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.
conspiracy is always the easy out, it's much easier to believe the government is at some secret fault.
It shows a small mind that is easily swayed.
There are people who are highly mentally defective who believe that the 9/11 attacks either didn't really happen or else the attacks were the result of some "Zionist" conspiracy. These people remind me of the idiots who say the Holocaust never happened. This type of thinking is becoming respectable in one of the major American political parties -- this is very dangerous.
This show is really good, but with way too many ad breaks. Last one ended at 1001 pm and then they started at 1005 pm with the next. What gives?
I can't recommend it strongly enough.
###
I second the motion. The footage of firemen going up is haunting.
That's the one. It's excellent. I'm anxious to see the new one, too.
That chaplain didn't make it. I agree about the sounds of the people dying. It was hard to realize that every noise was another lost life--agonizingly lost.
Well, this one started at a little past 900pm here..
Yes, wasnt he death certificate number 1? As the first one filled out? That guy was really something. It makes me feel better that man of God was in there with FDNY..
This is making me so sad all over again.
Oh, God, that was horrible. I'd never heard this.
I can't see the Discovery channel 9-11 special right now. I am taping it for later viewing. Can't wait to see it.
For those of you that may be interested, click the link provided. It is an e-mail from Frank Culbertson, the first commander of the International Space Station. He was the only American off the planet when the attacks happened. The e-mail is of his thoughts for that day and the next. It's a very interesting and moving read. I reccomend it.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp3/culbertsonletter.html
Yup...the super heroes are, like him, those who weren't victims by circumstances...but who headed in to disaster to help the victims.
Day? Month? Year?
It's on right now, and has been for nearly an hour and a half.
Absolutely chilling.........I can barely believe that so many people have already forgotten the horror of that day.
Not one mishap occurred during all the landings 4-6,000 of them.
Someone suggested writing new rules/regulations/directions in case it ever had to be done again.
Some one said "how could it have been done any better" and it was decided that the lack of rules allowed everyone involved to make on the spot decisions about what was best to do and writing news rules/instruction, etc would only hinder that freedom.
No new rules were written. I thought God, common sense won out.
Yes, it's called "Grounded on 9/11" and ran on the History Channel..
Holy sh@t. That is quite a viedo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.