SCRIBBLE
How the 9-11 plane crash changed people’s outlook on life By Madeleine Anderson
I don’t think I know one person who hasn’t heard of the 9-11 plane crash. This just proves how shocking and life changing the catastrophe was. On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and they intentionally flew two jet airliners into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. They hit between floors 93 and 99 of the North Tower. Of the 2,977 victims killed in the crash, 412 were emergency workers, this included 343 fire-fighters. Minutes after the crash the atmosphere was awful, family members were jumping off buildings, children were trapped in their rooms and the building was falling apart in the immense flames. I’m sure many of you have heard the despairing phone calls the victims left for their loved ones and realised how lucky you are to be alive and have your family beside you, and for a lot of people (including me), these phone calls and messages have changed their view on life and realised how precious life is. Many people were getting ready for the day and leaving for work forgetting to say ‘I love you’ to their parents or partner but in this busy, modern day society we all work at a very fast pace and just expect that we will live another day. A great example of heroism is Welles Crowther’s story: Just a few minutes after United Airlines flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center, Welles called his mother calmly and left a voice-mail saying “Mom, this is Welles. I want you to know that I’m ok.” Crowther was an equities trader at Sandler 0’neil and Partners on the 104th floor. After making the voice-mail, he made a move on helping people as he was a volunteer fire-fighter in his teens and to the 9-11 survivors, he was known as the ‘man in the red bandanna’. Via mic: “Amid the smoke, chaos and debris, Crowther helped injured and disoriented office workers to safety, risking his own life in the process. Though they couldn’t see much through the haze, those he saved recalled a tall figure wearing a red bandanna to shield his lungs and mouth.” “He had come down to the 78th-floor sky lobby, an alcove in the building with express elevators meant to speed up trips to the ground floor. In what’s been described as a “strong, authoritative voice,” Crowther directed survivors to the stairway and encouraged them to help others while he carried an injured woman on his back. After bringing her 15 floors down to safety, he made his way back up to help others.”
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