alive from this floor.”
* * * *
On several TV channels, news started to trickle through. One newsreader stated, “We have just heard that an aircraft has hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. Witnesses state that a small single engine aircraft crashed into the north tower. We hope to bring you live pictures shortly.”
* * * *
At the FAA, Cooper dejectedly hands a phone to Scoggins. “It’s Washington.”
“What’s all this about calling up fighter aircraft outside of protocol?” shouted a managerial voice.