Fact-Checking 9/11: How Many People Truly Fell from the Twin Towers and What Science Tells Us

A fresh look at Fact-Checking 9/11: How Many People Truly Fell from the Twin Towers and What Science Tells Us, bringing you the most relevant details.

To understand why occupants fell, one must evaluate the physical environment inside the impact floors. Flight 11 cut through floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower. Roughly 10,000 gallons of ignited jet fuel surged down utility chases, igniting instant interior fireballs. While the aviation fuel burned off within minutes, it ignited thousands of tons of office contents: synthetic carpeting, cubicle partitions, treated desks, and paper archives.

Occupants on floors 101 through 105, the global headquarters of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and on the 106th and 107th floors, housing the Windows on the World restaurant, had nowhere to flee. The fire suppression systems were pulverized. Water mains inside the core columns had snapped on impact. Heat built rapidly toward the ceiling plenums, creating thermal updrafts that pushed poisonous carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and pulverized debris outward toward the perimeter windows.

People smashed window panes using fire extinguishers, desktop towers, and chairs not to jump, but to breathe. As glass shattered, the incoming rush of external oxygen created a chimney effect, whipping internal flames into intense backdrafts. Workers who leaned outward out of desperate physiological reflex were jostled, buffeted by hurricane-force convective currents, or forced outward by colleagues trying to escape the encroaching wall of fire behind them.