So many in the media seemed to claim at the time that they were jumping out of "despair"; as if it were just an emotional response, a suicide choice; an act of will, that they could simply choose to do or not do.
That just seems like such an unfair judgment to me. I don't believe that most, if any, of those people "chose" to jump. I think SMOKE, HEAT and FLAMES simply FORCED them to their deaths by falling. You can't "choose" whether or not you want to stand close to burning jet fuel; you simply can't. If there is nowhere safe to move away to, you move anyway. Just the smoke alone, making it impossible for you to even breath... if you were suffocating, what would you do for air?
To call it jumping, like it was a choice, just seems wrong. When people went to work at the WTC that morning, they were not expecting to have to jump to their deaths. These poor souls did NOT choose this...
Last year at this time I posted a Tribute to Lorraine D. Antigua as part of the "2,996 project" to memorialize the victims of 9-11. While researching that, I read a lot about the situation of the employees at Lorraine's firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. That in turn lead to many articles about people who fell to their deaths.
It's an extremely volatile topic, that generates a wide range of reactions. It was only years after the attack occurred that many people could even begin to talk about it.
On one level I feel compelled to post on this topic because of my many years experience working in high-rise security and fire safety. Yet that experience also makes it extremely upsetting, because what the victims of the WTC attack faced before they died is... not an abstraction to me. So much of my job was about keeping people safe from those very things.
I'm going to post some links to articles that examine what happened, why people "jumped" or fell; how people have dealt with it; and why it matters.
Desperation forced a horrific decision
[...] "It took three or four to realize: They were people," says James Logozzo, who had gathered with co-workers in a Morgan Stanley boardroom on the 72nd floor of the south tower, just 120 feet away from the north tower. "Then this one woman fell."
She fell closer to the south tower, he recalls. Logozzo saw her face. She had dark hair and olive skin, a white blouse and black skirt. She fell with her back to the ground, flat, staring up.
"The look on her face was shock. She wasn't screaming. It was slow motion. When she hit, there was nothing left," Logozzo says.
[...]
USA TODAY estimates that at least 200 people jumped to their deaths that morning, far more than can be seen in the photographs taken that morning. Nearly all were from the north tower, which was hit first and collapsed last. Fewer than a dozen were from the south tower.
The jumping started shortly after the first jet hit at 8:46 a.m. People jumped continuously during the 102 minutes that the north tower stood. Two people jumped as the north tower began to fall at 10:28 a.m., witnesses said.
For those who jumped, the fall lasted 10 seconds. They struck the ground at just less than 150 miles per hour — not fast enough to cause unconsciousness while falling, but fast enough to ensure instant death on impact. People jumped from all four sides of the north tower. They jumped alone, in pairs and in groups.
Most came from the north tower's 101st to 105th floors, where the Cantor Fitzgerald bond firm had offices, and the 106th and 107th floors, where a conference was underway at the Windows on the World restaurant. Others leaped from the 93rd through 100th floor offices of Marsh & McLennan insurance company.
Intense smoke and heat, rather than flames, pushed people into this horrific choice. Flight 11 struck the 94th through 98th floors of the north tower, shooting heat and smoke up elevator shafts and stairways in the center of the building. Within minutes, it would have been very difficult to breathe. That drove people to the windows 1,100 to 1,300 feet above ground.
There were several reasons more people jumped from the north tower than from the south. The fire was more intense and compact in the north tower. The jet hit higher, so smoke was concentrated in 15 floors compared with 30 floors in the south tower, which was hit on the 78th through 84th floors. The north tower also stood longer: 102 minutes vs. 56 minutes. And twice as many people were trapped on the north tower's upper floors than in the south tower, where occupants had 161/2 minutes to evacuate before the second jet hit.
The New York medical examiner's office says it does not classify the people who fell to their deaths on Sept. 11 as "jumpers."
"A 'jumper' is somebody who goes to the office in the morning knowing that they will commit suicide," says Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. "These people were forced out by the smoke and flames or blown out." [...]
(bold emphasis mine) Breaking the windows so they could breath also unfortunately fed the flames of the fire. An unbelievably horrific situation.
THE 9/11 JUMPERS
[...] Jack Gentual, dean of student services at the New Jersey Institute of Technology got a call from his wife Alayne who worked in the tower and was trapped on the 97th floor. "She told me smoke was coming in the room, coming through the vents, her breath was laboured ... She said to me 'I'm scared' and she wasn't a person who got scared. She said that she loved me and to tell the boys she loved them." Alayne told her husband that she was going to try to escape to the lower floors and that she would call later.The article has a photo of Alayne Gentual.
But Gentual never heard from his wife again. Her body was found on the street in front of the building across from hers. He wonders if his wife was one of the many who decided to jump. "In some ways it might just be the last elements of control. To be out of the smoke and the heat, to be out in the air...it must have felt like flying."
For those who jumped, the fall lasted about ten seconds. The jumpers hit the ground at 240 kilometres a hour. It wasn't fast enough to cause unconsciousness while falling, but ensured instant death on impact.
Witnesses there that day say there was a constant stream of jumpers over the next hour and a half. [...]
Falling Man: the many faces of a 9/11 riddle
This is a story about the search to identify a falling man in one of the photos. People's reactions to this quest were varied and sometimes extreme. Even if you don't agree with the way some people reacted, it's not hard to understand. Everyone deals with the horror in their own way.
The Falling Man (Esquire Magazine)
[...] They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died. They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building's fatal wound. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors--the top. For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced. Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands. They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds. They were all, obviously, not just killed when they landed but destroyed, in body though not, one prays, in soul. [...]This articles deals in part with the same identity search story as in the story above this one, but it also has other sections dealing with various reactions by different people. It's a very contentious issue for many people.
What it was like to jump from the World Trade Center
These are photos with a question that makes a lot of people angry. Reactions to it in the comments section are mixed; some feel that it is needed to "never forget", and to galvanize our resolve in the WOT. Others feel it's morbid and in bad taste.
I think it is ALL of those things. Murdering people in terrorist acts is morbid and in the worst possible bad taste. I'd much rather think about other things. But ignoring and not dealing with things is precisely what led up to 9-11. If we can't even look at what's happened, how are we going to stop it from happening again? If we continue living in a 9-10 world, where we just refuse to look at or deal with some things, what will come next? If we can't look at the ugly truth, the whole of it, how are we going to respond to it effectively?
Related Links:
Highrise Security and our post 9-11 reality
9-11 Firemen deaths and WTC radio problems
9/11 - Remembering The Jumpers (Video, 8 minutes)
186 comments:
Thank you for writing this. It has given me a new perspective on this topic. Surely it is cold comfort to think that they were forced into their choice, but it is comfort nonetheless. God bless you, America and all those who were killed on that day.
I'm so glad you did a post on this. I haven't thought a lot about the jumpers but it definitely has crossed my mind on more than one occasion. When you think about it, it is obvious that the smoke and heat forced them to find refuge.
The whole concept is extremely horrifying. I also think that anyone who saw the jumpers and especially the ones that saw them land or saw them up close had to be traumatized by it.
Again, the horror that of that day was caused by an evil enemy and that enemy is the one we are fighting in the war on terror. What don't liberals get about that?
It was a tough thing to post about. Even though I worked in Highrise Security for years, I have a fear of heights; this was like watching one of my worst nightmares.
There were all sorts of details I didn't talk about. One of the identified jumpers had severe asthma; he no doubt couldn't breath at all because of the thick smoke.
Some of the people who jumped had the floor beneath them literally collapsing away into the flames; their "choice" was jump into the air or fall into the flames.
Helicopter pilots circling the towers said people were crowding to broken windows for air, and some people were accidentally pushed out by people from behind who were pushing forward to get air...
All that and more are in the linked articles. As much as I hate the subject, I think it's important to bear witness to what they were forced into. May the horror of it cause us to never let it happen again.
Well done. But almost too much to fathom... So terribly sad all that happened that day.
Blessings
I could only read about halfway through this, Cas. It's just too ... horrific. But thanks for posting. Another thing we are supposed to forget, like the people on those planes, and the dancing Palestinians.
If there is anything good about this it's that these people were able to take their fate into their own hands. I would like to think that if faced with certain death that even with my fear of heights I would have the courage to choose to fly from this world rather than burn from a fire caused by such savage misguided people. I revisit stories about these folks who chose their own fate when I am feeling down about my life. It sort of makes me ashamed that I am unhappy when there is so much to live for. These folks didn't have the choice of what to do with the rest of their lives but they did have a choice of how they went out. When I look at these pictures I hope that the folks had come to peace with their decision and that maybe they did enjoy the feeling of the cool autumn air on what weatherwise was a beautiful day. I also hope they knew that their death would be so quick that they would not feel it. God bless these people.
I have never been able to get the images of people falling out of my mind. There is some consolation that I doubt they felt anything when they hit because their death was so fast I doubt if there was even time for the pain to register. It was an act of total barbarism. Have faith that God will punish those responsible.
thank you so much for writing this article. I did not think much about this until I finally had ther nerve to see the movie World Trade Center the other day. Coincidencely, I saw a story last night about the fallen man. These people did nto have a choice they did not leave work in the morning thinking I think I will jump out of my work window today. How dare people even say such a thing. I hope all of these people are at peace & we never forgot any part of the story of what happend on this day.
I think some of them chose to commit suicide, but many were most likely forced from the fire and flames. Once the first tower went down the people in other building, may have thought it would be better to die/go into shock by jumping off rather than be crushed into dust. Anyways, peace.
"Somebody said he jumped - but we know he was pushed..."
-Hawkwind, "Highrise"
Some jumped, some simply ran away from the horrible furnace and smoke.
It really doesn't matter what you call it, most people grasp only too well the horrible situation, enough to still feel quite traumatized by the images.
I know that I still do.
I wouldn't like to split hairs too much. It's perfectly possible that some people jumped out of despair of their situation. Only they know for sure.
But I am pretty sure that many, if not most, didn't have a real choice, and that probably none of them were planning to die that day when they got up in the morning and started getting ready to go to work.
The images are traumatic. They haunt me. I spent a large part of my working life in a job devoted to keeping people safe in high-rise buildings. This was a horror I never thought I would see.
The story of those who fell to their deaths is so shocking only because it is in full view and being in Western civ we are so immune from actually seeing people die. Those who perished inside the flames and smoke and final collapse don't challenge us as much as seeing the tiny figures tumbling from a great height. Its in our face and forces us to face reality plus the full impact of what happened seven years ago.
WhitehawkStudios.com
As I stood in front of the TV that morning holding one of my 5 month old twins, I could only watch in horror and disbelief as the towers were struck and then fell. I will never forget what happened. To this day I can't speak of it for too long without crying. The faces of the people who chose to fly from the upper windows are forever burned in my memory and I can only hope that my son and daughter will never experience this kind of evil that infiltrated our world. I pray that the families of those who were lost can find peace and will know that the world will never forget.
I also will never forget. The horror was already unspeakable, but then to watch as people fell to the ground was an experience that chills me as much today as on September 11, 2001 when I watched it live on TV. May we continue to remember that we are a nation under God, a nation that many hate, but a nation that is always the first to reach out to others, regardless of their nationality, religion, or skin color. God bless America and let America bless God.
I don't think it matters whether they jumped as a choice or they were forced by the smoke, fire, and heat. It wasn't suicide. It was murder. They were not guilty of anything except the desire to survive another day to see those they loved. They were us. They are us.
I really have to agree with Julie Dufaj. It wasn't suicide, it was murder. The images of those people falling is something I will never forget. God bless.
Debating about whether it's accurate to say they jumped or not, for me, misses the point.
In a video clip I have seen, a firefighter, looking up toward the towers, in a shaken voice wonders aloud, "What must it be like in there, that jumping is a preferable choice?"
I've read reports that the floor got so hot that some people were standing on their desks. I've read that the temerature in the area where the fire was exceeded 1,000 degrees CELSIUS. We can only imagine the intensity of the heat, smoke, lack of oxygen, darkness, debris (some of it likely jagged and sharp edged). What went on inside those buildings was obviously such a nightmare that jumping to their death was an easier way to go.
If I went to one of the higher floors of the Sears tower or the Empire State Building, and pressed my head against the window and looked down, I'd freak out. I don't necessarily think I'm afraid of hights, but I know if I did that my stomach would be in my throat and the back of my neck would tingle unpleasantly. I cannot imagine what it would take to get me to choose to smash that window and leap out of it, and that's why I cannot imagine how bad it really was inside the World Trade Center.
Having watched a documentary on the attack on the Pentagon, I think I may have a faint idea. The survivors I saw said that the smoke was so thick they couldn't see their hand in front of their face. They crawled along the floor just to try to find some light, because it was their only hope at finding a way out. They had to crawl over computers, office furniture, etc., and it took a long time for them to find their way out.
I've heard some speculation that some of the people who went out the windows of the World Trade Center may have done so accidentally, because they were trying to find their way out of the smoke and didn't see that the floor beneath them had ended until it was too late.
The bottom line is that it does not dehumanize or degrade these people to say they jumped. It isn't calling them suicidal to say they jumped. They were murdered, whether they jumped or not. They were not cowards just because they jumped. In fact, it took MORE courage to jump, if you ask me, in spite of the hope of relief from the heat. Seeing the ground rushing up at you at 150 mph, knowing it is not going to stop until it pulverizes you, and feeling the organs in your body gathering in the highest spot they can find as the downward velocity increases, that has to be a horror beyond expression. That's not cowardice, and there is no shame in what those people did.
Saying they jumped does not degrade them. It addresses the intensity of their suffering prior to jumping. It tells the story they are not able to tell for themselves. It vindicates them, and is a call for justice. It is refusing to sugar coat the violence that was done to them.
I find it insensitive to say they did not jump. It dismisses most of what was done to my fellow Americans. They are not responsible for what happened. It was done TO them, despite the fact that they jumped. They simply had to. And the emotional trauma that forced that choice is what bothers me most of all. Who will speak about that? Will the murderers get away with it, by having the full magnitude of the jumpers' suffering limited to just their deaths? That was merely part of it.
They jumped because they knew every aspect of the suffering that would follow was preferable to the suffering they would endure in the heat and smoke, including the realization that they were going to die, and the suffering incident to choosing whether or not to jump.
Being forced to make that decision alone is an act of torture.
I find it insensitive to say they did not jump.
When I say they didn't jump, I mean it wasn't jumping in the way someone who wished to commit suicide makes a decision to climb a building and jump from it.
I've had people tell me I'm insensitive just for posting about this topic.
My feeling is, that if I, or someone I loved, were forced to make such a horrible decision, I would want my fellow countrymen to bear witness to it, not ignore it and pretend it didn't happen, just because it's just too ugly to contemplate.
I can appreciate the arguments for and against calling it jumping; I know what I meant by what I said; I'm ok with people seeing it differently.
It's not possible for us all to agree whether it was really "jumping" or not, or what exactly it means to say it was or wasn't "jumping". But we can bear witness to what happened. And I hope, be vigilant, so it never occurs again.
(i'm sorry if my grammar and english is not that good but i hope you understand what i'm trying to get across)
"Debating about whether it's accurate to say they jumped or not, for me, misses the point."
Sure it 'misses the point', these people should be mourned regardless, but some people regard 'jumping' as suicide and thus unacceptable in their respective religions. but these people for the most part are blind to the facts which the author so articulately outlined in this article.
i think most people when confronted with the word 'jump' suppose a conscious act of movement.
i believe to even conclude there was a conscious decision, in the vast majority of cases, to 'jump' is wrong. people were 'smoked out','blown out' and 'thrown out' by others rushing for air, isn't it obvious? imagine all the toxic smoke in there. seeing the visuals, some of the 'jumpers' even tried to tie makeshift ropes with their clothes and materials to try in vain to scale down the face and hang on for dear life. some trying to flag down news copters with blazers. it is reasonable to assume the last thing they wanted to do was commit to death, in a supposed moment of lucid 'choice'. i think most of the 'jumpers' actually lost their grip while gasping for air and were eventually burned out of the building by all the searing smoke. burning up their hands. burning up of their backs.
even if it gives people comfort to believe that the 'jumpers' 'chose' their route to execution, i believe it is incorrect to say there was a real choice/option at all when you consider the duress the poor souls were under. try (i know it's unimaginable really) but do try if you may to empathise with the position of those near the windows on the floors... and then consider the supposed 'choice' when faced with heat that would melt the skin off your face.
i don't believe 'courage' even comes into it, these people should be mourned of course, but is there courage in 'jumping'/falling out rather than being burned to death in a building? even if there was 'choice' in the matters i hardly believe the word courage in describing the course of action in trying to survive over another course of action is appropriate. i think it should be assumed that the vast majority had the 'courage' as much as possible in their situations to hold on in self-preservation. the casualties of 9/11 should be respected, mourned thought of, given our attention and not be objectified and dehumanised which seems to be what most people are inclined to do. i think more people should actually try as hard as they might to empathise try and gain as much understanding of the workers in 9/11, after all they were a cross section of our community, people belonging to the general population, with 9-5 jobs. us. then only then i believe people can move on with some degree of sense on 9/11.
for the vast majority, i'm not going to generalise it to every. single. person. who fell that day - there may have been some who did have choice, before it got extremely hot and unbearable, to jump in 'despair' considering the amount of people and the general frequency of mental anxiety and depression, of suicidal tendencies in today's society... we can never tell
but it is correct to assume the general 'jumper' commited
no suicide
no 'choice'
and
that is what scares people
that things can be beyond our control
great blog
anon
Anon, your English and grammar are fine. I think you understood what I was getting at.
When I try to put myself in the position these people found themselves in... it's clear they had little or no choices. They were just trying to live, to stay alive, in a situation that would not allow it. It was beyond their control, and to try and put yourself in their position... it's the kind of thing no one ever wants to face.
I worked in high rise security for years, involved in fire safety. Nothing I learned or taught could have helped the people who died in the towers; they were stranded without hope.
To imagine one's self in their situation...
Yes, it's very scary indeed.
Thanks for commenting.
I have been....I don't know what word to use, fascinated seems like an inappropriate word. I'm hoping you understand what I mean. Anyway, this subject has captured me from the beginning. I think the reason is because of the desperation these people must've had to have to resort to such a thing. I try to imagine what they must've been going through and how they felt. I can't possibly. I, like all of America will never forget 9/11, but the images that are burned in my mind forever are the images of those poor souls who for no other reason than absolute necessity had to make an unimaginable choice. I thank you for putting your feelings about this subject which many don't discuss and giving others who feel it should be something that is not forgotten a place to put our views out there. I send my prayers out to all those left behind, and may all those who lost their lives on September 11th be at peace.
I knew a girl that Graduated in my class from Landmark School in Prides Crossing Mass. She was killed when the towers fell . I still want resolution for those attacks, for what they took from us that day. I remember sitting in our old house in Fairmont, WV .I was just in shock while listening to the attack on the North Tower .I kept thinking about all the friends I had & graduated with that lived in New York. Also those who worked in that part of the City . My wifes first cousin was suppose to be on one of the planes that hit the towers on 9/11 . She was ill and couldn't be on that flight. Thank god for that or we would have lost her also.
I don't consider it suicide, those people didn't have much choice, they knew that there was no way out, and the only options of how they're lives were going to end, was either by jumping, or remain in the building and succumb to the smoke and fire. We will never forget that tragic day. God bless everyone
Anyone who looks down on them or acts like they were making a cowardly act should be set on fire and fed to a cage full of tigers. Fucking retards. There's nothing cowardly about it. It's not like the hundreds of people who jumped planned on committing suicide after work that day. I'm sure if someone put you in an inescapable burning building you might just consider it too. Some people are so damn stupid.
In the first picture of the man jumping near the top of the page you see how red his face and hands are, Obviously the heat in there was so god damn intense that was there only option to cool down. They had the choice of being burned alive - suffocating - or falling and dying instantly as they hit the ground.. In some ways 'jumping' may have sounded like the better option I guess..
The thought of jumping from that height sickens me as much today as it did back then. May they all R.I.P, and hopefully, have now gone to a better place.
A very powerful article and one which I hope will open the minds of others.
The day has never left me. I wish more people weren't numbed, now nearly 8 years after the fact. I have watched the documentaries, the newscasts now preserved on YouTube, and listened to the 911 calls made on that fateful day. I can't fathom having to make such a decision, and neither can anyone else, unless they have been put in such a situation. I think we would be hard-pressed to find out for certain, since I know of no cases of anyone who has survived a 70+ story fall. No one should ever forget that over 3000 people were MURDERED that day. And they should be reminded of the horror of that day-- yes, we should heal, but we should never, ever forget what really happened. Listen to the call made by Mr. Kevin Cosgrove, of Aon Corporation. His last moments on this earth were recorded for all to hear. If that doesn't wake people up, or make it "more real" for them after so much time passing, then nothing will. Thank you for posting. ~Heather
The more I read about this horror, the more I believe that only Christianity can save the planet.
Only the love of Jesus Christ will truly unite all people. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists -- all people of other faiths need to learn this truth.
One day, I believe we all shall. We will be united as Christians. And the world will be a better place.
"only Christianity can save the planet"
Please wake up and embrace reality. Religion is what caused this horror to take place. "Jesus' love" is what caused the Muslims to hate Christians in the first place (Crusades), as well as our funding & placement of tyranist government in their oil-rich countries. Please research the whole truth and knock off the knee-jerk "evil empire" reactions.
If you really want peace among men we must do away with religion. There isn't a major religion on the planet that doesn't divide people and foster hate. Aren't we a bit too educated to believe this "magic guy in the sky" crap any longer? Please have the courage to see things from a new point of view and remember that the old one led to this.
Most mainstream religions have evolved over time to become more tolerant. Islam has been very slow to do so, and in many cases has not done so at all.
I've known many atheists who persist in pushing their "unbelief" with a religious fervor, to the point where atheism itself can seem to be just another religion.
All people will never be 100% in agreement about religion, atheism, or many other things. A healthy tolerance combined with mutual respect can work wonders, but it has to be cultivated. That is the work before us.
This is really informative since back in the past articles really didn't cover the "jumpers" on 9/11. This has to be the most information I have ever googled. Thanks for the blog and please answer this one question for me if you know, Chas? Did anyone ever come up with a figure of male to female ratios for these poor soles that jumped to their deaths? Just wanting more info on this subject.
Dave,
I did this post a while back, and I read a lot of stuff, this is only a small summary of some of what I read.
The information you ask about may well have been there, but I don't recall those figures in particular. Someone may have them, but I can't remember.
you are right thse people didnt jump to commit suicide they were forced from the intense heat,fire,and smoke i also belive thught that they knew they wouldnt come out of those towers alive i believe that they jumped because they knew that they could die quickly or a slow painfull death but i would never believe that they jumped because suicide played a roll in this that is a lie in my opinion those were victims if they hadnt gone they would be alive today knowing that if they did go they would most likely have perished by being forced to use the window as an exit they probaly knew that once they jump there was no chance of survival but would be better than burning up or being crushed by tons of building materials.
The fallers would have been at the extreme end of adrenal overload. This would have incapacitated normal consciousness so they may not have even been aware of the danger they were in even as they plummeted.
Looking at the images may be worse than the experience they went through because we, as the viewer has more time to contemplate their demise than them.
People who have been lucky enough to survive falls from great heights have often reported that they weren't feeling frightened or in danger as they approached the ground, and in fact felt some exhilaration during the fall.
Unfortunately as there were no survivors there's no way of telling, and it must have been particularly painful for witnesses, friends and loved ones to contemplate.
I agree with you, I feel like it is already forgotten to all but those who were there. I can't say I was "in" the middle of this. I was on Battery Park Place. We were certain there were multiple planes coming to take out all of lower Manhattan. we lost so many people we know, so many stories of Firefighters and Policeman dying. I remember the smell of the smoke, that taste of pulverized concrete mixed with char and smoke. these people were "fallers". it is clear from pictures of the upper floors the crush of people straining to get to clean air. On top of each other, pushing. They were burning up on the other side of that glass, they were willing to risk anything to just breathe and stop the agony. Death was not the fear, pain was the reality. God Bless them, and everyone who lost them. I won't ever forget.
There is an excellent documentary reenacting Sep 11 from the perspective of those trapped inside the towers. The documentary includes interviews with several survivors and offers insight into the "true" circumstances and decisions of several individuals, some of whom survived and many who did not. It is called "Inside the World Trade Center" and is available on youtude in 13 videos, each between 5 and 10 minutes long. The first video is called "Inside the World Trade Center Intro." The other 12 are called "Inside the World Trade Center 1, 2, 3, etc."
One of the survivors, Rick Brian from MetLife worked on the 89th floor of the North Tower, 4 floors below the impact zone. As smoke began to fill the area, a coworker tried to break a window in order to breathe. Rick went to the window to stop him as he did not want to fuel the fire with oxygen. As he did this, he noticed what he referred to as “a suit" going past the window. He said, "Why would anybody do that?" In the interview, he said he thought someone from one of the floors above had taken off their suit and thrown it out the window and could not understand why anyone would do that. Even in his desperate situation, it did not occur to him that what he had just witnessed was not a suit, but a human being. Watch the documentary.
omg that story of Alayne Gentual is just heartbreaking, how wud her husband, kids family n friends feel knowing that she either fell or picked a pain free fate.
im 16 and from england n i came bak from school only about 9 thinkin what the hell is goin on---but i now relise that it was a horrific and brutal attack......im petfrified of heights-i wudnt even dream of looking out of the window of a 20 story buildin let alone FALL-JUMP out of a 107floor skyscrapper it is truly horiffic n totally heartbreaking
sorry if my grammer is awful im only a teenager
britian will never forget them either
I don't live in the city, I live upstate. 9/11 traumatized me forever. I watched a documentary on it last night on Nat Geo and didn't sleep at all.
I am sickened by the stigma that these people were all labeled as weak and crazy - and that's what forced them to jump. I have read that some families refused to believe their loved one jumped. (even the notorious 'Falling Man') What the heck is that? I would think in that situation, TRULY LIFE OR DEATH, those people were fighting for their lives.
Don't label people until you've been in their shoes.
I'm not sure I understand the so-called "stigma" associated with "jumping" here. Does anyone really think these people were weak or crazy? I don't think so. I believe most were forced to fall. However, I also believe that some people may have decided to jump when they saw no alternative. It was a way to have some level of control over their destinies when all hope was gone. The "jumpers" is the element of the 9/11 attacks that has haunted me most. I've wondered how I would react in such a situation. If I had survived on an upper floor, with flames rising... I might have made the decision to jump to my death rather than wait to be burned or suffocated. There is no shame in anyone having made that decision.
@Ron The family of the man in the famous "falling man" photo is Catholic, so if he committed suicide, he's going to Hell. Thus, stigma.
Thanks so much for your perspective on this.
I remember watching the horrific events live on tv and specifically noticing how people were falling from the buildings. That image has stuck with me forever. I am one of those people who will sit and imagine what it would be like for me had I been there? It is such a horrific thought, but in a way, it helps me to process. So thank you for posting this, it helps me understand better.
And yes, today, 8 years after it happened, the world grieves along with America...
Does it really matter if they are labeled as "fallers" or "jumpers"? These people were forced into a situation that was not of their choosing. It is a place that we can't truly fathom nor would we ever want to be in that position. But, I do agree that these people have a special place in our hearts and in our history because their faces tell the story of the horrific crimes that were perpetrated that day. May we all remember this day in history and try to prevent another tragedy such as this.
In France we say there are "fallers" not "jumpers"... [I'm french, sorry for my english].
I think these people were the people who fought the most to survive. They wanted to stay away from the intense heat, flammes and suffocation the longest that they could, until they could be saved by firefighters who never came.
It also haunted me the most, these images of people falling... I think most of them didn't choose to fall, didn't commit suicide. Some might have been pushed by others who wanted to breathe, some must have been blown out by explosions, by the ceilars falling or by the heat, most of them may have lost their grip, because the sides of the windows or the steel columns started to burn them...
In one of the pictures I saw of people falling, some are trying to grisp each side of the steel columns...Probably they told to themselves they would try to climb down, that's what I would have tried, if I couldn't have stayed any longer standing outside the window.... And of course they lost their grip...
Again, I think these people were among the people who were the most willing to survive.
But one question is still bothering me a lot sometimes : how could the most powerful country in the world let people trapped dying, without even TRY to land on the top with helicopters, and then try to destroy the closed door... Were the firefighters more reassured to climb 100 floors in a burning building? When they saw people falling, wasn't it more important to save people who were trapped, from the top? Or put "nets" for the falling people?
I looked up this topic after i watched a 9/11 video in school. It had footage from inside the building with the fire fighters in the lobby and everything. Every now and then you would hear this crashing sound. as time went on it became more frequent. suddenly the guy who had filmed the video cut in and told us that those sounds were people hitting the ground. God that was a horrible sound to begin with,and it became a million times worse once you knew what was making it. All day after the video people would just look at each other and go "They jumped" i couldn't imagine being forced to make that decsion. Now whenever i hear a sound even remotely close to the one in the video i wince and freak out a little. I pray that they felt nothing...
Hi All,
May I just say that there are some amazing blogs that almost reduced me to tears here.
I was only 10 years old when these horific events took place. I was standing in my living room in my school uniform in the UK watching the events unfold on every single news channel. Due to my age i did not quite understand the severity of the situation, even though I was aware that it was avery bad thing.
It has only been in recent years that I have come to understand (if that is the right word), how the hijackers were able to do this to thousands of other inocent people and believe that it was the work of a God. (It can never be understood how other human beings can do this to their own kind, at the end of the day be you muslim or christian, Black or white we are all still human). I know some people may say that the people who crashed the plane cannot be liked to those inocent people who were killed in the WTC attacks, and I totally agree.
In relation to the word 'jumpers' people are too prone to believing that this word means suicide, it will alsways depend on where it is used and in what way. Obvioulsy there may have been people that day that did want to commit suicide but you will never know. I believe that most if not all of the 'jumpers' were not commiting suicide... intead they were trying that last ditch effort to survive. The freefalling (even though people may say I'm crude or that it is a horrible thing to say) must have been an amazing experience and I hope that it eased the decision of the people that did jump/ fall/ get pushed, again please understand that when I say the 3 above terms i am not saying the jumpers had choice, probably far from it.
At the end of the day, as there were no surviving jumpers (of that I know of) we will never know what even one of these people went through to come to this decision, we can only imagine and hope that nothing like this ever happens again/ or happens to us.
I am not religious myself but do believe that there is something out there when we die, all of the people that died in 9/11 will be loved, remebered and adored for all enterinty, and I am sure will be in a wondeerfull place once more.
Thanks for the amazing read.
I do believe they made a choice. They chose how they were going to die. Either by the fall or the fire. They were forced to choose.
What a horrible way to die. It was amazing to me that so many people
survived the plane crashing into the building along with the fire and smoke.
What have we learned from this tragedy. Is there a plan in place to evacuate an entire high rise building. Should people who work in high rise buildings be given
parachutes. Should they have escape routes to the next building
window to window to another floor if there is no other way. I wish they all could have been rescued. It is heart breaking to see them and know they were in this situation. They are all at peace now. God bless them and their families.
I can't help feeling sorry for all of them. For whatever reason they jumped, so what. Leave them alone, they went through hell, just let them rest. We did not have to go through what they did, so just respect their forced choice and courage. GOD be with them!!! XO
I myself am from calgary Alberta,
Canada, And am also fascinated by the dilemma that faced these poor souls, you go to work with no idea of the impending horror that would befall you.That in an hour you would hurl yourself out of a 100 story building, I am deathly afraid of heights, or gravity, one or the other, and i know it would take hell on earth for me to step free of a solid structure and fall to my death, the thought of those poor people, leaves me with a sense of dread. it must have been hell up there. Peace be with them always... george
Reminds me of a poem I once read called 'Somewhere in the Middle'.
Someone wrote why they did not try to use helicopters to try to save those trapped near to top. The excellent book "102 Minutes" goes over this in detail. Basically the intense heat and smoke and the updrafts created by this heat made the flying of any helicopters near top of the WTC's extremely dangerous. Even if helicopters could have landed on or hovered near the roof, it would have not mattered.
For decades the Port Authority had a security policy of locking the doors of high rise buildings to prevent anyone without security credentials from accessing the roof. (To prevent thrill seekers, vandals, daredevils, suicides, etc.) If I remember the book, some of the trapped people (one man had the security clearance card) were able to access and open a couple of doors leading to the top in the N. Tower, but a last door they could not open because it required opening electronically by security personel located elsewhere in the N. Tower, and security radioed they could not open it. (The security system was likely damaged by the attack, preventing access.)
The authors of "102 Mintues" note that even if helicopters could have attempted a dangerous rooftop rescue, the problem is only a few people could be taken at a time, and could hundreds of desperate people police themselves during the chaos of their surroundings. The helicopter rescue was ruled out fairly quickly by the NY Fire Department.
I would like to think some lost consciousness during the fall, maybe even dying during the fall caused by a heart attack due to the immense fright, thus maybe being spared an indescribably painful split second death. However, comments by someone earlier was probably right in that when you hit the concrete from that far up, death would be so instant you would not feel anything. RIP victims of 9/11, you are not forgotten.
Thank you for writing this, which must have been very painful for you. I've often wondered about this since one can't see people falling out of the buildings in most vieos.photos but I knew they must have. This is a perticularly horrific aspect of theat horrific day that, I believe, most find to terrible to contemplate. It's shocking to me how easily so many have forgotten this brutal attack on our nation and, in fact, are courting it again..in NYC and in Illinois, God help us. And for what? politics...unspeakable. God bless those poor Americans who died,their suffering loved ones, and our nation, which now seems hell bent on self-destruction. And bless you for telling the truth.
My brother and I just saw the ludicrous movie "2012," which we mostly laughed our way through ... except during the parts that portrayed people falling from skyscrapers. My brother was in NYC on Sept. 11, watching the horror from his office. He said that of all the events he saw that day, he is haunted most by the fallers. He never mentions what he experienced that day. Of all things, "2012" got him to talk about it a bit.
It has been almost 9 years since the Sept. 11 attacks. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. I was a Sophomore in Highschool sitting in math class when the news came over the PA system. The television was immediately turned on and the horrific scenes hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember what affected me the most was seeing the people falling from the buildings. I could only sit there and imagine what must have been going through their minds. There was one news cast I was watching that had gotten film from someone that was down on the street. They had been close to where someone had jumped and hit the ground. You could hear the mind numbing thud as they hit. I will never forget that sound. I will never forget that day. I will never stop thinking about all of those people that perished. I will never stop thinking about those people that took control of their own lives, their own destinies. I will never forget.
A group of people DID make it to the roof of the North Tower. I read somewhere that they managed to break the access door down and make their way to one side of the roof, where they were all forced to crouch down and wait for rescue because of the thick columns of smoke swirling around them and rising up the sides of the tower. One of the helicopters did sight them on the roof and flew around the roof looking for a way to land or pick them up, but couldn't do a thing because of the thick smoke and powerful updrafts.
This group of people called 911 and loved ones on their cellphones trying to find a way out of there, but to no avail. It is my understanding that one of the last calls to 911 from the roof of the North Tower occurred just minutes before the tower collapsed, so at least one of them were still alive until the very end.
One simply cannot imagine the kind of horror and overwhelming despair that these people were faced with.
Wow man really changed my perspective on that topic
RIP anyone on that day who had to experience an unimaginable death. They will always be in our thoughts they will never go away as long as we remember
out of SF,CA on that last comment
To be honest, i don't really think it matters whether they " jumped" or "fell" . What does matter is that many people died, out of no fault of their own. That their families and friends didn't get a chance to say goodbye before they died. What happened is disgusting and evil, and i hope that one day our earth will be rid of terrorists forever.
Even though i don't live in the USA, and the fact that i'm not even considered as a teenager yet, i still feel very sad about what happened and i also scared. Who's to say that something like this won't happen again? Maybe next time it will kill even MORE innocent people.
RIP to those who died in 9/11.
I feel angered by the whole situation. I feel someone is to blame. We as americans are continued to be spoon fed b.s. everyday of our lives, and I'm sick of it. With out going into major detail explaining what makes me feel the way I feel, I must point out that the occurances that happened on 9/11 & failed prevention, will forever be etched into my mind and that 1 day, everyone who lost their life, didn't die in vain....
Thanks dude. I'm from England myself, but I remember watching it all on TV as an 8 year old kid :(
I have been very interested with everything that happened that day since I was young, and I think you are totally right. As much as we hate to see such things, we must endure, we must see what they went through and remember them. Not thinking about it, trying to hide from the truth won't help anything...
The only thing I have to say is that near the top you say people jumped because of burning jet fuel. This isn't true, jet fuel burns very fast, and the vast majority burned off instantaniously. If you watch videos of the planes hitting, the explosiong are a pinkish color. That is the fuel burning. No fuel would have been left anywhere within the building after 5-6 seconds of impact. All fires burning were desks, floors, paper, wreckage, etc... But not fuel. This in mind, it would have been impossible for the fires to weaken the metal structure to the point of it colapsing as the matal only begins to soften at several thousand degrees, while the fires would have struggled to reach one thousand degrees. But other explosions were recorded, and many pictures/videos show such explosions going off. Who planted them I can't say. Maybe it was an insider job, maybe it was the govenment, maybe the terrorists were better prepared than we thought. What ever happened, the towers certainly did not colapse due to fire damage. I feel it's important people know this, and ask what really did happen. In the entire history of steal structure buildings, only 3 have ever fallen due to so caled 'fire damage' these buildings were World Trade Centers 1, 2 and 7...
This is just my opinion, but the idea of the only 3 buildings ever to fall like that all being WTCs and all falling on the same day is rediculous. All buildings were specially built to withstand such things as fires, earth quakes, plane hits, tornadoes and bombings. So how did the towers fall? from a fire consisting of office suplies burning? I don't think so... What ever happened, who ever was behind it, we need to find out. It would be an insult to all who died to leave it and forget.
I only point out these facts because I think it's importnt that we get our fact straight when we talk about such a serious subject, instead of speaking without thinking.
My condolences to any who lost somebody on 9/11
And My deepest respect to all who assisted in the rescue and clean up operations.
Sacred American Soil . . .
With September 11, 2010, soon approaching, let us not forget as Muslims' try to make their way to triumphantly, build a victory mosque to celebrate on top of the very graves of each American who lost their life on 911.
Contemptuously, in our face, dishonoring the very life's and memories of 'Our People', who meant something to us and who's spirits lingers to remind of what we had, what we've lost, and what they want to take away from us . . .
Each souls final resting place is in that sacred American soil where the ultimate price was paid on that fatal day inasmuch, that we each owe a duty to respect and preserve their memory or their deaths will be in vain for there will soon come a day when there will only be memories about a Free Country we once had and how we carelessly let it be taken away! Cheating not only ourselves, but cheating generations to come!
The men and woman did make a choice the jump. yes in fact some fell othe chose to taahow they would go into there own hands it was either burn, suffocate and die slow and painful or end it quick, and jumping was te quick way i can honestly say if i was in that situation on that day i would have wanted to go quick and my way not the way someone else wanted i wold have jumped if i knew i was going to die i would rather go quick and painless than slow and painful i fell for the faimly's of those who lost someone that day and being someone who was there and wached it happen as did it will always have a place in your heart watching someone fall to the death is bad but watching 200 plus people fall is something you will never forget.
If there was a God then all of this would of been diverted in the first place. Its pictures and videos like these that really show us the true horror these poor innocent men and women had to go through. People rushing to the already overcrowded windows gasping for air, falling, tumbling to their demise. It makes you think about what was going through their head during those last moments. I think some took it upon themselves to end their lives that day but maybe some fell because of the overcrowded windows, people may have lost their grip. It is quite painful watching these pics and videos. RIP victims of 9/11
This page and others like it are NECESSARY. People need to know and need to remember the things that happened that day. I thank you for posting it.
I never knew about this until today. Out here on the West Coast, we were shielded from those images. Suicide is not what I see here, I see, mostly, an act of human will, and choice, and in the case of the two holding hands, amazing love.
Thank you for originating this post and keeping it going.
From about 1981 to 2001, I had a recurring dream that I was on the top of a very tall tower and I jumped off. Before I jumped, I prayed to God, "Forgive me God, but understand that I am not committing suicide." When I landed, I woke up on my floor after falling off my bed. On September 11th I finally understood my dream. They jumped out of desperation and fear. None of these people committed suicide. They were killed by the terrorists who attacked the towers.
What makes me angry are those people who - based upon their religious beliefs - decide they need to categorize this as *suicide* or *not suicide.* Because, you see, if it's *suicide* then they're going to hell. Ah words...such a poor substitute for truth.
Here's the reality: Unless I have ever been face to face with certain death-by-wind vs certain death-by-fire, I can only HOPE I have the psychological fortuitousness to choose "death by wind" over "death by fire."
No doubt that beliefs in religious ideals are powerful. People are beheaded for them and fallen soldiers' families are picketed at funerals, and some people even drink poisoned Kool-Aid. So, me. I have no beliefs; I simply have what God has given me, breath. And when it is time for my breath to leave, I am certain I'll be back with God.
One of those images [the holding hands] is so damned poignant for me and such a blessing to be witness to.
None of us has been hatched. We all come into this world unalone. To leave this planet no matter how frightened or how tragically...to hold the hand of someone else who also will be making an exit...it speaks volumes to me about even at the end, our desire to comfort each other.
And when I bear witness to these images, I am not angry or disgusted and neither do I feel violated on their behalf. There is/are no appropriate word/words to express what I feel but a close few words are humbled, honored, compassionate, love, gratitude for their life... to be witnessing such a sacred and final moment in their lives. It's like I am desiring to send retroactive peace, love, and energy to those souls.
I gaze upon these photos and it's respectful and with honor to who they were, their decisions, their dreams, hopes, their lives...
Whether they jumped desiring to "die-by wind" or whether they simply were thinking of nothing but escaping fire or pain...or whether they fell or slipped, or god-forbid, pushed or pulled... In all cases, in my mind I go with them as they free fall and I try to send comfort and to take away their fear.
Namaste.
On September 11, 2001,
I was a 15 year old student at Elizabeth High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey. That day, I remember vividly that the school bell had rung and many students were changing classes. As I was walking toward the main office at my high school, I noticed parents running in and out of office (they were there to pick up their children). I went to check it out when a security guard approached and informed me to go to class immediately. My next class just so happened to be U.S. History. When I walked into my class and took my seat, my history teacher explained that the World Trace Center had been attacked. He informed us that if anyone had family working in New York, we could leave. I couldn't believe it, all I kept thinking to myself at time the time, "How could America, the most powerful nation in world be attacked?"
With that thought I left my class and found my sister and we started to walk home. That day, we decided to take a path that acutally ran parallel to 1&9 in Elizabeth, NJ. As me and my sister were walking, we looked up and saw the thickest black smoke we had ever seen in our lives. We stopped in our tracks, and other students who had been walking home with stopped as well.
I actually asked myself "What in the world could make smoke that black?" Then it hit me, "There were bodies, those were people burning up in that smoke". When that came to mind, I bursted into tears. Men, women, and possibly children who were on those planes and in those buildings. Me and my sister made it home and saw the graphic scenes on television.That day, I found out that the reason why could see the smoke was because Elizabeth was about 16 miles away from the World Trade Center. Everytime I remember those images of people jumping out of that building, or who died in those plane crashes, it brings me to tears. For those who died on 9/11, I will never forget. My family prayed then and we continue to pray for the victims who lost their lives and their families.
God Bless
Thanks for posting the article. These poor individuals have no choice. With the intense heat and smoke, the room became an oven. it was either being cooked alive slowly or a quick death with the fall. it was also probably an intention for some who want their loved ones to find their bodies more easily rather than having to search through all the burning debris as well. May God bless them all...
I covered this event as it happened live on a TV news show. My name is not important.
What is important is that we never forget that day. Evil is still out there attempting to destroy you, me and our Freedom.
Stay vigilant and do not lose your resolve to fight the enemy in its attempt to destroy what you believe and what is yours.
I lost my father in April 2000. He died as many of us would want to, in his sleep at age 80. He was a World War II veteran, a member of what Tom Brokaw calls the Greatest Generation. Daddy was intensely interested in history, world events, science, and politics. I am making a list of the things I will need to tell him about when I see him again: Katrina, the tsunami in Indonesia, the hanging of Saddam Hussein, the election of our first black president, the earthquake in Haiti, our team winning the Super Bowl, etc., and when I get to 911, it will be the description of the "jumpers" that I think will most accurately convey the absolute horror of the events of that day. During live coverage on TV, the camerman zoomed in on a man in an orange shirt hanging outside of a window, holding onto the ledge. We never saw him fall, but that image will stay with me forever.
I cannot imagine what I would do... a slow agonizing death by fire? I can only hope that in those last 10 seconds I could convince myself that I would wake up from what must surely be a nightmare right before I hit the ground, and never understand that it was reality.
am still in deep sorrow over this,unjustied bullshit.
I was doing research for a project in school and when we were in the library i literally burst into tears. I couldn't bear what had happened to those innocent people. Those who didn't die got a second chance at life. Those who didn't die make sure you live life to the fullest cause things like this happen every. You never know when god will call you home.
R.I.P 9/11 victims
So glad I happened upon this.
It will always astound and sadden me that so many people find this subject taboo or morbid. These people had the kind of courage I'm not sure that I could. The courage to take their life and their death into their own hands. To make that decision to free fall for the longest 10 seconds of their lives.
However they came about their journey down, I will not shy away from the images and I will not treat them with shame or horror.
I am crying, I had to do homework on ground zero and I am 11 andd i am crying this is sad so sad and people died and people got hurt..
What is worse is the day after September 11 was the chirping of hundreds emergency firefighter locators. They could be heard by rescuers. Sad knowing that they all perished.
To the people that passed away that day.. I pray for you. I hope when my day comes of passing along that I meet the people who passed away and to be able to hear there stories. For 9/11 has changed my life and many others. rest in peace.
We all also need to remember the people who passed away that day are in a beter place where they cant be hurt anymore and they can watch over there loved ones.
<3
The pictures force our perspective to confront a reality that nobody wants to live in.
Those who were forced of the building paints a clearer context to everything regarding 9/11.
Seeing a building collapse and imagining people inside vs actually seeing real people makes one feel like they are a part of this world too. Not just something that happened to "someone else".
We will never forget.
cant believe something like this happened. This country will NEVER be the same again.
God bless
Usama finally got his, after almost 10 years. Justice has been served. May Bin Laden rot in hell for doing this to these innocents.
Amen.
Thank God that Osama Bin Laden has been captured and killed!! Over the past two days, I cannot help but to look back at what has happened and reflect. This helps me to understand even more why this man must be killed. Tod do something like this to innocent people, you do not deserve to live. Thanks to President Obama and the United States Military along with the help of Pakistani citizens. This should have never taken place and let us all Pray that an event like this will never occur. Not only in our country, but others as well.
I've thought about the jumpers a lot since that happened. I watched a documentary about the "Falling Man" photo and was incensed at the family of the first man they though was in the photo. Like them, I am also of Puerto Rican descent. His family couldn't bear that their father could be in hell for committing suicide and his wife said he'd have done anything before leaving his family, tried to find a way out, not jump. Did they not understand that there WAS no way out?
I can't imagine having to choose between burning alive or jumping. No third choice. This wasn't suicide. The people that jumped were still murdered.
For anyone interested, you can watch the full documentary on YouTube at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnA9FjvLSU
News should never be sanitized, people need to see the horror and consequences of violence. Thank you for exposing the truth.
The event of 9/11 and people "jumping" or "falling" will forever haunt me. Back in 2001 when it happened, the initial reaction was why would someone jump from such heights?? If you have ever been close to a furnace or fire burning at even 100 celcius then you MAY HAVE a clue what the condition must have been in there. most importantly, suicide is when I had made up my mind I will jump to my death irrespective of whatever. For those that jumped, they had only 2 options jump to your death or wait for the combination of lack of breathe, the fire and the final collapse of the towers so how can that be suicide. I am hardly moved to tears by things but 9/11 and those that were forced off the building surely brings tears to my eyes. May their souls rest in peace and hopefully they are in a much better place.
I think of 9-11 with a heavy heart. I was working for a textile Merchants in Manchester. The co-owner of the business (Sanjay) was Indian and Muslim. The owner, (Sanjay's father) worked there also (elderly man, kind face)
On 9-11 we received a call saying a plane had crashed into the WTC. We turned on the TV and there it was. We watched in utter horror as a second plane hit thw WTC. Sanjay came in our office. He called his friends in Uzbekistan, he laughed and sneered and said serves them right. He looked at me and the other British woman and sneered. I was 18. I knew nothing. I was speechless, I could not stop staring at the TV.
I went off sick. I couldn't bear to look at Sanjay. I wanted to hit him. I hated him. It took a week for it all to sink in.
I quit my job.
All of those people. The jumpers. Those people holding hands. The image is enough to break your heart. I will never forget the day or the things I saw on the news, as long as I live. the images of those people, haunting. I will never forget.
I no longer look at people as though they are all the same. I cant help it. I am changed. That makes me sad.
I was working one city block away from the towers on the 50th floor of my building when the building shook after the 1st plane hit. As me and my co-workers gazed at the fire right in front of us, we all pondered what happened. Some said a bomb, some said a plane. From the 50th floor everything below looked really small, but I couldn't see any airplane parts, so I also thought it was a bomb. As we all stood there talking about it and in shock about what we were seeing, the 2nd plane hit. Again, our building shook and someone yelled for us to move away from the windows. My supervisor suggested we leave the office. I rode down the elevator and once at the plaza level, I looked up in total disbelief. After standing there staring for what seemed like an eternity, it hit me that people were in there. I don't know why I didn't realize it before. I had worked in the WFS and knew how busy it was that time of morning. My mother once worked on the 92nd floor of 1WTC, so I knew that as early as 8am, there were thousands of people already at work. Once it hit me, that realization of the people, I began to sob uncontrollably. There were papers flying everywhere and wouldn't stop. It was a sea of paper. I looked at videos on the computer of that day many times afterward and I don't know why the volume of paper flooding the sky wasn't as apparent as it was being there. My supervisor walked over to me and told me to find someone living in my town and go home with them. She was trying to get people to use the buddy system for traveling home. I looked around and saw many people from my floor. I approached one person I knew also lived in Brooklyn and asked her if she wanted to travel home with me. She said she wanted to go back up to get her laptop. I decided not to wait. I got on the subway, which was still running at this time and picked up my 7-year-old daughter from her 2nd grade class. She asked me why she got to leave school early today. I told her that a very bad thing happened near my office and that it's best for families to be close together. I didn't know the towers fell until I got home and turned on the television. When I left, they were burning.
Because of the damage the collapse caused, our building didn't reopen for a few weeks. Our company paid us in full while we were home, so it wasn't a hardship financially. Emotionally and physically, however, there was a bigger cost to pay. I moved out of NYC over a year later, but not before developing asthma. It's bad now. And I can't forget. No matter how much I try, I can't forget what I saw. I saw jumpers on the east side of the north tower. I saw the 2nd plane hit. I felt the thunderous shaking of the building. Whenever there's a thunder storm, I sit still and wait for it to pass because I only hear planes. I'm lucky not to have lost anyone I know that day, but I wonder if I'll ever ge normal again.
Words fail. This is the 3rd time I've tried to post a comment and my words just fail to convey the plethora of emotion that I feel. Hurt, sadness, admiration, pride, deep pain all rolled into one. One the one hand, I am horrified, utterly and completely horrified to see how those 19 cretins hurt us... all of us. To even imagine the predicament those 3000 braves souls were placed in literally brings tears to my eyes. On the other hand, I hope, God forbid, I ever find myself in their place, that I would have the strength of character to choose to face my death in some semblance of
"my own terms", fighting against those who would destroy our way of life. I just pray that their souls are looking down on us from heaven...its the only comfort I get when I think about that day.
Ten years later, and it still hurts so badly. I wonder if and when the day will come when it doesn't.
We must pray for them all.
"Have faith that God will punish those responsible."
It is a faith in God that led to them being in that pitiful situation. If ever there was something that opened people's eyes to the absurdity of religion then this should be it.
i am from the uk and just recently watched a documentary about 9/11 and i remember it happening 10 years ago now, but didnt actually realise the extent of it and i was absolutely horrified at what i was watching people jumping out of buildings but i think they would rather take your chances escaping the fire rather than burn to death in those excruciating temperatures i think anybody would do the same but the biggest reason for war and terrorism is religion itself and until people realise this we will always have war but i cannot possibly imagine how terrible this must have been on the american public i was absolutely sickened by this atrocious act and,i am sorry words cannot express how angry i am feeling right now
There are few people that would ever intentionally jump to their deaths from a sky scraper.
Whether they jumped to avoid an agonizing death by asphyxiation or burns from the smoke and fire or the fact that they fell out of a building to avoid smoke and fire is simply semantics.
Maybe for those that are religious, this may help them cope with the idea of an accident vs. suicide issue.
In this case it is one in the same.
Don't forget that the windows in the previous WTC were only 28 inches wide so it would take quite a bit of unfortunate luck to squeeze through a 28 inch gap and slip to their death.
Regardless, it is tragic and I cannot fathom what they must have felt at that time.
i believe out of respect for the ones who fell,and their families,that they should not be called jumpers.the fact is we do not know for sure,if they jumped or if they fell,or if they were accidently pushed,blowed out from the pressure,or had lost site of what to do,because of the fear of burning to death took over!! we just dont know.i dont think it is right to call them jumpers,by doing so we are assuming they jumped.nobody knows but God.if it were one of my family members,i would not want them to be called jumpers,its just not right!! i would probably want to assume they fell,although that would be difficult also.im not trying to say everyone should believe the way i do,but i am saying out of respect for them they shouldnt be called jumpers!! they were falling,even if they did jump,we will never know for sure,so we shouldnt assume!!thanks
Thanks for posting and allowing comments
I promised myself I would not watch the news this year because 911 just makes me relive that day. But I watched a TV show on 911 and it made me not sleep again anyway.
I goggled "who jumped" on 911 and your page is the first that comes up. I asked because my husbands co worker was a HVAC local 94 in the north tower. He worked a midnight shift and left WTC at 8 15 am.
he had seen all of his coworkers said hello had a coffee and even had plans to go fishing the following week with his best friend.
the trade centers were hit, but they never evacuated the buildings and all of his co workers died in the basement. Mike always said-if they had evacuated, many others would have lived from the floors that could have been evacuated. The higher floors could not be evacuated, but the second building should have been as soon as the first plane went in-This haunts all of us!
Sad-for the "jumpers" if you have ever been engulfed in fire you would know there is no up or down, right from wrong there is just simply no air, and all hope goes out the window along with the few hundred that could not breathe. Another person made the comment about suicide-no this was misery and murder.
I was on the phone with my husband on 911 he was on his roof watching the WTC, and I was in front on the TV home watching after the 1st plane went in-needless to say I was hysterical by the time the second went in-and screaming for him to get off his roof-he and all of his workers were watching from his NYC high rise
over all-
Again-thank you for having a sounding board, this is a topic that will need endless space for people to get their feelings out.
10 years later I still cannot believe I cant watch the TV about it.
My son now works at 140 Broadway, so he sees the progress, but My husband saw this first hand and lost 9 co workers that day so it will never go away
Peace to all :)
this is what has to be kept in mine when evil appeasers cry about the us hunting down and killing terrorists. real, innocent people died horrible deaths because evil terrorists chose to murder them. this makes me so mad. i say hunt down and execute every terrorist any all their helpers and fellow travellers
They were all so brave. What they were faced with is beyond unimaginable and your right I do not think it should be looked away from. It is sad and horrific but it is a part of who we all are. In hindsight we could have told them that even if they didn't jump their fate was the same and I beleive then there may have been a lot more that did not wait for rescue. It seems when reading about 9/11 that there was a lack of safety procedures, communication, and that sometimes "worrying" about the unimaginable is necessary. Thank you this viewpoint. I hope they are always remebered as brave and courageous.
The people forced to jump to their deaths that morning has been the one thing about 9/11 that has haunted me all these years and has always come back into my mind when I think of the tragedy.
At least the people on the jets and in their path went quickly and didn't have to make the unbearable choice of going out those windows as opposed to burning to death. Those people and the way they died will stay with me forever. God bless them all.
It never occurred to me that to jump from the building would be considered either shameful or cowardly. I will never understand that way of thinking. Those visible deaths brought home the unimaginable depth of the suffering endured by those within in a way nothing else could, and for that reason they should be contemplated. This horrific act was a crime against humanity and should never be forgotten. It is likewise unforgivable to hate and murder in the name of any religion. But there was way more than religion behind these attacks, and we'd be wise to learn from them. Ten years later ... I will never forget.
It was a beautiful blog. In my sociology class we did a brief discussion about 9/11. We watched videos and heard phone calls. We saw videos of people falling and it killed us inside. The saddest thing ever, was the video from a soldier's helicopter: you could see a person waving a white cloth from a window. And you know in their head they're thanking God that the help has came to save them. And then also knowing the terror that they faced when the helicopter just flies away because there was no possible way to save them. (No offense to the brave men and women in the helicopter- they definitely did everything and more to help). And so throughout that whole week in sociology, we mourned what we saw and heard. But our teacher never showed us the last picture that you included. . . My young, naive mind pictured these human bodies just lying there; like you'd see in a casket. That last picture was a real eye-opener for me.
Thank you for writing this!
My heart hurts from seeing the people die in such pain. I am glad that people are writing and talking about the falling people. May God bless each and every person and their loved ones.
I believe the monsters responsible for this are now all in a place where they will spend an eternity in agonizing pain paying for their sins against humanity.
Back in the late 80s, I worked next door to the WTC (in the WFC). One year we had our Christmas party at Windows on the World, and I also worked in temporary offices just a couple of floors down from WOTW for a couple of months.
I recall many times standing at one of those windows looking out...and way down. Just remembering that shocking height even so many years later still makes my stomach churn.
Still I cannot even begin to fathom what those who stood possibly at those very same windows must have felt that morning. How could we ever think of judging someone in that position? I imaging their last feelings were unadulterated, breathless terror.
It re-breaks my heart every time I think about it or when I see one of the snapshots I took of that view out of the WTC window so many years ago.
These pictures of people falling shake me to the very core every time I see them, yet each year around this time I look again and cry becaue we cannot ever forget what happened. Ever.
And, I don't believe they were being brave in the face of terrorism--how could they have known at that point? Whether they made a conscious choice to fall or not, it doesn't matter. When your last day on earth comes, do you think you'll do better?
Anon
Reading some of these beautiful comments makes me well up, just shows how raw feeling still are after 10 years.
These people are the ones i can't seem to forget about even though every victim who died in 9/11 are in my thoughts, it still upsets me, thinking about what i would have done if it had been me, what they must've have went through before they died, absolutely horrific. I don't believe they all jumped but either way it doesn't matter, i won't forget about them....EVER! R.I.P and me you shine down on your loved ones x
I was a naive 16 year old when the events of September 11 unfolded before mine and my classmates eyes. I never called the World Trade Center by its name. I knew it was the towers, and now a place I would never get to visit in a city I loved to visit. The days following 9/11 my eyes were glued to the television. After all the documentaries and news reports I saw, I could NEVER get these 'falling' souls out of my mind. Ten years later I am still affected by these falling people. My current boyfriend lost two friends who were Cantor Fitzgerald employees. It breaks my heart to know that one of these falling people could of been them. The feeling of despair and being trapped is a feeling I have never felt. I hope the free falling into the air gave these souls peace for the 10 seconds they had left. Twenty years, thirty years later I will always think of these people. Because of this article they have a voice. Thank you for giving it to them.
I feel sick now, RIP.
"jumped to breath air one last time"
the worst thing is thinking, "i want to breath again" and getting that breath almost as fast as you lose it.
I was here in NYC on 9/11, not at the WTC, but in my home, in the Village. I don't understand why anyone would ever say that someone who flew out of that building was a "coward" or whatever. I KNOW, after trying to find a way out, and failing...I KNOW, I would try to call my mother, or SOMEONE, and tell them everything. And then, I would FLY. If I was up there, with no way out, I would certainly know, there was no way for rescue to get in. So....FLY!!!! I think those people were BRAVE!!!! And after the phone call, I would do a swan dive. There is NO SHAME in that. That is BRAVE, to do that. My heart goes out to all who lost people on that horrible day, and those who are now in Heaven, and also to me, who lives here still, and hates every minute of Bloomtown. I wish I could have left this city long ago, but I can't. Obligations chain me.
I commented on the people who jumped earlier, but I wanted to add a little "PS" about myself, as a native New Yorker, born and raised in the Village, and still live here, just 1/2 hr walk from the WTC, and Century 21, where I used to love to shop. First, I will NEVER visit that memorial or Century 21 again. And when I hear or see the saying, "NEVER FORGET" I want to shout, "I LIVED AT THE EDGE OF IT! I WISH I COULD FORGET!" I could see the WTC from my window, and the smell of smoke and death is something that lingered for weeks. You had to wear a mask to go outside for the first 2 wks. Forget? I WISH I COULD. BTW, Why do they day "NEVER FORGET"? Why would you WANT to relive the most horrible day of your life, every year???
Thank you for posting this analysis. I think this has bothered Americans for a long time and this sympathetic article may help us.
I believe that, suffocating in jet fuel, they gathered at the windows- and as more people gathered, those in the front were either pushed out, or fell. There would have been panic, and possibly aggressive people. And the only oxygen was at those windows.
(Similar to the dangers on the 'floor' at a rock concert- when you have a crowd up against a wall. The unfortunate people in the front often get hurt,or worse.)
I also believe that there were a few who did indeed jump of their own volition. Anyone with military training may have decided to jump as a favor to the other souls up there.
"By leaving, there's a little more space and oxygen for the others." I believe there were some wonderful heroes who jumped for that reason.
There was no 'act of cowardice' here. In fact,anyone who worked high in the Towers was familiar with terrorism, and knew that working there carried some risk. You wouldn't find any cowards in that bunch. They represented the best that America has to offer.
Thank you for posting this. This is something I have always wondered about, but until now, I couldn't even allow myself to really think about it and would never look at any of the pictures of these poor souls. What a horrible, unthinkable way to have to die. God rest their souls and give comfort and peace to their families.
Can any of us imagine the horror the people in those buildings were going through? They probably knew they were doomed being so high up. The heat had to be unbearable. I think about those people every year on this day. It is so heart-breaking. May they rest in peace.
Treasure life and be good to your neighbors no matter who they are.
Thank you. I want to understand the world around me before I choose my own conclusions. I do not want to be pushed around, I'm tired of it. Thank you for your honesty, for your courage with difficult material, and for the respect you have shown all of us who have read this article.
The Towers' only 3 staircases were all in the central core, protected not by poured concrete, but only by 2 layers of "fireproof grade" wall board. 18 people found, and made it down, the one semi-passable stairwell of the North Tower; zero in the South Tower. The structural steel's spray-on insulation (again, no concrete) was blown away. The jet fuel disappeared fast, like charcoal lighting fluid on a grill. I read that the heat and smoke was sustained by the debris of destroyed offices -- blown into the north-east corner of the North Tower, which tipped instead of pancaking. (In part by chance of where the steel alloy jet engines went, the North Tower may have tipped without just pancaking in place because its core survived. The aluminum plane fuselage just shredded.)
Again, thank you. This thoughtfulness, honesty, and respect for others is the only path back to national greatness.
--jerry-va typeAT speakeasy dotnet
Inside the Beltway
WashDC metro
Today is September 11th 2011, 10 years since those dreadful events were witnessed across the world. I can't begin to imagine what the people of New York, Washington and Shanksville were feeling and are still feeling today. I watched a TV program last night about the 9/11 Memorial and how so many people have come together in adversity, it made me feel good about human nature and that good will always overcome evil.
My thoughts are with everyone today, for those who lost loved ones, for those who lost their lives either in the air, at the WTC and the Pentagon and those on United 93 who fought back so bravely but my thoughts also turn to those especially who had no one to bury no one to say goodbye too. As I am a Paramedic in London, England my thoughts are also with those who so bravely gave their lives working for the Emergency Services. The images of those poor souls either falling or jumping from the Towers will forever haunt me.
God bless you all, may you all find peace and some comfort in the thought that you are not alone.
The description 'terrorists' has become out of favor with certain politicians. Yet it is the only true description of the evil perpetrators who caused these innocent people to have to make such a horrific decision, jumping to their deaths. I cannot imagine the terror they went through. May we never lose sight of who our enemy really is and that they are terrorists.
Sunday evening 9/11 2011
Thank you. I was horrified yesterday when I learned that religion (or other mindsets) made devastated relatives of victims reluctant to watch pictures of those who jumped, or fell, fearful that some decision had made their loved ones "commit suicide". Up until then, I was certain every photo had been scrutinized extensively, and that those left behind were eager to view them (horrified, but still wanting, hoping, to see a possible last image).
To even get into your head to in any way at all judge the victims that sailed through the air to their death is unfathomable.
They were all innocent. They were shocked, in pain, scared. Those who "decided" to fall did so out of the inner wish we all have to stay for as long as possible in the beauty of life. Not the other way around.
If you all can read this, im a 12 year old girl. it's not a lie. I was only 2 at the time, so i couldn't really remember what i was doing. I think that it's really horrifiying, for the childern of 9/11 attack. For me,watching movies,reading stories,pictures,etc. i could understand that thjese people were desprite for help and they didn't want to burn. I know everyone of americans want to die peacefully. I saw a movie called "Heroes of the9/11 attack." One lady had asma really badly, and overwieght. She made it to the 11th floor with her partner.She couldn't go anymore, because she was extremly out of breath. She had waited 2 min or so, and a FF came down and told her "You need to move, You can breath after, it's only 11 more cases of stairs." Her partner said,"We will be fine, as soon as we get outside, ill be right with you." The FF said,"You don't understand, the building is collapsing. Im sorry, But you need to leave her, or she needs to risk to go down the stairs. Her partner said "No.. I'm not leaving her. I'm going to carry her. The FF said" If you don't go, im going to throw you down there. And the lady cried and cried as she saw her partner go down the stairs. It was a touching story, and we should be greatful for our life and cheer that osama is dead. I know that im only 12, but the 9/11 attack is the worst,scariest,Bloodiest,Attack after World War 2. God bless Everybody who died, Lost LOved ones, or who survied but has a disablity. R.I.P; ALL PEOPLE AND USA. Thank You. <333
We must never forget.
thanks for this post. haven't been able to look at this issue or read anything about it in ten years, until today.
It is September 11, 2011
10 years to the day...
Look at the pictures of the windows and you can see "jump" is an imprecise word - everyone went to the windows as the stairwells were filled with smoke and unpassable.
There were hundreds of people who crowded the windows and in the need for air, many people fell out by the force of other people.
They hung on as best they could and when that option ran out some made a decision to grab some material object or each other to break hope that it might they might break the fall. Regardless people did not jump they fell from windows.
Rest in peace.
Today has been a very sad day remembering what happened 10 years ago. There are no words that can describe how horrible I feel for what all the individuals involved experienced on that day. I am thankful that there are places like this to individually come together and share our thoughts as a whole. It makes me realize how fragile life is and how lucky most of us have been not being directly affected by the loss of a family member in this tragedy. My heart goes out to all the families that were not so lucky. They have been through more than most of us will ever know. I am proud of all the men and women in the armed forces who are still living out this horrible day as we speak. I feel for the families that have lost there loved ones in the war. Especially since it often seems to not be acknowledged. Even though it is just as tragic as this day was ten years ago in their lives. I just want to say Thank You to all the military and their families. I know that there will always be another tragedy down the road but I am so thankful that there has not been anything like this recently.
I have been down all day just remembering all this. I am glad for a place to post comments. These pictures of my fellow man falling out of a building will forever haunt me. I feel for all the families that lost loved ones on this day. My heart goes out to you. You have experienced more than most of us will ever know. I feel for all the military that are still tangled up in all of this. May they find peace somehow and get through it. I am so proud of all of our military. It is only having people willing to fight for there country that keeps us from having more days like this one ten years ago. I just want to say Thank You to them.
The people falling/jumping from those towers is something that has stayed with me through the years. Despite the horror of it all, I think those that were trapped by the flames probably made the right decision. Their fall lasted 10 seconds and then was over in an instant. Burning to death would have been far worse. The one thing I would have liked to have seen this past year would have been for the U.S Seals to have taken Ben Laden to a VERY tall building and dropped him from that so he would have died a death similar to what these poor souls had to endure.
its chilling to imagine how they must have suffered both physically emotionally and psychologically in their last battle to stay alive. but couldn't the military or rescue teams maybe have thought of something like a). using helicopters to reach out to them (instead of climbing hundreds of flights of dark and smoky stairs) and distribute parachutes to be strapped on their backs so when they jump the possibility of surviving would be higher or b. tying towing ropes down the building for them to climb from or c. spreading nets around the building and to cushion and prevent ground impact. this way even those who went down with the crumbling building could have jumped out and have a chance. I am sorry if my post offends anyone or creates any unwanted impression, but I am gripped by so much sympathy to imagine how helpless these people are looking at the pictures here. But on a positive note, these actions also reflects America's belief in taking action and never giving up. Tado
Tado,
All the solutions you mention were unworkable, for various reasons.
a.) Wind, heat and smoke prevented helicopers from landing or even getting close.
b.) Same as above. How are you going to attach ropes, when you can't get near it?
c.) Unworkable. To have a net or cushion large enough to break the fall from that height would take many hours to set up even under ideal conditions.
And conditions were far from ideal. Falling debris (and people) made it unsafe for any rescue workers to be working close to the building.
Even as it was, when the buildings fell, some rescue workers below were killed by being too close to the building. Nothing could have caught people as the building fell, because nothing near the building would have survived.
The sympathy most of us feel, makes us wish that more had been done, but given the time frame, the circumstances and the possibilities, I believe it could not have played out any differently than it did.
I worked in highrise security for many years. The scenario of a commercial jet plane filled with fuel hitting a highrise is something no one is sufficiently prepared for. And up until 9-11 happened, no one thought it was even plausible. Highrises are in no-fly zones, and the idea that suicidal highjackers would do it deliberately, was unthinkable.
Thank you for your article. I do not believe that any one would choose to commit suicide in the sense that folks that are depressed or have mental anguish would do so. When someone contemplates or executes suicide it is a conscious decision made after many hours of consideration - not something done because of such an event as the fire and smoke that these poor souls had to endure. These are brave people doing all they could do to breath and live, jumping in hopes that somehow maybe they would survive somehow - but surely surviving the inferno they left behind.
Thank You for this article, I never realised until recently the amount of people that were forced from the buidling, I too believe they were in no way jumping they were forced from a building that was blazing hot with acrid smoke that would make it impossible to think rationally, these pictures touch me so much as I do honestly believe that some of them may have thought they would survive the fall and at least they gave it one last chance as knowing you were that high up. I am from the UK and I love NYC so much, RIP all those who died on Sept 11th 2001
I would have done the same thing. Jump into the sky and fly... Their death was the one thing they could take from the terrorists that day. I'm sure it was hell on those floors- everything crashing down and burning, people getting burned alive, skin blistering. Of course they would jump, what other choice did they have? Quick and instant, that's the way to go. Anyone who thinks this was "suicide" on their part is crazy. These were hardworking people, out in the world being productive. These images should burn in our minds so we never forget true evil and insanity. These terrorists are horrible and I'm very happy Osama is dead. R.I.P. Lest we forget...
Falling to your death like that is beyond my imagination. Even in my dreams it's this terrible feeling falling and waiting for impact. I wonder if people who new the jumpers go through every day wondering if that person chose to jump, or fell to there deaths do to other situations? Also, supposedly when falling to your death, you die from a heart attack.
In the 10 years that have passed since the attacks I realized that I had sheltered myself from this horrific truth. Because it was visual documentation of the agonizing realization of impending death it was somehow worse than the other unseen loss of life that day. I knew that the people on the airplanes and in the collapsing buildings were going to die terrifying deaths but in seeing the falling people I felt I was sharing death with them.
i would have jumped regardless because i would much rather face instantanious death then death by burning or smoke inhalation.. i cry every time i read about this stuff and am deeply sadened by what happened on this infamous day :( thank god that Osama is dead mother F****R should have been tortured for what he did and all the grief he caused by killing close to 3000 lives in the matter of a couple of hours... God Bless All The Souls That Were Lost In The 9/11 attacks you will never be forgoten :( you guys are in a better place now :) have fun in paradise i will be seeing you sooner or later <3 God Bless You All <33
Thank you for putting up such a complete compilation of photos. In the US, we are sheltered way too much. Even though these photos may be disturbing, they are reality. I feel that in their deaths, they left a legacy here on earth for all of us to ponder and learn. So many commenters have said "I can't imagine" - but I bet they see this blog and they do indeed "imagine" how they would have felt in a similar situation. I'm sure it gives them an appreciation for religious tolerance, peaceful conflict resolution and a true sense of how precious life truly is.
This goes beyond the nationality, I'm mexican (no, I don't live in the US) and I've been touched by these events so deeply because of its inhumanity. To me it's useless debating about a jump or a fall; the point here is that those people were pushed into a heartless situation. I don't think they really were in a position to think something like: "How I'd rather die?"; as someone suggested in a comment above, in a scene like this you only try to survive, it's human nature to get away from danger, I don't think they resigned to die even when they jumped. They just tried to escape from that hell, sadly dying was the only way. I just hope they felt as less pain as possible. My english is not that good, hope you get what I'm trying to say.
R.I.P. all these people.
Im crying so hard i cant imagine something like this I wish that terrism didnt hapen I give all my hopes and love to thoose who had lost their loveed ones and give all my care to thoose who had died :'( They will always be remembered with love,hope, and care because of losing thier innocent lives... the jumping was worst i cry and cry but i know i would have done the same :( <3 to all<3
I had been in a violent accident in the Idaho mountain's and the bus i was on went out of control over a 100 ft. enbankment. Instead of fear there was a tremendous sense of acceptance and peace. Although my body had been flung around violently and in the process i shattered a leg there was no pain.God has programmed in our bodies and mind a process called 'shock' when event's overwhelm our bodies&mind. It provides profound peace..no pain and acceptance.
Wow. I don't know were to begin. It brings me personally back to that tragic day. The feelings are sort of there again right now. Looking at these photos, especially that last one makes me really think. It would be unkind of me to try to express what it might of been like to be in their shoes and I won't even try. I'm not exactly sure what is drawing me to this again, but I suppose it is a way for the rest of us to kind of put it behind. Not to disrespect those who died, but you have to move on at some point. Our own time will come. Somehow I'd like to think that the Creator knows what is best and that it is somehow OK. I just don't have the right words right now. But I think it's important to try and talk about it and you have given people that chance. Thank you.
By way of introduction, I’m a resident of the Arab World and the 9/11 attacks impacted and affected me deeply.
Firstly, may I express my condolences for the people killed in 9/11, and the hurt caused to their families and communities.
Secondly, the heat and flames pushed people out of the buildings – to suggest they were ‘jumpers’, committing suicide, is nonsense.
Only 19 people committed suicide on 9/11 – the attackers.
RIP victims of 9/11, and victims of war and injustice worldwide.
This page is mostly filled with compassionate, caring human beings.
So please excuse me-my anger is not directed to them.
Some have mentioned here "choosing a pain-free death"....
Can u imagine the mental anguish involved in (that moment) "choosing" to leave your wife/husband/children/parents as compared to trying to "tough it out" and hope a miracle was going to happen???
But in this case "toughing it out" was ABSOLUTE AGONY!!! Anyone who feels anyone took the easy way needs to go turn on the burner of your oven and keep your hand in the fire and/or limit ur breathing til u r suffocating.
I live in NJ and stood at the observatory just once in my life. I was so shaken by the slight movement the building made and being up so high my visit to the top was very brief. I was terrified.
It annoys me that this portion of that day has been brushed under the rug, like it just DIDNT HAPPEN.
We've all heard the awful stories in the last 10 years, yet this portion is some kind of "dirty word."
If u ask most people it is the one image they cannot forget-- And we shouldnt!!!! Those 200 deserve to have all of us caring about them and what they went through as with anyone else that day.
We all saw so much happen on 9-11right in front of us. We only wish we would photoshop the bad parts from our mind.
Barb-NJ
Tado, in regard to what you wrote....
Your mind is trying to find what "scrap of hope" could've been offered those people that day as they waived things to the helicopters that initially circled them, filming them (and I'm sure, in their minds, IGNORING THEM.)
I dont often criticize the media (hell, I rarely post ANYTHING online) but I did not like the way the press started 2"whitewash" the 9-11 story and by the next day only showed "look how many flags are flying and how brave the rescuers were" which negated the sorrow so many were feeling.
Maybe someone SHOULD BE looking at seemingly INSANE ideas for high-rise buildings ---items that arent IDEAL or PERFECT,but crazy things that in the worst of circumstances would've given maybe just a few a fighting chance.
Money cannot be mentioned because we waste so much more on "so much less."
Someone coming up with some crazy thought/invention would be much easier to swallow than "Oh, yeah, that was the 6 months to a year that everyone flew a flag on their car because we were all so brave."
THAT DAY HURT LIKE HELL AND CONTINUES TO HURT-- I believe it was Jula B. that said above "we are too sheltered here in USA" ==SO TRUE:
9-11 was HORRIBLE, SHOCKING, PAINFUL, TERRIBLE, AGONIZING, ETC. and it didnt just GO AWAY the next
day because the press felt the need to put a positive spin on it!!
What people needed most was to SHARE how upset we were not to be made to feel like we were UNUSUAL for not being able to see the POSITIVE in what went down.....
I just cannot believe anyone jumped due to smoke. Fire - and heat - could be the ONLY things that would force such a desperate act, as it was indeed a DESPERATE act. Smoke inhalation, though obviously unpleasant, would pretty much overtake one gradually enough that you would simply pass out, and from that unconscious state, ultimately die. I used to work across the street from the towers, in the Merrill Lynch building. Their height was INCREDIBLE. To have JUMPED from one of those upper floors is SO against the grain of human nature, so contrary to EVERY fiber of one's being, I can only conclude that actual fire or SEARING temps drove people to such action. UGH, a frisson of horror goes through me every time I really envision such a scenario.
I can't imagine anything more horrible than what faced those poor people who were forced to jump from that tower. After all, they were just folks. Ordinary people who went to work that day just like we all do. When out of the blue, they were faced with an unimaginable dilemma. Then too, NO ONE thought the towers would collapse, so jumping out before being crushed to death in the collapse wasn't an issue either. I can only conclude, as I stated before, actual fire or unbearable heat drove the jumpers. May their souls be at rest.
And may cooler heads prevail on future fanatics - killing people, ANY people is SO WRONG. Find some other method to voice your displeasure, your hurt, your anger. Peace out.
I keep coming back to this amazing artical, year after year it still brings tears to my eyes, I may be across the pond but watched it first hand as the news broke,
Great article, still brings tears to my eyes.
I just wanted to inquire as to where you found the photo of the couple holding hands? thanks
I don't recall where I found that particular photo. It was years ago when I posted it, and I think since then it's actually been proven to be fake, or at least altered; not originally two people.
I have read of eyewitness reports claiming people jumped/leaped/fell to their deaths while holding hands, but I'm not aware of any actual photos showing such.
I just watched a video (dunno why) that featured the Jumpers from the Towers and happened to come across this article 'cause I was feeling completely astounded by the fact that these beautiful people had no choice but to jump to their deaths.
I didn't realize that there may be folks who actually believe they chose to jump...? That astounds me beyond reason.
Fire and heat, burning directly behind you leaves you two choices: burn alive or hold someone's hand, say a prayer, and get out of there. Your fate is sealed at that point. I can't imagine how horrible a choice that had to be, but can imagine that it was an easy one for these souls.
I wish I'd stop looking at these videos... yet I occasionally do because it brings me back to the human emotions I felt that day. Life is a precious gift, and if anybody dares to think that these people chose to end their lives, I'd like to see them about to burn alive without nowhere else to go.
May all these souls rest in peace.
I watched the same video last night, as these documentaries now define most September or even late summer television. I sat and wondered what I'd do: there have been many pitfalls in my own life where I've been very suicidal, but when your survival and the survival of others is at stake, it changes everything. Thus far I've found myself to be one of the youngest and strongest at work, so there's no question I'd exhaust every avenue to save my coworkers. That's why I became a nurse in the first place.
Living in Vancouver, Canada is unnerving because of this high-rise discussion - condos, towers and offices are going up all over downtown with no regard for safety if a terrorist attack hits out west here, or WHEN we get this earthquake that nobody's prepared for. 9/11 has absolutely changed my choice of housing - before all I wanted was an apartment up high with views of the city, mountains and water; today I want to be able to get out if a fire hits.
I thought about what I could have done had I been on the 101st floor of the WTC. Find other young, strong men and women and say 'okay...we have to at least TRY to do something'...but I don't know. Obviously this was so overwhelming and hopeless if you were up there. That was when I stopped watching. I didn't want to know how many people perished when the towers collapsed.
This is something I'll never forget. When the towers were hit, I was 12 and didn't even know what they were exactly. I had seen pictures from my parents NY trip, but that's all.
I quickly realized the seriousness of the situation when my dad spoke these words: "Imagine, it's so incredibly hot up there, they have to choose between burning alive or falling to their deaths."
Those words will always haunt me. I continue to pray for the victims and their families almost on a daily basis. I dread the day my children ask me about it, but I don't ever want to forget it, because that feels like we are forgetting the torture these poor souls went through in their final moments, and the least we can do is keep their memory alive.
But if they was falling then they would not be holding hand or be in a group. my point is that they know that it was over for them and at some point they know that the help was not going to come fast enough so they told eachother or themself that it was time to make a lep even thou they know they was going to die. Yeah its true no one gose to work think hey someone is going to drive plain in the building and i am going to jump out but I also think there could be way have provented a lot of people from dying I no that there was no way to put fire escapes but if they had parashoots and know how to us them it would have helpt I also know that the people that work in the area the plain hit there was a slim chance of them being alive if they survied that would be very lucky. But it might sound funny having parashoots in a office bout whatever saves your life I am sure you would do put it on and say I am glad i had this.
I Was in 2nd gread when it happend are techers did not talk to us about it. My mom and dad did not talk about it to me eather. i was in middle school when I found out. cuze the played the video and I remember sitting in my chair getting mad and hatting the people who did this them and every year after that they played the same video and they still play the video and i try to get a lot of work so I dont get to see the video cuze I alway get mad and more then sadness. I am greatlly sorry for those who lost the loved one that day but just know that they are in peace now with no pain or suffering they are also watching over you. One day you will see them again they are not really dead they are just at home with are father waiting for you in heaven.
It is beyond me why the word "suicide" is even part of the dialogue when discussing the issue of those who died from falling from the WTC.
Saying those who fell (jumped, pushed, whatever) is tantamount to saying if they stayed in the burning building, they CHOSE to die THAT way...thus they STILL committed suicide. Makes no sense.
I have believed since the day 911 happened, those poor people had no choice. With the intense heat and smoke pressing upon them, they instinctively did what anyone would have done, they did all they could to remove themselves from the inferno and lack of air which meant going towards the window. I don't believe most, if any conscientiously had much time to weigh their options, they just needed relief!
As others have mentioned, I do believe that there had to be an element of shock and disbelief which very well have "numbed" those poor people from what was happening. Once they fell, I don't believe much would have been going through their minds. It just all happened too quickly.
As a side note, for those who believe suicide is a sin punishable by an eternity of living in hell....shame on you for not reading your bibles but instead believing the unscriptural doctrines taught by men....it's just NOT in the book people!!
I think the victims jumped because it seemed like the thing to do to get away from the extreme suffocating heat and blazing fire. Most had no where else to go. They did not commit suicide, they were murdered. They were put in that position by the hijackers of the planes that hit. They were in complete SHOCK I'm sure and were in a state of panic. I do believe however that there were Angels that revealed themselves to them in their state of horror so that they could fall in peace, I believe there was an Army of Angels that day for each and every victim involved.
I am deeply saddened by these images. The jumpers, like anyone who "chooses" suicide (it is not a choice by the way) doesn't wish to die, they simply want to ESCAPE their pain. They are in deep, deep despair. Unless you are in their shoes, you simply can't judge.
I lost my dad to suicide several years ago. No, he was not a 9/11 jumper. He had severe depression and multiple chronic health issues. Near the end he was a shell of the man I knew. How quickly the depression took over still shocks me to this day. He was not a coward, he saw only more hoplessness/despair ahead. He didn't want to die (he was trying so hard to LIVE) but if depression is not treated properly (his doctor was no help), like cancer it eventually proves fatal.
It's amazing the stigma that still exists. Like these jumpers, they were looking for the most peaceful, quick exit. They were looking to avoid extreme pain. They were most likely in shock, with no way out (exits blocked) and the realization that they would either die a slow agonizing death OR die more quickly. Which would you "choose?" See what I mean, not much of a choice there. They did what they had to do in the moment.
I wish the families who lost those on 9/11 peace and acceptance. Never forget and please stop spreading the stigma of suicide. It is not a choice, it is the result of deep despair and hopelessness.
Offer people and the families affected support not judgment.
I can say from personal experience that in the moment before you are absolutely certain your life is about to end that there is an amazing peace and calm that comes over you. We were sure to be crushed by a large 18-wheeled vehicle and as I *knew* this to be the end I felt utterly relaxed, ok, calm, peaceful. I had previously had a fear of death and dying but since that day - no more. It took between 20 and 30 minutes for me to process what had happened (almost) and that is when the fear and panic set in and I nearly collapsed. I will never forget that split second. I wish everyone could experience it before their actual death - it really helps to *deal* with fallers or jumpers or any tragedy. Great blog.
I find this full of opinions. Let me ask you this simple question, would you rather be burned, crushed, or suffocated to death or would you rather choose to end your life on your own accord? I believe that they chose their fate. I believe that they [the JUMPERS] chose to jump to escape the pain of being burnt to death.
Hi to all!
I am from Manchester, a city in the north of England, but it just so happened that on September the 11th, 2001, I was staying at a friends in North Wales. That morning, I had risen from bed, and began to make a cup of tea, when Paul alerted me to the pandemonium that ensued on the news channels. The sight of the aeroplanes careering into the twin towers, we thought was a trailer to a Hollywood blockbuster...It was too shocking for words, and an image that I for one, and I'm sure all who who saw it will NEVER forget! Just awful! If this image wasn't bad enough, the later footage of desperate people (mothers and husbands, fathers and wives, somebody's child or fiance/ee), waving shirts, and other fabrics in an agonising plea for help....but to no avail, in which people saw no alternative but to jump. Whatever the moral or ethical issues that surround suicide, these people must have been out of their minds with panic, fear, confusion and shock. If these people (if any), decided to consciously jump to their deaths, providing they didn't get pushed accidentally, or blown out after the event, then their choice to die via suicide was completely their decision, and we should respect that, for if I were ever in a similar position (god forbid), I would more than likely take the same view as the aforementioned. The prospect of having a moducom of control over your own death, along with the fresh air, and the instant death on impact, is a no-brainer to me; also, the possibility of absolution for family members, knowing that they had one's remains that they could bury, just seems the better option, no less horrific, in certain respects, but better.
I feel that these brave and courageous human-beings would have closed their eyes and fallen backwards, in the view that, at least they couldn't see the ground, in which their lives, hopes and dreams would be extinguished in an instant. Too awful to contemplate.
God bless these people, and to all who perished on that day, one of the darkest in our history: The date; September the 11th, 2001. 'Lest we forget'.
Saying some people jumped is not insensitive or wrong.The act of jumping was not even a choice.They did not choose on how they were going to die on that day..No one jumped out the window before the planes hit both buildings.People jumped after the planes hit the buildings.with the Intense smoke,heat and fire..No one had a choice.
It was so horrible to see people jumping in these pictures.I cannot imagine the thoughts...the raw emotion being felt by the ones who jumped and the ones who died when the building collapse.It is unspeakable.
No one Commited suiside...period..
What would you have done if you were these people?..When you know no matter what..You were still going to die..Ramming 2 fuel loaded planes into 2 high rise building is going to cause serious damage and that is what happened.So -they Jumped..But Anyone with common sense and a great deal of intelligence knows..Why they jumped..cause there was no other choice.Sadly the world too many people with such a senseless tragedy.
How can any human being create such devastation on humanity and think this is acceptable in the eyes of God Is Mad..And as God Said in the bible-Leave it to Me..Vengance IS Mine saith the Lord..
This is the god that rain Fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah..and the same that destroyed the World with a Flood for 40 days and forty Nights..So I think God will certainly deal with All the Men -Who do things like this that reek havoc on Humanity..and think they are doing it in the name of God...As Revelations says..When Christ returns..Men Will Say Mountain Fall on US..And it will Not..Everyone will be judged..Sadly- it is only in the face of such horrific Tragedy..That People are kinder..gentler...We Need to Care About the World..and each other more than We do.. And it must be done Everyday..Not happen when something bad happens.God Bless everyone who lost their lives and to their families who bare the heartbreak of such a horrible act of violence on the ones they loved.
I don't know if anyone has brought this up, but the NYC coroner's office, police dept, and etc, do not classify these people as jumpers precisely for the reason you stated; a jumper, according to these departments, is someone who goes into the office knowing they will throw themselves off the building that day. These people didn't.
Thank you for this well thought out article. I have never believed that anyone chose to jump. I don't mean this in a crude, uncaring way, but the phrase dead man walking came to mind a long time ago. To say they willingly jumped, as if they had a choice between life & death at that moment in time, is putting the stigma of suicide on them & that is not fair to them or their loved ones.
I watched a program where a man was seeking the identity of the "falling man" & the whole time, I kept thinking, I know his identity, he is every man, woman & child that lost their lives that day. He is the profound sadness & sense of loss that we all feel every time we think of that day.
Again, thank you for writing the words that so many have felt from the moment we witnessed. Reese Lovern-Bishop
My father was in our town VFD for the longest time. We moved to Ohio the year before 9/11, so he had to quit and get another job. I was 10 years old when it happened. I remember asking him when I was about 18 or so if it was considered suicide that they jumped, and if they were going to Hell (at this point I was struggling spiritually). He looked at me and said, "Son, let me tell you about fire and being trapped in the middle of it. When you're in there with no way out, hundreds of feet in the air, and the only escape is an open window, you are willing to try and fly to get out of there. Fire will make you think you can fly." That's exactly what he said. D I think many knew wha was going on and chose death by a quick fall? Yes (I don't think they went to Hell, though–I've gained a bit more understanding since then). Do I thn that some of them were accidentally pushed? Yes (the crush of bodies at the window to get air must have been horrific). But I also believe a large part were simply in panic mode and saw an avenue of escape that had no fire...
Never forgive. Never forget. Ever.
As a person with knowledge of medicine I can tell you there is no worst way of suffering that being burn alive. (The reason people accused of witchcraft were burnt at the stake).
At the last moment it is the cerebellum who takes control over the brain and overcomes rationality and the logical thinking. All this due to the instinct to survive. The choice taken by this part of the brain to live an extra 10 seconds and avoid the flames.
I have always thought about the people who fell to their deaths, I don't consider them, nor do I call them jumpers. Yesterday evening I felt the need to watch programs related to 9/11 and the stories and interviews of people who where there- I think I owe them that much respect. I can tell you that, on a personal level, had never seen so many details of the attack being released on TV. It was good but scary because I feel people are becoming desensitized as the years go by. Every year I watch I am taken back to that morning and how I felt then I still feel now. I watched the people fall off buildings and I cried, how scary, what was going through their mind? I thought. One of the many questions I have brought me here "Were these people unconscious on the way down (hoping they were!)? I saw a couple of facts saying they fell at 150mph/240kmp which would not cause unconsciousness - sadden by this information. Still, I think the human body has a certain expected physiological reaction, yet each individual can/may react differently. I am a Christian and as stated on a previous comment by Ziggy (which was amazing - thank you!) I believe these people were not jumpers and did not commit suicide. Their circumstances were extreme and many were in shocked and not in their right mind which may have caused other reactions that may seem unthinkable to you and me - also stated on the previous comment "Fire will make you think you can fly!" I hope everyone of the people that fell were unconscious or in such state of shock that they didn't realize what was happening. God bless their souls, their families and all the other people who lost their lives that day. We will NEVER forget and SHOULD NEVER forget that day. We should still feel our skin crawl and stand in shock with our mouths opened with tears in our eyes EVERY TIME WE WATCH FOOTAGE FROM 9/11!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
Every second week of September, I just slow down and think about what happened on that day. I reflect where I was and what was happening to remind myself how tragic that day was. Even though it is morbid to think about what happened to the people who died, it gives me comfort to know that I still remember and that I shall never forget.
God bless America.
It has now been 12 years, and I still can't get those poor souls out of my mind. Thank you for writing this article, I only now discovered it. It helps me immensely, to understand more about what was going on with them that day. Yes, they weren't jumpers. They were unfortunate victims that were either blown out or ran out to escape the fumes, flames, smoke, and heat. God bless you for writing this, and God bless them as well...
Thank you so much for posting this magnificent article. I've been researching on that tragic day this week for no apparent reason. Been reading books, articles, watching you tube videos and it was just tragic. I was a very little young girl when it happened so i knew little about it. and one day, my aunt was just talking about it again, and i just cant fathom how evil people can be. how tragic. Thank you again for posting this, one of the best ive read. God Bless, America. God bless the whole world. God bless the victims of that tragic day.
My most vivid recollection that morning was the man and woman falling together holding hands. She had a blue dress on, he was in a dress shirt and tie. NY1 had it on their broadcast, my view was across the east river in lower park slope, so I could only see dark figures. Haunts me to this day, after 13 years.
What's 9/11? I forgot...
With all due respect, people who make comments like "God will punish the evil doers" are unwittingly part of the problem that lead to this atrocity—religion.
We must never ever forget! We must teach our children what this day was. It was a attack on America , I just hope we never see something like this again, but my fear is we will. Cheryl
Excellent blog. I, like others here, was unaware of how censored the information on the jumpers was, even the number of them. I thought there were maybe 10-20, but to know it may have been as high as 200 is a shocker. After 13 years, unfortunately, it does seem that the memory is already fading which is a disgrace but that's the way it is in this country and which is one reason why 9/11 happened in the first place. A lot of people in this country have been asleep at the switch and ignored the underlying problem (massive illegal immigration and foreign cultural influences), that set us up for this event for over two decades before it happened. Everyone says, "never forget", but how many people (especially younger people), care about Pearl Harbor anymore? Dec. 7 comes and goes with few remarks made on social media, etc.
The sad fact is, in 10 years (or less) 9/11 will not be front and center, because we never learn. Let us all hope and pray that we finally DID learn from this horrific event. And I agree with the poster who suggested supplying workers in high rise buildings with parachutes. These types of buildings will continue to be targets and people working in them should have a fighting chance to survive whatever happens. That way those who had to jump out of the tower won't have died in vain. Many, many changes need to be made in this country. Let's stop sanitizing the reality. Thank you.
God and Jesus
It has been 14 years and my heart still feels the pain of that day! I have a hard time about that day. Yes, I remember all the details of that painful day - as the world watched it unfold, moment by moment, people were being Murdered because someone made a conscious decision to take those people's lives!
My heart and prayers still go out to those who lost their lives that worked in the WTC's, the rescuers who lost their lives trying to help others, the families of those who we lost that day & Our Nation!
Our fellow American's were Murdered.... the Lord was there, with them, to bring ALL of them home! Please, have faith that the Lord understood and was witness for each soul and reach soul was accounted for.
We cannot spend too much time dwelling on the evil that happened on Sept 11, 2001, but never forget and offer up a prayer and let forgiveness fill or hearts!
I feel like you're mostly getting into semantics. Those who fell/jumped/were pushed from the WTC, according to the coroner's reports, were victims of homicide. No reasonable person is suggesting that they were preventable suicides or that these people were morally wrong. My thinking is that jumping may have provided a few seconds of relief whereas flames and smoke amounted to slow torture. It's clear from the phone calls and e-mails from within the WTC that many of these people were resigned to death and exercised free will during their final minutes, which is inspiring.
Sure, a large part of what I am saying is semantics. But that's the point. We can call it this or that, but the fact is the victims often had little or no choice.
You say no "reasonable" person is suggesting they were preventable suicides... actually, when I wrote this, many people were saying just that. That they should not have jumped, that they should have waited to be rescued right till the end. I'm attempting to explain that many did not even have that choice.
I read interviews with victims family members, where they were upset that their loved ones may have "jumped", committing suicide, which was against their religion. Suggesting that they should instead have hung on till the end. Worried that they were "damned" for killing themselves.
Is that unreasonable? I would say yes, under the circumstances. I can't judge any of them for what they did under such exceptional duress.
I don't disagree with you. We can call it what we want, but in the end, it was what it was. I haven't all the answers, and I know that what I've said isn't the only way to look at it. But I did want people to think about how little choice, or no choices,there were. And to cut the "jumpers" some slack for "jumping", as if it were some sort of arbitrary choice they were indulging. Being suffocated or burned alive can hardly be called a viable option for anyone.
Reading the above posts puzzles me that people actually do not understand why the victims were compelled, forced, pressured, coerced, given no choice, or involuntarily driven to flee the pain of their experience.
It was not a conscience choice or decision but rather an involuntary REFLEX.
Turn your cooking stove on high then hold your hand on the burner for one minute. The involuntary nervous system will not allow this and will pull your hand away immediately for the purpose of self preservation.
They involuntarily fled from murder but there was no where to flee, to accomplish self preservation.
It was murder not suicide.
No, it wasn't suicide in any way. When given the choice to burn up or jump there is no choice. To breathe or not breathe was not a choice either. They were all murdered. No choices.
AMEN!
Do you really think a net would have saved these poor souls falling 100 plus floors??? Really a net??? And you think a helicopter landing on these roofs could have saved all these people??? Horric scenes to watch, these brave jumpers. RIP to them all and to all who were lost that day. We will never forget.
From my understanding the doors leading to the roof were chained with padlocks thus trapping them.
A net would have been impossible, for so many reasons. Falling debris. The height. No time. As for locks on the doors to the roof, the stairwells above the explosions were like chimneys, so full of smoke no one could breath in them anyway. Impossible all around.
i have seen a photo of a man and a woman holding hands before they jump. i found it very poignant. after all these years i am still trying to find it because it touched me so deeply.
Maybe its just me. But I feel like we should see those photos. To me by viewing the photos of the bodies I am saying to those people," I see what happened to you . It wasn't fair and I'm sorry. You didn't die in vain. I will always remember you. You mattered and you still matter."
Hey, when you're trapped in a damaged building with a raging, sinister fire below you, with all the escape destroyed (stairs and elevators) - because of someone else's evil actions, which was no fault of your own,
and your only choices are (1) jump to a painless death, (2) suffer the collapse, (3) burn to death, (4) die of smoke, that's not suicide, that's murder.
And yes many deliberately chose to jump, but deliberaly choosing is not what makes it suicide, but the intent. They knew they were going to die, they wanted to die on their own terms, rather than let the terrorists kill them the way they intended.
So yes it was a choice to jump, but choice doesn't make it suicide, it's intention that makes it such. They didn't want to die, but they were going to.
This is a very warm article. Thanks Chaos.
Alayne was my grandmother's boss at Fiduciary Trust. I remember meeting her, but as I was only 12 in 2001, don't have any strong memories.
Last year I accompanied my grandmother to the 9/11 memorial offices, where they recorder her oral history. My grandmother was at work that morning, in her office on the 96th Fl of 1 WTC. She had worked there since the building opened, Fiduciary Trust was one of the first tenants.
When the first plane hit the other tower, my grandmother immediately decided they had to evacuate, recalling the '93 bombing which she also lived through. As they left for the stairs Alayne stayed behind to check to make sure everyone had left. She assured them she would be down shortly. My grandmother had knee replacement surgery and was struggling on the stairs. Her co-worker Ed Emory carried her the rest of the way down to the 78th floor sky lobby, before heading back upstairs to sweep for more employees. Ed also died on 9/11, likely with Alayne.
On the 78th floor, there lobby was filled with people unsure what to do next. At this time the danger was in the other tower and some people thought they should wait in the south tower until told to evacuate. By pure luck an empty express elevator arrived right behind my grandmother and she jumped inside. Many people refused to get in since you're always told not to take elevators in emergencies. She knew though that in her older age and physical condition, it would take hours for her to descend the stairs. She made it out and a few blocks away before the second plane impacted her building, slicing right through the same lobby she had just left.
I'm extremely grateful for people like Ed who sacrificed his life to help others like my grandmother, and for the fact that her name isn't on the memorial wall with her co-workers.
For a second, when I read the title, I thought you were one of those conspiracy theorists that talk all this crap on 9/11. Though, when I fully read your article I found out what you meant. This is the most meaningful thing I have heard someone, describing the jumpers, say. And I'm glad you posted something like this.
So well put!!
💕 ~~double blessings for you~~ 💕
Raw Terror ... they were as innocent in those moments as a newly born baby. They entered into our reality after a lifetime of pursuing and believing in their dreams, as each one of us do. They woke up to a reality where we were asleep, dreaming .... and while we were asleep and dreaming, the reality became a nightmare. These are not the first victims in "the war" on peace, and i dont know when will be the last victims. One thing remains .... they WERE victims.
I don't know whose fate was/is worse. Theirs, for being faced with a terrifying descent toward death,
Or ours, for being still awake in the nightmare while we have watched our loved ones insist on falling asleep again, even if their dreams are now sometimes plagued with the effects that come from having been jolted from sleep by our worst noghtmare .... the ones who died do not agonize over it anymore and peace truly is theirs.
But we ... awake and asleep ... are still left to face this or keep turning away. Either way, our situation doesnt seem to be improving despite the lessons we could have learned that day.
Well, my thoughts anyway.
Now in 2018 I still feel like you Heather and always will. Horrible pictures of these innocent people in my mind forever. Your so right tho Heather if this don't make people wake up and make it real nothing will. Your friend Josh, Thanks Heather with love
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