Who Was Michael Lomonaco? Why Was He Not at Windows on the World on 9/11?
Michael Lomonaco was the executive chef and restaurant director of Windows on the World, the famous restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. He would normally have been upstairs with his staff on the morning of September 11, 2001, but a small change to his routine kept him away from the…
Michael Lomonaco was the executive chef and restaurant director of Windows on the World, the famous restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. He would normally have been upstairs with his staff on the morning of September 11, 2001, but a small change to his routine kept him away from the restaurant when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building. Lomonaco had stopped at a LensCrafters in the World Trade Center’s underground shopping concourse because he needed his reading glasses repaired. He was still there when the plane hit at 8:46 a.m.
His survival is one of the central personal stories in the 2026 documentary Top of the World, which revisits Windows on the World for the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Lomonaco has consistently resisted describing what happened to him as destiny or divine intervention. In a recent CNN interview, he said he considers it simply luck and believes that luck gave him a responsibility to remember the colleagues and friends who died.
Related: What Happened to the People at Windows on the World on 9/11?
Why Was Michael Lomonaco Not at Windows on the World?
Lomonaco had arrived at the World Trade Center earlier than expected that morning and decided he had enough time to take care of his damaged reading glasses before starting work. Instead of getting into an elevator and travelling to Windows on the World, he went into the LensCrafters located in the shopping concourse beneath the complex. He was in the middle of dealing with his glasses when he felt the building shake from the impact above.
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It was an ordinary decision that happened to change the course of his life. Lomonaco later reflected that if his morning had unfolded only slightly differently, he likely would already have been upstairs when Flight 11 hit floors 93 through 99. Windows on the World occupied floors 106 and 107, and the impact eliminated the escape routes for everyone who was already above it.
What Happened to Michael Lomonaco After the Plane Hit?
Once the impact occurred, people in the concourse were evacuated and Lomonaco made it out of the World Trade Center. Above him, the situation at Windows on the World was very different because its employees and guests were trapped above the crash zone. All 79 Windows employees working that morning and 91 guests died in the attack.
Lomonaco lost friends, colleagues and members of a restaurant team he had helped lead. He has spoken repeatedly about carrying their memory with him throughout the years after September 11, and the experience remained closely connected to his later work in New York’s restaurant industry. He also became involved in efforts to support families affected by the attacks, including the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund.
Where Is Michael Lomonaco Now?
Lomonaco continued his career as a chef and restaurateur rather than leaving New York after 9/11. He later opened restaurants including Porter House and has continued speaking publicly about Windows on the World and the people who worked there. In 2026, he appears prominently in Top of the World, helping filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen tell the restaurant’s story through the memories of those who knew it before September 11.
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For Lomonaco, the reason he survived remains remarkably simple. A damaged pair of reading glasses caused him to make an unscheduled stop a few floors below where he expected to begin his working day. What seemed like an insignificant errand became the difference between being inside Windows on the World and being able to escape the World Trade Center.
