MEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - A Medford man who was on the 93rd floor of the North Tower when a hijacked airliner slammed into the World Trade Center 20 years ago is recalling his experience on the anniversary of the attacks that changed America forever.
Gerry Wertz was making his way to his office when the plane hit, and that a woman who stopped his elevator to get off on the 91st floor likely saved his life.
“When we got up to the 91st floor and the doors opened and she was stepping off, that was when the plane hit the building and it literally, the whole top of the elevator exploded and because of the significant impact, we were blown out of the elevator,” Wertz recalled.
“And then the gasoline and the fire spread across the floor and the ceilings. You could hear and you could see the walls in the stairs were cracking,” he said. “So when that started happening it was dead silence, people started to say OK pedal to the metal everything got accelerated and we just moved a lot faster to get out of here.”
Hundreds of Wertz’s coworkers and friends perished in the attack — but the woman he shared an elevator with that day also survived — and he said they’ve kept in touch ever since.
And they have kept in touch ever since.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)