Rescorla and Hill were also critical of the police response during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre , commenting , " The police were sitting outside while kids were getting killed . They should have put themselves between the perpetrators and the victims . That was abject cowardice . " Rescorla felt that if he and Hill were younger , they " could have flown to Colorado , gone in that building , and ended it before the law did . " At 8:46 a.m. on the morning of September 11 , 2001 , American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center ( Tower 1 ) . Rescorla heard the explosion and saw the tower burning from his office window in the 44th floor of the South Tower ( Tower 2 ) . When a Port Authority announcement came over the P.A. system urging people to stay at their desks , Rescorla ignored the announcement , grabbed his bullhorn , walkie-talkie , and cell phone , and began systematically ordering Morgan Stanley employees to evacuate , including the 1,000 employees in WTC 5 . He directed people down a stairwell from the 44th floor , continuing to calm employees after the building lurched violently following the crash of United Airlines Flight 175 38 floors above into Tower 2 at 9:03 A.M. Morgan Stanley executive Bill McMahon stated that even a group of 250 people visiting the offices for a stockbroker training class knew what to do because they had been shown the nearest stairway
American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11
Rick Rescorla