20 years later: Remembering the South Africans killed on 9/11

Two SA-born men are among the thousands of victims whose names were remembered on Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

Nicholas Rowe and Craig Gibson were two of the estimated 3,000 people killed when  hijackers flew aircraft into both towers of the World Trade Center on September 11 2001.

Rowe, 29, worked for tech company UmeVoice, which provided voice-recognition software used widely in Wall Street trading rooms.

He was in the north tower - the first to be hit at 8.46am - attending a technology conference at the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th floor. According to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, he was  setting up a display.

UmeVoice CEO Adiathia Padala told the paper he was supposed to help Rowe but lost his keys before arriving at the World Trade Center.

According to the paper, Rowe told Padala not to worry and that he would  take care of the stand.

“He would walk into the room and get people to smile,” Padala told the paper. “It didn't matter what kind of people they were.” 

Rowe's remains were among the first to be identified and returned to his family in SA. He was buried three weeks later at the family home overlooking False Bay.

Springs-born Craig Neil Gibson, 37, was in the 94th-floor offices of Marsh & McLennan where he worked as insurance broker when the first plane struck the north tower.

The company lost 295 employees and 63 consultants in the attack.

Gibson, a former pupil at Brakpan High School, moved to Australia before moving to New York with his Australian wife, Danielle, a Unicef worker.

In in his obituary in the New York Times, Danielle recalled how obsessed Gibson was with his new Boxer puppy, Daisy.

Instead of working, Gibson would “be on the internet, looking up pet stores and buying treats for her”, she told the paper.

In a collection of objects relating to Gibson, now held at the National Museum of Australia, Danielle said Daisy would sleep on Gibson's slippers every night “with her little nose tucked into one of them and her paws over the top”. 

She was walking Daisy when the first plane hit, she said in a note held by the museum. “I initially thought that perhaps they were filming downtown but when I saw the second plane hit tower two, I realised they were not filming nor was it an accident.”

Gibson's body was never recovered.

Both men's names are inscribed with those of the other victims on the memorial wall that surrounds the footprint of the towers.  

US President Joe Biden was due to visit the memorial on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

He also planned to visit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers tried to regain control of the hijacked plane.

The remembrances have become an annual tradition but Saturday takes on special significance, coming 20 years after the morning that many view as a turning point in US  history, a day that gave Americans a sense of vulnerability that has deeply influenced the country's political life since then.

In a painful reminder of those changes, only weeks ago US and allied forces completed a chaotic withdrawal from the war the US started in Afghanistan in retaliation for the attacks - which became the longest war in US history.

Clifford Chanin, executive vice-president at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum built at the site of the World Trade Center attack, said the two-decade milestone would serve as a “moment of high emotion” for the country, a time to consider “where we've been and where we are headed”.

“Of course, we are in the middle of another unimaginable event right now with the Covid-19 pandemic, but if 9/11 brings us anything in terms of what happened here and at the other attack sites, it is a message of resilience,” Chanin told reporters this week.

In New York City, the ceremony at the September 11 Memorial began with a moment of silence at 8.46am (2.46pm in SA), the time when the first plane hit.

After that, family members were due to recite the names of 2,977 victims, an annual ritual that will last four hours.

At sunset on Saturday, 88 powerful light bulbs will project twin beams 6.4km into the sky to mirror the shape of the fallen towers. This year, buildings throughout Manhattan, including the Empire State Building and Lincoln Center Plaza, will join the commemoration by illuminating their facades in blue.

The 20-year milestone arrives as political leaders and educators fret over the thinning collective memory of that day. Some 75-million Americans - equal to nearly a quarter of the US population - have been born since September 11, 2001.

For some, the tumultuous events in Afghanistan have compounded the psychological toll of the day, raising questions about whether the US military's mission there was in vain.

“I love America and my fellow Americans, but I am ashamed about how we are handling our exit and my heart breaks for those whose lives have been lost or destroyed by our actions,” said Wells Noonan, whose brother Robby was in the North Tower.

Noonan said she would spend Saturday morning at a ceremony in her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut, to honour 33 people with ties to the New York City suburb who were killed, before returning home to be with family and reminisce “about the days with Robby.”

While many of the large events will happen in and around New York City, people across the country have planned events to remember those who died and to educate the public.

At the Pentagon, headquarters of the US Defense Department, an American flag will be unfurled on the west side where an aircraft hit the building at precisely 9:37am EDT (1337 GMT on September 11, 2001, followed by a private ceremony to honour the 184 people killed there.

In Shanksville, people will gather for the “9/11 Heroes Run” to honour the 40 people killed when Flight 93 came down in a farm field.

And 2,977 flags have been placed in a field at a US Navy training installation outside Chicago to honour each of those killed in the attacks 20 years ago.

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