My near miss

A near escape from the 9/11 attacks changed the trajectory of MP Melissa McIntosh’s life forever.

As a commuter from western Sydney, I had the news on early in the morning of September 12 for the workday ahead in public affairs at American Express.

I was 24 and very ambitious; only 12 months earlier I had been in the office of prime minister John Howard.

I was rushing as fast as I could – the girl from Penrith – as many of us do at that age.

On that morning in 2001, September 11 in the United States, the flicking on of the news for millions of people right across the globe was the moment we saw the world change in the most devastating and dramatic way.

The rolling coverage of planes hitting the Twin Towers in New York was inconceivable and made no sense.

For me, I was meant to be right there in one of those towers, had it not been for a last-minute change of plans.

Instead, I was in Sydney and had a job to do. The what-ifs would have to wait. I was working for a major American company and our people were in those buildings.

I don’t remember getting ready for work that day, or the hour-long commute from home to the city, except for the feeling of worry that accompanied me on the train and while walking into the office on Liverpool Street.

A large blue neon American Express sign glowed on top of the 30-storey building that towered over Hyde Park. I do remember being there early, and staying late, long after most people had left.

Most of all, I remember finally having a moment that evening to look out the window, about 20 storeys up in an almost empty office, wondering what would have happened if I had made it to New York.

I didn’t let the thought sit for very long.

I had been looking forward to the public affairs conference in New York, as one of the up-and-coming employees in Amex’s global public affairs team.

It would be a milestone in my career and I was heading to the business capital of the world. Amex was somewhere I could see myself building a long and successful career.

Then the US recession hit, and within days of my departure, the trip was cancelled. I was disappointed.

I was booked to stay at the Marriott Hotel World Trade Centre, which was tucked below the Twin Towers.

When the first plane hit the North Tower at 8.46am, I probably would have been walking through a connecting bridge from the World Trade Centre to American Express headquarters in the World Financial Centre across the road.

The bridge collapsed with the fall of the North Tower and the World Financial Centre was badly damaged.

I wonder if I would have been one of the people running through the dust and debris, lost and confused.

In the days following September 11, we received multiple bomb threats to our office in Sydney.

I remember walking down the endless flight of stairs with a couple of thousand other Amex employees to finally sprawl out into Hyde Park.

You couldn’t help but draw parallels. How did people get out of the Twin Towers?

It’s God’s blessing and the work of many brave people that anyone did. This became my induction into a very different form of crisis communications. For which before September 11 there was no training.

I pushed the what-ifs out of my head for many years. When I was working at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney in 2014, I finally made it to New York.

The 9/11 memorial located at the site of the World Trade Centre was so beautiful and serene, it was hard to imagine this place being the scene of the world’s largest terrorist attack, and difficult and uncomfortable to reflect on what might have been.

In those towers, onboard those planes and at the Pentagon, 2977 innocent people were lost that day including 10 Australians, and 11 American Express team members. People going about their jobs.

Even though I didn’t make it to New York that day, missing such an event by mere days has had an impact on my life and career, including my work at the US Studies Centre and my path into Parliament.

It was a turning point I referenced in my maiden speech. Over recent days leading to the 20th anniversary, intricately tracing my possible steps for the first time, I have learnt more about the people who did make it to New York, stayed in the Marriott Hotel and died in those towers.

I have finally confronted the what-ifs.

There are countless stories of heroism, suffering and near-misses in that day of tragedy.

One story which resonates with me was that among the dust and rubble of the Marriott Hotel lay the greatest symbol of our national identity: our Australian flag – damaged and torn but still intact.

Detective Patrick McGee from the New York Police Department Emergency Services Unit recognised the flag buried in the debris, and later brought it to Australia.

The ashes that forever rest on the Southern Cross are a poignant reminder of those 10 Australian lives that were lost, and about 40 people in the Marriott Hotel.

Twenty years after the attacks, the flag has been returned to New York from the National Museum of Australia.

It serves as an enduring reminder of the tragedy we suffered with our ally, partner and friend, and our resoluteness to stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the start, in the middle, and as we have seen over these weeks in Afghanistan, at the end.

Melissa McIntosh is the Liberal Member of Parliament for the NSW federal seat of Lindsay. This article was first published in the Australian Financial Review and has been reproduced here with the author’s permission.