Derek DiFani was on the 61st floor of Tower 2 at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, just his second day into a three-week Morgan Stanley training program, when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the South Tower. He made it out alive by walking down 61 flights of stairs instead of waiting for an elevator, and for 25 years he barely spoke publicly about it. This year, he finally returned to the site where it happened.
DiFani, then 25 years old, held a training pass that granted him access to the 61st floor of Tower 2 that day, according to a report by FOX 10 Phoenix. When Flight 175 struck the tower, he evacuated via the stairwell rather than an elevator, eventually reaching the lobby after descending all 61 floors.
DiFani's escape unfolded within a brutally tight window. Flight 175 struck the South Tower at 9:03 a.m., and the 110-story building burned for 56 minutes before it collapsed, at 9:59 a.m., according to the 9/11 Commission Report. An estimated 13,000 to 15,000 people made it out of both towers before they collapsed, per Columbia University and CDC evacuation studies cited in earlier Hoodline reporting, though total casualties at the complex still reached 2,753.
A Family That Believed the Worst
DiFani's family initially believed he had died, the same report states. Among them was his brother, Steve Nielsen, now a FOX 10 Phoenix reporter and the author of the station's account, who said he believed his brother was dead during the attacks. DiFani eventually reached his family by calling from an art gallery owner's phone. He kept a local newspaper article about that gathering.
Getting home wasn't simple either, the station's report notes.
Morgan Stanley's Drills and a Devastating Toll
Morgan Stanley was the World Trade Center's largest tenant on September 11, 2001, and DiFani was training there. The firm's mandatory bi-annual evacuation drills, put in place by security director Rick Rescorla, allowed nearly all of its roughly 2,700 employees in the building that morning to survive, according to Morgan Stanley's own account. Still, the firm lost 13 employees in the South Tower that day.
DiFani was not alone in surviving the 61st floor. Chad Creevy, a 22-year-old trainee attending the same kind of Morgan Stanley conference, also evacuated the South Tower that morning and later described the experience in separate Hoodline coverage.
Returning to Ground Zero After 25 Years
DiFani had not previously returned to Ground Zero, the FOX 10 Phoenix report states. In 2026, he finally visited the site, walking the memorial plaza where fountains now stand on the footprints of the fallen towers. The memorial contains nearly 3,000 names.
He reflected on the names inscribed at the memorial.
Standing at the memorial, DiFani said he experienced a profound sense of closure. He described the first responders who ran into the towers to save strangers as heroes. More than 360 FDNY members had died from 9/11-related illnesses by late 2024, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters. Responders have also faced toxic-exposure illnesses and cancer diagnoses. The federal World Trade Center Health Program now provides medical monitoring and treatment to more than 150,000 enrolled responders and survivors across all 50 states.
A Day of Loss and a Son's Birthday
DiFani married his wife, Jenn, and the couple has two children. Their son was born on September 11, and DiFani has said the date is now both a day of remembrance and a celebration for his family, noting that September 11 also marks a celebration of his son's life.
The forensic work of identifying victims from that day continues even now. Separately, oral histories involving 9/11 first responders and survivors remain part of the record.
Twenty-five years on, Ground Zero itself remains a place of memory. For DiFani, though, the anniversary remains rooted in something far more personal: a stairwell descent that saved his life, and a son whose birthday now shares the same date.
