Not again!
That was the initial horrified reaction of New Yorkers who escaped the Twin Towers – or had family members who didn’t – after hearing of yesterday’s Upper East Side plane tragedy.
“I took a deep breath. I tensed up and said, ‘What happened now? No, no. Not again,’ ” said Gerry Bogacz, who fled the 82nd floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son, Christian, on Sept. 11, said, “My first response was, ‘Are people trapped in the building?’ I was greatly concerned. Sept. 11 was certainly on my mind.”
Regenhard is now a member of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, a group that lobbies for stricter safety codes in high-rises.
“In a high-rise building, it doesn’t have to be a terrorist attack for people to die,” she said.
Mark Scherzer, who resides on Cedar Street just next to Ground Zero and had to relocate for 16 months during the cleanup, said yesterday’s crash triggered “a flashback.”
“I saw the smoke and it brought back memories. The visuals were very uncomfortable. I was thinking, ‘Is this a replay?’ ” he said.
“It brought relief that this wasn’t an attack and the death and destruction wasn’t as bad.”
Maria Smith of Battery Park City, in the shadow of the Twin Towers, said, “Here we go again.”
Smith said she was spooked when ambulances and firetrucks rushed through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel headed to the scene yesterday. And she said she heard helicopters buzzing overhead.
“It was scary. It was chilling. It sounded like 9/11 all over again,” she said.
Former stock trader Eddie Matthews said he feared it was another terror attack.
“It was scary. I was expecting the worst and praying it wasn’t as bad as 9/11,” said Matthews, who worked at 120 Broadway near the WTC.
The NYU Child Study Center, which counsels kids whose parents were killed during 9/11, mobilized to help allay fears.
“Today’s plane crash . . . may recall memories of Sept. 11th, and reawaken feelings of fear, loss, sadness and confusion,” the center said in a statement.