# 9-11 -- Above the point of impact **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457 "2013-09-09T23:01:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![agnesnitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@agnesnitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agnesnitt)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/21 "2013-09-10T02:03:41Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The reason people jumped is because burning to death is fucking horrible. Sitting on a window ledge with flames licking at your back and skin beginning to blister most of us would jump. Death is inevitable either way, but hitting the ground at 120 mph is a lot easier than slowly burning to death. > > If you’re religious you might even consider some sort of miraculous divine intervention during your precipitous plunge. Post 9-11 a fire chief wrote an article (or was quoted in an article) in NYT that people should not look at jumpers as suicides. He said that the body will do anything to get away from fire, even though the conscious thought is to cling to the ledge. As I understood it, the instinct to get away from fire overrules the instinct not to fall. He was trying to reassure relatives that their loved ones had not voluntarily committed suicide. I think there were what [2 or 3 people above the impacts](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/twin-towers-survivor-story.html) who escaped. So I’d keep looking for a way down. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/22 "2013-09-10T02:20:30Z")
> [@agnesnitt](#): > > Post 9-11 a fire chief wrote an article (or was quoted in an article) in NYT that people should not look at jumpers as suicides. He said that the body will do anything to get away from fire, even though the conscious thought is to cling to the ledge. . Definitely and I rather doubt any church or religious organization would consider them suicides. Those were people escaping…escaping to 99.99% certain death, but escaping. ---
**Author:** ![TashaKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/23 "2013-09-10T02:36:10Z")
Wow, good question. If I were above the point of impact I have to say that I probably would not realize right away that I was doomed. I might spend the first ten or twenty minutes waiting for rescue to arrive before it would suddenly hit me that, holy fuck, if I can’t get down that means that they can’t get up. However, how many people knew that the buildings were going to collapse? Who knows, many of the people above the impact may have been quite calm because they figured that the fires would eventually be put out, they would be airlifted to safety, and they’d spend the next weeks out of work while the buildings were repaired. If I did figure that they were doing to collapse, though, I can’t say with absolute certainty what I would do. I would probably call my parents and sob over the phone how much I love them and how badly I want them. I’m actually tearing up as I’m writing this, because I’m so close to my parents. Then I’d probably try to figure out a way to get down. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/24 "2013-09-10T02:44:45Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#): > > Wow, good question. > > If I were above the point of impact I have to say that I probably would not realize right away that I was doomed. I might spend the first ten or twenty minutes waiting for rescue to arrive before it would suddenly hit me that, holy fuck, if I can’t get down that means that they can’t get up. > > However, how many people knew that the buildings were going to collapse? Who knows, many of the people above the impact may have been quite calm because they figured that the fires would eventually be put out, they would be airlifted to safety, and they’d spend the next weeks out of work while the buildings were repaired. > > If I did figure that they were doing to collapse, though, I can’t say with absolute certainty what I would do. I would probably call my parents and sob over the phone how much I love them and how badly I want them. I’m actually tearing up as I’m writing this, because I’m so close to my parents. Then I’d probably try to figure out a way to get down. The people who jumped were burning to death imminently. It wasn’t a question of “Oh, jeez, there’s no way down so I might as well jump.” It was more a question of “I’m fucking burning to death right now unless I jump!” ---
**Author:** ![10000000GMK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/10000000gmk/32/7305_2.png) [@10000000GMK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/10000000GMK)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/25 "2013-09-10T06:17:19Z")
I think I’d experience denial, then anger, then bargaining, then torpor, then acceptance. Then I’d die. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/26 "2013-09-10T06:32:08Z")
Were there no clear stairways? Honest question, I just don’t know. Is it possible that someone could have made it down one? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/27 "2013-09-10T06:43:49Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I don’t think I’d stop trying to find a way to survive. I’m sure I would have died anyway, but I don’t think I would have stopped trying. Jumping and aiming at the softest spot might have seemed like an attractive option. Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’? Aim for the bushes. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/28 "2013-09-10T07:08:34Z")
(Reply to Zoid) Stairway A in the South Tower (one of three) was clear from top to bottom, though filled with smoke through the impact zone. A few survivors made it down to safety in this stairwell from floors at and above the impact zone. The situation was apparently just too smoky and confusing for any others to realize that there was actually a way out. Damn shame. All stairways in the North Tower were impassable. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/29 "2013-09-10T07:56:13Z")
Finally tell my boss ‘I fucking quit!’ while giving him the middle finger. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/30 "2013-09-10T08:45:18Z")
I guess it really would depend on what I knew. If I knew I was doomed, knew there was no way out and I was certainly going to die, I would try to make a phone call or two. There was a very sad documentary of people who managed to get calls out and leave messages for their loved ones. A couple of them knew there was a good chance they might not make it out alive even though they had no idea what had happened. That being said, I probably wouldn’t know I was doomed, and I would try to get to an exit and get out. Finding the stairways impassable I would probably try to make my way to the top of the tower for helicopter evacuation. And then seeing that it would be way too smokey for any of that, if there was no where else for me to go, I might try to make those phone calls if I could. I would probably have no idea that the towers could actually collapse so I’d probably just try to find a smoke-free area and wait. And then I’d die in the collapse. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/31 "2013-09-10T08:52:14Z")
There were people working in the World Trade Center right until the very end - the technicians running the transmitters of the television stations. I remember reading a memorial to them in Broadcast Engineering magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/32 "2013-09-11T01:19:20Z")
> [@agnesnitt](#): > > Post 9-11 a fire chief wrote an article (or was quoted in an article) in NYT that people should not look at jumpers as suicides. He said that the body will do anything to get away from fire, even though the conscious thought is to cling to the ledge. **As I understood it, the instinct to get away from fire overrules the instinct not to fall.** He was trying to reassure relatives that their loved ones had not voluntarily committed suicide. This. As one fire fighter was quoted: “When there’s fire licking at your ass, you jump.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/33 "2013-09-11T06:17:41Z")
> [@agnesnitt](#): > > Post 9-11 a fire chief wrote an article (or was quoted in an article) in NYT that people should not look at jumpers as suicides. He said that the body will do anything to get away from fire, even though the conscious thought is to cling to the ledge. As I understood it, the instinct to get away from fire overrules the instinct not to fall. He was trying to reassure relatives that their loved ones had not voluntarily committed suicide. > > I think there were what [2 or 3 people above the impacts](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/twin-towers-survivor-story.html) who escaped. So I’d keep looking for a way down. There was a bastard minister who said jumping was a sin, and the jumpers should go to hell for it. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/34 "2013-09-11T10:53:13Z")
33 posts and nobody’s said “fuck like a crack-addled bonobo” yet? ---
**Author:** ![chowching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/35 "2013-09-11T11:57:56Z")
I would get my parachute, run as high as I can and then jump off. I might smash to other buildings sure but I guess that’s better than jumping straight on. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/36 "2013-09-11T12:15:07Z")
If I had an office refrigerator with a cold V8 in it, I’d drink it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/37 "2013-09-11T12:22:34Z")
I would go down to the lowest floor I could get to, unroll a fire hose, tie the end around my waist, break out a window, and try to _Die Hard_ my way past the flaming hole to a lower floor where I could get down from. Chances of success? Pretty much zero. But haven’t you always wanted to try it? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/38 "2013-09-11T12:36:05Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > … Aim for the bushes. I’d aim for piles of bodies of the already jumped, if there were any. If not, I’d guess that asphalt is _marginally_ softer than concrete, so I’d go for the street. Also slightly conceivable that a car roof collagsing under my crashing body would cushion the impact enough for me to survive. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/39 "2013-09-11T13:03:34Z")
18 survivors of the South Tower were above the impact zone. I would run for it. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457/40 "2013-09-11T13:04:25Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > 33 posts and nobody’s said “fuck like a crack-addled bonobo” yet? We talkin’ rape, five-fingered special, or hope to quickly find someone suitable with the same notion? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-above-the-point-of-impact/668457.md?page=3)