# to jump or not to jump...... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014 "2001-09-21T14:19:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adzoa\_k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b782af/32.png) [@adzoa\_k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adzoa_k)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/1 "2001-09-21T14:19:24Z")
Not to sound insensitive or anything, but when i saw video of people jumping from the WTC, i thought 'why??? why would they do that? '. Of coarse i know that panic probably got to them, but i just wanted to know if anyone feels like it was a crazy thing to do. i personally would have tried my best to get out, but if that fails, i sure as hell would at least die trying, i mean, you would have at least a better chance of surviving. your thoughts… ---
**Author:** ![IzzyR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@IzzyR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IzzyR)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/2 "2001-09-21T14:26:11Z")
People did not jump in a panicked attempt to escape. They jumped because the heat and smoke became too hard to bear. (Also there were some who did not jump, but rather fell of the building as they hung out the window). I heard one story of a guy who survived jumping from the 80th floor because the wind blew him against the building and he kind of rappelled down the side. But I am extremely skeptical. ---
**Author:** ![Lin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/3 "2001-09-21T14:39:29Z")
maybe the smoke was so thick they knew there was no chance of escape and wanted to end it quickly i dunno…too gruesome to think about any more. ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/4 "2001-09-21T15:37:29Z")
My guess is that at least some of them jumped to escape the flames. In WWI, there were several occurances where a flier’s plane would catch on fire, and he would jump (pre-parachutes) to avoid the pain of burning to death. Also, I would imagine that there were some pretty strong wind gusts that high, especially with the rising heat. Some of them might have been sucked out. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/5 "2001-09-21T15:42:35Z")
Actually, I was listening on NPR to a psychologist discussing this. He said that when faced with certain, painful death (burning, asphixiation) people would choose to jump because it offered a)certain very quick death and b)a last measure of control over events which are uncontrolable. (I know I’m going to die, but I’m going to die MY way). ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/6 "2001-09-21T16:34:18Z")
Please understand that you don’t have to be on fire to be burning. In the air temps they were in, they would never live to get close enough to an actual flame. It is very likely that the heat was so intense as to literally start cooking people that just sat there. The were probably dealing with being cooked alive, watching and feeling their skin burn, or inhaling air so hot that their lungs were being cooked as they breathed. That is how gruesome it gets. It looks like people are just hanging out windows to avoid smoke inhalation, when in fact they are being cooked alive, inside and out. How hot was that fire? And the air around the fire? Frightening. Sorry for the gruesome descriptions, but seeing people falling from those buildings has been hard for some people to understand. I think this will clear up why they jumped. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/7 "2001-09-21T16:36:40Z")
I work on the 17th floor, and my co-workers and I discussed this a bit. The comment was made in an earlier post about the “very quick” nature of the death from jumping from a tall building. Actually, the death comes from hitting the ground - but the fall would seem to be the truely terrifying part. Let’s say for the sake of arguement that it took you even as little as 5 seconds to fall (and some of these folks were more than 1,000 feet in the air - it probably took them longer). Count off 5 secs to yourself - that’s an awfully long time to be conscious of your impending death. Not to mention seeing the ground rush toward you. I still don’t know that I could do it. I may have to hope that the smoke knocks me out before I burn. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/8 "2001-09-21T17:31:30Z")
See the Washington Post essay [_A Death Better Than Fate’s_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20676-2001Sep12.html). One angle is that the response is a very primitive one to get away from pain, rather than a philosophically deliberated decision. ---
**Author:** ![adzoa\_k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b782af/32.png) [@adzoa\_k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adzoa_k)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/9 "2001-09-21T17:42:10Z")
i work on the 23rd floor of a building in downtown Toronto and i look down everyday. the very same day the attack happened, i wondered if i would jump too. i think, I THINK, that i would fight my way out. if that doesn’t work, i THINK i’d just wait for God to take me to a merciful and painless death. just my thoughts… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/10 "2001-09-21T18:01:27Z")
The latest special issue of Newsweek has photos of people falling/jumping from the WTC. Very unnerving. On 9/11 here in the US, whenever they showed the people trapped on the upper floors of the WTC, they just showed those leaning out of windows. It was mentioned that people were falling or jumping out of them, but it wasn’t shown. In the evening, on a British news channel shown on my cable, they showed the people actually falling. ---
**Author:** ![Ardrine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ardrine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ardrine)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/11 "2001-09-21T18:29:43Z")
I didn’t understand why people were jumping until I heard a reporter say they “chose how they would die”. This line more than anything else conveyed to me the horror of what must have been going on in that building. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-jump-or-not-to-jump/83014/12 "2001-09-21T19:30:20Z")
I saw pics and clips at [http://www.ogrish.com](http://www.ogrish.com) I wish I didn’t look at the jumpers. My heart started racing…and I’m not easily affected. I had seen one “still” before this…but the videos are surreal. That’s an overused word now. I’m afraid these images are going to haunt me.