I just saw a TV show and they had a bunch of people in Shanghai and they all went up to the top of the tallest building there and jumped off of it. These people all had parachutes and floated down safely.
Now I was thinking what would’ve happened on 9-11 if those people above the point of impact had parachutes? Surely it takes training to use parachutes but all of them died anyway.
So I am thinking that usually things like these questions have problems. But let’s say for the sake of argument some of those people had parachutes. Would the fire itself have posed problems? Would the smoke and such, sucked the parachuters back and had them crash into the building on the way down?
Sky diving enthusiasts call this BASE jumping (Bridges, Antennas, Structures, Escarpments). Big danger with a building is that the 'chute will open facing the building.
FAA rgulations require chutes to be repacked frequently…every 60 days for silk, and synthetic ones every 90-120 days(That might be off a little, I forget) This would be a expensive logistics problem for a WTC scale workforce. Parachutes are actually pretty fussy to ensure they open properly. The repacks replace things like critical rubber bands that keep the shroud lines from tanglingling. If one of those rubberbands rots out, the chute will likely malfunction.
To be useful, you’d need a half hour training for newbs, and an annual refresher. It takes about 30 seconds for me to put on the emergency 'chute I use in my sailplane. Takes about a minute to help an inexperienced passenger put one on. Up to 10 minutes if it is a military surplus chute and the straps need much adjusting…some of the adjustments are hard to get to. Left to thier own devices most of the passengers can’t figure it out…sometimes making dangerous mistakes.
Youd have lots of turned ankles and broken legs, but if the chute opens, most of the people would live.