N.Y. Bomb Survivor Describes to Jury Feelings of Blindness

Survivors of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing began to take the witness stand Wednesday, with the first one describing how the force of the blast lifted him off his feet and how the darkness that followed made him fear that he had gone blind.

“I crawled into the fetal position and began to pray,” Timothy Lang testified.

Lang’s testimony came on the second day of the trial of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, accused of masterminding the bombing, and co-defendant Eyad Ismoil.

Yousef is charged with building the bomb and organizing the Feb. 26, 1993, attack that killed six people, injured more than 1,000 and caused $500 million worth of damage. Ismoil allegedly drove the van carrying the bomb into the trade center’s underground garage. They could face life in prison if convicted of conspiracy.

Lang also had testified at the 1993 trial of four other men convicted in the plot to blow up the 110-story towers. At the time of the blast, he was a stockbroker who often visited the trade center on business.

In a tense voice, he recalled driving his four-wheel-drive Toyota into the garage around noon. Lang told the jury he had just parked when he heard an explosion.

“I was lifted in the air and thrown away from the car,” he said. “My body was compressed. . . . It was pitch black. I thought I was blind.”

Despite a large gash on his head, a broken nose and a concussion, Lang began groping in the dark amid fierce fumes. He noticed his dashboard lights and was “joyful I could see.”

He also described falling over the body of one of the bombing victims.

Panic-stricken, Lang said he began “crawling in every direction” until he came to the lip of the bomb crater. He backed off and curled up, believing “I would have to lay there until I was saved, or until I died.”

Finally hearing voices and banging, Lang cried out for help. He saw a boot lit by the beam of a flashlight, then felt himself being lifted to safety by two men.