Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
How NIST Handled the Lack of Any Rooftop Rescues on 9/11 - "Excuses, Excuses"
"These doors were locked by order of the Port Authority of New York . . . in part because of concerns about suicides, daredevil stunts and possible theft or vandalism of the MILLIONS OF DOLLARS worth of broadcasting equipment on the roof." NIST Report - "The 2003 code does not intend roof access to be used for evacuation and has no prohibition on locking this access." (p 26/80)
Below is an excerpt of a recent critique of the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster's "Final Report of the National Construction Safety Team on the Collapses of the World Trade Center Towers (Draft)." The project of analyzing and exposing the ommissions and distortions of this report was undertaken by the webmaster of wtc7.net and 911research.wtc7.net. What follow is a single section which - to me - shows the lengths to which such reports will go to minimize any consequences at all, much less an objective accounting of the facts.
Excuses, Excuses
[excerpted from 'Building a Better Mirage - NIST's 3-Year $20,000,000 Cover-Up of the Crime of the Century,' by Jim Hoffman, Version 0.97, Aug 21, 2005]
Of the 1,344 people estimated to have been on or above the 91st floor of the North Tower when the plane hit, not a single person survived, the crash having blocked all three stairwells. But many might have been rescued from the roof, had not the doors been locked and helicopter rescue barred.
Two choppers arrived within 5 minutes of the crash, one of which was a Bell 412 equipped with a 250-foot hoist and capable of carrying as many as 10 survivors at a time, and carrying a three-man crew specially trained for rooftop rescues. One of the choppers was piloted by Greg Semendinger (see story at bottom), who had helped to rescue 28 people after the 1993 garage bombing. Semendinger and other veteran pilots have stated that rescue from the North Tower roof would have been difficult but possible. But on 9/11/01, no rooftop rescues were allowed.
NIST avoids any mention of the 1993 rooftop rescues and the opinions of pilots that rescue was an option.
-------------
"Some of the people went toward the roof. However, there was no hope because roof evacuation was neither planned nor practical, and the exit doors to the roof were locked. .. Even had the roof been accessible, the helicopters could not have landed due to the severe heat and smoke." (p 26/80)
-------------
NIST excuses the locked doors and lack of notification to the occupants:
-------------
"The 2003 code does not intend roof access to be used for evacuation and has no prohibition on locking this access." (p 26/80)
-------------
NIST excuses the amazing prohibition of rooftop rescue by misrepresenting the condition of the roof, whose accessibility is documented by photographs and the words of the helicopter pilots.
-------------
"NYPD helicopters reached the scene by 8:52 to assess the possibility of roof rescue. They were unable to land on the roof due to heavy smoke conditions. During the first hour, FDNY did not consider the option of roof rescue. When the aircraft struck WTC 2, it was clear that this was criminal activity, and the decision regarding roof top operations became the responsibility of NYPD. The NYPD First Deputy Commissioner ordered that no roof rescues were to be attempted, and at 9:43 a.m., this directive was passed to all units." (p 164/218)
-------------
This implies that an hour instead of 18 minutes passed between the North Tower strike (8:46) and the South Tower strike (9:03). Also, it was clear almost immediately after the first strike that people could not evacuate downward from above the crash zone. Why then did the unnamed First Deputy Commissioner prohibit rooftop rescue? NIST shows no curiosity at this decision, but makes further excuses, suggesting that a few lives weren't worth the effort:
-------------
"Even if it had been possible for a helicopter to gain access to the roof, only a very small fraction of the large number of people trapped above the impact zone could have been rescued before the Towers collapsed." (p 169/219)
-------------
Given the great lengths and expense to which public officials often go to save a single life, it is striking that the Report's authors suggest that there was nothing wrong with the NYPD decision to prohibit attempts to rescue people from the roof. This, like the Report as a whole, is evidence that the authors would defend the authorities no matter what their conduct.
http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/#excuses
Also see 4/04 posting on Indybay:
Could Helicopters Have Saved People From the Top of the Trade Center?
by repost Thursday, Apr. 29, 2004 at 4:33 PM
http://indybay.org/news/2004/04/1678908.php
As the police pilots swooped in and peered through a smoke-free area on top of the north tower, however, they saw no one to save. People were still alive on the top floors, according to the New York Fire Department. But Greg Semendinger, the first chopper pilot on the scene, says, "There was nobody on the roof."
Could Helicopters Have Saved People From the Top of the Trade Center?
By
SCOT J. PALTROW and QUEENA SOOK KIM Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
WHEN a plane hit the World Trade Center's north tower, Stephen L. Roach
phoned his wife twice from the 105th floor and got their home answering
machine. In one message, he said he loved her. In the other, Isabel
Roach says she could hear the desperate shouts of her husband's
coworkers at bond-broker Cantor Fitzgerald LP: "Try the roof! Try the
roof!" Mr. Roach shouted back to them, "There's no way out!"
If he was referring to a roof escape, he was correct. The doors to the
roof were locked. Outside, hovering just a few hundred feet away from
hundreds of workers trapped above the inferno, were New York
police-rescue helicopters. Crews from the Brooklyn headquarters of the
police-aviation bureau had scrambled at the first radio call of an
explosion at the trade center. Of the two choppers that arrived within
five minutes of the plane crash, one was a Bell 412 equipped with a
250-foot hoist and capable of carrying as many as 10 survivors at a
time. The three-man crew was specially trained for rooftop rescues.
As the police pilots swooped in and peered through a smoke-free area on
top of the north tower, however, they saw no one to save. People were
still alive on the top floors, according to the New York Fire
Department. But Greg Semendinger, the first chopper pilot on the scene,
says, "There was nobody on the roof."
=================
http://www.ainonline.com/issues/12_01/12_01_rescuesquabblepg74.html
Minutes after the first airliner slammed into the Trade Center's North
Tower, two NYPD helicopters, a Bell JetRanger and Bell 412, arrived on
the scene. Both surveyed the roof of the North Tower, which, while
festooned with small antennas and a 360-ft broadcasting tower, still
had enough space for a small, unlighted helistop, an area of the cluttered
110th-story rooftop certified for helicopter landings.
For the pilot of the NYPD Bell 412, the scene was reminiscent of a
morning nightmare eight years before. In February 1993, a huge truck
bomb went off in the parking garage at the North Tower's base. While
the loss of life was comparatively low, smoke from the explosion filled the
stairwells used for evacuation. Some workers, caught in the upper
stories of the 1,353-ft tower, opted to go up instead of down.
Hovering over the scene in 1993, NYPD officer/pilot Greg Semendinger
spotted the frantic Trade Center workers, lowered two men to the
rooftop to remove antenna obstructions, and then proceeded to shuttle 28 people
to safety. Semendinger loaded them into the Bell 412 and whisked them
to safety at the base of the tower.
But on the morning of September 11, a different scene lay below
Semendinger's helicopter. Through gaps in the thick smoke erupting from
the ruptured tower, Semendinger saw no one on the roof. The reason why
was brutally obvious: the doors leading to the roof were locked.
No Way Out
These doors were locked by order of the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey (PANYNJ), owner of the Trade Center. They were locked in
part because of concerns about suicides, daredevil stunts and possible theft
or vandalism of the millions of dollars worth of broadcasting equipment
on the roof. Locking the doors also effectively barred any possibility
of a rooftop rescue.
Authorization and the means to unlock those heavy steel doors came from
a security center located on the 22nd floor. But the security center
wasn't able to help. Falling debris knocked it out almost as soon as
the first airliner hit the tower.
According to sources within the city government and emergency agencies,
there was another reason the doors were locked: the highly publicized
turf wars the New York police and fire departments have been fighting
for years. Barred by the city decades ago from operating any of its own
helicopters, fire department higher-ups had been incensed by the
police-led Trade Center rescues in 1993, decrying them as dangerous,
unnecessary grandstanding.
===============
http://www.firefighting.com/articles/namFullView.asp?namID=4692
Locked Doors Prevented Air Rescue From WTC Towers
Provider: Evening Mail
WRITTEN BY : Evening Mail, DATE POSTED: 10/25/01Dozens of people
trapped at the top of the burning World Trade Center in New York could have
been airlifted to safety had the doors not been locked, it emerged today.
The doors were kept locked because a similar rescue in 1993, after a
terrorist explosion in a basement car park, was slammed as a "publicity
stunt" by fire chiefs and the Port Authority, which owned the centre.
In 1993, 28 people were taken to safety by a helicopter which landed on
the roof of one of the towers.
But afterwards the Port Authority used its exemption from local fire
rules to insist that the roofs were kept locked to prevent people
committing suicide or launching stunts from the top.
Today the first helicopter pilot on the scene on September 11 said he
believed people could have been saved by a landing on the north tower,
which was smoke-free.
Greg Semendinger told the Wall Street Journal: "There was nobody on the
roof."
He estimated that dozens of people could have been taken to safety
before the tower collapsed.
There were at least 700 people in the north tower above where the plane
ripped into the building, and some were making calls to emergency
services until the moment the tower fell.
One widow has told how her husband left a message on her answering
machine in which people could be heard shouting: "Try the roof! Try the
roof!"
Excuses, Excuses
[excerpted from 'Building a Better Mirage - NIST's 3-Year $20,000,000 Cover-Up of the Crime of the Century,' by Jim Hoffman, Version 0.97, Aug 21, 2005]
Of the 1,344 people estimated to have been on or above the 91st floor of the North Tower when the plane hit, not a single person survived, the crash having blocked all three stairwells. But many might have been rescued from the roof, had not the doors been locked and helicopter rescue barred.
Two choppers arrived within 5 minutes of the crash, one of which was a Bell 412 equipped with a 250-foot hoist and capable of carrying as many as 10 survivors at a time, and carrying a three-man crew specially trained for rooftop rescues. One of the choppers was piloted by Greg Semendinger (see story at bottom), who had helped to rescue 28 people after the 1993 garage bombing. Semendinger and other veteran pilots have stated that rescue from the North Tower roof would have been difficult but possible. But on 9/11/01, no rooftop rescues were allowed.
NIST avoids any mention of the 1993 rooftop rescues and the opinions of pilots that rescue was an option.
-------------
"Some of the people went toward the roof. However, there was no hope because roof evacuation was neither planned nor practical, and the exit doors to the roof were locked. .. Even had the roof been accessible, the helicopters could not have landed due to the severe heat and smoke." (p 26/80)
-------------
NIST excuses the locked doors and lack of notification to the occupants:
-------------
"The 2003 code does not intend roof access to be used for evacuation and has no prohibition on locking this access." (p 26/80)
-------------
NIST excuses the amazing prohibition of rooftop rescue by misrepresenting the condition of the roof, whose accessibility is documented by photographs and the words of the helicopter pilots.
-------------
"NYPD helicopters reached the scene by 8:52 to assess the possibility of roof rescue. They were unable to land on the roof due to heavy smoke conditions. During the first hour, FDNY did not consider the option of roof rescue. When the aircraft struck WTC 2, it was clear that this was criminal activity, and the decision regarding roof top operations became the responsibility of NYPD. The NYPD First Deputy Commissioner ordered that no roof rescues were to be attempted, and at 9:43 a.m., this directive was passed to all units." (p 164/218)
-------------
This implies that an hour instead of 18 minutes passed between the North Tower strike (8:46) and the South Tower strike (9:03). Also, it was clear almost immediately after the first strike that people could not evacuate downward from above the crash zone. Why then did the unnamed First Deputy Commissioner prohibit rooftop rescue? NIST shows no curiosity at this decision, but makes further excuses, suggesting that a few lives weren't worth the effort:
-------------
"Even if it had been possible for a helicopter to gain access to the roof, only a very small fraction of the large number of people trapped above the impact zone could have been rescued before the Towers collapsed." (p 169/219)
-------------
Given the great lengths and expense to which public officials often go to save a single life, it is striking that the Report's authors suggest that there was nothing wrong with the NYPD decision to prohibit attempts to rescue people from the roof. This, like the Report as a whole, is evidence that the authors would defend the authorities no matter what their conduct.
http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/#excuses
Also see 4/04 posting on Indybay:
Could Helicopters Have Saved People From the Top of the Trade Center?
by repost Thursday, Apr. 29, 2004 at 4:33 PM
http://indybay.org/news/2004/04/1678908.php
As the police pilots swooped in and peered through a smoke-free area on top of the north tower, however, they saw no one to save. People were still alive on the top floors, according to the New York Fire Department. But Greg Semendinger, the first chopper pilot on the scene, says, "There was nobody on the roof."
Could Helicopters Have Saved People From the Top of the Trade Center?
By
SCOT J. PALTROW and QUEENA SOOK KIM Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
WHEN a plane hit the World Trade Center's north tower, Stephen L. Roach
phoned his wife twice from the 105th floor and got their home answering
machine. In one message, he said he loved her. In the other, Isabel
Roach says she could hear the desperate shouts of her husband's
coworkers at bond-broker Cantor Fitzgerald LP: "Try the roof! Try the
roof!" Mr. Roach shouted back to them, "There's no way out!"
If he was referring to a roof escape, he was correct. The doors to the
roof were locked. Outside, hovering just a few hundred feet away from
hundreds of workers trapped above the inferno, were New York
police-rescue helicopters. Crews from the Brooklyn headquarters of the
police-aviation bureau had scrambled at the first radio call of an
explosion at the trade center. Of the two choppers that arrived within
five minutes of the plane crash, one was a Bell 412 equipped with a
250-foot hoist and capable of carrying as many as 10 survivors at a
time. The three-man crew was specially trained for rooftop rescues.
As the police pilots swooped in and peered through a smoke-free area on
top of the north tower, however, they saw no one to save. People were
still alive on the top floors, according to the New York Fire
Department. But Greg Semendinger, the first chopper pilot on the scene,
says, "There was nobody on the roof."
=================
http://www.ainonline.com/issues/12_01/12_01_rescuesquabblepg74.html
Minutes after the first airliner slammed into the Trade Center's North
Tower, two NYPD helicopters, a Bell JetRanger and Bell 412, arrived on
the scene. Both surveyed the roof of the North Tower, which, while
festooned with small antennas and a 360-ft broadcasting tower, still
had enough space for a small, unlighted helistop, an area of the cluttered
110th-story rooftop certified for helicopter landings.
For the pilot of the NYPD Bell 412, the scene was reminiscent of a
morning nightmare eight years before. In February 1993, a huge truck
bomb went off in the parking garage at the North Tower's base. While
the loss of life was comparatively low, smoke from the explosion filled the
stairwells used for evacuation. Some workers, caught in the upper
stories of the 1,353-ft tower, opted to go up instead of down.
Hovering over the scene in 1993, NYPD officer/pilot Greg Semendinger
spotted the frantic Trade Center workers, lowered two men to the
rooftop to remove antenna obstructions, and then proceeded to shuttle 28 people
to safety. Semendinger loaded them into the Bell 412 and whisked them
to safety at the base of the tower.
But on the morning of September 11, a different scene lay below
Semendinger's helicopter. Through gaps in the thick smoke erupting from
the ruptured tower, Semendinger saw no one on the roof. The reason why
was brutally obvious: the doors leading to the roof were locked.
No Way Out
These doors were locked by order of the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey (PANYNJ), owner of the Trade Center. They were locked in
part because of concerns about suicides, daredevil stunts and possible theft
or vandalism of the millions of dollars worth of broadcasting equipment
on the roof. Locking the doors also effectively barred any possibility
of a rooftop rescue.
Authorization and the means to unlock those heavy steel doors came from
a security center located on the 22nd floor. But the security center
wasn't able to help. Falling debris knocked it out almost as soon as
the first airliner hit the tower.
According to sources within the city government and emergency agencies,
there was another reason the doors were locked: the highly publicized
turf wars the New York police and fire departments have been fighting
for years. Barred by the city decades ago from operating any of its own
helicopters, fire department higher-ups had been incensed by the
police-led Trade Center rescues in 1993, decrying them as dangerous,
unnecessary grandstanding.
===============
http://www.firefighting.com/articles/namFullView.asp?namID=4692
Locked Doors Prevented Air Rescue From WTC Towers
Provider: Evening Mail
WRITTEN BY : Evening Mail, DATE POSTED: 10/25/01Dozens of people
trapped at the top of the burning World Trade Center in New York could have
been airlifted to safety had the doors not been locked, it emerged today.
The doors were kept locked because a similar rescue in 1993, after a
terrorist explosion in a basement car park, was slammed as a "publicity
stunt" by fire chiefs and the Port Authority, which owned the centre.
In 1993, 28 people were taken to safety by a helicopter which landed on
the roof of one of the towers.
But afterwards the Port Authority used its exemption from local fire
rules to insist that the roofs were kept locked to prevent people
committing suicide or launching stunts from the top.
Today the first helicopter pilot on the scene on September 11 said he
believed people could have been saved by a landing on the north tower,
which was smoke-free.
Greg Semendinger told the Wall Street Journal: "There was nobody on the
roof."
He estimated that dozens of people could have been taken to safety
before the tower collapsed.
There were at least 700 people in the north tower above where the plane
ripped into the building, and some were making calls to emergency
services until the moment the tower fell.
One widow has told how her husband left a message on her answering
machine in which people could be heard shouting: "Try the roof! Try the
roof!"
For more information:
http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/in...
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$230.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
Have any of you wondered why on 9-11 no helicopter rescue attempts were made to get people out of the twin towers? I know I did. It was one of the first thoughts that entered my mind while watching the buildings burn on television that morning. Why don’t they start getting people off from the rooftops? What were they expecting, that firefighters after climbing up 100 stories — gear and all — would be able to carry those down who were too injured to walk on their own?
Of course not. The brutal truth is, those people ‘needed to die’. Everyone in the upper floors would have witnessed that there were no planes. And they would have seen all sorts of other ‘oddities’ (explosives going off, etc.). Their exit paths were purposely cut off. The doors to the roof area were locked and in all likelihood disabled with brass pin lock inserts. Their downward escape routes were deliberately smoke flooded. The planners of 9-11 needed to make sure no one would live to tell what they really saw.
9-11 happened in New York City, not Podunk USA. There would have been plenty of helicopter capacity available. Certainly there were Sikorsky Sea Dragons somewhere nearby. Those puppies can haul some cargo. Ten flights and everyone would have been off. No, none of this happened. Why not? Because it wasn’t supposed to, that’s why.
Greetings,
The Wizard In The Woods