Famous faces of 9/11: Where are they now?
Some images from the September 11 terror attacks will never be forgotten. Here are some of the stories behind the faces in the photos.
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On the morning of September 11, 2001, New Yorkers woke to a beautiful crisp blue Autumn sky and most people expected a work day like any other in the Big Apple.
But at 8:45am (10.46pm AEST) that clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 76,000 litres of fuel slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre in lower Manhattan.
Many of the instantly iconic photos from that day were taken by photographers for Agence France Presse and Associated Press, and will remain embedded in Americans’ memories forever.
But who are the people captured in these eerie portraits, and where are they today?
Pasquale Buzelli
A structural engineer with the Port Authority, Buzelli had just arrived at work, and was making his way to his office on the 64th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Centre when the plane hit,
Effectively ‘surfing’ on a small slab of concrete, he fell 18 floors and survived. His story earned him the moniker of ‘Miracle Man’.
Speaking to journalist Tara Brown on Nine’s 60 Minutes, Buzelli described the fall.
“I still remember that feeling, you know, free falling. When I woke up and I opened up my eyes. I was like, this is impossible, I don’t know how I could have possibly survived that,” he said.
Buzelli recalls being in the elevator on his way up to his office when all of a sudden, the
lights flickered, the elevator shook, and then dropped “a foot or so”.
He was unaware that 29 floors above, American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the iconic tower. He called his wife Louise, who was pregnant with their daughter, whom they had already named Hope.
“I said, Louise, I said, don’t be alarmed, I’m okay, everything’s fine, just, can you put the television on, and tell me what you see, and she goes, ‘Oh my god,’ she goes, ‘A plane hit your building’,” he recalled.
Buzelli and his colleagues stayed where they were for more than an hour on orders from their boss, before deciding to evacuate.
At 9.59am, when the neighbouring south tower suddenly collapsed, Buzelli and his co-workers were in the stairwell of the north tower and felt the building shake.
Less than 30 minutes later he was still in the stairwell on the 22nd floor when the floors above him started to disintegrate and then he was in free fall.
By some miracle, he survived the fall.
“There was finally one big flash, um, and that was probably either when I finally landed or something during the fall hit me in the head so hard that it just knocked me out, uh, because when I came to, I was sitting on a pile of rubble looking up at blue sky,” Buzelli said.
But the danger was not over. When he came to he was stranded on a slab of concrete not much bigger than himself.
“Like picture yourself on a side of a mountain on the edge with like an open hole just of
rubble. Um, so I was just, there was no way for me to go,” he said.
Buzelli’s rescue came in the form of firefighter Michael Morabito, who went into the north tower with his partner looking for survivors. They found Buzelli perched precariously on his concrete pile.
He was one of only two people who fell with the towers and survived, and one of only 16 who would be rescued from the rubble. He had a broken foot and a few burns and scrapes but remarkably was otherwise unharmed.
Twenty years on, Buzelli is more grateful than ever to have survived the attack. His daughter Hope is now all grown up and he and his wife have another daughter Mia.
“I’m just so thankful and happy and blessed, I’m going to spend it (September 11), uh, the same way I always do,” he said.
“And that’s with, family. with some people, it’s a day for them to remember that day. For me, I remember it every day, you know, it hasn’t left.”
Bob Beckwith
A former member of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), Beckwith became famous after he stood next to George W. Bush as the former president gave a speech at the ruins of the World Trade Centre following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Though he was retired and almost 70 at the time, the news of the attacks had spurred him into action and he pulled out some of his old FDNY gear and helmet and went and joined the first responders down at the World Trade Centre wreckage.
A now iconic photo of Beckwith and Bush appeared on the cover of Time magazine and led to many public appearances and speaking engagements.
He spent the years after 9/11 often travelling and speaking on behalf of charities such as the New York Firefighters Burn Centre Foundation, and has raised thousands of dollars for the organisation.
Beckwith turns 88 on September 21. He is still married to his wife Barbara and they have six adult children.
Marcy Borders
Legal assistant Marcy Borders was at her desk on the 81st floor of the north tower where she worked for Bank of America when the first plane struck.
She managed to escape the building before it fully collapsed, coating her head to toe in white dust over her office attire including a pearl necklace.
It is one of the more haunting photographs of the catastrophe.
Stan Honda, a photographer for Agence France Presse, was there in the lobby to capture an image of Borders that was widely distributed and earned her the nickname “The Dust Lady”.
Although Borders miraculously survived 9/11 itself, Borders never escaped the shadow of that day, and her life began a downward spiral caused by the trauma of the event and its aftermath.
She found herself unable to hold down a job, fell into depression, and became addicted to crack cocaine.
She broke up with her partner, lost custody of her children and descended into alcohol and drug use for the next decade.
She told the New York Post, “By 2011 I was a complete mess. Every time I saw an aircraft, I panicked. If I saw a man on a building, I was convinced he was going to shoot me.”
Borders went to rehab in April 2011 and said that hearing about the death of Osama bin Laden helped with her sobriety.
However, in 2014 she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, believed to have been triggered by injesting toxic dust caused by the fallen buildings.
She soon fell into US$190,000 ($A255,000) health care debt and tragically died a year later.
Andrew Card
US President George W. Bush was at an early morning school reading at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida when the innocent event was interrupted by his Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who calmly whispered the news of the WTC crashes into his boss’s ear.
Card went on to head up Bush’s White House Iraq Group but announced his resignation as Chief of Staff in 2006 and moved into academic administration, it seems choosing a quieter life over the fraught existence offered by the White House in the post-9/11 years.
The man who whispered the news of the 9/11 attacks into the President’s ear, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, will speak at #FramState on Sept. 8, at 4 pm, as part of the University’s 9/11 20-year anniversary commemoration. Read more: https://t.co/U9V3CyC0Kypic.twitter.com/fkTAV67qCr
— Framingham State (@FraminghamU) August 31, 2021
He was the Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A & M University and then went on to live a quiet life in rural New Hampshire with his wife, three children and six grandchildren. He occasionally speaks on the subject of the 9/11 attacks.
Richard Drew
One of the most heartbreaking images from 9/11 is referred to as “Falling Man”, a photo taken by Richard Drew, an Associated Press photojournalist.
Of this haunting and iconic photo that depicts a man calmly plummeting headfirst from one of the towers as he accepts his fate, Drew told Yahoo! News, “To me, it’s a real quiet photograph … There’s no violence in it.”
The man in the photograph remains unidentified but Drew told Yahoo! News, “To me, he’ll always remain the Unknown Soldier.”
Drew was on assignment at a maternity fashion show in mid-town Manhattan when the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. He immediately jumped on a subway and headed downtown and began shooting the moment he hit street level.
“You just do your jobâ€: @AP photographer Richard Drew to recount experience covering 9/11 on @CBSSunday Sunday 9am ET: https://t.co/cbY6Oi5Q92
— AP CorpComm (@AP_CorpComm) September 2, 2021
Drew has been an Associated Press photographer for 50 years, and lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.
Now 75, he still works and recently told CBS ahead of the anniversary of 9/11: “You just do your job.”
Edward Fine
Financial advisor Edward Fine was on the 78th floor of 1 World Trade Centre when it was struck by a hijacked plane.
Fortune magazine ran this image of him coughing into a handkerchief, dishevelled and coated in dust, but still carrying his briefcase.
“I had no idea it was being taken but it became an iconic image. One picture editor told me that it symbolised the resilience of the American businessman,” he told The Mirror in 2011.
Fine had been in the WTC getting some financial advice on setting up a firm.
He was on the 79th floor, where he needed to get into the next elevator bank to go higher.
It is a miracle he survived, and that miracle only happened because he missed the next elevator to the 87th floor, which was obliterated when the plane struck the tower at its 93rd floor.
🌱Growth Stories 🌱
— Hold The Door (@HoldtheDoor) July 15, 2021
Edward Fine escaped from the WTC Towers moments before they collapsed on 9/11. Despite the devastation and loss, Ed focuses on the innumerable people rising to impossible circumstances – “a melting pot of the extraordinaryâ€. pic.twitter.com/x4ZfD3Nh0M
He told ABC News, “After I survived I was looking for something that would bring new meaning into my life.”
He went to work for a medical device manufacturer.
Fine added that the tragedy made him realise “my life and everyone else’s life is hanging by a thread. Here today, gone tomorrow.”
George Johnson, Dan McWilliams, and Billy Eisengrein
One of the most cherished and hopeful images of 9/11 shows three New York City firefighters raising the US flag at Ground Zero of the World Trade Centre, with the tangled Twin Tower wreckage of what would become known as Ground Zero behind them providing a counterpoint to the rising flag pole.
The official name for the photograph is “Firefighters Raising Flag” and the firemen were Brooklyn firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams, and William “Billy” Eisengrein.
The photo appeared on New Jersey’s The Record newspaper’s front page on September 12, 2001 and it was syndicated on the covers of several newspapers around the world via newspaper wire service, making it the image that defined the response to America’s worst attack on home soil since Pearl Harbour.
The firemen were unaware their photo was being taken but the image was made into a commemorative postage stamp.
Today, Daniel McWilliams and George Johnson are still active firefighters. William “Billy” Eisengrein is now retired. They have refused media requests for interviews, content to stay out of the spotlight.
Originally published as Famous faces of 9/11: Where are they now?
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