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| Miragememories | May 26 2009, 08:13 AM |
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Continuation of NK-44's paper.. THE BASEMENT This examination starts with Basement 4, since there were only reports of smoke in regard to Basement 5 and 6. The damage in the basement This examination starts with Basement 4, since there were only reports of smoke in regard to Basement 5 and 6. To get an idea of the eyewitness locations in the following reports, below is the floor plan of Basement 4:  Red-marked in the center of the blue outlined WTC 1 is the shaft of Car 50. Green marked beneath is the shaft of Cars 6 and 7. Adjacent to the south and outlined in orange is the area of the Turner Construction offices. Outlined in yellow is the refrigeration plant to the south of the North Tower. To the east, and outlined in purple, is the approximate location of Akbar's Cafe. The parking area is outlined in brown (note that the parking lot locations vary for each floor). According to accounts from the Akbar's Cafe; "James Cutler, a 31-year-old insurance broker, was in the Akbar restaurant on the ground floor of the World Trade Center when he heard “boom, boom, boom,” he recalls. In seconds, the kitchen doors blew open, smoke and ash poured into the restaurant and the ceiling collapsed. Mr. Cutler didn’t know what had happened yet, but he found himself standing among bodies strewn across the floor. “It was mayhem,” he says." http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=3426 Note that the location of Akbar's Cafe is misplaced. It was down on the B-4 level, near the escalators to the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) station in Basement 5.  Here's what the manager had to say: "Bhojwani was outside at a space where the restaurant sold coffee and snacks to commuters who had time only to pick up something to go. It was a very busy time. Right then the newly installed alarm system went off. It was a sound nobody could ignore, like a bunch of police sirens sounding at once. Bhojwani thought the alarm had probably been set off by smoke detectors from a malfunctioning stove. He ran inside to reset the alarm panel and stopped in his tracks. The walk-in refrigerated room where perishable foods were stored had partly collapsed. "The whole thing was down," he said. "And the fire alarm was so loud and the fire brigade and police guys were like, 'You got to evacuate.' So we left everything as it was and ran." http://in.rediff.com/us/2001/sep/15ny5.htm Note that the occurrence of smoke rules out the possibility that the reported damage was a result of vibration from the plane impact. A cave-in was reported at the PATH plaza, trapping people. (from Port Authority Transcripts ): http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/pa-transcripts/ PAPD OFFICER 33: There's also been a cave-in at the platform of the PATH plaza ...there's a live electrical, and water running. Turn off the power in that area. PAPD OFFICER DESK: Roger. PAPD OFFICER TRUCK ONE: Truck one, desk. PAPD OFFICER: Truck one, go. PAPD OFFICER DESK: Three-three is reporting that there is a cave-in, B-4 level, at the World Trade, copy? possibility of people trapped." (PATH - CHANNEL 021, Transcript 10, pg 9) PAPD OFFICER 33: Myself and (Inaudible) to the Trade Center responding with scott packs to the B-4 level. There's a report of a cave-in, and people trapped. PAPD OFFICER DESK: Roger, three-three and eight-two Houston, World Trade responding B-4 level on a report of a cave-in. (PATH - CHANNEL 021, Transcript 10, pg 9) Another quote referring to Basement 4, but without giving further specific location: PAPD OFFICER MAGGETT: Port Authority Police, Officer Maggett. ED CALDERONE - OCC: Maggett, this is Ed at the OCC. I got word that there's an explosion down on B-4. We got people hurt down there, B-4. (WTCCH. 09 - POLICE DESK - 3541 CENTER, Transcript 37, pg 6) And there were reports from the area of Turner's office, which is to the south of the elevators: PAPD OFFICER BRADY: Port Authority Police, Officer Brady. MALE CALLER - B-4 LEVEL: Officer, help. We're down in the B-4 level. This is Turner's field office. There's been a big explosion. We've got water lines open. There seems to be steam and smoke in the area. PAPD OFFICER BRADY: Okay. Where...where exactly on B-4? MALE CALLER - B-4 LEVEL: Turner Construction, right outside the 50-Car. We're across the hall from the 50-Car. PAPD OFFICER BRADY: Is there any smoke condition there? MALE CALLER - B-4 LEVEL: It's...yeah, we got smoke. I don't how whether it's from fire, or just dust. We got broken water lines, water all over." (WTC - CH. 08 - POLICE DESK - 3541 LEFT, Transcript 36, pg 4) That communication referred to a big explosion. Open water lines and smoke are mentioned, but there was no mention of fires, and no one smelled kerosene which has a strong odor and would be indicative of jet-fuel. Some say that the mentioning of Car 50 is evidence that the explosion emerged from there. But Car 50, being the main freight elevator, is mentioned here only to provide a reference point from where the caller is standing, "across the hall from the 50-car". From this it cannot be concluded where the explosion emerged. It can only be concluded that it happened in the vicinity of the Turner Construction area, which is confirmed by other accounts. "Bianca Figueroa was four stories below ground in One World Trade Center when she remembers hearing "some kind of crashing, almost like the elevator had fallen in the shaft." The blast blew out the walls, briefly blocking her exit. Then a maintenance worker opened a passageway through the refrigeration room. "I was the first to get out," said Figueroa, a single mom with a 15-month-old. Figueroa works at Turner Construction Co." http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2001/09/1/2001-09-12_amid_bloodshed__a_lucky_few.html Edward McCabe, building engineer, was in the refrigeration plant: "I was in the refrigeration plant in tower 1 sub basement 4. I was passing through when I felt a slight shifting of the building. I froze right where I stood and listened....nothing. About 30 seconds past and to my left about 30 feet from me was a stairway leading up to a door. This door explodes off its hinges and white smoke came into the plant. (...) When we got to the PATH platform I layed the woman down, she thanked me, and I returned to the blown door to see if i could find anyone else. Sure enough there were more, the smoke was being sucked up the shaft now and I can see there were no longer any walls just rubble. A woman was under her desk refusing to come out. after a little coaxing she came and at this point a few of my colleagues, were sifting through the rubble, trying to find anybody. we did about 3 trips. Everyone was out." http://old.911digitalarchive.org/stories/details/936 The refrigeration plant was located outside the tower's foundation and adjacent to its south-side. For the door to explode off its hinges, the blast had to destroy at least three walls before reaching the wall of the Turner office where the woman worked - it is highly unlikely that her desk was located in the hall.  Elevators 6 and 7 are marked in blue. The walls in between are marked in red, and the door McCabe is talking of is marked in green. McCabe makes no mention of fire or the odor of kerosene. Neither is this mentioned in this report (which misplaces his location as being Basement 5): "At about 8:45 a.m., he was in the refrigeration plant of the B5 level when he suddenly felt the building shake. An instant later, a door to his left was blown off its hinges. Boris Bronsteyn, his colleague, and a 30-year veteran, was taking readings nearby. The freight elevator shaft exploded into the area where they were. (Later Ed would learn that the jet-fuel had filled the elevator shaft causing the explosion.) Ed walked up to the door and tried to open it but it was jammed, but he was able to force it open. Entering the smoke filled office of Turner Construction, he saw that all of the office partitions within 50 feet were blown down by the force of the explosion. He helped several people who were bleeding and burned." It's important to note, that the quote referring to the freight elevator shaft exploding into the area, was only an assumption, and was not something witnessed by either Bronsteyn or McCabe. From the first quoted article: "I later on found out the reason there was an explosion was the jet-fuel filled the elevator shaft and seconds later a spark triggered an explosion." This is another example of someone who "found out later", as if he researched it. He never witnessed jet-fuel filling in an elevator shaft. He didn't directly witness the actual explosion. Nor did he mention noticing any odor of jet-fuel which would have been exhibited by the strong smell of kerosene. Amazingly, he maintained no recollection of any such odor, in spite of a later belief that the elevator shaft had been filling with jet-fuel. Note that he believes that jet-fuel was accumulating prior to the explosion. This can be rejected for two reasons: First, nobody noticed jet-fuel before the the explosion in Basement 4, nor did any of the survivors in the basement floors or the lobby. Also, based on the accounts of Griffith and Cruz in elevator Car 50, we can also rule out jet-fuel reaching the bottom through that path. The explosion in the basement must have occurred before any fireball could have traveled through shaft 50. Secondly, it would have taken too much time for the unignited fuel to reach the basement and then explode - Chapter 6 ("The Timing"), examines this is in more detail. It's reasonable to assume that McCabe himself did not determine the cause of the explosion, but was told by someone else, or he just derived this conclusion later from all the public accounts and reports. Phillip Morelli, construction worker, was also in Basement 4: "I go downstairs, the foreman tells me to go to remove the containers, as I’m walking by the main freight car of the building, in the corridor, that’s when I got blown. I mean, the impact of the explosion, or whatever happened, it threw me to the floor, and that’s when everything started happening... It knocked me right to the floor. You didn’t know what it was. Of course you’re assuming something just fell over in the loading dock, something very heavy, something very big, you don’t know what happened, and all of a sudden you just felt the floor moving and you get up and the walls...And then you know, I mean now I’m hearing that the main freight car, the elevators fell down, so I was right near the main freight car so I assume what that was." [Note that "now I'm hearing..." is a misinterpretation of the events Morelli experienced, made afterwards by others who told him what he experienced. The main freight elevator did not crash down, it was caught by its brakes and therefore could not have caused floor and walls to move.] "Then, I mean you heard that coming towards you. I was racing, I was going towards the bathroom. All of a sudden, I opened the door, I didn’t know it was the bathroom, and all of a sudden the big impact happened again, and all of the ceiling tiles was falling down, the light fixtures were falling, swinging out of the ceiling, and I come running out the door, and everything, the walls were down, and I started running towards the parking lots. I just thought something... because I know that the loading dock is on B1, that’s three floors above me, I just assumed that a car or something exploded on B1 or something got delivered and something big and heavy fell over. You just knew it was something big...(...) As I ran to the parking lots, you know, I mean, everybody screaming... There was a lot of smoke down there.... You gotta go clear across the whole -- from One to Two World Trade Center. That's the way you gotta run. And then all of a sudden it happened all over again. Building Two got hit. I don't know that. I just know something else hit us to the floor. Right in the basement you felt it. The walls were caving in. Everything that was going on. I know of people that got killed in the basement. I know of people that got broken legs in the basement. People got reconstructive surgery because the walls hit them in the face." Watch Morellis testimony here; http://www.studyof911.com/video/files/morelli_01.rm Note that Morelli experienced two explosions in the basement levels. These explosions took walls down and killed or heavily injured people. Morelli mentioned smoke, but he never mentioned a fireball or the odor of jet-fuel, though he said he was "right near the main freight car". Here's another testimony from an eyewitness, Jose Sanchez, maintenance worker, located in Basement 4: "Sanchez recalls, (...) being in a small sub-level 4 workshop with another man who he only knew by the name of Chino when, out of nowhere, the blast sounded as the two men were cutting a piece of metal. “It sounded like a bomb and the lights went on and off,” said Sanchez in the tape recording. “We started to walk to the exit and a huge ball of fire went through the freight elevator. The hot air from the ball of fire dropped Chino to the floor and my hair got burned,” said Sanchez in the tape recording. “The room then got full of smoke and I remember saying out loud ‘I believe it was a bomb that blew up inside the building." Note that Sanchez describes a first event which sounded like a bomb and the lights went out. Then after proceeding in the direction of the freight elevator, he experienced a fireball passing through the freight elevator. This is consistent with the testimony of Arturo Griffith, who reported a fireball occurring after he first experienced an explosion below. Also, this fireball knocked Sanchez to the floor and burned his hair. It seems that it did not produce a very powerful blast pressure, which matches the fireball experienced by Griffith and Cruz. Therefore it is most likely the same event. But there seems to be a time-discrepancy. From the quote above it appears that Sanchez experienced the fireball only seconds after the first explosion event ("We started to walk to the exit and a huge ball of fire went through the freight elevator"). But, the fireball Griffith reported did not occur within the first seconds. Though we don't know exactly when Griffith witnessed the fireball, it seems there's a discrepancy of 30 seconds plus between the two accounts. By looking into the account of Hursley Lever ("Chino"), there is reason to believe that there was no discrepancy. "When Lever heard a ''poof'' from that crash, he thought that a transformer had blown again. ''I'm still doing what I'm doing,'' Lever recalled of his reaction. ''Then I walk toward the door and heard a big explosion. And when I look, I see a ball of fire coming toward the door.'' After being knocked across the room, with the lights out and black smoke everywhere, Lever heard a co-worker calling him by his nickname from across the shop. ''`Chino, Chino, are you all right?''' Lever recalled." http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/globe_stories/0916/In_a_nightmare_survivor_finds_rescue_and_hopeP.shtml "I was in the B-4 level. ... I heard a bomb. So, I says, 'Probably a transformer again blew up.'So I step back, finish what I had to finish, and I started towards the door again. And there came a big blast with a big ball of fire. And that's when I got hit. It hit me right back down on the ground and I realized my ankle was shattered." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGXlP6Zlgk "Doing what I'm doing" and "finish what I had to finish" could very well refer to an activity lasting 30+ seconds. With that, any time-discrepancy is accounted for. Sanchez and Lever exemplify how people (and elevator shafts) near the explosion zone survived the fire and overpressure, while further away from that official - explosion center, garages, offices, machine shops and other elevator shafts were damaged or destroyed. And then there is the account of Bobby Hall. Neither of the quoted articles mention where exactly he was, but one just states that he was 50 feet underground. "Bobby Hall, of Staten Island, was near a mechanical room floor 50 feet underground when the impact of a falling elevator threw him against a steel door. He struggled to his feet, and assisted two other injured men. Outside, he borrowed a cell phone from a man on the plaza to call his wife. Moments later, the man was killed by falling debris, Hall said." http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/911/showcase/ny-nystaf092916637sep09,0,1597086.story?page=2&?track=sto-relcon “We were going to our shop to make a call and find out what the first explosion was and the place just came apart on us," Bobby said. "What we found out later was the hot wind was the number 50 freight car falling from the 88th floor and it just came into the area where we were and just blew us back out into the parking lot." http://www.911ea.org/News_Stories_From_September_2002.htm#NY First, note that what "they found out later" is a misinterpretation. Car 50 wasn't falling from the 88th floor, and Hall being thrown against a wall could not have resulted from an elevator falling. Certainly they could not have been blown into the parking lot by an elevator's fall, since the parking lots were all outside the towers foundation. It must be assumed, that he and his colleagues did not research what happened. So, actually they didn't find out later, but were told what was believed to have happened. Also note, that he doesn't mention fire or a fireball, but a hot wind, blowing him back. This investigation moves to Basement 2, since there are no specific reports regarding Basement 3. Basement 2 Here's the account of Mike Pecoraro: "Deep below the tower, Mike Pecoraro was suddenly interrupted in his grinding task by a shake on his shoulder from his co-worker. "Did you see that?" he was asked. Mike told him that he had seen nothing. "You didn’t see the lights flicker?", his co-worker asked again. "No," Mike responded, but he knew immediately that if the lights had flickered, it could spell trouble. A power surge or interruption could play havoc with the building’s equipment. If all the pumps trip out or pulse meters trip, it could make for a very long day bringing the entire center’s equipment back on-line. Mike told his co-worker to call upstairs to their Assistant Chief Engineer and find out if everything was all right. His co-worker made the call and reported back to Mike that he was told that the Assistant Chief did not know what happened but that the whole building seemed to shake and there was a loud explosion. They had been told to stay where they were and "sit tight" until the Assistant Chief got back to them. By this time, however, the room they were working in began to fill with a white smoke. "We smelled kerosene", Mike recalled, "I was thinking maybe a car fire was upstairs", referring to the parking garage located below grade in the tower but above the deep space where they were working. The two decided to ascend the stairs to the C level, to a small machine shop where Vito Deleo and David Williams were supposed to be working. When thetwo arrived at the C level, they found the machine shop gone. "There was nothing there but rubble, "Mike said. "We’re talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press – gone!"The two began yelling for their co-workers, but there was no answer. They saw a perfect line of smoke streaming through the air. "You could stand here,” he said, “and two inches over you couldn’t breathe. We couldn’t see through the smoke so we started screaming." But there was still no answer. The two made their way to the parking garage, but found that it, too, was gone. "There were no walls, there was rubble on the floor, and you can’t see anything," he said. They decided to ascend two more levels to the building’s lobby. As they ascended to the B Level, one floor above, they were astonished to see a steel and concrete fire door that weighed about 300 pounds, wrinkled up "like a piece of aluminum foil" and lying on the floor. "They got us again", Mike told his co-worker, referring to the terrorist attack at the center in 1993. Having been through that bombing, Mike recalled seeing similar things happen to the building’s structure. He was convinced a bomb had gone off in the building. Mike walked through the open doorway and found two people lying on the floor. One was a female Carpenter and the other an Elevator Operator. They were both badly burned and injured. Realizing he had to get help, Mike ascended to the Lobby Level." http://www.chiefengineer.org/article.cfm?seqnum1=1029 Pecoraro and his co-worker were in Basement 6 when the lights flickered, and after the room filled with white smoke, they decided to leave and head upstairs. From their statement, that "they decided to ascend two more levels to the building’s lobby", it can be concluded that Level C refers to Basement 2. This is also confirmed when they said they ascended one floor above, where they found an elevator operator and a female carpenter. The elevator operator is Arthuro Griffith, and the female carpenter is Marlene Cruz. It's notable, that when Pecoraro speaks of "walls gone" in the parking area, and the "machine shop gone", he makes no mention of fire. Also note, that a 50-ton-press doesn't mean that the press weight 50 tons, but that it had a compressive force of 50-tons. For example, here's a picture of a 30-ton press:  Basement 1 According to an ABC reporter, after the basement explosion, the subway station and cars started filling with smoke and subsequently the subway was stopped. (Download the video (2.7 mB) of his report here; http://www.file-upload.net/download-1347206/Subway-2.avi.html or here; http://uploading.com/files/2VXTFWWX/Subway%202.avi.html The subway is outside the WTC Twin Towers foundation ("bathtub"), on the eastern side, over 200 feet away from the elevator shafts:  William Rodriguez, janitor in the Twin Towers, in an interview with Lenny Charles, INN: http://www.william911.com/ "Rodriguez: I worked in the building for 20 years. I was the person in charge of all the stairwells in the building. I had the only master key that opened all the doors in the building, and I went floor by floor opening the doors. On 9/11, on 8:46, I was at the basement of the North Tower, the first tower to be impacted, the second one to fall. While I was there, a second or two before the plane hit, there was a huge explosion on the sublevel B2 to sublevel B3. Charles: So there was an explosion from below you? Rodriguez: Correct. And that was, you know, a second or two before the impact of the plane. Charles: But it was clear and it was distinct that the explosion was before the plane hit the top of the building? Rodriguez: Oh, yes, definitely, definitely. As a matter of fact, it was so hard that I thought it was an electrical generator that just blew up on the sublevels, because the support of the building, the electrical pumps and generators, was located by the mechanical room on that floor. And when I went to verbalize it, we heard the impact of the plane, very far away, coming from the top. So there was a big difference of something coming from the top and something coming from the basement. I mean I worked there for 20 years, I could tell the difference of one thing coming from each side. And at that moment a person comes running into the office saying, "Explosion, explosion!", with his hands extended, all his skin was off from under his armpits like he was a piece of cloth, and was hanging off both hands. It was his actual skin." "Arriving at 8:30 on the morning of 9-11 he went to the maintenance office located on the first sublevel, one of six sub-basements beneath ground level. There were a total of fourteen people in the office at this time. As he was talking with others, there was a very loud massive explosion which seemed to emanate from between sub-basement B2 and B3. There were twenty-two people on B2 sub-basement who also felt and heard that first explosion. At first he thought it was a generator that had exploded. But the cement walls in the office cracked from the explosion. "When I heard the sound of the explosion, the floor beneath my feet vibrated, the walls started cracking and everything started shaking." said Rodriguez, who was crowded together with fourteen other people in the office including Anthony Saltamachia, supervisor for the American Maintenance Company." http://web.archive.org/web/20051214165048/http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=7762 From the above account it is established that Rodriguez was in Basement 1, and that the explosions came from below him, which he assumed was either from Basement 2 or 3. Rodriguez' testimony is corroborated by Felipe David, who also states that the explosion came from below: "That day I was in the basement in sub-level 1 sometime after 8:30am. Everything happened so fast, everything moved so fast. The building started shaking after I heard the explosion below, dust was flying everywhere and all of a sudden it got real hot. "I threw myself onto the floor, covered my face because I felt like I was burned. I sat there for a couple of seconds on the floor and felt like I was going to die, saying to myself 'God, please give me strength.'" Although severely burned on his face, arms and hands with skin hanging from his body like pieces of cloth, David picked himself up, running for help to the office were Rodriguez and others were gathered. "When I went in, I told them it was an explosion," said David, who was then helped out of the WTC by Rodriguez and eventually taken by ambulance to New York Hospital. "When people looked at me with my skin hanging, they started crying but I heard others say 'OK, good, good, you made it alive." http://web.archive.org/web/20060422081157/http://www.arcticbeacon.com/13-Jul-2005.html With this in mind, also observe the accounts of Kenneth Johannemann (watch here); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egIrVyM3FGY -and Anthony Saltalamacchia (watch here); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzpaZE5XSfg Another eyewitness, Salvatore Giambanco, was on the opposite side of Basement 1, by another elevator and in a completely different location than Rodriguez and David: "Reflecting back on his 9/11 near death experience, he added: "I remember riding in the ambulance that morning and looking back, thinking it had to be a bomb." "Later they told me it was an airplane that hit the towers, but how could it just be an airplane? I know all the newspapers were saying that, but it was just too incredible to believe if you heard and experienced what I did. It had to be a bomb." http://web.archive.org/web/20060209043425/http://arcticbeacon.com/13-Jul-2005.html Yet another person who was later provided with an explanation about what was believed to have occurred. It's apparent that many witnesses of the basement explosions, later, "found out" explanations for what they experienced. Explanations that fit perfectly with the official account. Giambanco also stated this: "We heard the explosion and the smoke all of a sudden came from all over. There was an incredible force of wind that also swept everything away. I remember hearing a scream of a woman, but I couldn't see her. I had just gotten off the elevator and I was standing by it with another man but didn't know his name." This was corroborated by witness Bobby Hall, who also mentioned the "incredible force of the wind". Using different words, he was told that this wind was the effect of an elevator falling 90 levels. Both Hall and Giambanco made no mention of any fire or fireball. So what caused this wind? Tertiary blast effects, as learned in the chapter about explosions? It's certain that vibration and building shaking from the plane impact can be ruled out as the cause. Another witness had this to say: "The last stretch of floors went by rather quickly; 3rd... 2rd... 1st... Basement. We ended up in some weird storage closet with two WTC workers. "You went too far! The exits are on the 1st Floor," one of them yelled from behind the disheveled pipes and disarray. I noticed that the walls down here were heavily damaged. It was dark, damp, and it looked like the building really took quite a structural blow. It was pretty tough to backtrack against the steady flow of people coming down the stairs, but we managed to get back out to the ground level." Unfortunately, we don't know the name of this man, as this was only posted in an Internet forum and therefore should be taken with a grant of salt. However, his Unfortunately, we don't know the name of this man, as this was only posted in an Internet forum and therefore should be taken with a grain of salt. However, his whole report seems to be accurate and not in contradiction to the reports of other people. http://web.archive.org/web/20030210031615/http://www.mjbarkl.com/locked.htm Conclusion It was reported that Basement 4 and 2 sustained cave-ins and blown walls ("walls hitting the face", "cave-in with people trapped", "walls of parking garage gone", "machine-shop gone"). Basement 1 also had blast damage ("steel and concrete fire door (...) wrinkled up", "cement walls have cracked", "walls heavily damaged", "(...)structural blow"). According to the official version of events, a jet-fuel fireball created this massive basement damage, supposedly traveling through elevator cars occupying the same shaft while leaving them practically unscathed. The damage pattern in the basement levels does not fit with the official account. If shaft 50 would have been the origin, Griffith and Cruz would not have survived. Instead, their accounts show that the first explosion(s), occurring within seconds after the impact, did not emerge from shaft 50. The damage pattern does not fit with shaft 6/7 as origin either. In their position at B1, the explosion force would not have left the cars "intact" (but burned, as NIST states), and they would have been destroyed at the same time as the walls over several levels. To penetrate and destroy walls farther away, the explosion had to rip through the walls of shaft 6/7, which could not have left those parked cars "intact". It's important to remember, that since the doors of cars 6 and 7 were permanently closed due to maintenance work, any explosive jet-fuel/air-mixture would have been contained by the shaft. If this mixture ignited, the explosion's force would have peaked in the shaft. Not only because it was the center of the explosion - with a pressure reduction the greater distance - but also because the shaft was a confined area, thus concentrating the pressure. If the explosion wasn't able to destroy the walls of the shaft, then it certainly couldn't have been powerful enough to destroy the more massive walls which were farther away, and in a less confined area. Interestingly, in the next chapter about the damage in the lobby, other elevators, with no access to the impact zone, suffered much greater damage than those that had. To be continued... MM (for NK-44) Edited by Miragememories, May 26 2009, 08:15 AM.
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| Attack on WTC 1 · World Trade Center | |
11:10 AM Nov 28
