Seconds after a jet airliner crashed into the World Trade Center north tower at 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11, Rob Lenoir called his wife at home in Locust Valley and answered a call from one of his best friends in Richmond. Peter Ortale was able to phone his wife in SoHo, his mother in Pennsylvania and a friend in California.
Both men were calm as they spoke with their loved ones, seemingly unaware that the airplane strike was anything more than an accident. As a precaution, both were about to evacuate their offices in the World Trade Center's twin south tower.