WASHINGTON — In a deeply emotional episode of “Pod Force One”, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recounted the heart-wrenching loss of his brother, his best friend, and countless employees from Cantor Fitzgerald during the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
Lutnick, aged 64, shared with The Post’s Miranda Devine that he had just dropped off his eldest son for his first day of kindergarten on that fateful morning.
“I have a photo taken at 8:48 [a.m.],” he recounted, two minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, where Cantor Fitzgerald occupied floors 101 through 105.
“Even as I was at the school, my phone kept ringing, but all I had was a flip phone, and there was silence on the other end. I remember thinking, ‘Can’t I get one hour to take my kid to school without work interruptions?’ Then an administrator came in and told me a plane had hit our building,” Lutnick explained.
Later, he discovered that his younger brother Gary had been trying to reach him.
“He couldn’t connect with me, but he reached my sister, who told him, ‘Thank God you’re not there.’ He responded, ‘I am here, and I’m just calling to say goodbye. I’m going to die,’” Lutnick shared with Devine.
After leaving the school, Lutnick rushed to Lower Manhattan, desperately trying to ascertain the fate of his employees.
“I began pulling people aside as they streamed from the North Tower, asking what floors they worked on. I knew there were many exits, and if just one of my people made it out, they would be among those escaping,” he recalled.
“The highest floor I reached was 92, when suddenly we heard an ear-splitting noise unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” he continued.
That sound was the collapse of the South Tower.
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“The sound was reminiscent of the Titanic breaking apart in the movie. It was an overwhelming cacophony, the loudest crashing noise I’ve ever heard,” he stated. “In that moment, I just started to run with all my strength.”
“As I turned onto Vesey Street, I noticed a cemetery there — something I had never really seen before. As I watched debris swirl around, I dove under a car … suddenly, everything went dark and silent.”
“Lying there, I thought, ‘I’m dead. How can this be? It’s silent and dark.’ So I thought, ‘Alright, I’m dead.’ To confirm, I instinctively poked myself in the eyes and realized I was alive yet blinded and deafened in this darkness,” he recounted.
Emerging from beneath the car, Lutnick spotted a police officer with a flashlight.
“I grabbed the back of his collar and told him, ‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ but he just sat there in shock,” Lutnick said. After seizing the officer’s flashlight, he made his way back uptown and called his wife, informing her that he was alive.
Tragically, 658 of Cantor Fitzgerald’s 950 employees based in New York lost their lives in the attacks, representing the highest fatality rate of any tenant in the World Trade Center.
“For me, crying became a daily ritual until October 21, 2004,” Lutnick reflected. “It’s unimaginable to process the murder of 658 individuals. You just can’t comprehend it, and it becomes a part of you for a long time.”
In the month following the tragedy, Lutnick estimates he attended around “20 funerals each day.”
“I became adept at this. I would sit in the second row of the church, greet the widow and family, and once the service started or during lulls, I would slip out and move to the next church for the next service,” he said.
Lutnick eventually rebuilt Cantor Fitzgerald with support from surviving employees and new hires, who pledged to allocate 25% of the company’s payroll for five years to assist the families of victims.
“We contributed $180 million to the families affected,” he noted. “My brother Gary was among those lost, as was my best friend Doug Gardner, executive managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald. I resolved to rebuild the company and support their families,” he concluded.
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