Timeline of his day
Sept. 11, 2001 started out like a typical Tuesday for Brian Moss. A few hours later, he was running away from a collapsing skyscraper that had been struck by a jumbo jet as part of the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
The following is a summary of how Moss experienced 9/11.
6:15 a.m.: Wakes up at apartment near Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan.
7 a.m.: Leaves apartment to take subway to offices of his company, Risk Metrics Group, at 44 Wall St., a few blocks from World Trade Center.
8 a.m.: Arrives at Risk Metrics offices.
8:46 a.m.: A hijacked plane crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Moss sees debris fly by his window on the 19th floor of 44 Wall St., but he does not immediately know that terrorists have attacked.
9:03 a.m.: A hijacked plane crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
9:03 a.m.-10 a.m.: After seeing on TV that the towers have been attacked, Moss leaves his office and walks with a coworker to the nearby Chase Plaza to see the burning buildings. “People were congregating in the plaza and watching what was happening,” Moss said. “Nobody at that point thought the buildings would fall.”
While in Chase Plaza, he calls his parents to tell that him that he was OK.
9:59 a.m.: Moss watches the South Tower collapse.
“I had hung up the phone with my parents and I took one last look at the towers before I thought I was going to go back to the office,” he said. “All of a sudden, it tilted and then it just started to fall.”
10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: He takes shelter from the debris storm unleashed by the South Tower’s collapse — first in the Chase building at 28 Liberty St., and then in a neighboring deli where he bought water to clear his airways.
“All of a sudden, the earth started to rumble, and the ground started to shake from the North Tower’s collapse,” he said. “So all of us in the deli ran into the basement.”
Stays in the basement for 30 minutes to 60 minutes until cleared to leave by police.
11 30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Walks from the deli back to his apartment. He is accompanied by two women visiting Manhattan from Westchester County, who also took shelter in the deli basement. He assists them because they are unsure where to go and cannot immediately go back home.
“It was a long walk,” he said. “Thankfully, it was a beautiful day and people were nice and giving us water.”
Remainder of day: The women from Westchester County stay at his apartment for a couple of hours. They leave in the late afternoon when train service resumes. Moss spends the rest of the day at home processing the shock of the attacks.