A Co Kerry man and his nephew spoke yesterday of their escape from the upper floors of the World Trade Centre by ignoring advice to stay in their offices.
Mr Peter Kiely (60), a financial consultant from Tarbert, was working on the 55th floor of the south tower when the first plane struck its northern twin.
"I thought a bomb had gone off and I ran to the window," he said. "There was smoke and debris all over the place outside. I thought the top of our building had come off."
Mr Kiely, a brother of Senator Dan Kiely, called on his fellow workers to quit the office and head for the stairs. He recalled one colleague, whose fate he has yet to ascertain, stubbornly refused to leave his desk.
He said he heard advice on the public address system to stay in the building in order to avoid debris in the street, but he felt it was better to keep moving down the stairs.
"Everybody was running, crying and screaming," he said.
He emerged onto Church Street just minutes before the second airliner flew straight into the south tower, only feet above his office.
"It was hell," he said. "I ran for my life."
Unknown to him, his nephew Patrick Donovan (21), a carpenter, had been working 30 floors above him in the same building when the first plane struck. He too fled towards the ground floor despite assurances over the public address system.
"Many people were in panic, but some kept their cool, and really it was they who made sure that so many people got out."
Mr Donovan remembers everybody stopping to listen to the PA. At this point he had reached the 54th floor, one floor below his uncle's office.
"They were telling us to stay in the building, but suddenly there was a huge bang. The building shook and people were thrown flat on the stairs. I didn't think I was going to make it out."
He managed to escape from the tower just minutes before it collapsed.
Another lucky survivor was Mr Sean Lynskey from the Claddagh, in Galway, who was at his desk on the 37th floor of the south tower when the first plane hit. He decided to leave the building immediately.
"When we got outside we could see that the streets were cordoned off and people were already panicking," he said. "There was black soot and the smell of jet fuel was so strong. We still thought it was an accident - we never thought of terrorism.
"Then we looked up and saw a plane crashing into the second tower. We knew then that something was up, and myself and two colleagues ran for our lives to a nearby building, where we sheltered.
"People started really panicking when the second plane exploded and the building burst into flames. It was total chaos."