"9/11" witnesses recall the moment of the impact: a strong force pushed me forward, and the building collapsed "like chocolate melting"

As one of the survivors of the 9/11 incident, Chen Sijin has always been suspicious of the high floors after running down the stairs from the 80th floor office of the World Trade Center in New York 20 years ago. For Chen Sijin, he believes that he should also draw a terminating note on this matter, but his subconscious will not fade, or will always accompany him.

At 8:46, 9:03, 9:37, 9:59, 10:03, and 10:28, the six points of time on September 11, 2011 were tragic moments when terrorists hijacked planes crashed into the Petronas Twin Towers, crashed into the Pentagon, and collapsed two buildings.

There was no warning before the event. At 8:15 on September 11, 2011, Chen Sijin arrived at Office 8067 on the 80th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York as usual, making coffee and checking e-mails. About half an hour later, Chen Sijin suddenly felt a powerful force pushing him forward, and then the whole building began to shake.

At 8:46, the north tower of the World Trade Center where Chen Sijin was located took the lead in becoming the first target of terrorists, and the collision of aircraft and buildings caused fire, and everyone began to flee.

The people who ran out slowly went down the stairs, the stairs were very narrow, and everyone was consciously divided into two lanes next to each other, women and elderly people took the shorter inner road, and strong men walked in the outer road. In the process, looking out from the window of the corridor, the opposite World Trade Center Building 2 (South Tower) has also been on fire.

"There were more than three hundred people running down with me, and I wanted to call my wife, but there was no signal on my phone. When we got to the 18th floor, we met firefighters rushing upstairs carrying fire extinguishing equipment. Chen Sijin's watch and documents were still on his desk, and he thought he would return to the office soon, not knowing that the building would soon collapse.

It took nearly an hour and a half for everyone to finally go down to the first floor, the police shouted at the door, the north-facing door was passable, everyone was running as hard as they could, and after running out of the building for a few minutes, the north tower collapsed. Mr. Chen said the collapsed building "melted away like a piece of chocolate." There was the roar of collapse and the shouts of the crowd, and as far as the eye could see, there was ruin, and black smoke was wafting high in the air, about forty or fifty stories high. Chen Sijin could no longer enter the building, and many of his friends could no longer get out.

At this moment 20 years later, when the Global Times reporter asked Chen Sijin what he would say to himself who ran down from the 80th floor that year, Chen Sijin said: "At that time, two or three minutes after I ran out, the building collapsed, and I wanted to say thank you to myself who ran with all my strength and rubbed shoulders with the god of death." This day was a rebirth for me. ”

9/11 was the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history and the first attack on the U.S. mainland since Pearl Harbor in 1941, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing hundreds of billions of dollars in direct or indirect economic damage.

In contrast, Chen Sijin was lucky enough that he not only lived, but also lived better. The outbreak of 9/11 did not have a negative impact on Chen Sijin's career, and he has been working in the financial industry and has been rising from assistant vice president, vice president, partner to managing director.

Luckily escaping from the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Chen Sijin reminded himself to accelerate to achieve his dream, "Since I was a child, I wanted to become a writer, and I originally planned to start acting after retirement. But the outbreak of 9/11 made me realize that tomorrow is not necessarily the way it should be, and I thought about what should be done immediately. In 2004, his first book, Breaking Into North America, was released, documenting more than a decade of his struggles in North America, including 9/11. To date, Chen Sijin has published three series of novels and is currently working on a science fiction series.

In 2012, Chen Sijin chose to settle in Toronto, Canada, because the United States disappointed him a little, "The United States now is not the United States of 20 years ago, let alone the United States that I was just in the past thirty years ago." For example, the United States has been too radical 'political correctness' over the years. ”

After leaving, Chen Sijin returned to the United States in 2016 and 2019 due to events, "When I returned to New York in 2019, I deliberately looked at the ruins of the dead trade site and saw that the names of the victims were written around the pool, which was very emotional. But after all, 20 years have passed, and I think it is time to end. ”

It seems that 20 years is indeed long enough, and the mailing group composed of the families of the victims has been silent for many years. "The group of family members killed was contacted by email, and everyone frequently exchanged information when the terrorist attack occurred. In the first four or five years, everyone will send some messages from time to time and greet each other every New Year's Festival. Then slowly there was no communication, and even some people's email addresses were invalidated. ”

But for the experience of that day, can Chen Sijin really forget it completely? Chen Sijin remembered that at that time, the vicinity was shrouded in smoke for several thousand meters and lasted for several months. Many people who escaped from the building, nearby residents and other relevant personnel have been carrying out lung examinations for several years, Chen Sijin did not find abnormalities in the inspection, however, in the subconscious, whether it is staying in the hotel or visiting attractions, Chen Sijin is a little nervous about the height above 20 floors, and the hotel will pay special attention to the location of the emergency passage, usually can take the stairs as much as possible, he believes that this is some subtle changes caused by the subconscious.

As a senior financial practitioner working on Wall Street, Chen Sijin has personal feelings about the changes in Sino-US relations, "20 years ago, when George W. Bush was in power, China just participated in the WTO, and the relationship between China and the United States was like glue. However, the attitude of the Bush Jr. administration at that time was that "China can develop, but it cannot be stronger than the United States", that is, the United States was already wary of China's development, and to some extent, the outbreak of the 9/11 incident delayed the emergence of confrontation between China and the United States. ”

Source: Global Times Global Network