"Surviving the 81st Floor of World Trade Tower
Two"
[Written by Dan Van Veen]
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, began like any other day for Bethel Assembly of
God deacon and Sunday school superintendent Stanley Praimnath of Elmont, Long
Island. He got up early, took a shower, prayed, got ready and headed for work.
The drive was uneventful. The train ride was the same. Yet, this day he would
see the hand of God spare his life.
"For some particular reason, I gave the Lord a little extra of myself
that morning [during prayer]," Stanley said. "I said, 'Lord, cover me
and all my loved ones under your precious blood.' And even though I said that
and believed it, I said it over and over and over."
When Stanley arrived at World Trade Center Tower Two, he took the elevator
up to his office on the 81st floor. "I work for the Fuji Bank
Limited," he said. "I'm an assistant vice president in the Loans
Operations Department. The company is located on the 79th through 82nd
floors."
Stanley greeted Delise, a young lady who had arrived before him. After
talking briefly, he headed over to his desk and picked up his phone to retrieve
his messages.
"As I'm standing there retrieving my messages, I'm looking out at the
next building, One World Trade, and I saw fire falling through from the
roof," Stanley said. "Now, this entire building is surrounded by
glass, and you can stand up and from there you can see all the buildings, planes
and everything flying at the same altitude."
As Stanley saw "fire balls" coming down, his first reaction was to
think of his boss who works in that building. He decided to try to call him to
see if he was okay. "I'm dialing his number, and getting no response. So, I
say to Delise, the temp, 'Go, go, go -- let's get out."
Delise and Stanley got on the elevator and went down to the 78th floor. Some
other people were there. The company's president, the CEO, the human resources
director and two other gentlemen joined the group and headed down to the
concourse level of Two World Trade Center.
If they had continued on and exited the building, all of their lives would
have been spared. As it was, that's not the way it happened.
"As soon as we reached the concourse level, the security guard stopped
us and said, 'Where are you going?'"
Stanley explained about seeing the fire in Tower One. According to Stanley,
the guard said, "Oh, that was just an accident. Two World Trade is secured.
Go back to your office."
That turned out to be fatal advice -- aside from Stanley, Delise was the
only one of that group to survive.
"We were joking, and I told [Human Resources Director] Brian Thompson,
'This is a good time to think of relocating this building -- it's not safe
anymore.'" Stanley headed back to his office, but before he got there, he
told Delise, that with the events of the day, she should go home and relax.
Thompson went to the 82nd floor, the president and CEO went to the 79th
floor and Stanley got out on the 81st floor. When Stanley got to his office, his
phone was ringing. "It was someone from Chicago calling to find out if I'm
watching the news," he said. He told the caller everything "was
fine."
But everything wasn't fine -- far from it. As Stanley was talking, he looked
up and saw American Airlines Flight 11 heading straight for him.
"All I can see is this big gray plane, with red letters on the wing and
on the tail, bearing down on me," said Stanley. "But this thing is
happening in slow motion. The plane appeared to be like100 yards away, I said
'Lord, you take control, I can't help myself here.'"
Stanley then dove under his desk. "My Testament [Bible] was on top of
my desk," explained Stanley. "I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that
the Lord was going to take care of me once I got there." As he curled into
a fetal position under his desk, the plane tore into the side of the building
and exploded.
Miraculously, Stanley was unhurt. However, he could see a flaming wing of
the plane in the doorway of his department. He knew he needed to get out of his
office and the building fast. But, he was trapped under debris up to his
shoulders. "Lord, you take control, this is your problem now," he
recalled praying. "I don't know where I got this power from, but the good
Lord, He gave me so much power and strength in my body that I was able to shake
everything off. I felt like I was the strongest man alive."
All the while, Stanley was asking to the Lord to spare his life. "I'm
crying and I'm praying, 'Lord, I have things to do . . . I want to see my
family, Lord, help me through.'"
Stanley's office resembled a battle zone -- walls flattened into dusty
heaps, office equipment strewn violently, flames flickering about and rubble
everywhere. "Everything I'm trying to climb on [to get out] is collapsing
and I'm going down," he said. "I'm getting cuts and bruises, but I'm
saying, 'Lord, I have to go home to my loved ones, I have to make it, You have
to help me.'"
Suddenly Stanley saw the light of a flashlight. For a moment, it stunned
him. "What were the chances of someone bringing a flashlight to this
floor?" he thought. "My first gut reaction was, 'This is my guardian
angel -- my Lord sent somebody to save me!'"
Stanley began screaming, "I see the light, I see the light." But
after clawing his way through the debris, he realized that he couldn't get out
-- all the exits were blocked and his "guardian angel" couldn't get to
him a wall was between him and the staircase. "He can't get to me and I
can't get to him, and by this time I can't breathe," Stanley said. "I
don't know if it was sulfur or what [burning jet fuel, perhaps], but I can smell
this thing. I got down on my knees and said, 'Lord, you've got to help me.
You've brought me this far, help me to get to the staircase.'"
But then Stanley did something surprising. While praying on his knees,
Stanley called out to the man behind the wall, "There's one thing I got to
know, do you know Jesus?" The man replied he went to church every Sunday.
Then they prayed together to enable them to break through the wall.
"I got up, and I felt as if a power came over me," said Stanley.
"I felt goose bumps all over my body and I'm trembling, and I said to the
wall, 'You're going to be no match for me and my Lord.'" Moments later, he
punched his way through the wall and, with the help of the man on the other
side, was able to squirm his way through the hole in the wall. "The guy
held me and embraced me and he gave me a kiss and he said, 'From today, you're
my brother for life.'"
But the danger wasn't over. The man on the other side of the wall, who
introduced himself as Brian, was an older gentleman and they still had 81 floors
to walk down, with the building on fire and, unknown to them, in danger of
collapse. "We hobbled our way down, and at every floor we stopped to see if
anybody was there, but nobody was . . . but a man was on the floor, and his back
was gone, and he was covered in blood."
Stanley asked to be allowed to carry the man out, but a security guard told
him it would be better to send somebody up. When they finally made it down to
the concourse, only firefighters were there. "They were saying, 'Run! Run!
Run!', they were telling us to run out, but they were not concerned about
themselves," he said.
Stanley and Brian would have ran from the building, but now the concourse
was surrounded with fire. Wetting themselves under the building's sprinkler
system, they held hands and ran through the flames to safety to Trinity Church
about two blocks away. "I wanted to go to the church to thank God,"
Stanley explained, "As soon as I held onto the gate of that church, the
building [World Trade Center Tower Two] collapsed."
Stanley and Brian made their way safely out of the danger area. Before they
parted, Stanley gave his business card to Brian in hopes of contact at a later
time, and said, "If I don't see you, I'll see you in heaven."
Cut and bloodied, with clothes tattered and wearing a borrowed shirt,
Stanley finally made it home hours later to his wife Jennifer and his two girls,
Stephanie (age 8) and Caitlin (age 4). "I held my wife and my two children
and we cried," said Stanley. After thanking God for sparing his life,
Stanley told God whatever he did, it will always be for His glory. "I'm so
sore, but every waking moment, I say 'Lord, had you not been in control, I would
not have made it.'"
"For some divine reason, I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the
good Lord's mighty hand turned the plane a fraction from where I was
standing," said Stanley. "Because when it crash-landed, it was just 20
feet from me. I don't care who would rationalize -- what people would say now or
years from now, but I know it was the handiwork of the Lord that turned that
plane. My Lord Jesus is bigger than the Trade Center and His finger can push a
plane aside!"
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