“The thing that fascinates me, I’ve learned since, that the impact zone was the 93rd to 96th floor. Nobody on the 92nd floor and above got out. About 1360 people were doomed…and I’ve learned that the building came down in ten to twelve seconds. And after the ten to twelve seconds, what I recall is how quiet it was — the most silent quiet you’ll ever hear, not a peep, not a moan, nothing.”
From 2001:
“The concourses connect, and the building falling was pushing a wall of air and debris through that concourse. As I turned around and saw that wall coming toward me, I had to think quick. I didn’t want the ceiling to cave in and crush me, so I was looking for the closest support beam. As I was running to that marble support beam between two stores, the windows from the stores were bulging and blasting out, from pressure or the rumbling,” said Hardej. “I don’t believe there were any bombs in all of this, it was just from the planes. As I grabbed hold of that wall, it finally sandblasted me with these fiber particles. At that time everything goes black as electricity went. You couldn’t breathe for two or three minutes as that wall was nothing but dust and particles. I had taken my shirt off coming down stairs to put it over my mouth. But that didn’t help. After a while, it did dissipate enough to breathe and my night vision started to let me make out some stuff in the dark. The rumbling was still going on above as Number Two was probably hitting the plaza. I was praying that the marble on the beam above me would not come down and take me out.
