Posted on 09/03/2006 5:19:29 PM PDT by Pyro7480
The image of featureless steel structures catastrophically crumbling into a fatal dust storm was indelibly imprinted on the minds of millions of people around the world. Yet the enormous plumes of smoke, the soaring balls of fire and the sheer scale of the buildings masked the human face of the tragedy. For the first time, through drama supported by interviews and archival footage, TV audiences will be invited to venture inside the towers to follow the stories of more than a dozen individuals whose daily routine is swept aside by events that changed the world forever.
Based on the testimonies of survivors, victims’ families, emergency workers and city officials, Inside the Twin Towers opens with a glimpse of the everyday world of work and office life. It is easy to relate to Melanie de Vere, the 30-year-old British publishing executive helping to host a conference in the North Tower, and also with Stanley Praimnath, a banker devoted to his religion and family. We meet Hong Zhu, the broker who was caught up in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Jan Demczur, the window cleaner who knows so many faces throughout the buildings.
In an instant, fate decrees who will have the opportunity to escape and who will not. Some have the option of being able to leave, but not all have the strength to do what is required to survive. On Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and in the following 17 minutes, Melanie, Hong and Jan find that they are among the thousands of people suddenly confronted by confusion and uncertainty. While they search for answers, individuals such as construction manager Frank De Martini are fighting to rescue those trapped by tons of debris. Frank, supported by his colleagues Pablo and Mak, are pushing their way up into the wreckage of the dying building, rolling back the boundary between life and death.
Outside the North Tower, New York officials, supported by the Port Authority, are mobilizing the largest rescue operation in the city's history. Well over 1,000 emergency staff are being deployed, an organized evacuation has begun, and the critical decision that the fire cannot be fought has been made. Most of the North Tower’s elevators have stopped working and any firefighter attempting to reach the seat of the blaze will take more than an hour to climb up to the 91st floor. It is at this level that the three emergency stairwells have been severed by the direct force of the remnants of the aircraft. Rescuers will not be able to climb any farther – nor will anybody be able to descend from the higher floors. At least 1,300 people are trapped on the 19 floors above and immediately below the point of collision. Then the second tower is hit.
Stuck in elevators, confronted by dark and smoky exit routes, or hemmed in by burning wreckage, office workers in both towers were beyond the immediate help of the outside world. Individuals were forced to rely on their own resources in making the best of the options available to them. In buildings 110 stories tall, where fires burning at 1,300 degrees Centigrade were melting the steel floor supports, it was a perilous journey down to the ground. Not everybody would escape before the towers collapsed.
I'm sure DU will also have a live thread about how the program is covering up for the Bush administration.
DU Talking points
wtc 7 was not hit by a plane (but was hit by a 110 story building)
Kerosene cant melt steel (but the other components of combustion are oxygen and an ignition source)
"silverstien (the jews) pulled the building" and "made billions on 9/11"
The jews (palestinians) celebrated all over NJ (the mideast)
I grew up with a fireman in my neighborhood. He was one of the most decent and marvelous men I could have known. These people are remakable, as we all now know so well. One of the most shocking things I ever learned whas that people in black areas were attacking firemen who have no objective but to save lives and property. It was quite a revelation.
Remembered some more
*no steel structure has ever failed before
*therefore the planes did too much damage to the wtc
*there was just a 14 foot hole in the pentagon
*therefore the 757 did not do enough damage to the pentagon
*therefore the 757 did not hit the pentagon and was crashed out to sea by remote control
It happens. It also happens in Muslim neighborhoods in certain Swedish cities, with both fire rescue and ambulances.
This is a great documentary for high school kids.
Don't forget the one about the jews all being told to stay home that day.
Tinfoil hatters says the planes fired missiles into the Twin Towers before impact.
Tinfoil hats ,why shoot missiles and then fly the planes into buildings you idiots?
so there was a 757?
these DUmmies
OH the film by the 2 French brothers? I saw it last year, its a must see for everyone. I thought this thread was about a new scientific documentary by discovery.
And Hillary clinton staying home that day in case the capital was hit
It is a new documentary. It almost has a "docu-drama" feel to it.
That one was done, I believe, by two Franch brothers. It was a terrific documentary.
From Discovery.com:
Most civilians recall simply being taught to await the instructions that would be provided at the time of an emergency. Civilians were not informed that rooftop evacuations were not part of the evacuation plan, or that doors to the roof were kept locked.
The Port Authority acknowledges that it had no protocol for rescuing people trapped above a fire in the towers.
The World Trade Center lacked any plan for evacuation of civilians on upper floors in the event that all stairwells were impassable below.
Between 16,400 and 18,800 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.
Approximately 87 percent of the estimated 17,400 occupants of the towers, and 99 percent of those located below the impact floors, evacuated successfully.
A principal factor limiting the loss of life was that the buildings were one-third to one-half occupied at the time of the attacks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated that if the towers had been fully occupied with 20,000 occupants each, it would have taken just over three hours to evacuate the buildings and about 14,000 people might have perished because the stairwell capacity would not have been sufficient to evacuate that many people in the available time.
Holy crap, how did they recreate this the way are showing now?
Just mow tuned in. Thanks for letting us know! This should be interesting.
I dont know why Im doing this to myself watching this. Used to work at WTC2 102 floor and left my job a while before 9/11 happened.
After 5 years I still cry and get angrier than a hundred supernovas. :-(
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