Tania Head told one helluva story. One of just 19 survivors from at or above the impact points of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, she was a living miracle and a symbol of strength and compassion.

According to Head, she was on the 78th floor of the south tower when Flight 175 struck the building between the 78th and 84th floors.

 

Head was knocked out cold. When she came to she began to crawl through the hellish wreckage. Along the way, she met a dying man. The hideously burned stranger gave Tania Head his wedding ring and asked her to take it to his wife.

A mysterious man wearing a red handkerchief saved Tania Head’s life shortly after this poignant encounter. He snuffed the flames leaping from the clothes on the injured woman’s back.

Through her terrible descent from that part of the south tower that yielded so few survivors, Tania Head held one talismanic image in her mind. Her vision of the white dress she would wear on her upcoming wedding day kept her alive. She had Dave, her fiancé, and their marriage to look forward to.

The brave Tania didn’t know at the time that Dave was already dead. He’d been killed instantly when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower 17 minutes before the impact of Flight 175.

For the last 6 years or so, this was Tania Head’s story of surviving 9/11 — with a few variations.

Until just a few days ago.

That was when the New York Times called foul on her story in a major way.

The woman who told this tale while volunteering as a tour guide at Ground Zero, who was a leading member of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network, was apparently lying about everything.