Window cleaner trapped inside 9/11 tower used unimaginable technique to flee and save lives
The trio were reunited 25 years after the harrowing incident in which they were trapped in a lift as the buildings started to collapse around them.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the tragedy(Image: Getty Images)
A window cleaner who was trapped inside an elevator during the 9/11 terror attacks has been reunited with two of the men whose lives he saved.
Jan Demczur, John Paczkowski and George Pheonix were trapped in a lift as the buildings started to collapse around them after two hijacked planes ploughed into the iconic skyscrapers in New York City.
They reveal how survivors John and George worked on the 67th and 74th floor of the North Tower and both got in the same lift on the same day. As the doors were closing, window cleaner Jan rushed in, with a bucket and squeegee – which would later save them.
Inside the lift they heard a bang, and the elevators started to fall, as a plane hit the tower. George said: “Everything was pretty calm initially, but then smoke started to come into the elevator.”
The men were stuck inside a lift(Image: Getty Images)
The men managed to pry the door open, where they saw the number 50 chalked on the wall and realised they had fallen 15 floors down.
As everyone started to panic, window cleaner Jan took the squeegee out of his pocket, removed the blade and ‘began frantically pecking at the wall’.
“It was a dangerous proposition because you didn’t know if the elevator was going to stay where it was,” John said. “We felt the impact on the South Tower while we were in the elevator, it shook the North Tower enough.”
The men took turns to try and break down the wall. “We just stood there, astonished,” George said.
“It was remarkable,” John added. “This gentleman who I would see on a daily basis, his demeaner was the calmest out of most of us, although I’m sure he was just as frightened as we were,” John added.
Then, Jan managed to make a hole, and George began to kick, managing to break the wall and escape. They then found firefighters at the stairwell, and that’s when they found out planes had crashed into the World Trade Centre.
The fateful day has been revisited 25 years on(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“One of the things that still sticks in my mind is the concern on the firefighters faces as they walked past us,” John said. “I’m sure that many of them who passed us didn’t make it out. Their faces haunt me quite a bit.”
It’s been 25 years since the men, who escaped the North Tower five minutes before it collapsed, have seen each other. They all took part in the National Geographic documentary 9/11 Reunited.
“Without Jan, we wouldn’t be talking right now,” George said. “Three seconds could have changed everything.”
Towards the end of the first episode, the three shared an emotional embrace as they reunited, with John telling Jan they ‘wouldn’t be here’ if it wasn’t for him.
