Twenty-five years after narrowly escaping one of history's most deadly terrorist attacks, Kathy Comerford says the events of September 11, 2001 remain as vivid and visceral as ever — and that a single physical sensation is all it takes to transport her straight back to the collapsing World Trade Centre in New York.
Inside the South Tower When the World Changed
Comerford was on the 70th floor of the World Trade Centre's South Tower and in the middle of a staff meeting when the first hijacked aircraft struck the neighbouring North Tower. From a room lined with windows, she and her colleagues watched fireballs and debris erupt from the building next door.
"We thought it was an explosion," she recalled. Trained to evacuate without hesitation, the group immediately poured into the stairwells. "No matter what had happened, we were trained to get out," she said.
By the time Comerford had descended to the 44th floor, a second plane had been flown directly into the South Tower — the building she was still inside.
"The plane hit us … and it basically bent the building in half, and the floor was rolling and everything was exploding — the chandeliers, the planters — and all the jet fuel went right down the elevator shafts. They were like fireballs," she said.
The violent impact hurled Comerford from her shoes and threw her into a marble wall. Emergency lighting eventually activated, and the building, miraculously, began to right itself.
The Feeling She Cannot Shake
It is the sensation of the floor moving beneath her feet in those terrifying moments that has never left Comerford in the quarter-century since.
"The way to describe the feeling was if you were standing up on a roller coaster as it was going up and down all of the bends and the curves, because that's what the floor was doing," she said.
Even today, an ordinary crowded dance floor or a bouncing concert venue can trigger an immediate physical response. "It immediately gives a response. I immediately tighten up, because it just sort of transports you back to that moment of that feeling," she said. "That's a feeling I will never, never forget."
The Attack That Shook the World
The coordinated strikes of September 11, 2001 remain the deadliest terrorist attack in history. Four passenger aircraft were hijacked as part of the operation. Two were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre; a third struck the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, came down in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.
The Twin Towers both collapsed that morning. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in total, and the attacks sent shockwaves across the globe. For the latest on major world news, you can follow our ongoing coverage.
Twenty-Five Years On
Comerford made it out of the South Tower that day and returned home to her three young children, who are now adults. But the passage of time has done little to soften the memory.
"It's a double-edged sword. It's something I'll never forget. I am so thankful," she said, reflecting on her survival as the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches.
She says she can still see and feel "every minute" of that morning with startling clarity — a reminder that for those who lived through it, September 11 is not a date on a calendar but an experience permanently woven into daily life.
