A man who survived the 9/11 terror attack on the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre in New York City has told GB News he can “still smell the smoke” 25 years on.
Speaking to GB News presenter Ben Leo, Sujo John recounted the horrific events which followed the attack, and how he managed to escape from the 81st floor.
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Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the attack, Mr John admitted it is “hard to believe” so much time has passed, as he relives it in his mind “every day”.
He told GB News: “For me, it’s hard to believe, honestly, that it’s been 25 years. For those of us who’ve been through that day, we kind of have lived the experience of that day in our head every day of our life.
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“These last 25 years, I still can feel what I felt that day – the smoke, the heat, so it’s very hard to believe it’s been 25 years.”
Mr John noted that there is a “whole generation among them now” that has no idea 9/11 even happened.
He said: “So much has changed in our world, so yes, it is 25 years, but it’s a somber reflection of what happened that day, the evil of that day, how radical Islam came and attacked America and took 3,000 people that just went to work and did not go to war.”
Recalling his life before the attack, Mr John told GB News that he had only moved to America that year, and both he and his wife managed to get jobs working in the World Trade Centre.
He said: “I had just moved to America, to New York in February of that year. I grew up in Calcutta, India, and I came to America, started looking for jobs, and in the most amazing way I find work on the 81st floor of the North Tower.
“My wife also found work at the World Trade Centre, she was working on the 71st floor of the South Tower and she was four months pregnant.
“And so we were both chasing the American dream, and I was actually trying to build a business, to start a business plan, to start a data centre, and everything looked very well for us, and then 9/11 happens and everything changes forever.”
Taking Ben back to the moment of the attack, Mr John recalled standing by the fax machine in his office when he heard an “incredible explosion”.
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He recounted: “So 8:46am, I’m standing by this fax machine when I hear this incredible explosion. I was actually on a call with a co-worker friend of mine in Philadelphia, and right in the middle of all of that, we hear this incredible explosion.
“The buildings are shaking and we felt everything around me collapsing, I look up, and see a picture of twisted steel and cable.
“We knew it was a plane, what else could hit you at that height? But we thought it was a small commuter plane.”
Mr John told GB News that the workers then began to flee down the nearest stairwell, descending all 81 floors to safety.
He said: “We started getting out one by one, and we started headed to heading to the nearest stairwell.
“And I get to the stairwell, there’s thousands of people on that stairwell, and that’s when I hear the secondary explosion, which is the second plane crashing into the second tower.
“And that’s when I’m thinking, wow, my wife is on the other tower. She was four months pregnant, so I’m trying to reach her, but cell phones aren’t working because the networks were all jammed.”
The survivor recalled how those who made it to the ground floor “prayed in a huddle” before their building began to collapse on them.
Mr John revealed how he was one of the very few survivors from that tower: “I’m being buried in debris, and just when I thought I was going to die, I feel someone pull me, and we couldn’t even see each other in a cloud of soot and ash.
“He says he’s with the FBI and we both again prayed our last prayer, thinking we’re going to die.
“And that’s when something else happens, which is so miraculous. I see a red light flashing in the soot and the smoke. It’s a flashing light from an ambulance. That light leads us out of the pit, and that’s when I began to see a little clearer.
“We managed to get out what we call the pit or ground zero, but my story takes another turn when this man runs back and the north tower collapses on him, and this brave American hero died that day.”
Asked by Ben what happened to his wife in the attack, Mr John revealed that having spent hours “believing she had died”, he discovered that on that on fateful day she was “late to work”.
He told GB News: “That day she was late for that train that she typically would take, and so she gets on the train, but by then the north tower was hit, so the train stops one stop before the World Trade Centre.
“And so she gets out and she sees people jumping out of the building, she sees the second plane crash into her tower, and she’s thinking that I’m one of those people jumping out of the building.”
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