24 Years After 9/11, Mariners Remember World's Biggest Emergency Boatlift

When terrorists used two aircraft to hit New York City's Twin Towers on the morning of September 11, 2001, 2,700 people lost their lives in both buildings and the city suffered a terrible blow - a defining moment for generations of New Yorkers, and a moment of heroism for first responders. 

After the attacks, survivors streamed out into the streets. By 1030 that morning, both towers had collapsed, enveloping the area in toxic dust. This cloud effectively trapped hundreds of thousands of people in Lower Manhattan. Coastguardsmen and civilian mariners answered the call and provided a massive sealift evacuation, the likes of which have never been seen before or since. 

Under the leadership of Lt. Mike Day (USCG), Coast Guard units organized more than 100 good samaritan boats and five Coast Guard cutters in a mission to carry survivors across the harbor, balancing safety rules with the urgent need to complete the evacuation. About 800 mariners rescued about 500,000 people from the waterfront in the largest waterborne evacuation of all time, larger even than Dunkirk. 

"The first plane struck the first tower and we all thought it was a terrible accident. There was not much information coming in, nobody had a smartphone," remembered ferry boat captain Rick Thornton in a Fox News interview. "Once the second plane struck the second tower, we knew it was some sort of coordinated attack, and the entire New York Waterway fleet just jumped into action. . . . There was tens of thousands of people stranded. And some of them were jumping into the river and swimming. We had to pick some of them out of the water, and then we nosed up against a seawall which wasn't even a ferry dock."

“The look of fear on the faces of the people I transported that day will be in my memory forever," boat skipper Warren Ihde said at a local remembrance ceremony for survivors, according to local outlet WWAY. "People were covered in dust and were ghostly looking, many were tourists and kept asking ‘where are you taking me and how am I going to get home.'"

By delivering the survivors across the river, the good Samaritans got them out of the toxic dust plume of 9/11 debris - but also exposed themselves in the process. During parts of the evacuation, the dust was so thick that navigation had to be done by radar. Many of the mariners on scene that day have suffered 9/11-associated ailments like cancer and lung disease. 

The heroism they showed - and the price that many paid - must be remembered, according to Thornton. 

"We can't lose sight of what happened that day and the courage of a lot of regular people doing extraordinary things," he said.