24 April 2009
The Attack on the World Trade Center Towers
How the Twin Towers Collapsed
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted an extremely thorough, three-year investigation into what caused the World Trade Center (WTC) twin towers to collapse, as explained on NIST’s WTC Web site.
Some 200 staff reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed more than one thousand people, reviewed 7,000 segments of video footage and 7,000 photographs, analyzed 236 pieces of steel from the wreckage, performed laboratory tests and sophisticated computer simulations of the sequence of events that occurred from the moment the aircraft struck the towers until they collapsed.
NIST concluded that the twin towers collapsed because the impact of the planes severed and damaged support columns and dislodged fireproofing insulation coating the steel floor trusses and steel columns, which meant that the subsequent fire, which reached 1000 degrees Celsius, weakened the floors and columns to the point where they bowed and buckled, causing the towers to collapse.
NIST’s Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers stated in its executive summary (pp. xxxvii-xxxviii), in a passage cited by NIST Technical Administration Director William Jeffrey in testimony before the U.S. Congress on October 26, 2005:
The two aircraft hit the towers at high speed and did considerable damage to principal structural components (core columns, floors, and perimeter columns) that were directly impacted by the aircraft or associated debris. However, the towers withstood the impacts and would have remained standing were it not for the dislodged insulation (fireproofing) and the subsequent multi-floor fires. …
In WTC 1, the fires weakened the core columns and caused the floors on the south side of the building to sag. The floors pulled the heated south perimeter columns inward, reducing their capacity to support the building above. Their neighboring columns quickly became overloaded as columns on the south wall buckled. The top section of the building tilted to the south and began its descent. …
In WTC 2, the core was damaged severely at the southeast corner …. The steady burning fires on the east side of the building caused the floors on that side to sag. The floors pulled the heated east perimeter columns inward, reducing their capacity to support the building above. Their neighboring columns quickly became overloaded as columns on the east wall buckled. The top section of the building tilted to the east and to the south and began its descent. …
The WTC towers would likely not have collapsed under the combined effects of aircraft impact and the extensive, multi-floor fires … if the thermal insulation had not been widely dislodged or had been only minimally dislodged by aircraft impact.
NIST found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to September 11, 2001. NIST also did not find any evidence that missiles were fired at or hit the towers. Instead, photographs and videos from several angles clearly showed that the collapse initiated at the fire and impact floors and the collapse progressed from the initiating floors downward, until the dust clouds obscured the view.
Remote Piloting Allegation
Another conspiracy theory is that the two Boeing aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center towers had not been hijacked, but were remotely controlled.
A Boeing Company official stated that Boeing has designed its commercial airplanes so that it is impossible to control them remotely. Elizabeth Verdiev, a spokesperson for Boeing, stated on June 16, 2005:
No Boeing commercial jet transport can be controlled from outside the airplane. No Boeing commercial jet transport can be “commanded” or have its flight controlled other than from within the flight deck by the pilots. Pilots can program the airplane to take off, fly to a destination and land automatically, but Boeing design philosophy keeps pilots in control and in the decision-making loop at all times.
Passengers Report Hijackings
Conspiracy theory claims about the World Trade Center attacks also ignore the fact that several passengers and crew from the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers made phone calls describing how their flights had been hijacked.
American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s north tower at 8:46 am. It had been hijacked at approximately 8:14 am. Flight attendants Betty Ong and Madeline “Amy” Sweeney made phone calls describing the hijacking. Betty Ong’s call lasted about 25 minutes, the first four minutes of which were recorded (see footnote 29 for chapter one in the “Notes” section of The 9-11 Commission Report).
The 9-11 Commission Report (chapter one, pages 5-6) stated:
At 8:19, Ong reported: “The cockpit is not answering, somebody’s stabbed in business class – and I think there’s Mace – that we can’t breathe – I don’t know, I think we’re getting hijacked.” She then told of the stabbings of the two flight attendants.
… At 8:26, Ong reported that the plane was “flying erratically.” A minute later, Flight 11 turned south. …
Sweeney calmly reported on her line that the plane had been hijacked; a man in first class had his throat slashed; two flight attendants had been stabbed – one was seriously hurt and was on oxygen while the other’s wounds seemed minor ….
United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center’s south tower at 9:03 am. It had been hijacked between 8:42 and 8:46 am. Passengers Peter Hanson, Brian David Sweeney, and an unidentified flight attendant made phone calls reporting that United Airlines flight 175 had been hijacked and recounting events onboard the plane.
The 9-11 Commission Report (chapter one, pages 7-8) stated:
At 8:52, in Easton, Connecticut, a man named Lee Hanson received a phone call from his son Peter, a passenger on United 175. His son told him, “I think they’ve taken over the cockpit – An attendant has been stabbed – and someone else up front may have been killed.” …
Also at 8:52, a male flight attendant called a United office in San Francisco …. The flight attendant reported that the flight had been hijacked, both pilots had been killed, a flight attendant had been stabbed, and the hijackers were probably flying the plane.
… At 8:59, Flight 175 passenger Brian David Sweeney … called his mother, Louise Sweeney, told her the flight had been hijacked, and added that the passengers were thinking about storming the cockpit to take control of the plane away from the hijackers.
At 9:00, Lee Hanson received a second call from his son Peter:
It’s getting bad, Dad – A stewardess was stabbed – They seem to have knives and Mace – They said they have a bomb – … The plane is making jerky movements – I don’t think the pilot is flying the plane – I think we are going down – Don’t worry, Dad – If it happens, it’ll be very fast – My God, my God.
The call ended abruptly. Lee Hanson heard a woman scream just before it cut off. He turned on a television, and in her home so did Louise Sweeney. Both of them saw the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center.
Thus, passengers and crew members from both flights reported that they had been hijacked, that passengers and crew members had been killed or wounded, and that the planes were flying in an erratic or jerky fashion, as would be the case if they were being flown by first-time pilots, as both hijacker pilots were. There was no mention or indication of a mysterious “remote control” takeover of the planes.
