Truth behind 9/11

The People

2,606 people who were in the World Trade Center and on the ground perished in the attacks on and the subsequent collapse of the towers.[3][27] This figure consisted of 2,192 civilians (including eight EMTs and paramedics from private hospital units); 343 members of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY); and 71 law enforcement officers including 23 members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), 37 members of the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), five members of the New York State Office of Tax Enforcement (OTE), three officers of the New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA), one fire marshal of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) who had sworn law enforcement powers (and was also among the 343 FDNY members killed), one member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and one member of the United States Secret Service (USSS).[28][29]

1,402 people died at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower. According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the remainder of the fatalities were trapped above the impact zone and died after the tower collapsed. Although a few people would subsequently be found alive in the rubble following the collapse of the towers, none of these individuals were from above the impact zone.[30] John P. O'Neill was a former assistant director of the FBI who assisted in the capture of 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and was the head of security at the World Trade Center when he was killed trying to rescue people from the North Tower.[31] An additional 24 people officially remain listed as missing.[32] Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer.[33] Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–100 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees and 63 consultants.[34][35] Risk Waters, a business organization, was holding a conference in Windows on the World at the time, with 81 people in attendance.[36][37]

614 people were killed at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower. Only 18 people are known to have managed to escape using staircase A before the South Tower collapsed; a further 110 people killed in the attacks are known to have been below the impact zone when United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. The 9/11 Commission notes that this fact strongly indicates that evacuation below the impact zones was a success, allowing most to safely evacuate before the collapse of the World Trade Center.[38]

A USA Today report estimated that approximately 200 people perished inside the elevators, while only 21 escaped the elevators. Many elevators did not plunge, but were destroyed due to the crash and subsequent fires, or were stranded in the shafts. A locking mechanism prevented escapees and rescuers, except on one elevator, from opening the doors on stranded elevators.[39] This included a bomb sniffing dog named Sirius,[40] who was not included in the official death toll.

Before the Twin Towers collapsed, an estimated 200 people fell to their deaths from the burning towers, landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below at a speed of almost 150 miles per hour—sufficient to cause instantaneous death upon impact, but insufficient to cause unconsciousness throughout the actual fall. Most of those who had fallen from the World Trade Center had jumped from the North Tower. To witnesses upon the ground, many of the people falling from the towers seemed to have deliberately jumped to their deaths, including the person whose photograph became known as the Falling Man. The NIST report officially describes the deaths of 104 jumpers, but states that this figure likely understates the true number of those who had died in this manner. The sight and sound of these individuals falling from the towers, then "smashing like eggs on the ground" horrified and traumatized many witnesses. The jumpers' death certificates state the cause of death as homicide due to "blunt trauma".Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, only to find the roof access doors locked. Port Authority officers attempted to unlock the doors but control systems would not let them; in any case, thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.