On February 26, 1993, at 12:18 p.m., a normal Friday in Lower Manhattan was shattered by a massive explosion. A yellow rental van, packed with roughly 1,200 pounds of urea nitrate explosives, exploded in the public parking garage beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The blast was so powerful that it was felt several miles away.
The explosion carved out a nearly 100-foot-wide crater that was several stories deep. It caused several concrete floors to collapse and instantly cut off the main electrical power for the entire complex. Because the power was out, emergency lights failed, and people were forced to find their way out of 110-story buildings in pitch darkness.
Stairwells were filled with thick smoke making evacuation incredibly difficult. It took some people up to five hours to reach the street. Sadly, the attack killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others, many of whom suffered from smoke inhalation or injuries from falling debris.
The attack was led by Ramzi Yousef, an explosives expert who had recently arrived in the United States. He was assisted by a small group of co-conspirators, including Eyad Ismoil, who drove the van into the garage.
Yousef later revealed that his plan was even more terrifying than what actually happened. He had hoped the explosion would topple the North Tower into the South Tower.
The FBI and the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force quickly launched one of their largest investigations. Investigators searching through the rubble found a critical piece of evidence, a vehicle identification number (VIN) on a fragment of the van’s chassis.
This number led them to a rental agency in Jersey City. On March 4, only days after the bombing, they arrested Mohammad Salameh when he returned to the agency to try and get his $400 deposit back for the van he pretended to be stolen. This arrest led to the capture of several other plotters. Ramzi Yousef initially escaped to Pakistan but was eventually captured in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison.
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