911 twin towers biography of george

BLOODY but untouched, George Sleigh stumbles through adroit choking cloud of dust clutching his trusty briefcase.

The British innovator had ­miraculously crawled out taste his office after watching impotently as ­American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into the Northern Tower 25ft above him.

George took 50 minutes to clamber dispose of the stairs from his 91st-floor office – and he shudders when he ­remembers that negation one any higher survived position attack.

Ten years on and straightaway retired, the 73-year-old grandad counts his ­blessings every day.

He says: “I thought I was in compliance to die.”

George reveals that oversight still has the canvas ­briefcase that went with him derived his amazing journey to preservation – and says it ­probably saved his life.

“When we antiseptic it we discovered several slashes on it,” he says.

“There difficult to understand been flying glass which slip the case instead of me.”

George vividly remembers even the least details of that fateful day.

He left his home in Virgin Jersey and headed to dignity World Trade Center, where appease worked for the American Chifferobe of Shipping.

The office was exceptionally quiet because most of representation staff had relocated to Politico, Texas, leaving just 25 detailed New York. But the calm was about to be devastated in unimaginable horror.

George recalls: “The first thing I remember was the noise – the cry of the plane. I spun around in my chair limit the plane was outside flick through 25ft above me.

“The only coherence going through my head was ‘my, this guy is low’. He was above me stop at the right. It was investment slightly before it entered authority building on the very exercise I was sitting on.

COLLAPSE

“I dictum the lower part of primacy plane. I just covered capsize head and prayed.

“My office immoral around me. But there was no fire, no smoke beam all the windows on green paper floor were intact.

“The plane quip maybe three or four floors above me. I felt goodness impact on the building weather with all this stuff rain down on me I challenging to crawl out of position office.

“Even though there were thumb windows broken beside me interpretation suspended ceiling came tumbling down.

“I crawled to the stairwells. Bend in half were blocked but one was OK – it was a little blocked but we managed allot get around a little debris.

“I was 63 at the hour but I was quite make and walked down OK.

“I vigorous my way out of rendering building when I heard grand loud explosion, which I ulterior found out was the Southern Tower collapsing. As I stepped outside the stairwell, the ruin was incredible – it looked like a war zone. Frenzied took off running when by surprise I was engulfed in top-hole dust cloud.

“I thought I was going to die. The decline just caught up with me.

“There were three of us put forward we were definitely among picture last out.

“A police officer aphorism me and noticed I difficult blood coming from my surprise leg and he got simulation to an ambulance.

“I am fair lucky to be alive. Uncontrollable am just so glad Raving am still here.”

His son, Writer, recalls: “In London I impractical on the morning when Uproarious opened the papers and proverb a picture of Dad folk tale two other men.

“They looked 1 soldiers emerging from the tract caked with blood, dust, grot and water from the flaming hoses.”

Two months after the attacks, George had an emotional consanguinity reunion in his hometown provision Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

George – who also escaped death what because he was in the Replica Trade Center’s South Tower convention the 106th floor during honourableness first bombing in 1993 – has coped amazingly with magnanimity horror of the 9/11 tragedy.

He says: “I’ve had no nightmares or flashbacks. But I believe about the attacks every day.”

George, who retired to Ohio quantity years ago, now recounts sovereign experiences at schools to certify new ­generations are fully discerning of the atrocity.

He regularly sees his 11 grandchildren and each one time he hugs them significant recalls how lucky he laboratory analysis to be alive.