Londoner Janice Brooks had been working in New York for less than a month before an airliner smashed into her office building
Today marks 25 years since Al-Qaeda terrorists murdered 2,996 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in history. And for Eastender Janice Brooks, the day is particularly harrowing.
She was working for Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the World Trade Centre’s South Tower on September 11, 2001, when two aircraft piloted by Al-Qaeda terrorists slammed into the iconic Manhattan landmark.
In a new documentary, 9/11: Days that Shocked the World, Janice recalls how she heard a muffled “thud” as American Airlines Flight 11, carrying five hijackers and their 87 innocent victims ripped into the neighbouring North Tower.
She explained: “There was a bit of a thud nothing dramatic, and I looked out of the window and I could see paper swirling, and dust. Suddenly, I heard a man’s voice – loud and powerful – saying ’Everybody out! I picked up my bag, and took a couple of steps away from my desk and then thought ‘Ooh, hang on, I better call London.’”
Janice calmly called her former boss in the London office to let him know the office was being evacuated. She was shocked to hear him shouting down the phone: “F***ing hell Janice, a plane’s gone into the building, get the f••• out of there!”
Nevertheless, the Euro Brokers staff were calmly walking down the emergency stairs, chatting to each other in a relaxed manner, when, Janice recalls, they were given an incredible order. She explained: “We have been asked not to evacuate Two World Trade, the space on the Plaza is being used for those being evacuated from One World Trade Centre, please return to your office.”
A little over a quarter of an hour later, Janice was still at her desk when United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 51 passengers and nine crew members, as well as five terrorists led by Marwan al-Shehhi, was deliberately crashed into the South Tower – just four floors above Janice’s head. she continued: “There was an almighty thud, the building swayed, people in front were screaming, the lights flickered on and off, and in between the flickering I could see that the ceiling had fallen down.
“All this probably only took four seconds,” Janice added, “but it seemed to last a lifetime.”
The Euro Brokers staff again headed for the emergency exit, which by now were partially blocked by debris. She continued: “Eventually we opened the door … and I could just see flames and darkness. The stairs had gone.”
Janice describes seeing people injured by flying glass. She told UK charity Since 9/11: “The first woman had blood all over her arm, which was cut, almost neatly, from her shoulder to her elbow, I remember seeing the bone, and her skin just flapping around…”
Everyone around Janice was by now covered in blood, dust and fragments of broken glass. She went on: “One man had a cut across the back of his neck, and the back of his t-shirt was soaked with blood. Another man had a blood-splattered shirt and had huge pieces of glass in his chest, which the others were pulling out.”
One woman, Janice recalled, was completely traumatised by her injuries: “She had cuts all over her face, and had one eye full of blood… she was saying that she couldn’t see, and was waving her arms frantically in the air… someone gave her a bottle of water, she washed her face, and the blood in her eye was from a deep gash on her forehead, which had dribbled down. When she shook her hair, glass showered everyone.”
By now, someone had found an alternative exit, and Janice and some of her colleagues began to make their way towards the ground floor.
She went on: “I happened to glance down at my shirt, and saw I had blood on my shirt. I started to cry and a chap from Euro Brokers came running up … he said ‘Janice, it’s not your blood, we have to get out of here’.”
Janice and her colleagues, with an increasing sense of panic, eventually made it to ground level. She lived almost opposite the World Trade, in Battery Park, and stumbled home, talking a colleague who wanted to use her phone.
It was shortly after she walked into her apartment that the first tower fell. “There was a sudden roar, like the gates of hell were opening – then the World Trade Centre collapsed” she said.
Euro Brokers lost 61 employees in the New York branch that day, representing nearly one-fifth of its New York workforce. Janice, who has since returned to the UK and now works in Canary Wharf, was one of the lucky ones.
9/11: Days that Shocked the World is available to stream on channel4.com
