The miracle man of 9/11: How he survived falling from the collapsed twin towers

The evil that occurred on September 11, 2001, will never be forgotten. On that horrible day, the world changed forever. There was so much destruction, so much loss, that even now, more than 20 years later, it’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of what happened. But out of the utter despair, there are also incredible stories of heroism and survival, and none is more extraordinary than that of New Yorker Pasqual Buzzelli, a miracle man whose spirit continues to offer hope to us all.

Looking back two decades on, New York was an obvious choice for the most despicable act of terrorism the world has ever seen. Brash and bustling, dynamic and diverse, the beating heart of the United States has always been an enduring symbol of liberty.

“American 11, climb to flight level 350.”

When the planes flew in, loaded with passengers and fuel, their target was freedom itself.

“Holy shit! Oh my God! Oh my God, Jesus Christ! Oh my goodness! Oh God, there’s another one!”

I can still remember the smell. I still remember the sounds. I could pretty much run through it in my head, you know, step by step, you know, like a video. You feel like so much life has happened in this time, right? But then it feels like it was just yesterday. Like most of the journalists here, we’re having trouble finding words to adequately describe it. To be there in the days immediately after the attacks was a surreal experience. There were so many accounts of split-second decisions that meant the difference between life and death. 20 years on, one story of survival remains more extraordinary than any other. Incredibly, Pasqual Buzzelli surfed the collapse of the North Tower on a tiny slab of concrete, fell 18 floors, and somehow lived.

I can 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.

The impact of that day remains etched in the Manhattan skyline, but for both Pasqual and his wife Louise, they need no reminder. You know, at that time everybody said,

“Oh, you know, you’re alive for a reason. You must survive for a reason. You’re here to do some amazing things. You do amazing things every day.”

No, it’s not. I mean, I just, for our family, yes. I just wanted to… I just wanted to have a normal life and be there for my family.

It sounds like a terrible pressure. Is that what you felt, you know, given this second chance at life, this terrible pressure to make the most of it?

Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I guess I wanted to make sure I didn’t screw up. You know, not… you know, here I am given this gift, and I wanted to make the most of it.

In the summer of 2001, life was good for Pasqual and Louise. Their dream of starting a family was on the way to being realized.

“Hi, little baby. This is where you are right now. That’s a big belly.”

On the morning of September 11, Louise was 7 months pregnant with a daughter they’d already named Hope. A structural engineer with the Port Authority, Pasqual 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 Center. The elevator started to move and we started to go up, and then all of a sudden the lights flickered, the elevator shook. It felt like it dropped maybe, you know, a foot or so, and we just looked at each other like, what just happened?

It was 8:46 a.m., and unknown to Pasqual, 29 floors above, American Airlines flight 11 had ripped through one of the most iconic buildings on Earth. So I called her and I said,

“Louise, don’t be alarmed. I’m okay. Everything’s fine. Just, can you put the television on? Tell me what you see.”

And she goes,

“Oh my God, a plane hit your building.”

It’s inconceivable now, but Pasqual and his colleagues did not immediately panic. Told by their boss to wait until they got the okay to leave, they stayed for more than an hour, hidden from the horror of what was going on outside, until Pasqual called home for a second time. I said,

“Where are you?”

And he said,

“I’m… I’m still… I’m here.”

And I said,

“You’re still in the building? Get out! Why are you still there?”

And I was so angry, you know, and he was like,

“No, no, we’re okay. The floor is fine, we’re okay. It’s okay up here.”

But urged on by the smell of smoke from the fire burning above, it was time to go. And we said,

“You know what? What the… what are we still doing here? Like, yeah, let’s get out of here.”

We gathered everything, flashlights, we wet down some towels and stuff, and we started our way down the stairs.

“This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center. You can… A huge explosion now raining debris on all of us. We better get out of the way!”

By now, in the stairwell of the North Tower, Pasqual and his co-workers felt the building shake, but they were still completely unaware the South Tower had fallen, or of the terrible danger they were in. We continued our way down. We passed some firemen. They just said,

“Keep going, it’s a straight run. Keep going, keep going.”

And then we went down maybe a couple more flights, and it was on the 22nd floor that all of a sudden, you know, everything started to shake. I heard screaming, you know, people behind me screaming, and then just everything went dark. At first, I thought it was just an accident when the first plane hit, but then when I saw the second plane hit, I knew it was an attack.

Instantly, as Pasqual Buzzelli and thousands of others were trying to make their way out of the World Trade Center, Michael Morabito was making his way in. Michael was one of the 400 firefighters deployed that day when the Twin Towers were hit. As soon as we got out of the mouth of the tunnel on the Manhattan side, we got hit with the dust cloud. So we didn’t even know the first Tower had fallen. So my boss had given a Mayday that they just blew up the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, because that’s what we thought happened when we got out.

That speaks to the chaos, doesn’t it, of what was going on that day? No one really knew what was going on. It was just much confusion.

In the North Tower, Pasqual Buzzelli was still in the stairwell on the 22nd floor. It was 10:28 a.m. Suddenly, and inescapably, the floors above him started to disintegrate. The building started to shake violently and I heard all that loud rumbling from above. I dove into a corner and I got into a fetal position and just buried myself up against the corner, so if anything large or heavy was falling, at least I had two sides that could protect me. You know, I felt the wall that I was laying next to just crack, and the floor give away, and I stayed tucked in the fetal position with my eyes closed.

The floors, the walls, the entire structure was collapsing. 88 floors of pulverized concrete, steel, and glass raining down from above. Pasqual was now in freefall.

I felt this wind rush as I was falling, and, you know, this abrasive sandblaster type feeling. And I just stayed tucked in. I was being knocked around. I saw, you know, a few flashes of light from being knocked in the head, impacts. And just the thoughts that ran through my head at that time, I just remember saying,

“My God, I can’t believe this is how I’m going to die.”

You know, I thought about my wife, my unborn child, you know, and I said,

“Please, just God, please take care of them and make it a quick death.”

That Pasqual did not ask God to save him speaks of the terrifying hopelessness he felt. There was certainly no hope for Louise watching from home as her world too caved in. When I saw that second tower fall, I thought to myself, just think positive, just think, you know, positive thoughts. You know, on top of all of this now, you know, don’t lose this baby, because at that moment, that’s all I had left. I went outside and I just couldn’t believe how it was a beautiful blue sky day, and I watched millions—what felt like millions of people to me—die. And one of them had to be my husband, because there was no way he got out of there in time.

Pasqual hadn’t made it out yet, but miraculously, he had survived. Then it was finally one big flash, and then 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. Because when I came to, I was sitting on a pile of rubble looking up at blue sky. But in the mountain of twisted debris, his life was still in danger. Pasqual would need another miracle to get out of there alive.

“Oh my God, there we go! We better get out of the way!”

Having survived the collapse of the North Tower, Pasqual Buzzelli found himself marooned on a concrete perch not much bigger than himself, below a cavernous hole of smoking and twisted debris. I would see some smoke and dust, and then it would get dark. But in that initial wake up, where it was clear sky, I thought I was dead already. I thought I was just going to float out of my body and, you know, experience something like that. And I realized I was alive. You know, I was like,

“Oh my God, I can’t believe I actually survived this.”

By his own estimate, he had been knocked unconscious for 3 hours before he came to. Not only was he alive, he was relatively unscathed. But with fires flaring up all around, he was still in terrible danger. Like, picture yourself on a side of a mountain on the edge with like an open hole just of rubble. So there was no way for me to go.

As you sort of looked around from your precarious pinnacle, what did you think had happened to the world at that point? As you looked at the desolation around you?

I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see anyone. I didn’t know if the rest of Manhattan was even, you know, if there was further attacks or anything. I just didn’t know at that point. I could still hear some, you know, crackling, some fires, but other than that, it was just like silent. You know?

In the aftermath of Pasqual’s tower collapsing, firefighter Michael Morabito got to work, certain his own brother, also a firefighter, was among the dead. I don’t think you have time to grasp it. It just happened so fast and all you just start thinking about is the task at hand. I thought about my brother and I was like, well, he’s got to be dead, so don’t think about it, don’t put it in your mind, and just do what you have to do.

His brother John was stationed at Ten House right across the road from where the Twin Towers once stood. It was inconceivable he could have survived, but Michael never gave up hope. He knew I would go through hell and high water to find him. So excuse me, sorry. So then I continued to look for him. And I would say about 12:00, I was taking a drink of water, and I look, and I see my brother by a fire hydrant. It was unbelievable.

That must have been the best sight on the most awful day.

It really was. At that point, I saw him, I said,

“Everything’s going to be all right.”

And I was like,

“John, you’re okay. I’m going to go into work now.”

And then we proceeded into Ground Zero. By then, of course, the area in and around Ground Zero was an asphyxiating alien world filled with the dead and the dumbfounded. The top floors collapsed down. Michael and his partner decided to go into the epicenter of the attack in the hope of finding survivors.

Did your Chief want you to do that?

Not really.

Well, disobeying the rules was perhaps your best decision that day.

Yeah, I guess so. Now looking back, it probably wasn’t the smartest decision, but yes, it worked out good.

These images from the day capture what Michael and his partner faced. Like mountaineers in the midst of a nuclear winter, they scaled the remains of the two once proud towers. It was just twisted metal and fire and debris everywhere. You couldn’t walk, you were climbing everywhere you went.

Trapped on his perch of twisted metal, Pasqual Buzzelli felt like he was the last man on Earth. At the mercy of fires flaring up all around, he once again faced death, but this time he was ready to take his fate into his own hands. I looked around for anything sharp that I could just, you know, do what I had to do in case that happened. I wanted to get the hell out of there, but if it was a choice between burning alive or controlling my own destiny or fate, I was going to do what I had to do.

Took us about an hour to get to the North Tower. But when we finally made it there, that’s when we came across Pasqual. Just sitting on… very majestically, that’s what he was. Like a king on his throne, looking over the pile.

How did you spot him? Was he calling out or doing anything?

No, he wasn’t calling out. We were walking around, and we looked up and we’re like,

“Uh, there’s a guy sitting there.”

And he was very calm. I don’t think he really still understood what was going on. And then we started talking to him, but on a very normal conversation, like,

“Hey, you all right?”

And he was like,

“Yeah.”

I’m like,

“Okay, we’re going to help you out.”

When you saw Michael and his colleague, what was your reaction in that instant?

I thanked God. I mean, I knew at that point I was going to be okay. I don’t know, he goes,

“Are you stuck or what?”

I said,

“I don’t know. I was in the building collapse, you know.”

He’s like,

“Who are you with?”

I was like,

“No, I don’t know. I was in the building, I just…”

He goes,

“Holy shit! Oh, we got a civilian here!”

He figured it out, you know.

“Do you need a rope? You need something?”

I was like,

“No, I don’t know.”

He’s like,

“What do you need? You need to get out of here!”

Where he was was a very precarious situation. So he was at the very top of the stairway for the North Tower. There was nothing above him, he was at the top, and underneath him was a giant crater of fire and twisted metal.

How big was that platform for him?

Smaller than the chair I’m sitting on. And when it finally settled, he was still sitting on that. It’s unbelievable.

How would you describe that?

A miracle. It’s got to be a miracle. Someone was watching over him, he needed to make it home.

It’s there at home that Louise Buzzelli has lost all hope. But pregnant and already grieving, she’s about to learn the most extraordinary news. It’s estimated Pasqual Buzzelli fell an incredible 18 floors that day. 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.

They put me in an ambulance and you know, I was like, I’m okay. I need a phone. I said, just give me a phone. My wife is at home, she’s pregnant. I said, I just got to call her.

What did you say, Pasqual? What were your first words to Louise?

“Louise, it’s me.”

“Oh my God!”

He said,

“Louise, it’s me. I’m alive. I can’t believe… I don’t know how I’m alive, but I’m alive.”

And so, less than 12 hours after his miracle escape, Pasqual Buzzelli was on his way home. The moments before his arrival captured by a family friend on video.

“Say hi, Louise.”

“Hi.”

“Say hi, Hope. Say hello.”

“Hi, Hope.”

“Tell her why you’re happy right now. Why you happy right now?”

“Because your father is alive. All right, here they are.”

It was something Louise thought she’d never see again: her husband coming home.

“Hey! Oh my God, he’s really here!”

You know, he was home the same night. How is that even possible? I didn’t want to… I didn’t want to let go. I remember like we were in the car and everyone was, you know, I’m sure waiting to see him, and I just… I just didn’t want to let go.

Pasqual’s rescuer, firefighter Michael Morabito, also made it home after a day like no other. So I didn’t get home that night till about midnight, and I was completely blind because of all the debris that had gone in my eyes throughout the day. And when I got to my block, all my friends were there waiting. Excuse me, sorry. All my friends from my block and my family were there waiting, and it was a nice feeling. All my children.

Six weeks after their ordeal, Louise gave birth to little Hope, the baby daughter Pasqual thought he would never meet.

“I’m so glad that you came down.”

“Me too. Yeah, this is nice.”

These days, Hope is all grown up and has a little sister, Mia. I’m really blessed to see them grow up to be amazing, you know, people. I’m just lucky, lucky to be a part of it.

For all of his gratitude, being a survivor hasn’t always been easy. When he came home after 9/11, it was very hard to find Pasqual through some of it, you know, just seeing him disconnect for a while. That was really hard. Even now, Pasqual suffers underlying anxiety born of that day. He avoids being in tall buildings and doesn’t like to fly.

20 years on, what is the most enduring feeling about that for you?

I guess right now, this day, still feel blessed, still feel very lucky. But also still feel very sad. But I’ve kind of learned to, I guess, not accept it, but know that I feel okay with having survived. I don’t feel I wasted the opportunity, you know, and I feel that I did what I… sorry… I feel that I needed to do what I did as a father and as a husband. It’s hard. I feel it too, even having this interview, because I feel so terrible about people who lost their families. And it’s hard to tell a happy story when there was so much tragedy that happened that day.

But Pasqual’s story is a story that needs to be heard. I think Pasqual’s story does go to show people that there is always hope, and to always hang on to life. Life is unbelievable, and he’s a perfect example of it.

Not in 20 years has Michael been back to the spot where the towers fell. I actually haven’t been down to Ground Zero since it happened. I’ve never been to the museum. I just don’t go there because I don’t like the way it makes me feel, so I just stay clear of it.

But today, he thinks it’s finally time.

“What’s up, Pasqual?”

“Mike, how’s everything, buddy?”

The rescuer and the rescued, together once again.

“Good to see you, man.”

“Good to see you, you too, man. Look at you, awesome.”

It really was the day that changed the world. We all watched it, we all remember where we were when it happened. Pasqual would give anything to forget it, but 20 years on, he’s more grateful than ever for his second chance at life.

I’m just so thankful and happy and blessed.

So how do you approach this 20th anniversary?

I’m going to spend it the same way I always do, 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. We all got knocked down, you know, but everybody pulled together. So 20 years later, you know, I hope we can pull together through what we’re all living through now, you know. We saw the worst in people, and we saw the best in people. So, I mean, that’s my prayer for our children and our, you know, our future.