9/11 third tower mystery 'solved'

The final mystery of 9/11 will soon be solved, according to US experts investigating the collapse of the third tower at the World Trade Center.

The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers.

Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse.

Conspiracy theorists have argued that the third tower was brought down in a controlled demolition.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, based near Washington DC, is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that ordinary fires caused the building to collapse. That would make it the first and only steel skyscraper in the world to collapse because of fire.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's lead investigator, Dr Shyam Sunder, spoke to BBC Two's "The Conspiracy Files":

"Our working hypothesis now actually suggests that it was normal building fires that were growing and spreading throughout the multiple floors that may have caused the ultimate collapse of the buildings."

However, a group of architects, engineers and scientists say the official explanation that fires caused the collapse is impossible. Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth argue there must have been a controlled demolition.

FIND OUT MORE... The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 - The Third Tower is on BBC Two on Sunday 6 July at 2100 BST Visit website or catch up using the

The founder of the group, Richard Gage, says the collapse of the third tower is an obvious example of a controlled demolition using explosives.

"Building Seven is the smoking gun of 9/11… A sixth grader can look at this building falling at virtually freefall speed, symmetrically and smoothly, and see that it is not a natural process.

"Buildings that fall in natural processes fall to the path of least resistance", says Gage, "they don't go straight down through themselves."

There are a number of facts that have encouraged conspiracy theories about Tower Seven.

Although its collapse potentially made architectural history, all of the thousands of tonnes of steel from the skyscraper were taken away to be melted down. The third tower was occupied by the Secret Service, the CIA, the Department of Defence and the Office of Emergency Management, which would co-ordinate any response to a disaster or a terrorist attack. The destruction of the third tower was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report. The first official inquiry into Tower Seven by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was unable to be definitive about what caused its collapse. In May 2002 FEMA concluded that the building collapsed because intense fires had burned for hours, fed by thousands of gallons of diesel stored in the building. But it said this had "only a low probability of occurrence" and more work was needed. But now nearly seven years after 9/11 the definitive official explanation of what happened to Tower Seven is finally about to be published in America.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has spent more than two years investigating Tower Seven but lead investigator Dr Shyam Sunder rejects criticism that it has been slow.

"We've been at this for a little over two years and doing a two or two and a half year investigation is not at all unusual. That's the same kind of time frame that takes place when we do aeroplane crash investigations, it takes a few years."

With no steel from Tower 7 to study, investigators have instead made four extremely complex computer models worked out to the finest detail. They're confident their approach can now provide the answers. Dr Sunder says the investigation is moving as fast as possible.

"It's a very complex problem. It requires a level of fidelity in the modelling and rigour in the analysis that has never been done before."

Other skyscrapers haven't fully collapsed before because of fire. But NIST argues that what happened on 9/11 was unique.

It says Tower Seven had an unusual design, built over an electricity substation and a subway; there were many fires that burnt for hours; and crucially, fire fighters could not fight the fires in Tower 7, because they didn't have enough water and focused on saving lives.

Investigators have focused on the east side where the long floor spans were under most stress.

They think fires burnt long enough to weaken and break many of the connections that held the steel structure together.

Most susceptible were the thinner floor beams which required less fireproofing, and the connections between the beams and the columns. As they heated up the connections failed and the beams sagged and failed, investigators say.

The collapse of the first of the Twin Towers does not seem to have caused any serious damage to Tower Seven, but the second collapse of the 1,368ft (417m) North Tower threw debris at Tower Seven, just 350ft (106m) away.

Tower Seven came down at 5.21pm. Until now most of the photographs have been of the three sides of the building that did not show much obvious physical damage. Now new photos of the south side of the building, which crucially faced the North Tower, show that whole side damaged and engulfed in smoke.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/7485331.stm

Phttt! I can’t believe this is still being treated as though “REALLY IMPORTANT”.

No mystery. The fire just ate through the support columns at the floors until they weakened enough to begin a process of "pancake" collapse. The rest is explained by gravity. No conspiracy theory needed.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

3 posted on 07/04/2008 5:34:51 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

Structural steel, in a fire, softens, weakens, and even twists.

Anyone saying otherwise doesn’t know what they are saying.

AND ........ controlled demolitions make a lot of explosion-like noises and explosion-like flashes, which no one saw or heard. The Bush Derangement Syndrome conspiracies turn my stomach.

5 posted on 07/04/2008 5:36:33 PM PDT by Dumpster Baby ( They told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated)

Rosie knows the truth, it was an inside job. “The first time in history that fire melted steel.”
Rosie O’Dougnuts-The View, ABC TV

Yep. Its a matter of applying Occam's Razor. People who look for overly complicated explanations are stupid and they should be disqualified from talking about the 9/11 Towers' demise.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

7 posted on 07/04/2008 5:38:03 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

I would be interested in just WHO are (and what country their allegiance is to) that are members of this “Architects for Truth” group. What are their qualifications, what is their experience and how many building they've designed.

9 posted on 07/04/2008 5:39:47 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)

I notice even the moonbats haven't yet accused Bush of murdering the people in the buildings... if that was all part of some vast government conspiracy. A conspiracy by definition, requires a lot of people to keep the details secret and sooner than later, someone talks. We haven't heard anything, even from the Truthers, to indicate the existence of such a conspiracy.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

10 posted on 07/04/2008 5:40:46 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

No explanation, however well reasoned, will ever satisfy the 9/11 conspiracy nuts.

Ah, shoot. Since the “third tower was occupied by the Secret Service, the CIA, the Department of Defence and the Office of Emergency Management, which would co-ordinate any response to a disaster or a terrorist attack”, all the occupants figured they wanted a new more secure office building and helped collapse the building.

There will always be people who think the truth is not good enough for them.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

13 posted on 07/04/2008 5:43:48 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

Right on! So Truther friends, if they are behind it, where are they? (sound of crickets chirping)

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

14 posted on 07/04/2008 5:45:05 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

Dennis Leary says his NYC firefighter buddies who were there claim 1/4 to 1/3 of the lower floors of Tower 7 were decimated by debris from WTC 1 and 2.

My favorite is the second massive explosion in Oklahoma City, the planted charges to take down the Murrah Building when the truck bomb failed to do that, that was never seen or heard by 100,000+ people looking in that direction, and wasn't recorded on any of the dozens of cameras aimed in that direction.

16 posted on 07/04/2008 5:48:16 PM PDT by Dumpster Baby ( They told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated)

My theory is that the 9/11 truthers knew all about the attack and planed it....

The bush haters would have us believe Bush is incompetent and has screwed up the war, the economy, the climate and so on. And yet he was able to engineer this attack/cover up without a single leak.

In both cases, how were they brought into the buildings and how could they be set off without detection? In a conspiracy, you should have witnesses to such an event. The Truthers haven't been able to come up with one person who claimed to see explosives brought into the vicinity of the target buildings.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

19 posted on 07/04/2008 5:52:19 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

They think Bush was the stupidest person ever to be President yet he somehow managed to co-ordinate everything that happened on 9/11. As usual, the Left doesn't notice the contradiction in its own position.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

20 posted on 07/04/2008 5:54:46 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)

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