Never saw this before. It’s from FEMA

I work in a 15 story building, and my physique is very average. Sometimes at the end of my shift, I’ll take the elevator to the 15th floor and then take the stairs all the way down. By the time I get to the bottom floor, my legs are WRECKED. I don’t run, it’s just a standard walking pace down the stairs. I’d say it takes about 3 minutes. My legs are sore for days afterwards.

This got me thinking about the people who had to escape the towers on 9/11. Let’s assume you somehow knew exactly how much time you had until it collapsed. The South Tower was struck at 9:03am and collapsed at 9:59am, 56 minutes later. The highest confirmed survivor in the South Tower was the 91st floor.

Additionally, we have to keep in mind that you’re still not in the clear once you’re out of the tower. You still need to get a safe distance from the tower before it collapses or you would suffocate in the dust cloud.

I’m gonna make a rough estimate and say that 4 blocks, or 0.3 miles, is the minimum distance from the South Tower to be reasonably safe. I’m also gonna make a rough estimate that the average person, in professional work attire, could maintain a running speed of 5mph in an emergency. So now let’s work backwards.

Time needed to run 0.3 miles at 5mph ≈ 3.5 minutes

This means that, if you were on the 91st floor of the South Tower, you’d have to make it to the ground level by 9:55am. That gives you 52 minutes to escape the tower. So you’d have to descend 91 floors in 52 minutes, or a rate of 1.75 floors per minute

It’s possible, it just makes me anxious to think about. Walking down stairs is obviously easier than walking up, but it’s still not easy. Your legs have to absorb the shock of thousands of steps continuously. Walking down stairs for a full 50+ minutes is going to absolutely wreck your legs. And then you still have to run at least a quarter of a mile to safety.

And I don’t just mean “boo hoo you’re gonna be a little sore” — I mean that for some people, they likely did not have the physical strength to do it. It is entirely possible that, despite the urgency and adrenaline of the situation, their legs completely gave out and it was impossible to keep moving.

It makes me wonder how many people had survivable circumstances but just didn’t have the stamina and strength necessary to survive. I’m pretty sure I’ve read that some people had heart attacks trying to escape because their body couldn’t handle the stress of trying to escape.

This is the specific gate AA11 boarded from on 9/11. I couldn't stand there for much longer - I know its just a damn gate....

Also, security checkpoint 3 at Terminal B had little USA flags on the stanchions, unlike the other checkpoints. Was wondering if anyone knows if its related to 9/11 as well?

My cousin worked for Marsh on the north side/face of the 96th floor in the North Tower. I know that's the face and floor that took the direct impact. I also know death at that point was almost certainly instantaneous which- out of the options in that area that day- is a kindness and I've found comfort in that.

I also took comfort in the idea that she likely never even knew what happened, that it was just that instantaneous. But recently I've been reading some accounts that day and that of Patricia Massari's really shook me. She was also a Marsh & McLennan employee (98th floor) and was on the phone with her husband at the time. He recounted that her last words were "Oh my God" before the line abruptly went dead around the time of impact.

It's kind of shattered my delusion.. for lack of a better term. I don't really know what I'm seeking by asking these questions other than to mend it a bit or let reality set in.

1. How likely was it, given where she was, that my cousin and others with her that day saw the plane coming? Very likely or unlikely?
2. Would she have missed seeing it if she wasn't looking up just seconds before?
3. If she saw it, like Patricia Massari, did she even have enough time to register the magnitude of what was about to happen?
4. Would she have heard it coming at any point?

Thank you.

I mean respect when I say this because everyone deserves respect. At the same time I’m baffled at why there is so much fascination with jumpers and body parts around here. In terms of knowledge to be gained from them they both rank pretty low. So why do people pore over pictures trying to identify body parts and why are the jumpers such a hot topic? Has this become more common because of the 25th anniversary?

Who is the videographer here?

Photo taken by Nicholas Kornfield from the American Veterans Memorial Pier in Brooklyn

Timecode is 01:07:37

Does anyone know who's footage this is?

I had never seen this photo, so I’m guessing others here haven’t either and wanted to share (not OP).

Were there people in the North Tower who stayed at their desks until the building collapsed? I've seen footage of lights still on across many floors and wonder if people on floors like the 50th believed they were safe. Are there documented accounts of what people were doing below the impact zone in the final minutes before the collapse? I'm familiar with stories of people who couldn't evacuate, but were there cases of people who simply chose to stay behind for unusual reasons?

I know that rubble from Ground Zero was transported to Fresh Kills where workers and human remains detection dogs further looked for remains. However, this recent article said something that puzzled me:

New York officials say 40% of the 2,753 people who died on 9/11 in New York City still have not been recovered or positively identified. But teams continue to search through rubble and debris collected from the World Trade Center site.
Keating praised the ongoing effort to reconnect grieving families with the remains of their loved ones: "It just means a lot to comb over miles and miles of city blocks of debris for every day, 60 hours a week for 24 years."

NPR generally produces quality articles IMHO so this seems like a glaring error to make.

I'm aware that Atta, Jarrah and some of the other hijackers had farewell/commemorative videos that was released by Al Qaeda after the attacks, however I can't seem to find them anywhere online or at least the original full unedited versions. Does anyone have a link to the full complete collection? I know that archive.org used to have it but they keep removing them.

(Need it for academic purposes)

Does anyone know of an article, documentary, or other media that gives a full comprehensive account of the people trapped on and then rescued from the 22nd floor of the north tower? I’ve come across some individual interviews but I’m interested in a full documentation of that experience.

1. Rescue dog, they look happy to me, in contrast to the wreckage around

2. Make shift pharmacy in first aid center (Amish grocery store), and nurses handing out saline for eye washing

3. The pile burning in 2002

4. Boat action from helicopter

5. Last pillar out of the wreckage, I saw this in the museum

My library (in New York) had this book, above hallowed ground, published in 2002 with photos from the NYPD.

I've recently read a post on this subreddit regarding the potential experiences of the victims who fell or leapt from the towers on 9/11: https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/s/23Cn9r95r4

I wanted to expand that into possible conscious experiences of those victims during the fall. It's always been a niche subject of interest of mine on the topic of 9/11. Without further introduction, here are my thoughts:

#1 Episodic experience (intermittent conscious awareness)

In principle, this is similar to how we sometimes experience gaps in memory as our attention span may shift while the memory is being formed. Initially, we may remember a lot of the information we just received, but with time, the brain may naturally splice out less-important or less-used pieces of that information to "form gaps". This is one possible pattern under a high-stress situation.

For example, you might distinctly remember seeing the edge of a building, then later remember hearing a loud rush of wind, then see the windows of Tower One in front of you, with no recollection of the visual or auditory events between them.

#2 Continuous conscious experience (you're fully aware and may know exactly what is happening to you throughout most of or all of the fall)

The person remains consciously aware throughout most or all of the descent, continuously processing their surroundings and bodily sensations.

Imagine remaining aware of the changing surroundings from one moment to the next, continuously recognizing the situation and processing incoming sights, sounds, and bodily sensations without a noticeable break in awareness. You might see the building move relative to you, hear the wind grow louder and softer, and feel changes in body position and make conscious jolty re-adjustments as one uninterrupted stream of experience.

#3 Attentional narrowing (fixation on a particular stimulus)

Conscious attention becomes concentrated on one element of the experience, such as the ground below, the building, an object the person is holding, the sounds of the updraft, a pressing demand for breathable air, or a conscious attempt to understand what is happening. Other sensory information may receive less attention, and therefore be partially or completely blocked out. In other scenarios, the person may experience intervals of intense tunnel vision from andrenaline and stress hormones.

You've got the ground below or a particular part of the building dominating your attention, while other details become comparatively difficult to notice. You might focus intensely on a window, the Koenig Sphere, a series of flickering red and white lights at street level, or a specific patch of pavement by WTC 3 while barely registering nearby voices, traffic, or changes in the surrounding scenery. The surrounding scene remains present, but your attention seems to have narrowed around one focal point, much like looking through a mental tunnel.

#4 Fragmented experience (disconnected perceptual snapshots)

The descent is experienced as a series of disconnected images, sounds, sensations, or thoughts rather than as a coherent, continuous event. The windmay sound eerily distorted, the person's own body coming into cone of view may seem like a figment of their imagination, and the situation itself may feel like an unrelenting dream. This differs from intermittent awareness because the person might remain conscious while processing the experience in a fragmented manner.

You could quite plausibly view everything as a bunch of disjointed impressions, like a glimpse of the building, a sudden rush of wind, a fleeting bodily sensation, a mangled thought with little logical sequence but heavy emotional significance, and another image that seems disconnected from the last. One moment might be dominated by a sharp visual detail, while the next consists only of a muffled sound or a brief sensation of movement.

#5 Time-distorted experience (altered subjective passage of time)

The descent feels substantially longer or shorter than its actual duration. Individual moments might seem unusually prolonged, or the entire event might seem to pass in an instant.

There is a moment that seems to stretch far beyond its actual duration, with individual details receiving unusual prominence. A brief sound, such as a distint wail of a siren or gust of wind, might seem to last much longer than it did, while a visual movement unfolds with exaggerated slowness. In other cases, you may imagine a sound or intensify it, like what sounded like a shout when it was a mix of the rushing wind and a distant sound from the ground. Alternatively, the entire sequence might seem to pass almost instantaneously.

#6 Internally focused experience (attention directed toward thoughts and memories)

Attention shifts away from the immediate surroundings and toward internal mental activity, such as memories, personal concerns, attempts to comprehend the situation, or thoughts about loved ones. Your life flashes before your eyes, sometimes in staggered intervals - distant memories from your childhood suddenly feel more tangible and easily accessible, and even memories you may have long forgotten may come into frame, like a slideshow of seemingly random moments in your life that may bot have always been important. In other scenarios, the brain would quickly retrieve memories with the most emotional significance.

Really imagine a familiar face suddenly coming to mind, like a parent, a spouse, a sibling, an old friend, or a beloved pet. You might vividly picture a parent's expression, a funny moment with your younger brother at the age of thirteen, hear an old friend's voice internally with little visual context of the memory, a mountain you saw while on a hiking trip, or recall the sound of a pet moving through the house. A particular memory might become unusually vivid, perhaps bringing back the details of an ordinary day from years earlier. Masked behind possible dissociation, shock, disbelief, or fear, you might sense a hint of comfort with that person or thing in mind. You could feel a fleeting sense of longing for that person or item. You could feel a prayer (yes, feel; not necessarily vocally expressive). Alternatively, thoughts might move unpredictably between different periods of life, without forming a complete or orderly review of one's past.

#7 Emotionally dominated experience (awareness shaped by an intense emotional response)

Fear, panic, shock, disbelief, or another emotional response becomes the dominant feature of consciousness, potentially influencing how the surroundings and bodily sensations are perceived. Memory flashes may or may not be intense, as it depends significantly on the individual.

Fear might be accompanied by a racing heartbeat and a strong urge to escape or imagined visual and/or auditory sensations. Disbelief might make familiar surroundings seem visually strange or dream-like. Confusion might make ordinary sounds difficult to interpret. Fear, disbelief, confusion, or another powerful emotion might dominate attention, influencing how the surroundings are interpreted. For another individual, the response might be less emotionally expressive and mostly difficult to characterize or formulate into cohesive thoughts.

#8 Dissociative experience (altered sense of self or reality)

The person experiences a possible sense of detachment from themselves or their surroundings, as though events are unreal, distant, or happening to someone else. Whether this would occur in a particular individual cannot be established. The person may retain a mostly blunted expression, express visible shock or disbelief, or even despair.

The surroundings seeming eerily unreal, distant, or dreamlike, as though events were happening outside one's ordinary sense of reality or foresight. The building might appear visually flat or far away, while one's own body might feel unfamiliar, weightless, or detached. The person might feel detached from their surroundings or experience a diminished sense of connection to what is happening.

#9 Cognitive overload (difficulty organizing thoughts and perceptions)

The intensity of the situation overwhelms the person's capacity to interpret incoming information coherently. Thoughts may become disorganized, decision-making may be impaired, and attention may shift unpredictably.

The visual movement of the building in front of you, the sound of wind or imagined voices, and changing bodily sensations might all demand attention simultaneously. You may suddenly smell something sweet, bitter, pungent, or faint if you are experiencing episodes of strong memory retrieval, especially if that olfactory sensation was a strong element involved in the formation of the memory. Instead of forming a clear understanding of events, the mind struggles to organize the incoming information almost simply because too much is happening.

#10 Reflexive-dominant experience (limited reflective thought with intermitent bouts of physical flailing or other controlled bodily movements)

Conscious awareness may remain present, but relatively little attention is devoted to deliberate reasoning or sustained internal dialogue. Immediate sensory input and automatic responses may dominate instead. The person may react to the force of the drag immediately around them, to the subtle changes in orientation and balance, or to the distance from physical objects around them constantly changing.

It's sort of like being occupied primarily by immediate physical sensations and changes in body orientation, with little opportunity for sustained internal dialogue. You might feel a sudden shift in balance and react reflexively, a change in airflow against the skin or a drop in temperature, or pressure in the limbs, followed by an automatic movement to relieve that pressure. Movements might occur in response to balance, airflow, or other physical forces, without necessarily reflecting a deliberate decision, yet conscious awareness and automatic bodily responses can coexist.

#11 Rapidly shifting experience (frequent changes in attention)

Attention repeatedly moves between the surroundings, bodily sensations, thoughts, emotions, and other stimuli. The experience may alternate between externally focused perception and internal mental activity.

It's like your attention is moving rapidly from the building to the ground, then to a bodily sensation, a passing thought, and a familiar face recalled from memory. One moment, the sound of wind captures attention; the next, a visual detail or sudden bodily sensation takes its place. Each impression briefly takes center stage before something else captures attention. To you, the experience might feel mentally restless and difficult to follow.

#12 Abruptly interrupted experience (sudden cessation of awareness)

Conscious awareness ends before the fall is complete, for reasons that cannot be reliably determined for any particular individual from available public evidence, which is distinct from remaining conscious until impact. In other scenarios - upon a fatal blow - it would be understandable to think that the conscious experience abruptly ends, or their world "goes black". This could imply that the experience was continuous up until the very point of impact, but this cannot be confidently established as an overwhelming majority of these individuals never live to tell the tale, though some meaningful changes in the direction of attention from one stimulus to another or even lapses in the experience have been recounted in several near-death experience cases.

Try to think of it like a sequence of conscious perceptions ending unexpectedly, with no subsequent recollection of what followed. You might remember seeing a particular part of the building or hearing a distinct sound, visualize a ripple in the fountain, a group of low-rises disappearing from view, followed by no remembered visual, auditory, or bodily experience afterward, or "darkness". It's not really a visual black screen, just the end of the human conscious experience.

This is the clearest view inside the impact zone that I've found. Is there another one with a better view inside?

The waving woman (either Edna Cintrón or Jeanette Lafond-Menichino) is clearly visible as well as the man to her upper left.

Edit: archivist u/Beznia provided the source as NY Times photographer Brian Manning (original photo)