A man has recalled the terrifying experience of what happened when he was inside one of the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001.
Pasquale Buzzelli had just arrived to work and was travelling up to the 64th floor of the North Tower in an elevator when the first plane hit.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, the structural engineer for the Port Authority said the lights inside the lift flickered and they dropped about one foot.
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Perplexed as to what was happening, the people inside the elevator sat and waited to see what would happen next.
They had no idea that American Airlines Flight 11 had just slammed into their building 29 floors above.
Pasquale recalled that moment to the Channel 9 programme and said: "So I called [my wife] and 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'."
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They managed to get out of the elevator, however had no idea that another plane had hit the South Tower.
He called his wife again and told her he was still inside and she told him to get out immediately.
While he assured her he was fine, he eventually decided he needed to move downstairs to escape from the smoke coming from above.
"And we said, you know, what the F? 'What are we still doing here' OK lets get out of here'," he said to 60 Minutes.
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"We gathered everything, uh flashlight, we wet down some towels and stuff, and we started our way down the stairs."
As they were doing this, their building started to shake as the South Tower collapsed at 9:59am.
They passed a firefighter, who told them to just keep going down the stairs until they reached the bottom.
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"And then, we went down maybe 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."
"The building started to shake violently. I heard all the, the loud rumbling from above, I dove into a corner, and I got into a foetal position, and just buried myself up against a corner, so if anything large or heavy was falling, at least I had two sides that could protect me.
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"I felt the wall that I was laying next to, just crack and the floor give away, and I stayed tucked in the foetal position with my eyes closed.
"I felt this, 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.
"I just remember saying, you know, 'I can't believe this is how, my god, I can't believe this is how I'm gonna die.'
"Uh, you know, I thought about my wife, my unborn child ... and, you know, I said, 'Please just God please take care of them and make it a quick death.'"
Pasquale was one of just 16 people who were rescued alive from the rubble and only one of two people who fell with the towers and lived, according to News Corp.
The small piece of concrete he was on fell to the seventh floor, which is where he was eventually found by firefighters.
Despite falling more than a dozen stories dozen floors, he escaped with a broken foot and a few burns.
The world will mark the 20th anniversary of that tragic day, where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives, this Saturday.
Featured Image Credit: Channel 9Topics: News, No-Article-Matching