Where were you on Sept 11, 2001?

Two South Africans living in New York on September 11, 2001 talk about their experiences of the Twin Towers attacks.

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Johannesburg - ‘If the plane had arrived half an hour later, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” says musician, songwriter (and stockbroker) Dan Heymann.

Heymann shared his tale of September 11 survival with The Star newspaper.

Despite his friendly demeanour, there was an air of reluctance as we broached the subject.

“I worked on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. The plane flew straight into my office… It was a big, open-plan office, and I don’t know anybody who came down from there safely,” says Heymann.

When the first plane hit the tower, Heymann was still riding the subway; unaware of what was happening.

“I didn’t show up at work until 9.15 that morning and by that time, the building was already being evacuated. Our company lost nearly 300 people including my boss, her boss and his boss,” Heymann says.

I ask Heymann if he remembers what it was that made him late. “Why was I late that morning? It doesn’t really matter, because the first impact was around 8.45am, so even if I’d arrived on time at 9am, I couldn’t have gone upstairs. As it is, I didn’t get above ground, I just caught the next train out of there,” he recalls.

In the following days, he tried to keep thoughts of the disaster at arm’s length.

“My imagination just couldn’t handle the scale of the horror.”

Reflecting on those difficult days, Heymann tells me there was a realisation of how quickly and easily one can become a victim.

“I felt relieved and grateful for my narrow escape, and I was determined to make good use of the fact (via song- writing) that I had been spared. That impulse continues to propel me today,” he says.

Heymann was the lead keyboardist and songwriter for the anti-apartheid band Bright Blue who are most famous for their song ‘Weeping’.

He still lives in New York City.

 

Jonathan Kantor

“There was only silence. This tense, death-like silence settled around us. There was no one on the streets… I realised something was seriously wrong.”

As he relives the historic moments, emotion washes over him, his face reddening and eyes darting around the room. He taps his fingers on the table, the beaded bracelets on his hand shaking with his movement.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Joburg salesman Jonathan Kantor was a student studying in Rockland County, upstate New York. He and a friend had planned to take a tour of the World Trade Center that morning.

“We were supposed to be there, in those (twin) towers. I was a tourist and I wanted to see them, the view from inside the towers, from the top floor,” Kantor said, his voice cracking.

“I overslept. I panicked, knowing that I was late for my trip to the city. I dressed quickly and got ready to go. When I got outside there was absolutely no one around, which was strange for that time of the day.

“I ran back to my dormitory to turn on the TV, and it was like watching a movie… I saw the North Tower burning and then watched as the second plane hit the South Tower. We were afraid, we thought there was going to be a nuclear war, nobody knew what was actually happening.”

While studying in New York, Kantor was also teaching part-time at one of the local schools. “The class I was teaching at the time was nicknamed ‘Twin Towers’ because most parents worked at the World Trade Center.

“I went around to all their houses like a lunatic trying to find out if they were okay. By some miracle, most parents were fine and hadn’t made it to work on time. There was this shock and disbelief everywhere… everyone was crying. We went up, onto a hill in the area and just watched as smoke poured out of the towers.”

Kantor also recalls his frantic attempts to contact his family following the terrorist attack. “All the phone lines were jammed. I knew my mom would panic. For hours there was no way for me to contact my family and let them know I was okay.”

The days that followed were oddly mixed with “trauma, pain and love… a lot of love”.

Days later, Kantor and some friends caught a bus into New York City to donate blood because the blood banks were running short. “It was so obvious what had happened, just looking at the skyline where the towers were and the dust cloud that had settled in its place. They were gone.

“New York isn’t the cleanest city, but when we arrived we just saw dust. Everything for blocks and blocks was just covered in sand and dust. It was hard to breathe, it was oppressive,” Kantor said, shifting in his seat uneasily. This experience wasn’t easy for him to recall.

“Everyone was asking ‘How did this happen?’ “ he said, his eyes welling up with tears. “And the firefighters, the real heroes, seeing how respected they were… every time a fire truck was seen in the streets, everyone would stop to clap and cheer for them, for the sacrifices they had made trying to save people stuck in the towers.”

From being the cold city he had experienced just weeks before, New York was now a city that had pulled together to be there for each other.

“Strangers were hugging each other and crying… a lot of people had incredible stories, sad stories, and there were a lot of miracles.”

“There were stories like ours, where some people were late because of morning prayers taking longer than usual, oversleeping or bad traffic. But there were painful ones too.

“One woman said her husband had got a promotion and he was working on one of the top floors of the North Tower. He had left early for work, he died that morning.

Kantor looked me in the eye: “Don’t take life for granted, not for one second, because it can be gone,” he clicked his fingers, “just like that.”

 

9/11’s impact:

* On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijack four American airliners which were originally destined for the West Coast of the US.

* Two of the planes are flown into the World Trade Center’s North and South Towers between 8.45am and 9.05am, killing 2 606 people.

* At 9.37am, the third plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, killing 184 people.

* At 10.03am, the fourth plane crashed into a field, killing all 40 people on board. It’s believed passengers and crew aboard tried to retake the hijacked flight.

* A total of 2 977 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

* In the past 14 years, the remains of only 1 640 people from those killed in the World Trade Center have been identified.

* The slain leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

 

ilanit.chernick@inl.co.za

The Star