Death On The Wing: Recognizing Life's End.

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, I was working nights, so when my alarm went off at 14:00pm GMT that afternoon, I did not conceive of the very subtle synchronous event that had occurred on my awakening. In fact, I wasn't to connect the synchronism until some weeks later during a quiet and reflective moment.

I realised that at the moment when I awoke, rose from my bed and looked out the window to see what the weather was like, some three and a half thousand miles away in New York, almost at the same instance, Stanley Praimnath was looking out of his 81st floor office window of South Tower World Trade Center, where he worked, and found himself uncomprehendingly staring at United Airlines Flight 175 as it was about to make impact with his life.

We were simply two disconnected people, unknowing of each other, and separated by thousands of miles, but about to be caught up in an event of incredible ferocity and visceral reality: Stanley directly so, and I as a mute and helpless witness. As the synchronous moment passed unheeded by my consciousness, I turned and made my way into the kitchen to make coffee. Stanley, however, dived under his office desk as Flight 175 obliterated all sense of normality as it crashed into the tower at 463mph.

In the streets far below, pedestrians, already shocked and awed by United Airlines Flight 11's impact with the World Trade Center's North Tower some 17 minutes earlier, heard the growing shriek and roar of a demon from hell and watched dumbfound as South Tower exploded into heat and flame high above their heads. Around the world, television stations relayed the event and seared the images into the memory of the sofa watchers. At that instant, many watching realised the significance of what was happening...terrorism had once again come to America, but this time with a Jihadist's vengeance.

By 14:10 I was sat watching the BBC's coverage as they replayed Flight 175's smash into South Tower, which itself was obscured by the burning North Tower. You could see Flight 175 approach from the right, disappear behind North Tower and then a sudden huge ball of fire erupt. It just didn't seem real. I watched and witnessed dispassionately as the incomprehensible enormity of the action being shown created a human disconnection, only to be brought back to the visceral reality of it when the cameras zoomed in on the towers and the gaping black gashes where the planes had crashed into the buildings.

There were people hanging out the windows waving madly as hot black smoke belched out behind them. Suddenly, it hit home as I ran things through my mind. This wasn't just a news bulletin, it was an ongoing and unfolding tragedy that was going to get worse. The BBC coverage only seemed to show and maintain a respectful distance from the real tragedies playing out with every minute. The coverage was sanitized, and it I wasn't to know just how sanitized it was until years later, when I was able to view 9/11 videos on the net. What the BBC coverage did was to obscure the destruction to humanity, and to obfuscate the human element.

Twelve years on, and one month after the 12th anniversary, I found myself reviewing 9/11 videos, and for me the greatest poignancy that makes it all so visceral is learning about the people on board the planes, and about the people trapped by the impacts of the planes, whom eventually found themselves driven by hot acrid black smoke towards the windows, and once there, having to make a choice on not how to live, but how to die. Death on the wing had made them recognize that their life had irredeemably come to its irrecoverable end.

www.youtube.com... (Viewer discretion required)

Looking at the images of the people at the windows waving frantically, hoping with all their might for some form of rescue, but accepting as the minutes went by that rescue would never be their fate, and thus make a decision on the manner in which they would rendezvous with their death, brings for a brief and all too sad moment a connection of human love between ghost and witness. They simply let go and stepped into free-fall rather than die through agonizing immolation.

It wasn't a societal frowned-upon suicide that was taken by the people whom leapt to their deaths from the towers, it was a defiance at those that brought death upon them. They did not allow the Jihadists to determine how they would die, only that they would. Hanging on to a window frame over a thousand feet above the streets as smoke and flame scorched their way towards you, lessening the temporary safety of your perch with every minute, one can only imagine the sheer terror being experienced? You will have already seen others plunge to their death, or maybe have overheard others in conversation that to jump would be the cleaner and more painless option to take?

As one watches the people leap to their deaths, one can accept the decision they made as courageous and dignified, and honour and remember them in that recognition. Even if they had not leapt away from the smoke and flame, the collapse of the buildings would have decided their fate. Knowing this with hindsight makes it all very poignant for me, and makes the sheer insanity of the day somehow more intelligible, more humanely connected.

May they rest in peace.

reply to post by elysiumfire


Well said, I enjoyed very much reading you prospective on this event that touched so many. Let us all remember.

Tragedy can not even begin to cover what this was. Like you, I didn't see the people jumping from the windows until later. When I finally did.... I can't really explain how it made me feel.

I watched with mouth agape, tears in my eyes, and my stomach churning. My mind almost felt like it wanted to splinter into a million pieces wondering how bad things would have to be to make a perfectly sane human being jump out of a building knowing they would die....knowing there was not a chance they would survive. HOW BAD did the situation inside have to be to make someone do that??? I couldn't fathom of course. There is no way I can wrap my mind around having to make such a decision. One form of death over another. Which was less painful? Which would be quicker? So many years later, I still close my eyes when I think about it to try and block the images that were burned into my mind.

There is no blocking it and my heart breaks for them and their families til this day. All of them. Not just those who jumped in hopes of something I can't even imagine.

Most of us fear dying by fire as much as we do drowning. The sheer thought of it overwhelms us even when we are not facing such a death and more than likely never will.

You've a way with words and I thank you for sharing. Regardless of where you stand on the "who did it" aspect... this was way more than just a mere tragedy.

Jihadists? Really? Almost as sad as all those people being sacrificed.

reply to post by elysiumfire


Much respect to your reverence for the dead, but atleast get the story right. Jihadists? That almost nullifies your story.

I too remember vividly being told what was acting out in New York on that fateful day.

I too remember coming home to the evening news and seeng the atrocity play out.

I too remember feeling hollow agony for the people waving, pleading for help.

I too remember hearing in the news about individuals deciding to jump to their death.

I too remember buying the story of Jihadists being responsible for the most shocking terror I had ever witnessed.

Then I read about a passport being found. A passport that must have been made from such indestructible paper. Damn it even had th name of the suspected terrorist. Yet no other personal belongings were found.

Then I read that most of the terroists had very few hours training in a flight simulator, yet they managed to expertly take control of these airliners, turn themaround and aim directly at the Twin Towers.

Then I read that as well as the Twin Towers collapsing, another building had collapsed. A building that wasn't hit by a plane, but collapsed due to fire contained within the building.

Then I read that over half of the alleged terrorists were in fact still alive and well, most living in Saudi Arabia.

Then I read the F.B.I's most wanted list and saw that Osama Bin Laden wasn't wanted in connection with 9/11.

May the victims R.I.P, may the people responsible for this heinous act be brought to justice for their crimes in the near future.

Cobaltic1978
I too remember vividly being told what was acting out in New York on that fateful day.

I too remember buying the story of Jihadists being responsible for the most shocking terror I had ever witnessed.

Then I read about a passport being found. A passport that must have been made from such indestructible paper. Damn it even had th name of the suspected terrorist. Yet no other personal belongings were found.

Then I read that most of the terroists had very few hours training in a flight simulator, yet they managed to expertly take control of these airliners, turn themaround and aim directly at the Twin Towers.

Then I read that as well as the Twin Towers collapsing, another building had collapsed. A building that wasn't hit by a plane, but collapsed due to fire contained within the building.

I remember building 7 being reported as destroyed well before it fell.

I remember this particular joker that obviously has professional-grade knowledge of fire science, construction and physics:

At 00:16 seconds mark in this video you can clearly see a person made a decision to jump. I don't think its even possible to imagine what was going trough their minds.

Cobaltic1978

Then I read about a passport being found. A passport that must have been made from such indestructible paper. Damn it even had th name of the suspected terrorist. Yet no other personal belongings were found.

The passport was found on Albany St by Richard Wozniak. There is nothing unusual about the passport surviving.

www.bereanbeacon.org...

A photo taken on Albany St by Chris Sorenson.



This video explains in detail how the passport survived.



Lots of other personal belongings were found

Then I read that most of the terroists had very few hours training in a flight simulator, yet they managed to expertly take control of these airliners, turn themaround and aim directly at the Twin Towers.

All of the pilots had commercial ratings'

Hani Hanjour's Commercial Rating.

Then I read that as well as the Twin Towers collapsing, another building had collapsed. A building that wasn't hit by a plane, but collapsed due to fire contained within the building.

11.2 buildings were destroyed that day . The north side of WTC7 was damaged all the way from the top to down into the basement by the collapse of WTC1.

Then I read that over half of the alleged terrorists were in fact still alive and well, most living in Saudi Arabia.

The Hijackers are dead. Give us some evidence that any of them are still alive dated after 9-28-2001.

Then I read the F.B.I's most wanted list and saw that Osama Bin Laden wasn't wanted in connection with 9/11.

SFW.

Cobaltic1978

Then I read that most of the terroists had very few hours training in a flight simulator, yet they managed to expertly take control of these airliners, turn themaround and aim directly at the Twin Towers.

The terrorists reprogrammed the autopilot to fly at the height and coordinates of a line that went through the World Trade Center buildings. That's how the autopilots were programmed back then; every pilot entered in a series of geographical coordinates and altitudes. The autopilot did all the rest to fly the plane until it was time to land. The terrorists only had to switch it off once it had leveled out and was heading straight past the buildings.

reply to post by elysiumfire


as you state it was on t.v by the bbc by 2.10 pm which is 9.10 am over there .

do you not find that a bit funny when it did not happen until 1.47 pm in the uk and the second plane did not hit until after 2 pm and they have it all rapped up by then the bbc ??.

when the london riots happened it was on a.t.s 40 minutes before the bbc .

me and many others watched it on the t.v in the uk when it was 6 am in new york .

strange but true

May they all rest in peace.

Great post for the 9/11 forum. A little different than normally is posted here. In a good way, of course.



One slight correction to your story:

elysiumfire
United Airlines Flight 11

That would be American Airlines Flight 11.

Then I read that most of the terroists had very few hours training in a flight simulator, yet they managed to expertly take control of these airliners, turn themaround and aim directly at the Twin Towers.

reply to post by Cobaltic1978



Are number of navigation aids in modern airliner

On United 93 hijackers dialed in the VOR (VHF OMNI RANGE) beacon at Reagan National airport, which
is only 1 mile from Pentagon

Also use visual cues - American 11 had to simply follow Hudson River south to NYC
United 175 simply head east to coast then turn north to NY

The targets were some of the largest buildings in the worls - easily visible from air once in vicinity
All were near major rivers

reply to post by waypastvne


I think it's pretty convenient, but I understand it's possible.

The things I want to point out about the video.. it's called "miracle passport" and when it mentions conspiracy theorists it shows a drawing of someone with a fork as if intending to put it in a plugged in toaster.

It misses the point. It's not impossible or shocking that something like a passport survived, just that it survived intact, was found, and happened to belong to one of the alleged hijackers.

How many other passports survived and who were the people? The video misses and dismisses the point and goes on meaninglessly.

How about we keep the conspiracies out of this thread, okay?
I had to turn it off in the middle, I couldnt stand it anymore

Also use visual cues - American 11 had to simply follow Hudson River south to NYC United 175 simply head east to coast then turn north to NY

Both Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi had flown the Hudson River corridor past the Towers many times in different airplanes. Atta flew his exact flight path he would take on September 11th 6 days before he did it for real.

One of the biggest mysteries of the plot was all Atta's odd airplane trips around the world in his last 45 days of living. I always thought he was doing it to test his resolve as the Logan-Prague-Heathrow-St. Petersburg jaunt would have drove most people insane to be in plane for that long. Part of the hijackers training was to be put in a room with a single chair and told to sit in it and don't move for 24 hours. They all passed the test.

I know the feeling of helplessness that can arrive from this event. Persons who aren't interested in studying the plot and all that went with it I tell to visit The September 11 Digital Archive as there are so many interesting stories of how people have coped and moved on.

Not much to add. Good story....but it shouldn't be under 9/11 conspiracies...

Firstly 'cos...there is no conspiracy in this one...