Time not healing our grief, say loved ones

The father of a Briton killed in the September 11 attacks spoke today of how the horrors of the tragedy appeared inescapable two years on.

Adrian Bennett, whose 29-year-old son Oliver was killed in the World Trade Centre terrorist strikes said he believed families of the dead were finding the loss of their loved ones more difficult to bear than on the first anniversary last year.

“We’re perhaps feeling rather worse this year than we did last year.

“We perhaps thinking more clearly and the realities are harsher and more inescapable,” Mr Bennett said.

Mr Bennett’s son Oliver, known as Oli, worked in New York as a financial journalist for the Risk Waters Group.

On the day of the attacks, he was attending a conference in the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th floor of the north World Trade Centre tower.

The north tower was the first to be hit when a hijacked jet ploughed into the skyscraper between the 95th and 103rd floors at 8.46am.

Mr Bennett, a retired GP, from near Amersham, Bucks, described how at first he did not think his son was in danger when he watched the horrific television footage of the Twin Towers collapsing.

“We knew he was doing a conference that week but because he was 29 we didn’t ask him where he was doing it.”

As details of Oliver’s exact whereabouts emerged, Mr Bennett and his wife Joy realised he could not have survived.

“I didn’t have any hope at all. Since I saw the building come down and knew he was on the 106 floor – the complete absence of contact – I just had no hope.”

The family has given DNA samples in the hope of finding Oliver’s remains, but no progress has been made so far.

“He’s one of the 52% or 48% – it’s around half – who haven’t been identified at all.”

Mr Bennett spoke of how they continued to deal with “a tremendous sense of loss” daily.

“I suppose (we’re) upset at each fresh revelation of information that comes out in New York to do with how the Port Authority structured itself.

“That building could not be evacuated at all and could not be got at on the roof.”

Mr Bennett said it was upsetting to hear of the knowledge security services had about possible terrorist threats and the lack of action they took.

He preferred not to talk about the war against terrorism and the resulting conflicts.

Mr Bennett paid tribute to his witty son who was single and who lived in the Garment district of mid town Manhattan.

“He always knew when he was in the wrong. He could be quiet and was very relaxed and he could do a one liner that would take your breath away.”

Oliver had been due to return to the UK in October 2001 – just weeks after the attacks.

Speaking of the memorial garden in London’s Grosvenor Square which is being unveiled today, Mr Bennett said: “It’s intimate. It’s dignified. It contains Oliver’s name as it contains the other 66.

“It’s somewhere that will be quiet and a solace that you can go and think about things and be near the idea of where Oliver will be remembered.

He described his family as coping “badly”, saying: “It’s worse this week perhaps because its anniversary time.”

But said the September 11 UK Families Support Group had helped.

“We all think the same way,” he added.