Would you have jumped?

I was in a fire during childhood and can't forget how much the fire burned my lungs,

before the flames even burnt flesh. would jump to my death rather than be roasted alive.

a reply to: fusiondoe

I don't think it's possible to make a real decision without being in the situation. I could say, thinking about it from the safety of my family room, that given those two choices and knowing death was imminent either way, I would rather experience the thrill of flight, brief as it may be, rather than succumb to smoke and fire.

Of course with my luck, I would jump out the window right into the blades of the helicopter that was coming to rescue me...

a reply to: Raggedyman

I still don't understand how the ENTIRE building collapsed in a controlled manner the top should have went to one side .

I think I would have tried to find a way to go through the floor/walls 1st .

Its a matter of taking the least painful choice out of the two choices that some had forced upon them that day.
Two choices! Which will it be? Burned alive or take the dive?

There's actually a great deal of power in that two choices statement that can be fit into other areas of life.

I heard a horse trainer use that two choice idea once for example..... If a horse has two choices you make the choice that you want him to do easier than the choice you don't want. Lots of persuasion in that.

originally posted by: Soloprotocol
a reply to: skunkape23

I would stand on the seat of an office chair and jump. Right before it hit the ground I would jump off and land unscratched.

You would have as much chance of surviving that as you would using a cocktail umbrella as a device to slow your descent.

I know one thing, Working at those heights I would have seriously considered my own personal parachute well before 9-11. I'm a forward planner for all possible eventualities.

I seriously wonder if anyone working the top floors of the new WTC or a skyscraper in NYC now keeps a parachute in the office, just in case. Base jumpers jump off buildings all the time I don't see why an office executive or higher up wouldn't keep a couple around, just in case.

originally posted by: Realtruth

originally posted by: ConfusedBrit

On a side note, a horribly moving aspect was some groups of victims deciding to jump together. The 2011 FOIA releases of multiple footage from various sources thankfully did not include surviving CCTV close-ups, and what WAS eventually shown was incredibly emotional as anonymous people seemed to fall in their droves at certain points like ants - a spectacle dropped from initial news broadcasts. It's an aspect I'd regard as crucial (so long as the victims are unidentifiable and impacts are not shown) to completing the Human story rather than repeating footage of collapsing towers - which some news stations played on a loop as if 'excited' at the disaster movie-style imagery. Which I found quite offensive after a while.

Sorry, I went off on a slight tangent there.

Interesting how multiple camera/videos, and angles come out with people falling to their death, but only one angle from the pentagon from hundreds of cameras, on the premises at the Pentagon. Go figure.

How do you have any idea how many cameras were outside pointing away from the Pentagon, slightly on an angle to catch the plane hitting? You don't. It could've been 1 it could have been 5 but it definitely wasn't "hundreds of cameras" like you say.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: face23785

I wonder if the jumpers felt relief during their fall?

If they were being burnt then yes definitely

I would of thought that you would die of a massive heart attack falling.

originally posted by: Gargoyle91
a reply to: Raggedyman

I still don't understand how the ENTIRE building collapsed in a controlled manner the top should have went to one side .

The direction of the force of gravity is down

a reply to: TheOnlyBilko

Name one company that has security cameras aimed at the sky for rogue aircraft?
Doorways yes
Hallways yes
Parking lots yes
Loading docks yes
Window walls yes

Once I had come to the ultimate conclusion that I had no where to go and also realized that there was no way or hope of rescue, out the window I would go.

Fred..

a reply to: fusiondoe

My initial thought, when I read the title of your thread, was that I know what I'll say, but not being in that situation, I can't be sure of what I would have done. I think I would have probably been one of those who were found dead or alive under some structure that fell with the building because I don't think I could have jumped. I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm afraid of landing from such a distance.

Well, I think when we watch these horrible scenes from that day we generally see them in relative silence. There was nothing silent to the jumpers that day. To have been on the upper floors of the towers that day would have been one of the loudest and most terrifying experiences a person could experience!

I have a couple very good friends who were in one of the towers that day (I forget which one, it was the first building to be hit, but the second to fall). They were a few floors under where the plane hit. Both of them have told me the building was roaring and shuddering as the structure began to fail. They could hear steel beams snapping and crashing, floors buckling, glass exploding. They could feel the building twisting violently, sections of floors falling from above, deafening screeches as the structural steel began to bend and twist, and deafening bangs as the steel broke completely. And this was all just intermediate structure, not the main structure failing (and ultimately collapsing).

When we watch these horrific events on videos we usually hear some somber narrator and some musical underscore to heighten the drama, but that's not what the people inside heard that day. They heard a screeching, moaning and crashing building all around them, they heard and saw the fire, and the explosions. It was truly deafening for them. And, they would have been crazed by the sensory overload, pushing them to escape the apocalypse around them by any means available.

The stories my friends told me about that day still send chills down my spine...and they survived. One of them even returned to the building to help others get out (and was pretty badly burned on his arms and face in the process).

One of the surprising things most people don't know about (and I didn't either) was why so many people were pushed to the edges of the buildings. Yes, smoke and fire had some to do with it, but this wasn't the main reason. One of the main reasons was because all the violent twisting and shaking of the building caused the lay-in ceilings to fall down on top of all the desks and cubes. It was like a twisted aluminum fishing net had been dropped on top of everything at desk level. Getting through this twisted network of aluminum and ceiling tiles along with electrical wires, and light fixtures, and speaker wires, etc. was a massive undertaking and all the stairways were near the center of the building. Many people were unable to push their way through all this wreckage and were trapped near the exterior glass walls. They were pinned down with no where else to go. If you tried to crawl under it, it would fall and trap people. If you tried to crawl over and through it, it was like trying to escape a giant maze of razor sharp knives and electrified tangle vines.

Not even the scariest horror film ever produced could have ever prepared people for what it was like inside those buildings on that day! That people jumped to escape the fury and Armageddon going on around them is not really surprising at all, especially for those who were trapped above where the planes struck.

If I was on the floors where the fire was: yes.

If I was on the upper floors where the fire was: No. I would have stayed next to a window and when the building started to collapse and when it is close, I would jump to the pavement and try to outrun the dust.

originally posted by: richie221
If I was on the floors where the fire was: yes.

If I was on the upper floors where the fire was: No. I would have stayed next to a window and when the building started to collapse and when it is close, I would jump to the pavement and try to outrun the dust.

This isn't a serious post right?

a reply to: opethPA

It's the old Wiley Coyote trick where the Roadrunner steps out of the falling elevator right before it smashes into the ground with Wiley in it. Then he says.."Mee-Meeeep!"...and bolts outta' there.