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Those awful moments

after the South tower was hit

some of the injured huddled

in the wreckage of the 78th floor.

Fires were spreading, the air was filled with smoke.

It was dark, they could barely see.

It seemed as if there was no way out.

Then there came a voice.

Clear.

Calm.

Saying he had found the stairs.

- Out of nowhere and a young man came over

and came in screaming and said,

"I found the stair, follow me,

only help the one you can help."

- A young man, in his 20s, strong,

emerged from the smoke

and over his nose and his mouth

he wore a red handkerchief.

It was just this guy and I don't know who the guy is

that was just in a doorway and all you heard him say

was, "Over here."

- I don't know how you thank somebody for that.

I'm sitting here talking to you

and other people aren't.

There was a story from people that got out,

survivors, that somebody helped them, they didn't know

who he was, they couldn't see his face.

He had a red bandana over his mouth and his nose.

That had been going on, and like, you know,

we didn't know whether it was a myth.

Was it something that people imagined?

- Without him that particular moment

I would've been crushed or buried.

- Judy said she never would've gotten

out of the tower alive if not for the man with

the red handkerchief.

They didn't know his name.

They didn't know where he came from,

but they knew their lives had been saved

by the man in the red bandana.

For the families and friends of 9/11 victims,

the change brought about by the disaster is profound.

There is no closure for premature loss.

Only a painful emotional wound that never heals.

One such family is that of Welles Remy Crowther.

Welles is the 24 year old son of

Alison and Jefferson Crowther.

An older brother to sisters Paige and Honor.

Welles was among the thousands of people

who were working at the World Trade Center

complex early in the morning that ill-fated day.

He developed a strong work ethic growing up

in upper Nyack, New York, a quaint town

nestled along the Hudson river

about 25 miles north of Manhattan.

Welles's mom will never forget a special gift

that he received at an early age.

- It was the Christmas that Welles was three

that my in laws my husband's parents purchased a

a little red fire truck that he could sit in and ride.

It was a riding toy.

It became one of his favorite toys

and he was always in it pretending

to be going to fires or putting out fires.

In high school, Welles was captain

of the Nyack Indians hockey team

and known as a selfless team player.

He also excelled at Lacrosse.

Good job, Welles.

- He was the type of guy always in your face

never let you get down always gave you confidence.

Even in the worst times, the best times,

he always gave you confidence, made you wanna drive

and to succeed, and do well.

- I would say he's probably one of the most

loyal people, you know, I've ever met.

You could be anywhere you could call him

at three in the morning, you could be in another state

and if you needed something, he would do it.

- He was just a good hearted kid, you know, very happy.

Always had something positive to say,

if you were down, he was the first one to come over

and pat you on the back.

- Welles told the coach he's like,

"Hey, put John on a line with me.

Let him skate on there,

I wanna get him his first varsity goal."

Welles picks up the puck in the middle of the ice,

makes a move on the goalie,

passes the puck across to me, wide open,

that shot and score.

All the guys surround me,

and then Welles left the celebration,

went into the net to grab the puck and he presented it to me

in the locker room, him and the coaching staff.

Like many young boys, Welles adored his father

and wanted to be just like him.

- Soon as my husband joined the firehouse

Welles would go down with him on the weekends

to help work on the truck,

and he was small and had little hands,

so they used to send him into the little places

in the fire truck that the big men couldn't reach

to clean it to get it polished up for parades and such.

Welles became a junior firefighter

as soon as he was able, when he turned, I believe it's 14.

Then once he turned 16, he could actually begin to train.

He did go up to the fire training center here

in Rockland County and he did see live fires.

- This photo of Welles was taken when he was 19 years old,

and it was in September in chief's inspection parade

wearing his dress uniform for

Empire Hook and Ladder Company Number One.

He was carrying a ceremonial axe.

They always get the young guys to carry

the heavy axes in the parades.

Welles learned much about firefighting

from his friend and mentor Harry Wanamaker.

- Harry was a lieutenant in the fire department.

He was a member of Empire Hook and Ladder Company Number One,

and a very good friend of mine and Welles's.

- Based on his disposition and his manner,

he would never give up.

If I was a soldier in a foxhole

I'd love to have Welles next to me, I think.

- After Welles graduated from high school,

he went on to Boston College,

where he spent a very happy four years and was a member

of the Boston College Men's Varsity lacrosse team.

After graduating in the spring of 1999,

Welles was hired by Sandler O'Neill and Partners

as an analyst, and quickly promoted to equities trader.

- He was active, his eyes were active, he was moving.

I can tell if a guy's gonna make it or not

just the way they walk on a trading floor.

- He was good at whatever he kind of wanted to be good at.

He wanted every day to count.

No fear whatsoever.

He'd walk up to any girl and ask her out.

Welles was proud of where he worked.

While posing for this June 2001 photograph with Harry,

he instructed his dad,

"Make sure you get the Twin Towers in the background."

Just three months later, on September 11th,

Welles left his Manhattan apartment

and was working behind his desk on the 104th floor

of the South tower.

This beautiful and cloudless day in the Northeast

United States would soon turn into one of terror.

American Airlines flight 11 departs

Logan International Airport in Boston,

bound for Los Angeles.

15 minutes later, United Airlines flight 175

leaves Logan, heading to the same destination.

Not long afterwards, the pilot hears and reports

an ominous transmission from flight 11.

Within minutes, flight 175

is also hijacked by another group of terrorists

who would turn both aircraft's into flying bombs.

At 8:46 a.m. flight 11 crashes into the North Tower.

We had seen a fireball.

I can tell you it appears as though something has gone

into the World Trade Center.

I'm looking at the north side of what is

the North Tower so, correct me if I'm wrong,

but this is about three quarters of the way up

maybe even 3/4 of the way up Tower One.

There is smoke now billowing out

of the top of the World Trade Center.

My heavens, this has just happened within several minutes.

- We saw flames shooting out of the side of the building.

So we had no idea what was going on.

People started screaming we gotta get out of here.

- I started walking towards the windows

on the side of One World Trade Center.

That time I was witnessing people jumping to their deaths

from One World Trade Center.

Just a terrible thing to watch.

Following the first crash,

Welles speaks with his college roommate John Howels.

- I'm like, "Are you alright?"

He was like, "Yeah, I heard it I felt it."

I'm like, "Are you guys getting out of there?"

and he's like, "Yeah, we're getting out of there now."

- It was Jeff's secretary calling.

She said, " Welles just called. He wanted me

to call you to let you know he's alright."

I said, "Well, why wouldn't he be alright?"

She said, "Haven't you heard?"

I said, "Heard what?"

- He was calm.

Very calm.

17 minutes later, flight 175

strikes Welles' building, killing hundreds

in the South Tower as well as 65 on board the aircraft.

- All manner of thoughts were running through my mind

after I saw the building hit.

But before it collapsed and I just...

I must have said a lot of prayers.

After the second crash, Welles

is believed to still be on the 104th floor,

imperiled above the impact zone,

a searing inferno of death and carnage.

Nine minutes after the South Tower crash,

he calls his mom and calmly leaves a voicemail.

- So I picked it up, and that was at about 9:28, 9:30.

Flight 175 struck the South Tower

between floors 77 and 85.

Being within the vicinity of floor 78 was critical.

In fact, if the South Tower had a ground zero

then it was the 78th floor.

From the main floor, a dozen express elevators

took up to 55 people to 78.

At the 78th floor there was a sky lobby

with local elevators to the higher floors.

After the North tower was struck, many occupants of

the South Tower headed back to the sky lobby.

- We took the local elevator from the 81st floor

and we went down to the 78th floor, which is

the sky lobby where you would get the express elevators.

It quickly filled up as they waited

for one of the express elevators to return

from their two minute round trip.

- It was packed.

It was, like, so crowded to a point it's like

you could almost hear the other side breathing.

The concentration of people

on the 78th floor, 26 floors below Welles' office,

made the sky lobby one of the worst locations

within the South Tower for the plane to strike.

- See, when you work on a 81st floor,

planes flew at the same altitude,

so on an average day, looking further out,

let's say a half a quarter mile,

you would see a plane zoom by.

But this time this plane is coming towards me.

First small, and then by the split second

it's getting larger, larger, larger,

and in my head now, I can still hear that sound

of the revving engine as the plane gets closer,

and closer, and bigger and bigger.

Gray in color.

U on the tail.

This flight 175 United Airlines

is bearing down on me, eye level, eye contact.

As I'm looking at this plane, I can hear this revving sound,

like, probably a thousand yards away

you can hear this like they're accelerating

maximum speed to cause more casualty

or for whatever reason.

All I could remember saying was, "Lord I can't do this.

You take over."

I dropped the phone, screamed, dove under a desk.

Then the most thunderous sound ever.

Boom.

- When I felt the blast, I didn't know what was happening,

I just knew it was some sort of bomb or something.

- There was this horrendous noise explosion.

That horrible noise. Then things started flying at us.

I was pushed down to the ground like everybody was.

There was horrendous crying and screaming going on.

- I got knocked flying and, you know, the false ceilings

all caved in and debris and dust all the lights went out.

It's louder than you could imagine.

- The plane hit the building.

Knocked me into one elevator wall.

I ended up on my...

On all four kneeling down.

You could feel it felt like the momentum of the plane

and the building was gonna tip over.

- Walking into the elevator and then just feeling

a blast like nothing I'd ever felt before,

just a wave of heat, and, just, I was smashed

into the back wall of the elevator,

and just crumpled to the floor.

I basically went flying.

As I went flying, in my mind, I thought this was the end.

- Elevator doors had been blown open.

There was this fire coming out.

She was skidding along the floor

toward the open elevator doors and the fire.

She was grabbing on to the carpet

as hard as she could, to keep

from falling into the elevator shaft.

She was able to stop herself barely just before.

- The flames just came up around the elevator

'cause the doors were still open.

You could see the flames just shooting

around the elevator cab.

Then the building slowly just righted itself back up.

- When I regained my senses, there was a inferno

in the elevator shaft that was coming into the elevator.

The fire was coming in.

The hot embers were flying into the elevator.

It was filling up with black smoke.

- I see a lot of people laying down.

I would assume they're dead.

- I was definitely stunned,

but I was aware of what was happening.

At that point, by the time the elevator came back to settle,

everything was dark.

There was smoke up on the floor just looking out.

My instinct was just to jump, get out of the elevator

before the doors closed, and I would be trapped in there.

I realized then what the people in Trade Center One,

the choice they were making,

which was you'll do anything but burn too.

It's the most horrifying experience

that I've ever faced in my life.

- I just kept praying that he'd be alright.

That he would survive.

That he would get down out of the building

safely, without harm.

The Crowthers did not know it at the time,

but the odds of Welles, or anyone else, escaping

from the upper reaches of the South Tower

were frighteningly dismal.

- American Airlines flight 11

hit the North Tower between the 93rd and the 99th floor.

Some people were killed instantly, but most were trapped.

At or above the 92nd floor, about one person escaped.

1344 people died.

The South Tower was struck much lower,

between floors 77 and 85, creating a second line of death.

599 people were trapped at or above this level

and ultimately died.

However, unlike the North Tower,

18 people in the South Tower were able to

miraculously escape from this zone.

Many of them were severely injured

and desperately needed help.

- I don't feel anything, not a thing

until I get to the hospital.

I didn't know I was burned at all.

I didn't know I was bleeding until they show me a picture.

I had second and third degree burns on my arm,

a large gash in my head from my neck

down to my leg on the left side.

I also had a broken hand.

- My colleague was lying next to me,

and I just tried to push her a little bit

to see if she was okay, and she wasn't.

She was gone.

- I remember seeing my friend laying on the floor.

My pocketbook had fallen on her.

She wasn't conscious.

None of my friends that I was with on 78 made it.

I just couldn't see, it was so dark.

Just couldn't see anybody.

I couldn't help anybody 'cause I was hurt.

- I was laying there face down, and something

from the ceiling crashed next to my head.

Then I thought "I've got to get out of here.

I've gotta get up."

Those in the South Tower

who survived the crash of flight 175

only had 56 minutes to flee.

- Buildings are designed to resist wind loads.

They're designed to resist gravity loads.

But they're designed to resist them

with most of their pieces in place.

Once the World Trade Center was hit by the plane

the fire began to consume the fireproofing,

but also began to melt the structure of the steel.

Much like your joints in your knee,

the joints that held the floors to the walls gave way.

- I watched.

I was transfixed, and when the building collapsed,

I dropped to my knees and I prayed.

I said, "Dear Lord, take me now.

Let Welles live.

Take me in his stead."

I tried calling him.

I couldn't get through.

The phone rang again, it was Alison.

- When I heard that news, I just knew.

I said, "Oh, my God, Welles is gone."

I just knew, so I called my husband back.

I said, "Jeff, Welles is gone."

I could barely breathe.

- I said, "We don't know, dear, he may be fine.

Let's wait and see.

Don't jump to any horrible thoughts."

- Jeff said, "Don't say that.

He had a lot of skills.

He had time he probably got down.

He could very well have gotten down."

- I said to her again, "Let's not worry now.

Let's just wait and see."

Although struck first, the North Tower

comes down 29 minutes after the South Tower collapsed.

You have smoke.

It's just astonishing.

People in the newsroom crying, hugging each other.

What a scene today.

I'm shaking, I mean, it's just horrifying.

The second tower just came crumbling down

as I'm sitting down at the desk.

It's just a horrifying scene.

- We're doing the best we can

to evacuate Southern Manhattan below Canal Street.

If you are in Southern Manhattan below Canal Street

you should walk north and get out of Southern Manhattan.

While 9/11 was truly a tragic day,

it also marked one of the greatest rescue operations

in our nation's history.

Below the impact zone, the vast majority

of civilians were able to escape.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 occupants

safely evacuated the two towers.

Fortunately, there were not nearly as many injuries

as one would have expected.

- I was in a couple of different places with this.

In one place deep inside, I knew he was gone,

and the other place I was saying

I can't give up looking for him.

I'm gonna keep looking until I find him.

I spent a lot of time calling hospitals.

- Then Alison realized that if she wanted

to get through to any of these hospitals

she had to do it between the hours of

like 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.

Every night for a week, Alison stayed up

in the middle of the night, working the telephones,

calling hospitals, checking to see if Welles

had been checked in to any hospital.

No luck.

Nothing, not a trace.

It was very frustrating, it was very disheartening.

But we didn't give up.

- Down at ground zero, there was a site

where families could go and bring things and we did that.

We brought pictures of Welles,

Welles with his sisters and family pictures,

and we left them there at that very first site

right down by ground zero where the families would come.

- I wondered did my phone call screw up him getting out?

Was he trapped on the top floor?

Was he one of the people that fell from the building?

Did he burn?

You're thinking about all these terrible thoughts,

but did he burn alive?

Did he get out?

- Many of Welles's friends went searching for him, also.

There's even a story that a couple of them

donned white coats and went into, like,

surreptitiously went into hospitals looking.

- Literally his friends were walking the halls

and sticking their heads into every hospital room

that was occupied, checking to see was Welles there.

Finally we realized that we

weren't gonna find him like that.

- There were thousands and thousands of

emergency workers down there.

We've gotten a tremendous amount of help and assistance.

Harry Wanamaker was among thousands of

first responders who poured into lower Manhattan to help.

- Harry Wanamaker spent the entire nine months

after 9/11, working on the pile.

Helping to recover bodies.

- It was difficult for Harry to talk about at first.

People were still hoping that they would find something

or find a miracle.

- Every time I saw him, he said "I'm looking for Welles.

I'm looking for Welles.

We'll find him. Don't worry, we'll find him."

- Harry would talk about Welles all the time,

every day that he spoke to me.

Harry would talk about it as if there was always still hope.

Conditions were harsh, with dust, smoke,

and lingering odors of decay.

Despite, hope, prayer, and best intentions,

workers realized they were no longer

engaged in a rescue operation,

rather they were there to clean up debris,

gather crime scene evidence, and recover remains.

- We were very surprised that

we found a victim the following day.

By that time, we had figured out that

pretty much everybody who was left there, was deceased.

The wreckage was trucked to Staten Island,

where workers carefully sifted through it.

Almost three months into the operation,

we had processed about 80,0000 tons of debris.

We recovered approximately 2,700 human remains

and thousands of personal effects.

This massive and painstaking effort

proceeded for months, but there was no sign of Welles.

Meanwhile, victims' families were busy

performing other difficult tasks.

- Clarkstown Police had us come in

and we gave our DNA samples, both of us.

We brought them his hairbrush, his comb, his toothbrush,

and so forth, and that was very helpful for them.

As soon as Pier 94 was open,

Alison and I went down together.

Even though we had no body,

they issued a temporary or interim death certificate.

- The cause of death listed: Homicide.

Most 9/11 funerals were unique, in that

family members were without remains

to bury, cremate, or otherwise respect.

- To have a funeral or memorial service

without a body is very, very difficult.

It's almost like a betrayal of your loved one

that you're having this acknowledging their loss

without the proof of their body,

and perhaps there will never be proof.

With this added heartache,

families of the fallen did their best

to respect their loved ones.

66 of these funerals were for workers

of Sandler O'Neill and partners,

including one for Welles Remy Crowther.

On September 29th, 2001, over 1,000 people

came to Grace Episcopal Church to say goodbye to Welles.

The crowd overflowed into the courtyard and the street.

Welles' sister Honor shared this story during her eulogy.

- Welles was, more than anything, proud of other people.

He really took other peoples' accomplishments

with greater pride than he did his own accomplishments.

I'll never forget one night, up at Boston College,

Welles had a Lacrosse game at six o'clock,

and my team had a game at eight o'clock.

Welles's team lost but he and a number of his teammates

stayed to cheer us on.

Although we lost, I scored three goals in the game,

and after my third goal, from the stands,

I heard him yell down.

Sorry.

He yelled down, "That's my sister."

He was more excited for me than he would've been

if he had scored three goals in his own game.

That was Welles.

Like others who have experienced a loss,

the Crowther family continues on,

but with irreparably broken hearts.

For Alison, dealing with the grief involved

an off chance but relentless search.

- I knew somehow I had to keep looking for Welles.

Somehow maybe someday I would find him

or something about him.

I watched all of the documentaries.

I watched all of the news programs.

I just kept searching, looking, searching for him.

Again, I don't know what was driving me.

Just a mother's instinct.

Meanwhile, recovery efforts continued

well into the spring.

At the World Trade Center site, a new ramp

has been built to allow trucks to get to the lower levels.

Now, for the first time, workers will be able

to explore what is under the old earthen ramp.

New York City Fire Commissioner Nick Scopeta.

That ramp is very close to covering

what was one of the command centers.

It's entirely possible that there will be more recovered.

Rich Lamb WCBS 880U.

That month, Alison received a telephone call

that no parent should ever receive.

- So I got on the phone with the policeman

and he told me that they recovered Welles's...

That they'd recovered Welles's body

from ground zero, and he'd positively identified him.

That was the 22nd of March.

Days later, Welles' personal

effects were returned.

- Both of our daughters, Welles's younger siblings,

right away expressed "Thank God.

He's coming home."

- He was back with us and so I had this

very deep sense of contentment that

some sort of circle was completed.

What I didn't know was that his spirit

was going to carry on in such a powerful way.

Welles' remains were cremated

and in a private ceremony, his ashes were immured

in a wall at Grace Episcopal Church,

the same location where only a few months earlier

he had celebrated the happy occasion

of his friend's wedding.

- When we took his body to be cremated over in Westchester,

the fire department escorted his body with the fire truck.

We said our goodbyes at the funeral home.

- He was intact but he was missing a part

of his jaw and his right hand.

- Both wounds were consistent with flying glass

and of course we knew and they had told us

that he had been in the lobby when the building collapsed.

So we knew that there was all the glass around

and the building pancaked.

It was like a giant bellows compressed,

and the blast there which hit him,

and other people he was with, must've been incredible

and it blew them out against the wall of another building.

- After all this news, I went into the bathroom there

and I just sat down to just be quiet for a moment

and collect myself.

I was thinking, well, they told us it took about

eight and a half seconds for the tower to collapse

because I was trying to put myself there with Welles.

I was trying to be with him however I could.

As I sat there I counted one Mississippi,

two Mississippi,

three Mississippi.

Despite the recovery of Welles' body,

Alison never gave up looking.

- I just knew I had to keep searching, even

after months anything new came up,

I would read it.

I would watch it.

I just wasn't going to give up looking for him.

It was really kind of irrational

when you think about it why do that?

But there was something inside of me making me do that.

- She had been looking everywhere and anywhere

for any shred of evidence about our son,

whatever she could find, and we found nothing.

On May 28th, 2002, the massive cleanup

was completed, and the last column ceremoniously removed.

Just two days earlier, the New York Times

published a comprehensive story about the World Trade Center

disaster entitled Fighting To Live As The Towers Died.

- I, at that point, still could not read anything

or look at anything about 9/11.

I took the newspaper in.

I woke my wife and I said, "Here.

You may wanna read this."

Five journalists contributed

to provide tower by tower, floor by floor,

and minute by minute survivor accounts.

What they saw and how they got out.

Journalist Eric Lipton

interviewed many of the 18 survivors

who escaped from the South Tower's upper level.

- My task was to focus primarily on the South Tower

in the zone around the 78th floor, where the plane impacted,

and to try to find those people who lived through the attack

and could tell the story of what had happened in that zone.

Then get a vision into this dark world in a way

that no one else previously had been able to assemble.

- When I came to the section that was entitled

9:05 In The South Tower 78th Floor Sky Lobby,

I knew if I was going to ever see anything

about Welles it would be here.

- As soon as my wife read this, she said, "This is Welles.

They're talking about Welles."

I was in the other room, I said, "How do you know?"

- He was about seven or eight,

and we were dressing for church one day,

and he had a little suit on.

- He said, "Daddy, can I have a handkerchief like you

in my jacket pocket?"

I said, "Sure you can."

I went into my dresser and I got him one out.

I also grabbed a red bandana.

As you've seen, I carry a blue one.

I got the red bandana and I brought it back.

I said, "Now, this one is for show.

But the red one is for blow."

- It became the tradition here at home and at

the fire house, and everywhere Welles went,

he had the red bandanas

and my husband had the blue bandanas.

It was a practical reason for that, 'cause

the different colors helped me sort them out

in the laundry, so I always knew the red ones were

for Welles, but he carried a red bandana

with him every single day.

- He always had this red bandana.

I'm like, nobody carried around handkerchiefs

- Welles always had a red bandana in his bag.

All the guys on the team used to give him

a little grief for it make fun of him a little bit.

He shook it off. He always had it with him.

- Even wearing a suit, he would have one

in his pocket going to work, so...

- In fact, the weekend before that Sunday,

before September 11th, we were going out to dinner

and he pulled out of his back pocket a red bandana

wrapped around his comb and wallet.

Like, he always carried it.

I said, "Welles, are you still carrying that thing?

You're just like your father." And he just laughed.

He chuckled. I think he liked that.

I started reading, and sure enough,

there were the references by two eyewitnesses,

women that had survived.

That this mysterious man

wearing a red handkerchief saved them.

He had a red bandana which he had across his face.

- The minute I saw that, I knew.

I said, "Oh my God, Welles, I've found you.

There you are."

I jumped up, I ran over out to Jeff and I said,

"Jeff, look, I've found Welles. He's here look."

- In the article the two individuals

who talked about the man with the red bandana

one worked for Aon Insurance.

- I had to reach out to the two women

who were mentioned in the article

and just make sure to confirm that,

yes indeed, this was Welles.

I didn't wanna live with a falsehood.

I called Aon, and I said, here's why I'm calling.

I think it's my son who saved her.

That afternoon, Judy Wein called me back,

said, "Please, send me photographs."

So I sent his college picture to her and she said,

"I'm in communication with about 1, 17 other people

that were on the tower."

They had formed their own communication group.

She said, "I'll send the picture out."

She did. Ling Young responded.

- She send me one picture and I looked at it.

I really had to study the picture very carefully,

and I said, "Yes, that is the person."

My son Richard made sure I got it right.

He said, "Mom, you gotta make sure,

because it's not something that you gonna..."

I say, "Yes."

I said, "You gotta take a look

at it very carefully again make sure."

I said, "Yes."

- She saw him in the stairwell.

She recognized him from the picture.

- August of 2002,

we invited both Judy and her husband, and Ling,

and her family to our house.

Ling was still seriously injured.

She was in a wheelchair.

She had burns over 40% of her body.

Judy had recovered from her physical wounds,

but it was one of the few times

that Judy actually left her home in Queens.

- It was an emotional meeting, okay.

From then on, we just kept connected.

- The two ladies were able to, in effect,

fill in the blanks for us.

Through their accounts,

and the reporting of the New York Times,

they were able to piece together much of Welles' last hour.

Mom, this is Welles.

I want you to know that I'm okay.

- Welles came to the 78th floor,

which was the sky lobby,

shortly after the plane impacted the South Tower

when the left wing sliced right into the 78th floor.

Welles had all of his training

and he had a red bandana which he had tied across

his nose and mouth to protect himself

from the incredible dust and smoke.

He just went to work.

With Welles' help, Ling Young

and Judy Wein were among the 18 souls

who managed to safely cross the south tower's line of death.

How did Welles help many of these 18 pass

through the crash zone while no one was able

to descend through this area in the North Tower?

How come so few within the South Tower

used the safe passage?

For the 18 survivors, an architectural fluke

in the World Trade Center's design

allowed for a single escape route

and Welles had resourcefully found it.

- Like most modern skyscrapers, the stairs

and the elevators were placed in the center

or the core of the World Trade Center towers,

preserving the rest of the space, or the perimeter

of the space, for the more valuable office uses.

When American Airlines flight 11

flew into the North Tower, it severed all three

of the tightly clustered interior stairs.

With no elevator service

those in the upper levels were imprisoned in a fiery hell.

In contrast, the South Tower was struck much lower

from floor 77 to 85.

Two of its stairwells were instantly severed,

stairwells B and C.

- I started stumbling around a lot of people

and there's a lot of people who were gone

and people who were crying, people who were terribly hurt.

I went to a stairwell and it just wasn't there.

However, stairway A remained functional

due to its unique design.

Stairwell A jutted around

a dozen 24 ton elevator hoists.

That pulled express elevators to the top.

Heavy debris from the crash

between floor 76 and 78 blocked it,

but with some effort, those in the upper reaches

of the South Tower could find salvation.

Few realized that stairway A

could lead them down to freedom.

Indeed the 9/11 commission report references only

one individual who spread this lifesaving information.

Welles Remy Crowther.

- I got out and I can't see okay.

I took off my glasses, they was filled with blood.

- I started making my way to the closest

stairway, emergency stairway.

I felt a doorknob, there was nothing there,

but when I opened up the door,

there was smoke coming out of the stairway.

It was dark, the stairway,

but it wasn't enough to keep me out at that point.

- We looked around.

I said we can't leave because we don't know

how the floor was.

We were afraid if we just move

the thing might collapse on us.

We just kind of sat there waiting for help.

- Welles came out of the smoke and dust

and found a group of people who were sitting on the floor.

They were afraid to move because the visibility was so bad.

They thought they'd fall through a hole in the floor.

- Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere,

and a young man came over, came in screaming,

and said, "I found a stair. Follow me.

Only help the one you can help."

He said it in such a way, we say, "Let's go."

- When I got down to the 78th floor, it appeared

that the stairway ended going any further down.

At that point, I started feeling around the wall,

but it was still a smoky condition.

It was hard to tell without a flashlight,

but I did back myself up into a corner.

I felt a doorknob, and much to my relief,

when I turned the doorknob, it opened.

Upon entering the 78th floor, I heard a man's voice.

He screamed out, "Don't take those stairs, take these stairs."

I started to run towards where I heard the voice.

When I got there, there was a young man there.

He was helping injured people and non-injured people.

He was lining them up, getting them ready

to go down the staircase.

When I got to them, I just ran right by them.

- According to Judy, it's the same thing with me.

It's the way that he said it.

We just got up and we just follow.

- He said, "Is there a fire extinguisher?"

The man said, "Yes, over here on the wall."

Welles took it went and put out a couple of fires,

came back and said, "Are you ready to go?"

They said, "Yes, can someone carry the fire extinguisher?"

- I picked it up.

I found later down the road.

They told me it was 25 pound.

It didn't feel like anything at all that day.

- I was able to go down one of two flights.

There was a wall knocked down.

I started to go under the wall.

I was able to lift the wall up maybe one

or two feet, and it just kind of popped

and it got hung on the banister of the turn

where you go down.

I went underneath at that point.

Then the next floor down the wall was down far enough

where I was able to jump on top of it.

I just kinda rolled to my left

and then just continued going down the stairs.

- In that first group, Welles had carried

a young girl over his shoulder because she was in shock.

- I, in the same moment, I didn't know I was hurt.

I just went.

Welles was carrying a light skinned black woman,

I think she was skinny, if I remember correctly.

He dropped her off and said, "I'm going back upstairs."

I mean, he could've continued going down with us

but he didn't. He decided to go back up.

- At that time, Welles took the bandana off his face

because he didn't need it to protect himself.

Ling was able to see his full face

which is how she was able to really completely identify him.

He turned around and said,

"I have to go back up and help others now."

- Ling said, "Do I still have

to carry the fire extinguisher?

He said, "No, I don't think you'll need it."

So she put it in the stairwell.

Welles went back up.

- I can tell you, the fire started getting very bad.

There were beams that were just

crashing down from out of the walls.

It was total chaos, and the screaming

and the crying was just really overwhelming.

- I remember thinking if I can stand up

long enough to breathe in the hot smoke

I'll die of smoke asphyxiation.

I won't know that I'm gonna burn to death.

- Down was the fire, so we started climbing

and looking for a way out

but all the doors seemed to be locked.

- Two colleagues of mine who I didn't know

them personally at the time was Judy Wein and Gigi Singer.

We were just all kind of talking

and saying, "Which way do we go?"

Myself and one of the fellas, they said,

"Well, let's go around to, say, this side"

and we started off that way.

Then it was getting worse with the beams falling,

and the fire, and all that, and then we were told

by Welles, "Get back here, don't go that way, and go this way."

- In the second group was Judy Wein,

a woman who worked for Aon.

We put together the sequence of events

because she remembers seeing the fire extinguisher

in the corner and thinking to herself,

"Well, that's a strange place for the fire extinguisher."

He directed people and us to the only open,

only working staircase, the only one

that went all the way down.

- So we came back, and went down to that area,

and we found that there was a stairwell.

It was lit and we just said, "This is great."

So Judy and Gigi and I made our way down the stairwell.

- As Judy was going down the stairs,

she saw wave after wave, group after group

of firefighters coming up the stairs

carrying their heavy equipment.

- They left to keep going downstairs.

Welles went back up.

- Then, I guess, started to look around

and realized that the doors hadn't closed all the way

and that maybe I could get out of the elevator.

I start pulling, but the fire is coming up from the floor.

It's singing my arms every time I'm trying to do this.

As I open the door and I look forward,

what I saw was the whole floor was on fire.

The people that were in the sky lobby,

most of them appeared to have been killed instantly.

There were some people who seemed to be alive

as I'm crawling along touching each body

to see if the person's alive or not.

- That's when I met up with Kelly.

It was... That was a miracle because

there wasn't many people that made it on that floor.

It was just this guy, and I don't know who the guy is

that was just in the doorway.

All you heard him say was "Over here."

The door was open and you could see a light.

Going towards the stairwell was me, Kelly Reyher,

Keating Crown, and he guided us down there.

I don't know whatever happened to him afterwards.

I just held on to Kelly for dear life.

I held on to his belt buckle.

We just started going down the stairs.

- Got through it by just kind of

crawling out floor by floor.

"Okay, we're at 66, okay.

Okay, we're at 65, only 63 more to go.

50, see how many we made."

- Floor 20, just remembered it was a 20th floor.

I just said, "I can't do this anymore."

'cause I was hurting so bad, and I stopped.

- Her arms were severely burned.

Her face appeared to be burned.

She was limping.

Both her wrists looked to be broken.

- Kelly just said, "Come on.

We did all these flights, you got 20 more."

I says, "Okay." And I just did it.

Showing little regard for his own safety,

Welles went from 104 to 78 to 61.

From 61, back up 17 flights to 78.

Down a few flights and then back up again

towards the 78th floor.

Donovan Cowan told the New York Times

I was there about three minutes

and then this guy, I don't know who he was,

he said "I've found a staircase."

He was trying to get people out.

- Somebody lifted me out of there.

I got up and felt my way towards a stairwell,

and at that point I saw all the dry wall down there

was on fire.

Once I ran past that, the stairwell was clear.

He eventually left the sky lobby after at least

three visits making his way down to the main lobby.

- They found him in the lobby.

My first reaction was like why didn't he get out?

Welles was in the ground floor lobby

of the South Tower when the building came down,

just feet from safety.

Had he gotten out, Welles would've escaped

from the highest floor of all survivors.

- My first reaction was really selfish.

I was like, you know, 'cause it seemed like

he could've gotten out and he chose not to.

From a selfish standpoint, I was kinda mad at him.

I wanted him to get out.

They say he found the firefighters,

and so, kind of, people started piecing it together.

They found them in the lobby.

They found them with the firefighters.

Well, okay, what was he doing?

- Welles was in the lobby when the building collapsed.

He was with the battalion chief, the lieutenant,

the firefighters, the other civilian.

He was about to go back up,

and this I learned through contacts at the fire department.

He was about to go back up with the lieutenant,

two fire fighters with the tools necessary

to lift some of the debris that had people trapped

in order to try and extricate those victims

and bring them down.

- He could've left, but because of who he was

he chose to stay, and we honor that decision.

- You know, it was just an amazing story

of sheer heroism on the part of a civilian

who decided to risk his life to save people he didn't know.

- We're very proud of his decision that he made

as a man, and it's the price of greatness.

- Just like I said to Alison, Jeff, every year, I said,

"You know what, it wasn't Welles, I won't be here.

From the bottom of my heart thank you very much."

No one will know the precise total,

but Welles shepherded down at least 10

of the eighteen survivors who escaped

from the South Tower's upper reaches.

He showed bravery, selflessness

and grace during a brutal time.

Like all victims, Welles is remembered at various memorials.

Nyack High School retired his number 19.

Welles is also remembered at Empire Hook and Ladder.

This remembrance is unique, because there

he is joined by his teacher, mentor, and friend

Harry Wanamaker.

- Unfortunately, Harry died

in 2010, of 9/11 related illnesses.

Months of physical labor on the pile

eventually took its toll on Harry.

He contracted cancer from inhaling toxic fumes.

Harry is among the first responders

who have died due to 9/11 illness.

The deceased are remembered at the FDNY headquarters.

Equally tragic to these deaths, are the number

of empty spaces on the plaque left in anticipation

of future casualties.

Through the years, Alison has shared

her son's story of courage and selflessness

to thousands of students.

These efforts eventually led her to develop

the Red Bandana Project, a character development program.

The curriculum is taught at dozens of schools,

sports programs and youth groups throughout the country,

and uses Welles story to teach leadership,

courage and forgiveness.

This curriculum is not the only book about Welles.

Honor wrote a children's book entitled

the Man in the Red Bandana that age-appropriately

shares Welles' story with young minds.

Welles' uncle John Crowther contributed

by drawing the illustrations.

- Children today need a hero to be able to look up to,

and not just somebody who makes a lot of money

because they can play basketball or baseball really well,

but somebody who is a hero in a true sense of the word.

Welles is remembered in another important way.

- We started the Welles Remy Crowther charitable trust

in September of 2001 because we realize

people wanted to make donations.

They wanted to do something

and we thought that we should start a foundation

to honor Welles and to bring good in the community.

Through various events that keep Welles'

legacy alive, the trust has raised well over

one million dollars, and remains active today.

Boston College also embraces Welles.

Working with Welles' family and friends

it hosts and annual 5k Red Bandana run.

- I just wanna thank every one of you for showing up today

supporting Welles's trust the way you are.

When Welles was killed, we knew that

in order for us to keep going forward in our lives

the only way we could do it would be by bringing

some good from such a terrible evil.

Other than the Boston marathon,

the Red Bandana 5k is the most popular race

in the Boston area.

Over 1,800 runners participated in 2014.

Boston College football remembers Welles

at its annual Red Bandana game.

Finally, Boston College pays Welles

one of its highest honors.

Following a 47 year hiatus, a live eagle

is brought back to campus for BC football games.

A contest ensued in an attempt to determine a name

worthy of such a prestigious bird.

Hundreds of names were submitted

and they are narrowed down to the top five voted on by fans.

It's with great pride that we announce

the winning name is Welles.

Here to represent Welles

are his parents Jeff and Alison,

along with numerous members of the Crowther family.

Tyler Jewell, a skilled snowboarder,

donned a red bandana for his former college teammate

while competing in the Olympic games in Turin, Italy.

Beyond family and friends,

Welles' various communities honor him.

At Sandler O'Neill and partners,

Welles and his fallen co-workers

are recognized at its new offices.

In New York City, Jeff threw out the first pitch

at a Mets game held on a 9/11 anniversary.

It is not surprising that his family, friends

and communities continue to remember Welles.

What is surprising, is the breadth diversity

and creativity of the honors from those

that did not know him.

Teachers all over the country share Welles' story.

The Crowthers have received thousands of letters

and drawings from grade-school children

from all over the United States.

In Ohio, middle school students created

a 9/11 mural depicting a fireman, policeman

and a man in a red bandana.

Artists throughout the country

have created works of the savior.

Welles' story has also inspired musicians.

Athletes participating in various sports also honor Welles.

Two University of Central Florida students

invited a few friends to honor Welles

at a UCF nights football game, and surprisingly,

thousands showed up all wearing red bandanas.

Paige and Honor attended the game.

- I think it's really a sign of unity here

to see that it's, as people keep saying,

it's bigger than a football game.

I think they're showing that.

The divine nature of Welles actions

has not eluded the clergy.

- He said, "I found the stairs, follow me,

and only help those you can."

- There he left this group of people there

and said, "You keep going down.

I need to go back up and get others.

I have found the way.

I know the way out.

I know where the door is.

I know where the exit is.

I know where eternity is."

To instill his values and pass along his legacy,

parents all over the United States

have named their children after Welles.

The folklore nature of Welles' heroics

has even reached the White House.

- Alison called me and said, "Go to your...

Go on the computer and see if you got an invitation."

I said, "An invitation to what?"

She said, "Well, I got this invitation

to visit with the president in New York."

- The meeting was at the September 11th

Memorial Museum preview site. The Memorial Museum

had just installed a special display about Welles.

Jeff told him about Welles

and he knew about Welles already.

He said, "Oh, yes the man in the red bandana, I know."

- He was very gracious

and he autographed two red bandanas for us,

one for each one of our daughters.

We thought he just signed his name, but no.

He signed each red bandana saying that

we will never forget Welles.

At the national 9/11 museum dedication ceremony,

President Barack Obama spoke to dignitaries,

the nation, and the world about the man in the red bandana.

- He put on that bandana

and spent his final moments saving others.

Today as we saw on our tour one of his

red handkerchiefs is on display in this museum.

From this day forward, all those who come here

will have a chance to know the sacrifice

of a young man, who, like so many, gave his life

so others might live.

Those we lost live on in us,

in the families who love them still,

in the friends who remember them always,

and in a nation that will honor them now and forever.

Today it is my honor to introduce

two women forever bound by that day

united in their determination to keep alive

the true spirit of 9/11.

Welles Crowther's mother Alison,

and one of those he saved, Ling Young.

- My name is Ling Young.

I'm here today because of Welles,

a man I did not get the chance to thank.

It was very hard for me to come here today,

but I wanted to do so, so I could say thank you

to his parent and my new friend Jeff and Alison.

- Thank you.

I am Welles Crowther's mother.

Alison Crowther.

My husband Jefferson and I

could not be more proud of our son.

For us he lives on in the people he helped

and in the memory of what he chose

to do that Tuesday in September.

Welles believed that we are all

connected as one human family

that we are here to look out for

and to care for one another.

This is life's most precious meaning.

It is our greatest hope that when people

come here and see Welles's red bandana

they will remember how people helped each other that day.

We hope that they will be inspired

to do the same in ways both big and small.

This is the true legacy of September 11th.

The measure of a man is not his longevity,

but whether he made a positive difference

during his lifetime.

Based upon the number of people that he saved,

his courage in the face of danger,

and the thousands inspired by his heroics,

Welles was clearly a man of extraordinary character.

Like other great men and women of history

he is remembered, missed, and honored.

- A dear friend Lieutenant Harry Wanamaker FDNY retired,

and our courageous son Welles Remy Crowther,

the man in the red bandana.

After his death, the Crowthers

learned something remarkable about Welles.

A secret that further beautifies his saintly legacy.

- One day, when I was chatting with him,

and this was in August of 2001,

he said, "Dad, I think I wanna change careers."

I said, "Excuse me?

You have a job that many young men your age would die for.

You have an incredible salary.

You get a great bonus."

He said, "Yeah, Dad, but money's not everything.

My life was meant for something much more important."

When I cleaned out his apartment after 9/11,

I found an application for the

New York City Fire Department.

It was about a half to two thirds filled out,

so that was what his plan was.

Welles' plan became official on

December 15th 2006.

On that day, the fire department of New York City

posthumously made him an honorary fire fighter

in a ceremony at the FDNY headquarters.

- We thought if there's ever gonna be a first person

to be an honorary New York City fire fighter,

it should be this young man

who in the greatest tragedy the department ever had,

died side by side with fire fighters

doing the same thing that fire fighters were doing,

and that's the highest honor we could afford a citizen.

- We're deeply grateful to the New York City

fire department for making Welles a brother.

Thank you so much.

- I knew that in that last hour of his life,

he was no longer Welles Crowther the equities trader.

He now became Welles Crowther the fire fighter.

- If you go out to the Brooklyn wall of remembrance

where all of the first responders are memorialized

with a picture on the wall, a tile, Welles is on that wall.

He's alongside the fire fighters, police officers,

port authority police officers, FBI that gave their lives

that day, and I think that pretty much tells the story.

He's with us and he'll be with us forever.

- His dream became a reality.

Official.

He was a New York City fire fighter.

Welles spent his last hour,

his finest hour, realizing his dream.

In doing so, he followed his mind, heart, and spirit.

This is Welles.

I'm okay.

- I never thought that I would be making a film.

I didn't have a bucket list item.

It was nothing I thought I'd ever do.

I just went to lunch with my banker Jeff Crowther

and he told me the story of his son.

I was just blown away.

- I just told his story

and that sparked Matthew's interest

and desire to do something with it.

Boy, you talk about give someone the ball

and see if he can run with it.

He scored more than one touch down.

He scored a whole bunches of them.

- I thought it was just one of the most remarkable

amazing stories that I had ever heard before.

In quick succession, my mind said

what an amazing story.

Everybody should hear the story.

I wanna share the story with everybody.

So while there are film makers that look for stories,

this was a story that found the film maker.

Having seen way too many 9/11 movies,

documentaries, reading the 9/11 commission report

you can imagine it's a very tough topic

in which you become an expert in and really delve deep into.

But one thing I felt as I'm working on it

is that I didn't see a lot of films and pieces

where it was a personal story,

a personal narrative,

'cause you can't really grasp

3,000 people dying in one shot.

But you can relate to one person.

I felt by sharing this one story

we could start to grasp what that means

to lose 3,000 people.

I guess one of the things that I'm

particularly proud about

are certain aspects of the film and Welles story

that I was able to tell in this film

that have never been told before,

or never told fully before,

most particular, the last 20 minutes or so,

when you learn about Welles friends and family

that have honored him and his communities,

but also total strangers throughout the country

that have honored him in a variety of amazing ways.

Just incredible that piece of fabric

created such a legacy and it's touched so many people

and inspired so many people in such a diverse way.

- We we're really blown away by the

the depth of the story that you told

and the people that you reached out to

that we hadn't really even known,

some of these people were helped by Welles,

so that was a beautiful thing to find out.

We hope that moving forward

that people are inspired to do good,

to work, because we're all capable of bringing

good things into this world.

That we really focus on that

and try to help others and consider others

be understanding and work

to make this world a better place,

and that's where we're at really now

with work with the trust

and the work with the Red Bandana Project.