Mr Kieran Gorman (35) made a call to his wife after the first aircraft hit the World Trade Centre, but was never heard from again.
Mr Gorman came from Carrowcurragh, Lavagh, Co Sligo, and had been living in Woodlawn, the Bronx, for around nine years.
The father-of-two was one of a group of labourers working on the 98th floor of tower number one when the first hijacked aircraft crashed into the second tower.
His first thought was to contact his wife, Ann, to let her know he was trying to make his escape.
Mr Gorman's family in New York and Sligo have since waited anxiously for more news, according to a spokesman for the family.
"He worked with a construction company - he wasn't one of these high-flying types," he said. "He was doing his best to get on and bring up his family.
"He was a big strong handsome six-foot-four fellow. At the same time as he was physically powerful, he was a shy guy. "Looking at the pictures, you can only imagine how helpless he was."
Mr Gorman's family in Co Sligo include his widowed mother, Ann, three brothers, Micheal, Eamon and John and sister, Ann-Marie.
Last night the family were still in shock at the images being screened from New York onto their television screen.
"They are seeing all these really eerie, unbelievable pictures and there's the knowledge that their son, a young lad from a rural community in south Sligo, was caught up in it."
Mr Gorman was actively involved in the Irish community in New York.
Every Sunday night he would call home to get the GAA results. In his younger days he had been goalkeeper for the Sligo team.
Mr Gorman and his family made regular trips to Ireland. He returned to New York earlier than his wife and children after his second visit this summer.
Just last weekend, he came back to Sligo to collect his family.
"He went back on Monday to the States and his company had a job on and needed people in.
"He wasn't expected to start working until later in the week but he went in on Tuesday. That's the kind of fellow he was."
Mr Gorman is understood to have been working for a construction company called Structure Tone Inc, which employs a large number of Irish and Irish-American workers.
