Benjamin Hall Climbs 104 Floors of One World Trade Center Four Years After Losing Limbs in Ukraine Attack

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall has completed an extraordinary 104-storey climb to the top of One World Trade Center — four years after suffering devastating injuries while reporting from Ukraine.

The 43-year-old British-American journalist used his prosthetic limbs to tackle more than 2,000 steps during the Tunnel to Towers Tower Climb in New York City on Sunday.

Hall completed the demanding ascent in approximately 46 minutes, turning what he described as his first major physical challenge since the attack into a powerful tribute to fallen first responders and military families.

Standing above Manhattan after reaching One World Observatory, the father-of-four was overcome by a mixture of joy, gratitude and disbelief.

The achievement carried particular emotional weight because Hall had once been unsure whether he would survive his injuries, let alone climb one of America’s tallest buildings.

Four years earlier, he had been lying critically wounded aboard a military evacuation aircraft after the vehicle carrying his reporting team was struck outside Kyiv.

Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova were killed in the March 2022 attack.

Hall was the only survivor.

He suffered catastrophic injuries, losing one leg below the knee and part of his other foot. He also sustained damage to one hand and an eye and underwent numerous operations during months of treatment and rehabilitation.

The journalist later recalled being transported in darkness on a C-17 military aircraft, barely conscious and uncertain about what awaited him.

When he arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, trauma surgeon Dr Joe Alderete was among the medical professionals who took responsibility for his care.

Hall said the doctor immediately reassured him that he was no longer facing the ordeal alone.

Four years later, the two men stood side by side at the foot of One World Trade Center and began climbing together.

Their presence at the summit offered a vivid measure of how far Hall had travelled — from a hospital bed and life-threatening wounds to completing one of the country’s most demanding charity climbs.

Hall had spent several months training for the event but admitted he could not know how his body would respond until the challenge began.

By around the 80th floor, the physical strain had become intense.

His prosthetic limbs placed unusual pressure on his body, while the repetitive motion of climbing thousands of stairs tested his balance, endurance and strength.

Mentally, however, he said there was never any question that he would finish.

Hall focused on the people being honoured by the climb, including the firefighters and first responders who ran towards danger during the September 11 attacks.

Thinking about their sacrifice made his own discomfort feel insignificant.

The annual Tunnel to Towers event commemorates heroes including FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, who ran through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel towards the World Trade Center after learning that roads had been closed on September 11, 2001.

Siller later died while helping others.

The 2026 climb marked the event’s tenth year and brought approximately 1,250 participants together inside One World Trade Center.

Money raised supports the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s programmes for Gold Star families, injured service members and the relatives of fallen first responders.

Hall said that mission was central to his decision to participate.

He remembered the fear and disruption experienced by his own wife, Alicia, and their daughters after he was injured.

The couple share four girls — Honor, Iris, Hero and Sage — three of whom were very young when the attack occurred.

Hall underwent treatment thousands of miles from the family’s London home, forcing Alicia to balance concern for her husband with the need to preserve stability for their children.

That experience gave him a greater understanding of what families endure when somebody they love is injured in service.

It also made him determined to help those whose relatives never returned home.

Hall raised thousands of dollars before the climb and used the challenge to deliver a message extending far beyond his own recovery.

He wanted people facing injury, grief or other major setbacks to see that difficult circumstances do not have to end ambition.

His message was not that every obstacle can be overcome easily, nor that recovery follows a simple path.

Instead, he argued that people can continue setting goals, accepting help and moving forward — even when life looks completely different from the future they once imagined.

Hall has spoken candidly about the darkness that accompanied his injuries, but also about the community that carried him through them.

Doctors rebuilt his body, colleagues supported his return to journalism and his family gave him a reason to keep fighting through painful rehabilitation.

The Tower Climb brought those strands of his recovery together.

Fox News executives joined Hall at the event, while Dr Alderete remained beside him throughout the ascent.

At the summit, the two men looked across New York and reflected on the unlikely journey connecting their first meeting in a military hospital to that moment above the city.

For Hall, the view produced one overwhelming thought: how fortunate they were simply to be alive and together.

The climb was not about proving that his injuries no longer mattered.

They remain part of his life every day.

It was about demonstrating that they did not have to define the limits of what he might attempt.

Four years after being carried from a war zone with almost no certainty about his future, Benjamin Hall climbed 104 floors under his own power.

And when he reached the top, his achievement belonged not only to him, but to the doctors, family members, colleagues and strangers who had helped him rise again.