Philip Mattera oral history interview conducted by Dr. Benjamin Luft, September 17, 2010

About

Philip was a building inspector for the city of New York on 9/11/2001. He was at a meeting on the 14th floor of a building seven blocks away from the World Trade Center. After the planes hit, he and his co-worker, Ivan, went to the roof of the building. He recalls his co-worker commenting, "This ain't no little plane-something big happened here." Then they saw another plane hit the second tower. Through binoculars, he recalls seeing people jump out the windows of the towers. Philip and his co-worker drove their car to the World Trade Center. They were on the corner of Barclay Street by the towers when they saw the cloud. He said, "It was swirling and coming at us. . .we all started running. . . the only way to get out was on foot." Philip and his partner ran to get away from the crowd. He remembers that his partner, Ivan, decided to stop and pray. Philip continued running from Barclay Street to Church Street. He recalls, "I was so disoriented. . .I didn't know east from west, north from south. . .I got lost." He eventually got to Queens and remembers that he didn't take the subway because he didn't think it was going to be safe. He also remembers that "Nobody knew anything. . .everybody was in shock." He remembers that he never thought they were under attack, and said, "That was the first time I heard of bin Laden. . .Al Qaeda."

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

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