‘It was like that scene in Titanic:’ Ferry captain who evacuated thousands from 9/11 says people were still jumping onto his boat as it pulled away

Captain Rick Thornton was reportedly four hours into his Waterway shift on September 11, when he noticed a plume of white smoke trailing from the World Trade Center and people jumping into the Hudson River. The radio on the Henry Hudson ferry crackled with the news that a plane had struck the North Tower. 

As reported by the NY Post, Thornton and his crew initially assumed it was an accident, but that changed just 16 minutes later when they saw a massive fireball. “We knew this was some kind of crazy coordinated attack,” Thornton recalled of the sight from his pilothouse while his boat floated between New Jersey and Midtown. 

The 60-year-old Navy veteran made a split-second decision to abandon his normal route and head toward the disaster zone without waiting for orders. Thornton had experience with these types of emergencies, as he was also part of the response for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

He says people swarm to the boat 

The original plan was to sail to Wall Street, but the crew redirected to Battery Park after seeing dozens of people jumping into the water to escape the area. Thornton reportedly saw people climbing over the railing along the seawall to swarm the boat. He told his crew to start loading everyone they could fit. It’s tough to imagine the chaos, but Thornton described the desperate scene as people continued to jump toward the ferry even as it began to pull away.

“It was like that scene in ‘Titanic’ where they were trying to get on that last lifeboat,” Thornton said. The vessel, which usually holds 399 people, was packed with more than 500 passengers who were crying and screaming. Most of them grabbed onto life jackets just to have something to hold onto.

The Henry Hudson was halfway to Hoboken when the South Tower collapsed. The noise on the boat shifted from panic to an unnerving silence. Thornton noted that everyone on board seemed to process the weight of the moment simultaneously, realizing how many lives had been lost in an instant.

The boat reportedly made 20 trips that day, navigating through thick smog that forced the crew to rely entirely on radar. Thornton eventually transported Secret Service agents to safety, which is when he learned about the attack on the Pentagon and that President George W. Bush was secure. 

After the mission, the crew discarded their toxic ash-covered uniforms. Thornton decided to keep the American flag that had flown on the deck during the evacuations. He reportedly kept that flag in his home for two decades before donating it to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum this summer. It now sits alongside other significant artifacts, serving as a reminder of a day when the ferry fleet helped rescue as many as 150,000 people from Manhattan.

Thornton is now in his 36th year as a Waterway ferry captain and still pilots the Henry Hudson. It’s impressive to think about the impact of his work that day, and he clearly values the role he played. “It’s the highest honor to know that you did something positive that day. Maybe you saved a life, maybe you saved a thousand lives,” Thornton said.