On 9/11/2001, I had arrived at my office located in Tower 1, the north tower of the World Trade Center 48 floor, to prepare for a 9AM meeting with the aviation department of the Port of Authority located in tower 2 on the 72nd floor. My firm Printz & Associates, Inc. provided aviation related services to many of the corporate flight departments of the business world. Leaving my office, the corridor windows faced East and I stopped for a moment to enjoy the sight before me on that spectacular morning. My view, unrestricted showed me the Aircraft going into and out of JFK and other aircraft lining up for the river approach to LaGuardia, I was a former Pilot for Eastern and tend to have a natural tendency to perform an aviation scan out of habit. I see a speck moving toward my location, I identify it as an aircraft, a commercial aircraft, a 767 moving fast, and I’m wondering what idiot controller vectored this guy over Manhattan? That’s a no no. He’s headed directly at me and I’m thinking, this guys not high enough to clear the building. He hits the building and on the 48 floor, most of the droop ceilings do exactly that, along with a ton of collected dust and dirt. I reentered my office and instructed all the employees to follow me down the stairwell. I was a combat medic in Vietnam and at 50 years old once again became a combat medic in the streets of lower Manhattan for the next 72 hours.
