By Hiranthi Fernando
The devastating attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York, one month ago, is still fresh in our minds, even as the US air strikes on Afghanistan dominate the news. It was an American nightmare, but one that a few Sri Lankans too experienced.
Aruna, head of Institutional Banking in the Standard Chartered Bank in Colombo, was in New York at the time representing Sri Lanka at a bank conference. Arriving on September 7, he checked into a hotel, just five or six blocks away from the WTC. The Sunday before the attack, he was strolling around the WTC area known as Battery Park, and even took some photographs of the twin towers.
The conference was being held at the New York office of the bank, on the 27th floor of Tower No. 7 of the WTC.
On that fateful day, Aruna was at the WTC by 8.30 a.m. and called home to speak to his wife and two children before entering the conference room.
"Around 8.45 a.m. we heard this big bang,"Aruna said. "It sounded as though it came from a distance. No one paid much heed to it, possibly because of the heavy thunder the previous day. However, as we Lankans are alert to the sound of a bomb, I sensed something was wrong and went out of the conference room to the office area."
Seeing panic, he alerted the others. One of them went out to inquire, came back and said they should evacuate. "So we went down the fire escape very calmly with no rush, as we did not really know the gravity of what had happened. I did not know what prompted me but I grabbed my camera before I left," Aruna says.
It took them ten minutes to reach the road and they were then at the bottom of the burning tower. "We looked up and saw fire coming out of the windows about 100 floors up on one of the twin towers,"Aruna said. "We thought a fire had broken out. I was calm and cool and even took photographs of the burning tower."
"Then to our horror we saw what we later knew was the second plane, flying very low. It was a huge jumbo jet. It circled the tower and crashed into the other twin tower just above our heads. It was like a fire-ball. There was panic all around. People started shouting, screaming and running.
"It was then that we heard from a bystander that it was a plane that had hit the first tower. There were people crying and fainting on the street. The worst thing I witnessed was about ten people jumping from the tower windows about 100 floors up," Aruna recalls.
Some 45 minutes later, Aruna saw the first tower collapsing "like a reverse mushroom", he recalled. "I cannot explain the sound. It was as if the whole world was coming down. A thick cloud of dust and smoke engulfed us."
He saw people praying by the roadside. "The police helped us, gave us masks to protect ourselves from the dust and water to drink. My colleagues offered to check me in to another hotel but I felt I could find my way back to my hotel."
Now on his own, Aruna managed to find a call box. "I just spoke a few words to my wife to tell her I was alright."
Looking back, he says his strong belief in God sustained him through the ordeal. All through those traumatic times, he was praying. "I was fortunate that I was not in a lift when the attack took place, as I may not have been able to get out. The second miracle was that I was able to get a call through before the telephones went dead."
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