With regards parachutes, wouldn’t there be a zone within which it would be too high to jump and survive but too low for the parachute to deploy. Perhaps if the fires were lower down this would be more of an issue.
With regard to roof rescue by Helicopter there were people IRL in the South Tower who died on 9-11 - even though they were in the only unobstructed top to bottom Stairway in the South Tower (STAIRWAY A) - because they went up instead of down looking for/expecting a Helicopter roof rescue.
I know (I think) I saw it in the 9-11 Report. But here it is in USA Today a more easily found cite. Link has a few other relevant tidbits too.
link
One stairway in the south tower remained open above the crash, but few used it to escape. Stairway A, one of three, was unobstructed from top to bottom. The jet crashed into the 78th through 84th floors of the south tower. A few people escaped from the 78th floor down these stairs. One person went down the stairs from the 81st floor, two from the 84th floor and one from the 91st. Others went up these stairs in search of a helicopter rescue that wasn’t possible because of heavy smoke on the rooftop.
Who are you? Steve McQueen?
Your best bet if you can’t go down is to get as many floors between you and the fire and hope they put it out soon. Most modern skyscrapers are relatively safe in this regard and thus you don’t see too many Towering Inferno scenarios.
Thank you for that link. That was fascinating.
Yes, but in the USA Today article, it says this:
So it would seem that plummeting elevators is a Hollywood myth.
(Link removed) You might have warned us that that site is a wacked out 9/11 conspiracy site. Controlled demolition…right. I feel dirty just having been there.
Even if the roof was made of sofa cushions and stayed intact for the entire fall, it’s still falling at over 100mph. How would you survive the impact?
I’m sure they occur occasionally through some freak set of circumstances, but generally speaking that problem was taken care of by Elisha Graves Otis.
–hands bottle of Purell over–
Sorry about that- the photograph happens to be very accurate. The site is 100% nutcase, to which I do not ascribe, but the link was there for the photo.
Just step off at the last second. 
Thanks for the link. Fascinating article, superb.
That said, none of the elevator survivors “rode the building down” during the buildings’ collapse. They did, however, survive the uncontrolled descent of the elevators themselves.
I think.
One of the first things Mayor Giluini looked into was helicopter rescue. The smoke and fire made it impossible.
Are you certain that both rooftops were obstructed by smoke **at all times]/b]?
Was the fire really that intense on both roofs before the final few minutes?
I wonder if debris fluttering around in the wind played a factor.
Story from 2000 about using the roofs of the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing. Note in the third photo how the roof of Tower #1 (the North Tower) had become what they call an “antenna farm”.
Smoke blowing from the North Tower over the roof of the South Tower.
The wind itself was major issue. Fire of that magnitude creates really strong updrafts. Flying helicopter in there would most probably make thing worse - by adding yet another aircraft crash to all this mess.
Christ, I had forgotten how bad it was. Unbelievable.
I in fact have a video of a guy jumping out of a room in the Palace Hotel in NYC.
Um, addendum: he uses a parachute, and lands safely.
I think that with training and practice, a parachute is a viable alternative as an escape route if other routes are closed.
Of course, I would also have on hand one or more secondary chutes to deploy if the primary one was or became dysfuntional.
Another option for people on skyscrapers would be hangliders. Have a supply of them on the roof for that rare terrorist event, or fire. Of course training would have to be done prior.
Deanc2000
Do you honestly think that having thousands of hang gliders on the roof of evey skyscraper is a plausible plan? Everybody is just going to launch and glide happily to safety? No tangled masses of plummeting secretaries, clear glide paths, nice grass landing zones. No, those who actually launched without dying (if you can even propose how to launch thousands of hang gliders from an area big enough to mabe launch a couple dozen) would smash into each other and other buildings before crashing into the street below. Great plan. Same with the parachutes.
I have a strong suspicion that this is some sort of whoosh, but I’m bored and it’s Friday.
Yes it was. I was standing on Houston Street before I went down in an ambulance and went to work there, and I could see little dots dropping. That was people jumping. -shudder-
Also, that particular frame that Walloon linked happens to be fairly high on the horrific scale, as it was taken in the split-second that the second plane plowed into the second tower. Note the huge gouts of burning Jet-A fuel and the white particulate dots being blown out. That would be the window framing from the floors that were blown up as the jet exploded.
Many awful sad sickening images from that day, but frames of the real impact are near the top of my personal list. Shots of people jumping top my list, without a doubt.
It is not that the rotor wash would add to the mess and maybe make a helicopter crash. I clearly remember walking across the plaza between the two towers. There was some cool sculpture in it. The vortex was amazing- updrafts mixing with side-drafts. A sheet of paper was lifted and moved up and around as I watched. It was actually very beautiful.
At the other end of the measure, I stood several times in Windows On The World. I’d stand at the window, close one eye and sight to New Jersey, picking an object to look at. In this manner, I could judge the amount of sway that the tower was doing at the moment. One day, the wind was so bad they had the Observation Deck closed. I closed one eye and sighted out and must admit, it was completely frightening to think about just how MUCH I was swaying side to side. Or rather, the building was.
The updrafts were legion. A chopper would have been flipped over and dropped down into the plaza. Or onto Vesey or Chambers, or the West Side Highway.
Before anyone links to the MGM Grand again as proof that I’m wrong here, think about the footprint of the MGM Grand and those buildings around it, and equally importantly the prevailing wind patterns day to day in Vegas ( especially at the time of that fire ) opposed to those in NYC on September 11th.
Of course helicopters rescued from the roof. The air was like glass and there was no appreciable updrafts or vortices.
I think the main flaw is that if you’re plummeting at 120 mph, jumping “up” at the instant before impact would decrease your speed relative to the ground to about 115mph.