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Remembering 9/11 Through the People Forever Changed by It

From CBS News · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • CBS News revisits the September 11 attacks through testimony from survivors, first responders and relatives of victims, 25 years after the attacks.
  • Harry Handler recalls helping a woman with an asthma attack descend from the World Trade Center after a plane struck the second tower.
  • Relatives and witnesses describe lasting trauma, including Laurel Homer, whose father died when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.

There is a fine line between never forgetting September 11 and constantly reminding people of it, CBS News says. Twenty-five years after the attacks, the program revisits the day through people who lived through its defining moments and those who have carried its consequences ever since.

You could see flames shooting out of, you know, all sides of the North Tower.

· Harry HandlerHe recalls seeing the first World Trade Center tower on fire before the second plane hit his building.

Harry Handler was on the 67th floor of 2 World Trade Center when flames erupted from the North Tower. An announcement told people in his building to return to their desks after the first plane hit. Seventeen minutes later, a second plane struck his tower. Handler started running down the stairs, taking 12 steps at a time, until he found a woman leaning against the bannister and suffering an asthma attack.

“I said, ‘Well, let me take you down.’” Handler recalled. She took his arm, and despite breathing heavily, they moved slowly down the stairs. They did not yet know that a third plane had hit the Pentagon.

I said, ‘Well, let me take you down.’

· Harry HandlerHe describes helping a woman suffering an asthma attack escape down the tower stairs.

Marine Major Dan Pantaleo rushed into the Pentagon to help, without being asked. “Things were not where you’d expect them to be,” he said, describing a desk partly lodged in the ceiling and what looked like a safe embedded sideways in a wall.

Things were not where you’d expect them to be.

· Marine Major Dan PantaleoHe describes the chaotic conditions inside the Pentagon after the attack.

About half an hour later, United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers who had learned about the attacks stormed the cockpit. Tim Lambert, whose family had owned the land since the 1930s, said the passengers’ decision gave America hope. Nature gradually returned to the site, but reminders remained constant. Laurel Homer, whose father, First Officer LeRoy Homer Jr., died on the flight, was 10 months old at the time. She said she still struggles with the life she might have had and the fact that she never knew who she would become with her father present. As the children of survivors grew into adults, some also described bullying and shame connected to the attacks.

On that dark day, 40 people did something that gave America hope.

· Tim LambertHe reflects on the Flight 93 passengers who stormed the cockpit.
About this summary

Originally published by CBS News in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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