Inside a harrowing escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11 | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
Doug Brown escaped the South Tower's 70th floor after the second plane hit, guided by a security guard to an unknown stairwell and aided by firefighters. He helped a severely injured colleague, Sylvian Ramsinder, down the stairs while both buildings collapsed shortly after they exited. The account underscores how following evacuation orders, individual acts of assistance, and sheer luck determined survival amid the chaos.
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Morgan Stanley had more employees at the World Trade Center than any other company, with 3,700 employees. Fewer than a dozen remained missing. Doug Brown, a Morgan Stanley executive, escaped from the 70th floor of the South Tower and may be the luckiest man alive.
Doug Brown was in a staff meeting in the South Tower when the first plane struck the North Tower. It sounded like a very loud, massive fire. Flames were visible, along with burning objects falling through the air. People began evacuating downward, but a security guard instructed them to stay where they were and wait for instructions. An announcement then stated that World Trade Center number two was safe and they were not in danger, directing people to return to their work areas.
Doug Brown got his first look at the damage across the way. The building had a huge hole, as if someone had taken a can opener and pried it open. The scene was jet black, revealing the horror people inside were experiencing. He called his family to tell them he was okay.
The next thing Doug Brown remembers was hearing an explosion that was 10 times louder and felt infinitely more powerful than the first. From the 70th floor, he and coworkers immediately searched for a way out. Debris from the ceilings had fallen, blocking access to the two stairwell doors at the intersection of four halls.
A security guard appeared and said "follow me," leading them to stairs they didn't know existed. Doug Brown considered this security guard the luckiest thing about that day.
Eight floors above, Sylvian Ramsinder, who works for a Japanese bank, regained consciousness in a pile of rubble and bodies. A dead person was laying across his legs. After confirming he had all his limbs intact, he slid the body off and began his descent. He had a punctured lung, was bleeding, and was burned.
Shortly after starting his descent, the badly injured Sylvian Ramsinder encountered Doug Brown. Doug saw that Sylvian was hurt and immediately wanted to help, holding on to him, examining his wounds, having him lean on him while walking down the stairs, and trying to stop the bleeding while talking to him.
The overwhelming sense was calm, with the presumption that everyone was going to make it out alive. If everybody was helpful to each other, they would make it out. Doug Brown kept counting the stairs, wishing he could fast-forward the descent.
On the 17th floor, two firefighters were walking up. One stopped and gave Doug Brown a rubber glove to put on his hand. He opened a first aid kit and gave him a compress to put on Sylvian's chest. Doug Brown doubted those firefighters made it down, as they kept going up.
Doug Brown's group continued down, with a colleague helping an asthmatic woman and Doug trying to staunch Sylvian's bleeding chest. They counted floors from about 30 down to 10. They emerged near ground level in the concourse, completely disoriented. There was a line of people almost like a football team coming out on the field with cheerleaders lined up.
Doug Brown helped Sylvian away from the building and into an ambulance. He realized there was nothing else for him to do. Minutes later, the building they had just escaped crumbled to the ground. All that could be seen was smoke and thousands of people running. It looked like a horror film with everybody running from an oncoming monster.
Doug Brown had no sense of the risk he had been exposed to until watching news footage showing the second jet coming in right underneath him. He realized for the first time why he got out when others didn't.
There was still no word on Tom Swift, a young man Doug Brown described as one of the greatest people he'd ever known. Tom had gone ahead but stopped when the announcement said it was safe to return, so he could call his wife. The plane hit while he was on the 59th floor. If Tom didn't survive, it appeared to be because he was in love with his wife and called her.
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