WTC TOWERS COLLAPSING
1. Whether seen on videotape or in person, implosion of buildings begin with a series of blasts with billowing smoke, orange fire, and a cloud of dust and debris, followed by the sound of the explosions, at the base of the structure as it begins crumbling from the "bottom up" as it settles into a pile of rubble in its own "footprint". Though viewed from a safe distance of up to a half mile away, the concussive wave sound of the explosion can be felt and heard. The principle of an "implosion" is to knock out the building supports so it crumbles into a pile with little or no damage to nearby surrounding structures, as opposed to an "explosion" that scatters debris for a long distance.
2. As seen and heard on many videotapes made by onlookers from a few blocks away from the WTC towers, both structures suddenly started crumbling and collapsing from the top down without the sounds of massive explosions, at the top or the bottom of the buildings. But the audio track clearly picked up the gasps of shock and disbelief as the buildings crumbled into a pile of rubble, but no sounds of explosions. Especially from the bottom of the buildings closest to the cameras. Explosive charges sufficient to bring down the buildings would have blown out all the windows near the base, but as can be seen on the tapes, only one window was blown out.
Neither was there any sign of a explosive fireball or smoke from any explosions, or clouds of debris billowing out at the top or bottom of the buildings. Had there been a series of massive explosions on the crash floors where the collapses obviously began, as seen on the tapes, the concussive wave that is the source of destruction caused by the blast would have disturbed the smoke seen streaming on the light breeze.
Another point to ponder: A PBS documentary on building implosions noted that it required 7 months to prepare a 7 story building for demolition via implosion. The WTC towers were much taller, occupied by businesses with security. Consider the time it would take to rig the WTC towers for implosion without being detected by maintenance people discovering the charges.
Another element of the conspiracy theory is the allegation that a cruise missile hit the Pentagon, rather than a passenger airliner. To illustrate that point, conspiracy websites showed a 737 superimposed over the near small hole punched into the Pentagon to show that the wingspan of the airliner would have inflicted damage. They pointed out that no wings were lying on the lawn after the crash.
The structural strength of the wing spars are intended to support the weight of the aircraft rather than resist buckling when struck on the leading edge of the wing. Considering that the area of the Pentagon where the plane hit had recently been reinforced, and shatter proof windows had been installed, the wings merely folded back against the fuselage and went into the building alongside of the fuselage rather than the wings themselves entering the building while extended (as in a cartoon)!
In a British documentary seen on PBS, a man driving to work the morning of 9-11 appeared on camera to tell his tale. Familiar with aircraft landing and taking off from nearby Reagan airport, where the aircraft come in at a steep approach angle due to all the construction in the area, he said he had heard the sound of an aircraft extra loud and apparently flying extra low that fateful morning of 9/11! He said he put his head out the window and looked up to see a very low jet aircraft, and watched as it clipped a light pole and then plowed into the side of the Pentagon.
Photos of WTC #7 shows smoke billowing out from the bottom to the top. Smoke considered by conspiracy advocates as "proof" that the building was demolished by explosive charges. The fallacy of that premise is evident based on simple logic based on knowledge that many lack. There would be no point in planting charges on all floors from which smoke is billowing, because charges at the base as per standard implosion practices would have been sufficient.
1. The smoke is billowing out due to fires in the building, because any charges detonated to bring down the building would have been billowing puffs including orange fire from the sudden combustion of the charges.
2. There was no point in setting charges on all floors of the building because charges at the base taking out its support would have been adequate to take down the building as per implosion practice.
3. A conspiracy website cited a PBS documentary about WTC#7 collapsing, and noted in the transcript of the audio that the chief of the fire company notified the owner they were going to "pull the building" due to weakening because of the fires. The term "pull" was misconstrued as meaning to "blow up the building", when the term is short for "pulling out the firefighters" because the building had become unstable and was about to collapse.
4. If charges had been set as per claims about the twin WTC towers, why wasn't the building charges set off at the same time as the twin towers? Why wait several hours?
5. The building was not struck by an aircraft, but was damaged (as were other surrounding buildings) by falling debris from the collapsing WTC twin towers! An emergency control center was on an upper floor with a diesel generator with a fuel supply pipe running from a 6,000 gallon fuel tank in the basement. The intense fire was burning diesel fuel spilled from the broken pipe that weakened the structure and brought it down. Anyone with a modicum of ability in reading and reading comprehension, and who bothered to read news reports rather than base opinions on assumptions, could have learned the same thing had they bothered to make the effort.
Another aspect of the theory is the tendency to point to the "Meridian building" in Philadelphia that was subject to an intense fire, but did not collapse. My cousin sent me photos of it. I instantly noticed that it was of standard I-beam construction consisting of vertical columns intersected by lateral beams to tie it together and support the floors. In contrast, the WTC towers were built around a central elevator/utility column to which welded trusses were attached and extending to the vertical outer walls of hollow steel construction. Basically, there was less mass than in standard construction, and did not take much to heat them up to the point of losing their structural strength and buckling under the weight of several tons of floors above. When the floor trusses heated up, they buckled due to expansion and sheared their mounting bolts and dropped down. As a result, the outer walls had no bracing support and were free to fall outward and start collapsing.
Reprinted with the permission of the author.