London woman who narrowly escaped 9/11 says her ‘heart remains broken’ 25 years onMs Brooks climbed down the stairs of the building as a plane struck the floors above
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Niva Yadav1 minute ago
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A London woman who surived the 9/11 attacks has said her “heart remains broken” 25 years after the atrocity.
Janice Brooks, a Londoner from the East End, had transferred from the capital to New York City just 19 days before the terror attacks to work as an executive assistant for Euro Brokers.
She was one of thousands working inside the World Trade Center when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked two commercial airliners and crashed into each of the Twin Towers.
A third hijacked plane struck into the Pentagon, while a fourth, likely headed for the US Capitol, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 victims died on that day – including 61 of Ms Brooks’ colleagues.
Ms Brooks managed to survive that fateful day, climbing down the stairs from the 84th floor of the South Tower as the second plane – United Airline Flight 175 – struck the building.
In the moments before, Ms Brooks was told by officials to make her way back up the stairwell as there were too many people congregating on the floors below.
As she did so, the plane burst through the tower, sending the structure up into flames.
“I can close my eyes and be back there in a second,” Ms Brooks, now 66, told the Daily Mail.
The attacks claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 peopleAFP via Getty ImagesJanice Brooks pictured on top of Two World Trade Centre on September 7, 2001 just four days before the attacks (Janice Brooks/PA)PA Media
On the morning of September 11, Ms Brooks had been on a run, had breakfast, and was at her desk by 7.30am.
She did not know that the world was about to change forever.
Ms Brooks recalled seeing dust and paper floating through the office window, but was unaware that an aircraft had been flown into the building next to them.
The next thing she heard was a man’s voice, instructing everybody to leave.
“Everybody out! Everybody out!,” she recalled.
She attempted to call her boss, who had flown to London the previous day, but instead spoke with her former UK manager.
He was the one who broke the news to Ms Brooks that a plane had just been flown into the building.
“As I’m standing there listening to him, his voice was full of shock, horror, it was that kind of a scream,” she recalled.
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“Here’s a guy 3,500 miles away from me – and he and the whole London office are watching it on the telly – and I don’t know what’s happening 200 years away from where I’m standing.”
Ms Brooks explained that the decision “to stay or go was completely taken out of [her] hands”, as fire marshals, named Steve and Jose, herded her towards the stairs.
Moments before, her colleagues had said it was safe to stay in the building as it was the other tower which had been hit. But now the staircase was full of people making their way down the building, though Ms Brooks notes that there was “no panic, no concern” among workers.
Getty ImagesSmoke rises after the attacks on the World Trade CenterNYC OFFICE EMERGENCY MANGEMENT/A
As she descended from the 84th floor to the 70th, officials said people could return to their desks because the building was “secure.”
She remembers her colleagues Paul and Bobby, who took off running back up the stairs.
“I shouted out to Paul, ‘Hey, wait for me,”she said.
“Smiling, he waved and said, ‘Come on old woman!”
Ms Brooks would never see Paul and Bobby again. At 9.03am, a second plane was flown into the South Tower, striking floors 77 through to 85.
Ms Brooks recalls that she was just one floor away from being hit, having only made it to the 76th floor.
“The lights flickered on and off. A couple of the girls in front fell to the floor and were screaming. I was jostled back against the wall,” she said.
She remembers hearing a woman’s “blood curdling, high pitch scream,” as two men began pulling away debris to reveal the door.
But when they opened it, all she could see “was darkness and flames” and the stairs had gone.
A man who walked through had large pieces of glass in his chest, while another was covered in blood and glass.
The last person to come through had a cut on her head that was bleeding down to her eyes.
“Her screams had gone on all that time. ‘I can’t see, I can’t see’, she was saying.”
Ms Brooks recalls walking through bloody footprints as she descended the stairs, filled with emotions as she thought about the horrors she had just witnessed.
At the time, Ms Brooks thought that Tower One had fallen on the building – unaware that a second plane had been flown into her office building.
A colleague, named Bob, reassured Ms Brooks as the group continued to make their way down to ground level.
Outside, she was directed towards Brooklyn Bridge. Looking up for the first time, she saw where her office should have been, was now “a huge gaping hole”.
Ms Brooks remembered hearing the “thwacking” noise of desperate office workers throwing themselves to the ground.
Back in her apartment building, huge clouds of black smoke had begun to swirl around her windows.
In the space of a few hours, she found herself wading through the debris that had come into her apartment block as the two towers collapsed outside.
But in light of her miraculous escape and survival, Ms Brooks had never forgotten the colleagues that she lost.
“Over the years, their faces are kind of blurring in my memory. But without all of them, without every single one of them, I don’t know how I would have got to [my colleague]. I am so thankful for them.”
She added: “I always say about September 11th that on the day when I saw the worst of humanity, I saw the best of humanity. I saw the best of New York and I saw the best of New Yorkers.”
“They won’t know it, but I still say a prayer for them every night.”
Janice Brooks (Janice Brooks/PA)PA Media
Some 61 workers from Euro Brokers lost their lives in the atrocity. Many relatives phoned in to enquire about missing family, but in most cases, there was nothing that Ms Brooks nor anyone else in the office could tell them.
Ms Brooks tried to attend each of the 61 funerals, but has never forgiven herself for not being able to attend them all.
“To my complete and utter shame, of the 61 funerals, I only went to 23. I should have tried harder. I let the families down. I let myself down.”
“I will take this to the grave. It’s something I will never forgive myself for.”
Ms Brooks is set to attend the 9/11 Memorial in New York City on Friday. She now works at the charity, Since 911, supporting victims and their families, and turning the tragedy into an education.
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