September 11, 2014

"Petrov’s shift ended at 8 A.M. Usually, he stuck around to have coffee with the morning staff..."

"... but on September 11, 2001, he decided to go straight home. He went down to the parking lot in the basement to get his car, and, as he was driving out, the first plane hit the building. He saw debris but nothing else and thought little of it until he got home and turned on the news. He called his friends at the restaurant. It was the last time he spoke with them."

From "Take Picture," in The New Yorker, about the photography of the Estonian immigrant Konstantin Petrov, who worked the night shift at Windows on the World.

12 comments:

Big Mike said...

RIP Rick Rescorla

"He was last seen on the tenth floor of the World Trade Center, headed up. Of the 2,700 people he had been charged with protecting, all but 6 survived the terrorist attack."

Anonymous said...

and 3 of the 6 were Rick and his 2 assistants.

A Real Mensch, as New Yorkers of all faiths would say....

Birches said...

Esquire reprinted The Falling Man with an addition about James Foley. I'm not sure how I feel about it, though they're asking for donations to his scholarship fund, which is good. Excellent writing though. I'll be thinking about it all day

Widmerpool said...

His photos are here:

http://public.fotki.com/kostic/world_trade_center/windows_on_the_world-4/

Clyde said...

The twist at the end regarding Petrov's fate made me sad. He managed to survive 9/11 by not hanging around that particular day after work, but still lived only a few months longer. The last picture in the slideshow is haunting.

Birches said...

Thanks for posting the link, actually both links, Big Mike and Widmerpool.

Carol said...

It was the Titanic, Pearl Harbor and the Hindenburg, all at once. I'm surprised there haven't been even more writings and movies about it. Maybe in another hundred years.

Anonymous said...

"I'm surprised there haven't been even more writings and movies about it. Maybe in another hundred years."

Hollywood was smart enough to know that if they blamed the usual suspects, e.g. CIA, or Bush, that the movie would bomb, so none was made.

Larry J said...

Clyde said...
The twist at the end regarding Petrov's fate made me sad. He managed to survive 9/11 by not hanging around that particular day after work, but still lived only a few months longer. The last picture in the slideshow is haunting.


We all make countless decisions every day. Most of them are inconsequential in the greater scheme of things. He decided to go straight home instead of drinking coffee in the restaurant and survided a terror attack. He rode his motorcycle like a bat out of Hell until the odds caught up with him. We all make decisions and we make mistakes. Some of them are unrecoverable.

FullMoon said...

I hope the Republican candidate has enough balls to play the audio of Hillary claiming Chelses was in the area when the planes hit.

And how she evaded machine gun fire in Bosnia.

Sickening

CatherineM said...

Fullmoon - omg. I forgot about that Hillary fake story. Some how Chelsea liked to run from her Gramercy apt down to the towers for exercise. She could have been killed! Nuts. Chelsea had a different story, but it ended that she was relieved her mom was a senator for NY at time. Our savior Hillary.

What always bothered me about the dogging gunfire in Bosnia crap was that no one questioned why she would put her daughter in harms way or why the secret service would allow it.

CatherineM said...

Went to a lot of Weddings at Windows on the World. Once it was dark it was like any ballroom so I remember thinking it was a waste of money. I also thought it was a pain to get up to.

Once there at dinner I saw a man propose. The woman put her hands over her face, started to cry, and right as we were about to clap congratulations, she grabbed her bag and ran out crying.

Thank you for the link of the rest of the pics.