On the anniversary of 9/11, a video featuring Frank Lombardi has surfaced online. Covered in ash and soot, he remarks, “We went flying into the air as if we were leaves… Because [the tower] pancaked, the air had to go somewhere.” In the same video, he sees 72nd floor collapse, from where he worked. Frank was the chief engineer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, he served, in this role from 1995 to 2010.
The Port Authority lost 84 officers that day, many of whom were Frank’s close friends. After surviving the incident, he led engineering efforts to restore Manhattan’s transit infrastructure.
Survival and aftermath
On the day of the incident, Frank was near the World Trade Center when the attacks occurred. He was standing in the lobby of a nearby Marriott Hotel with a group of 13 other people when the South Tower collapsed. He recounted that the pressure generated by the collapse sent him and the people standing with him flying into the air. The Marriott was completely crushed by falling debris. However, Frank and a small number of people standing with him were able to survive because they were protected by the heavy steel reinforcing girders.
A survivor from the 72nd floor of the north tower was giving an interview to local abc7 news, with a crowd of people listening into his unbelievable story of escaping wtc1 ..
Moments later, that very same tower he made of out of collapsed mid-interview.
I’m sure his life,… pic.twitter.com/5766UUz8BF
— TheOlChippy (@TheOlChippy) September 11, 2026
After the attack, Frank was heavily involved in Port Authority’s crisis-management team. He assessed structural safety around Ground Zero and took part in planning long-term recovery. His objective was to restore the vital transit lines in the region. Under his supervision, Port Authority engineers worked day and night to rebuild the collapsed World Trade Center PATH train station by November 2003. They were able to restore service to Exchange Place and Lower Manhattan despite the area being buried under a million tons of debris.
After his retirement in 2010, Frank began teaching as adjunct faculty member in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
Frank’s story and past trauma
In 1993, when terrorists struck the underground garage of the World Trade Center, Frank was inside the building. He was trapped inside a pitch-black elevator for hours before being rescued. This experience fundamentally changed Frank’s career trajectory. He spent the next few years pushing for significant structural upgrades across both towers.
Under his vision, glow-in-the-dark strips were installed along the stairs and walls of the emergency stairwells. Emergency backup lighting systems were also upgraded. On the morning of 9/11, when people hurried towards the emergency stairwells, the emergency lighting system helped guide them. Therefore, thousands of people were evacuated as a result of the efforts Frank had made years before the incident.
