Survivor saw inside hijacked jet

George Sleigh escaped from the north tower of the World Trade Center before it collapsed

LONDON, England -- A British-born architect who survived Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center watched in horror from his 91st-floor office as a hijacked jet smashed into the building.

George Sleigh, 63, originally of Gateshead, England, told the Newscastle Evening Chronicle he was close enough to the point of the initial impact to see people in the cockpit of the hijacked American Airlines Boeing 767.

"When I close my eyes and picture that airline coming towards me and the people in the cockpit it is like a dream," Sleigh said.

Aftering hearing the whining engine of the jet, "I looked up out of the window and just a few feet away from the building was this huge jet plane," he said.

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"The wheels were down and I could see the people in the cockpit. I thought to myself, 'Man this guy is low in the air,' but I still thought it would clear us. But then it smashed into the tower a few floors above me.

"I couldn't believe it, even now it seems insane that anyone would do that, even a crazed terrorist."

After the jet hit the north tower, Sleigh -- who worked for the American Bureau of Shipping at the WTC -- hid under his desk from debris raining down before fleeing down a fire escape to safety.

Sleigh said the stairwells became increasingly congested as hundreds of office workers fled, some of them badly burned. After 30 minutes he reached the 25th floor, where he saw the first firefighters going up the stairs to tackle the flames.

"Their faces were grim as though they knew what they would be encountering when they got there," he said. "When I saw afterwards how the towers fell I knew those men wouldn't have made it. It was heartbreaking."