Frank De Martini

Francis Albert De Martini (March 31, 1952 – September 11, 2001) was an American architect employed by the Port Authority of New York, the agency that managed the World Trade Center, who died in the September 11 attacks in 2001.

De Martini was hired in 1993 to assess the damage to the building from the World Trade Center bombing. He later became the construction manager and was in charge of changing of indoor layouts such as wall removal and plumbing rearrangement at request by the occupants.

On September 11, 2001, De Martini and his colleagues Pablo Ortiz, Peter Negron, and Carlos da Costa, were at their offices on the 88th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building. De Martini and his coworkers had arrived early and were having coffee with De Martini's wife Nicole when the plane struck a few floors above them at 8:46 AM. When the building was hit, all elevators stopped. De Martini and his colleagues worked to help free the people trapped inside the elevators. The men helped clear the entrance to one of the building's three stairwells and directed their fellow occupants to descend to safety.

De Martini assured his wife he would follow her. However, the four men then began gathering tools to find and rescue people. They ascended to the 89th floor, and smashed through drywall next to a blocked door, allowing the occupants of that floor to escape. By that point, they had rescued 25–40 employees, including his wife Nicole De Martini. De Martini, Ortiz, Hanna, Negron, and da Costa went upstairs, where they freed two more groups of people. These included a man on the 89th floor that De Martini directed Mak Hanna to carry down to safety.

Still trying to rescue fellow occupants, De Martini, Ortiz, Negron, and da Costa all died when the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 AM; Hanna was the only one of their crew to survive. De Martini's remains were never found. It has been estimated that at least 70 people survived the attacks due to their rescue efforts.

Accounts of De Martini's actions during the attacks were given in the documentaries 9/11: Heroes of the 88th Floor, 9/11: The Twin Towers, 102 Minutes That Changed America, and Rise and Fall: The World Trade Center.