♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, women of 9/11. witnesses to one of the darkest days in american history. >> i hear another plane. and i happen to look up. >> some trapped in offices, fighting to survive. >> my mind switched immediately, that you're going to die right here. you're going to die. >> the reporter going from her newsroom to armageddon. >> the second building has just come down. the second. everyone's being asked to get down. come down. >> the firefighter frantically trying to help. >> i wasn't able to save anyone. >> and the woman who barely made it out alive. >> she's alive, she's alive. and i could hear them coming closer.

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♪ good evening and thanks for joining us. i'm deborah roberts. it's been nearly two decades since the tragic attacks on september 11th.

tonight you're going to hear from the women at the center of it all, from the heroic first responders to a miracle survivor. their stories featured in a new documentary, "women of 9/11" with abc's robin roberts. >> it was a beautiful day. it was warm. the sun was shining. >> reporter: judy castro was an nypd officer who worked the lower east side in manhattan. >> my partner and i, we responded to a call. routine. i was in the front seat. my partner was driving. officer castro. there was a plane going very low, all of a sudden it just hit the building. >> on tuesday i came in super early. >> reporter: nina pineda was a reporter for abc's local new

york station. >> i was at my desk, and i waved to the news director. and a cummins later, he looked up at the fixed cameras and said, there's like a small fire at the top of the world trade center. and he goes, pineda, go down to twin towers, see what's going on. >> reporter: regina wilson was one of only a handful of women firefighters in new york city. >> i heard the alarm. i saw all the guys put on the gear, they got on the truck, and they left. i was so much in awe, watching the television, seeing this disaster, just trying to figure out how the hell are we going to put this fire out? >> when we got down towards downtown and i saw people pointing and looking, and the people in this building happened to have camcorder video. what did you see, what's going on? they're like, a plane hit the north tower.

>> reporter: over 14,000 people were at work in the twin towers. police officer judy castro, who had just witnessed the plane strike, ran straight into the lobby of the burning north tower. >> we took an oath. to me this oath is sacred. you're there to help the public, no matter what it is. you're there to help them. so we start moving people, evacuating people. >> reporter: 31-year-old janelle guzman had taken a job with the port authority, located on the 64th floor of the north tower. >> i did not know what was going on. we made a couple of phone calls and they told us, it's okay, just stay. >> reporter: meanwhile, on the streets of downtown new york, there is pandemonium and chaos. >> i hear another plane, and i happen to look up.

>> we hear just this giant explosion. flight 175 going into the south tower. >> reporter: having seen both planes slam into the towers, judy knew the extent of the inferno on the upper floors. >> we're telling the security of that building, you have to evacuate. you just got hit, another plane just hit this building. >> reporter: as smoke begins to engulf the floor, janelle and some of her co-workers finally decide to get out of the north tower. >> we were going down, and we would come to the staircase holding hands. i think where we mid it to the 30-something staircase, there were firefighters coming up. i felt, good, okay, they're coming up, we're going down, we're going to make it, it's not that bad. >> reporter: as janelle and her colleagues were making their way down the stairs of the north tower, nina and her colleagues

were continuing to film the unfolding disaster. >> and we're watching the second tower. and i said, what is that? flickering thing? the cameraman looked to his view finder, and he looked at me and he was like, it's neckties. that flickering you're seeing is the people jumping from the towers, holding hands, and it was their neckties flapping in the wind. that never made it on the air. for the respect of the families of the victims, we never showed that. but we saw it. >> it's my job. those people didn't have a choice. i'm sorry.

>> that morning, i was rushing. >> reporter: marilyn wells was a lieutenant colonel in the u.s. army in september 2001. she had been working at the pentagon for just over two years. at 9:37 a.m., american airlines flight 77 flew into the southwest side of the pentagon. >> i could see under the door frame orange-looking color. so i knew i needed to get out of this room. i knew there were windows on the c-ring in the area where my office was. so that was my first thought, i'm going to that window. and i start crawling. my mind is telling me, you're going to be safe when you get to that window. but once you get there, my mind switched immediaely that, you're going to die right here. you're going to die.

we couldn't open the windows. the windows are bomb blast proof. >> you can see the two towers, a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us -- we better get out of the way! >> reporter: judy castro was in the north tower lobby, evacuating people, as the south tower fell. >> the south tower had fallen on the north tower. and that's what sealed us in. put my hands on my head and i'm saying, my god, this is it. we're going to -- we're going to die here. it's like a tomb. we couldn't see. and everything was just quiet. >> reporter: the sudden and total collapse of the south tower provoked panic. >> i actually see a colleague of mine, lauren glassberg. we just duck below a car, and we

stay there when the dust cloud rolls over us from the south tower collapse. >> all of the people were covered in this soot. it was just -- looked like a snow blizzard. >> we've been attacked, it's like world war ii. >> the mindset of a firefighter, try and find the most people that you can and help the most people that you can and kind of worry about yourself later. >> the second building has just come down. the second. everyone's being asked to get down, come down. >> the floor started to move. so we're saying, what's that? >> reporter: as the north tower collapsed, janelle was still inside. >> i just kept holding on to the

railing. and before i could even stand back up, the rubble, the dust, the darkness, the walls, the earth opened. every time i reach that point it's like -- >> you're thinking everything is okay. >> i just felt everything -- i just hear the noise, so loud. the walls just opened up. and the dust is hitting on top of me. >> reporter: away from new york city, reports were coming in of another plane hijacking. >> united flight 93 with 37 passengers and seven crew on board crashed near johnstown, pennsylvania. >> reporter: passengers and crew stopped the plane from reaching its intended target, the white house, by forcing the plane to crash. everyone on board died. but no one on the ground was hurt. back at the pentagon, ambulances

were responding to reports of multiple casualties. >> my colonel came forward. so he and i just kind of locked eyes and it's like, we're going to die. but we just wouldn't give up. we pounded on the window with our hands and kicked it with our feet. and we kicked the seal of the window, and it popped open, just open enough. >> reporter: colleagues outside had formed eded a human ladder. >> so the people down looked up at us and said, jump, we got you, jump. the hardest thing i ever had to do is when he gave me an order and said, "colonel wills, you will get out of this window now." and i looked at him, "sir, no, i just know there are more people in here." he said, "get out of the window now, that's an order." i started thinking about marian. because marian was not in my

meeting. so i knew she was up there. what i didn't know was that -- where she sat -- i'm sorry. what i didn't know is where she was sitting and where a guy was sitting in my chair -- is where the plane came in. >> reporter: back in new york, the collapse of the north tower has overwhelmed the first responders. >> we did as much as we could with our bare hands. just to try and dig people out. >> reporter: regina was desperate to find john shipera.

he had asked to take her place on ladder 105 that morning. >> everyone in line in 105 died at the train center. i would have been on ladder 105 on the morning of september 11th. i wasn't able to save anyone. >> reporter: janelle lay buried under tons of concrete and rubble at the base of the north tower. >> it was dead silence. and i tried to get up, and i realized i couldn't move. i felt a pain in my head, feeling like it was going to explode. my head got stuck between the concrete pillar, and my arms were beneath my stomach, and my legs were crisscrossed. then i came to the realization that i'm going to die. they're not going to find me. when we come back, how the lives of these women have changed over the past 20 years.

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by morning on september 12th, rescue teams were still searching as janelle lay trapped beneath them. >> i felt like i was going to give up. and i could hear the noises coming up. i see someone, i see someone, she's alive, she's alive. somebody grabbed my hand. "i got you." >> reporter: firemen finally

pulled janelle out, 27 hours after the collapse of the north tower. after janelle was rescued, no one else would be found alive. >> being there for 27 hours, in a position of i couldn't even move, nothing, my whole body. >> it was a miracle that you were able to survive. >> well, yes. that's definitely a miracle. i was given two medals after 9/11. i was given a soldier's medal. then the purple heart. you know, the purple heart is not a medal any soldier wants to receive. not at all. and it's really for the injuries that i sustained in helping save those lives. >> reporter: marilyn went back to work at the pentagon. but the dramatic events of that

day continued to haunt her. >> i talked to a counselor. and she said, you know, you really suffer from ptsd. but ptsd was not put in my records. because i wanted to serve in the military. >> reporter: her assignment was as inspector general of the u.s. forces in afghanistan. >> it was groundbreaking time to be a journalist in new york city covering this. because you had a real sense of purpose. >> reporter: nina did not want the victims or their families to be forgotten. >> i fought to cover funerals. i couldn't look at those little kids, with no parent -- whose parent went to work and didn't come home.

>> reporter: regina went back to work at ground zero where her fellow firefighters had lost their lives. >> i actually got assigned to work down there for the whole month of december on the rescue and recovery efforts. it took a long time for me to grieve. it took -- it probably took about a year for me to grieve. i was sad, mad, you know, horrified. >> yeah, elena, you entered that, right? >> reporter: in the years following 9/11, janelle has married and expanded her family. >> after the promises that i made to god, i started going to the brooklyn tabernacle church. i got baptized in november that same year.

getting married and everything that same year. despite my injury, despite what i've been through. it's the best me, and i love this life. >> reporter: for judy and fellow officer chris castro, their work partnership bloomed into a romantic one. >> we started dating in 2004. in 2006, we got married. and it worked out. >> i didn't feel like some sort of hero, that we were down there, we covered it, we survived. i felt like -- incredible guilt. space and time heals. it's taken two decades. >> the one thing that i would leave with the american public

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our thanks to robin. you can stream her full documentary, "women of 9/11," on hulu. that's "nightline." you can watch all of our full episode on this hulu. we'll see you right back here at the same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. is your family ready for an emergency? you can prepare by mapping out two ways to escape your home, creating a supply kit, and including your whole family in practice drills. for help creating an emergency plan, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com