9/11 survivor ?surfed? debris: ?I couldn?t believe it myself?

>> half hour on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a survivor's story that's just now being publicly told for the first time. in a moment we'll talk to pasquale who was in the north tower as he rode down 15 stories of concrete and falling debris to make it out alive. it's the focus of a discovery channel special premiering tonight called "the 9/11 surfer" narrated by nbc's willie geist .

>> by five past 10:00 on the morning of 9/11, the south tower of the world trade center was gone. up above on the 64th floor of the north tower pasquale was still waiting with his colleagues. he and his colleagues started down one of the three exit stairway, stairway "b." by 10:28 they made it down as far as the 22nd floor.

>> and then just felt the railing just start to shake and this loud, loud noise from above. i thought of my wife, our unborn child. thoughts went through my head quickly about not -- not ever seeing her, not being able to see her again, and, you know, i just -- just split seconds, just praying, knowing that i was going to die. i've never experienced jumping out of a plane, but i guess falling or jumping out of the plane, that feeling of just riding the air and getting knocked around and riding, you know, that surfing kind of feeling, was what i was experiencing.

>> according to pasquale , his fall ended here at the pop of what was left the stairway "b."

>> i didn't feel anything. my body was totally numb. i mean, i felt nothing at all. i just opened my eye and saw blue sky . i really thought i was dead.

>> fortunately for pasquale there were fire fighters out there who were willing to brave the dangers in the hope of finding survivors.

>> we had no idea whether he was fire or civilian or what he was. it really didn't matter, but the fact that we saw an individual up there, after what we climbed through and the position that he was, was nothing short of miraculous.

>> they said we got it from here. don't worry, we're going to get you out of here. you know, at that point i was like thank god, you know.

>> and pasquale is with us now, along with his wife louise, their daughters 10-year-old hope and 7-year-old mia. good morning to all of you.

>> good morning.

>> we have animation to show this harrowing rise. were you on the 64th floor, evacuated down to the 22nd and fell essentially to the 4th floor. the name of the documentary is "the 9/11 surfer." sounds like an odd word.

>> yes, very odd. i mean, i've heard about the urban legends , always read about it, and my wife was like that's you, that's you, and, you know, it -- they pretty much dub it had that on discovery and the show, and because they did a study on it and said basically how i survived is i was in this pocket of air or uplift of wind, the way i described the fall so i guess 9/11 surfer, yeah.

>> you said urban legend which it's true. some people are skeptical, and you said if you had heard this story you might have been skeptical as well.

>> of course. i'm an engineer and believe in science and facts. i mean, i went through it so i know what i went through, and if i hadn't, someone told me the story, i'd be skeptical also.

>> why now? it's been 11 years. you've never come forward and told this story. why did you decide this is the time to tell what happened publicly?

>> i mean, hi done certain small local things because we started a foundation trying to raise money for the mothers whose husbands didn't make it at the time who were pregnant. it was very difficult telling the story then. i couldn't. i was going through post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt from that, and it took a long time to heal from that. i just -- i forced myself to -- to do that, to try to give something back. eventually i came to, you know, accept what had happened to me. i was able to go on and mourn and grieve. i lost my friends, pat, steve, others that were with me that day, so i feel now it's an important story to share with others, so my wife and i decided to actually write a book and put it down, and they did this on discovery channel .

>> we heard you talk in the tape piece about the sensation of falling. can you still remember that to this day?

>> absolutely, absolutely. every moment of that pre-falling, i -- the final impact , the final flash of when i landed, it was -- that i don't know was either when i actually landed and got knocked unconscious or during the fall i got hit with something, got knocked unconscious, but split second later i opened up my eyes, and i just felt -- like i said, i thought i was dead and then i started to cough and feel pain, and i said i can't -- i couldn't believe at that point, i looked up and there was nothing above me. the building was gone and i couldn't even believe it myself at that point.

>> louise here you are at home. he had called you a couple of times. you saw that tower fall, and you knew he was inside. you must have thought he didn't make it.

>> oh, absolutely. i watched the second plane hit and then i watched the second tower fall, and then i watched his building fall, and i was pregnant at the time with hope, and i just -- i knew he didn't get out in time because we spoke on the phone just a few minutes before that, and, you know, for those couple of hours that i didn't hear from him, i was a widow, and i was carrying this baby, and there was nothing i could do, and i just watched the whole thing happen right in front of me. it was just a feeling of just hopeless, you know, helplessness really.

>> it must still be so hard to see that image of the tower falling knowing that you were inside.

>> yeah. i've watched it so many times after. i actually became fixated on it, and, you know, it took me a long time to heal from that. i'm better now and things are -- things are good. i'm happy again, and i think it's important that people realize that, you know, some people say, you know, out there, you hear it all the time. 9/11, get over it. that's ridiculous. first of all you shouldn't be telling someone else to get over it. i celebrate each day. my friend pat always said that, enjoy life, and just remember those that tried to save us and didn't make it and remember those that we lost.

>> and the book you've written is a part of that remembering.

>> yes.

>> and i know hope did the illustrations so that's pretty neat. thank you so much for coming here and sharing your story and helping us remember.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48985518/ns/today-today_news/

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