Editing Windows on the World (section)

==September 11 attacks==
{{Main|September 11 attacks}}
[[File:The World Trade Center Memorial (N-70) - Flickr id 15720238041.jpg|thumb|Name panel N-70 for Windows on the World staff who perished during the [[September 11 attacks]] at North Pool, [[National September 11 Memorial and Museum]]]]
Windows on the World was destroyed when the North Tower [[Collapse of the World Trade Center|collapsed]] during the [[September 11 attacks]]. While the restaurant was hosting regular breakfast patrons and the Risk Waters Financial Technology Congress, [[American Airlines Flight 11]] crashed into the North Tower between floors 93 and 99 at 8:46{{nbsp}}a.m.<ref>{{cite web|title=Risk Waters Group World Trade Center Appeal|date=October 8, 2025 |url=http://www.riskwaters.com/wtc}}</ref> Everyone present in the restaurant died that day, as all means of escape (including the stairwells and elevators) were instantly destroyed or blocked by the impact. Victims trapped in the restaurant either died from [[smoke inhalation]] from the ensuing fire, jumping or falling, or the North Tower's eventual collapse. At least five Windows occupants were witnessed falling to their deaths from the restaurant.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Appendix-M_NIST-NCSTAR_1-5A_Sept2005_PDF-pp227-232.pdf|last=National Institute of Standards and Technology|title=OBSERVATIONS OF FALLING HUMAN BEINGS FOR WTC 1|year=2005}}</ref>

There were 72 restaurant staff present in the restaurant, including assistant general manager Christine Olender, whose desperate calls to [[Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department|Port Authority police]] represented the restaurant's final communications.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-08-28-wtc-windows_x.htm |title='We need to find a safe haven,' WTC restaurant manager pleads |work=USA Today |agency=Associated Press |date=August 28, 2003 |access-date=June 26, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023034223/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-08-28-wtc-windows_x.htm |archive-date=October 23, 2012 }}</ref> Sixteen [[Incisive Media]]-Risk Waters Group employees, as well as 76 other guests/contractors, were also present.<ref>{{cite web|title=Risk Waters Group archived home page|url=http://www.riskwaters.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020802152503/http://www.riskwaters.com/|archive-date=August 2, 2002}}</ref> Among those also present was the executive director of the Port Authority, [[Neil David Levin|Neil Levin]], who was having breakfast. After about 9:40{{nbsp}}a.m., no further distress calls from the restaurant were made. The last people to leave the restaurant before Flight 11 crashed into the building were Michael Nestor, Liz Thompson, Geoffrey Wharton, and Richard Tierney, who all shared an elevator together. They departed at 8:44{{nbsp}}a.m. and survived the attack.<ref name="myref">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/18/september11.usa3|title=9/11: Distant voices, still lives (part one)|date=August 18, 2002|location=London|access-date=September 17, 2015|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

World Trade Center lessor [[Larry Silverstein]] regularly held breakfast meetings in Windows on the World with tenants, as part of his recent acquisition of the Twin Towers from the Port Authority, and was scheduled to be in the restaurant on the morning of the attacks. However, his wife insisted that he had to go to a dermatologist's appointment that morning,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://observer.com/25th-anniversary/larry-silverstein-silverstein-properties/|title=Larry Silverstein: Silverstein Properties|work=New York Observer|access-date=April 2, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002031454/http://observer.com/25th-anniversary/larry-silverstein-silverstein-properties/|archive-date=October 2, 2013}}</ref> whereby he avoided death.