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20th anniversary of 9/11: the Port Authority's response between the WTC plane crashes.

  • 10-09-2021 9:54pm
    #1
    political analyst
    Registered Users Posts: 3,498 ✭✭✭ political analyst


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks#South_Tower


    [QUOTE]Meanwhile, in the South Tower, many people saw what had happened in the North Tower and chose to evacuate as a precaution. However, the major hindrance to this process was that for the 17 minutes between the impacts of Flight 11 and Flight 175, it had not yet been determined that a terrorist attack was unfolding, and as a result, the Port Authority in the South Tower spread the word via the building's intercom system and security guards for workers in the South Tower to remain in their offices.[29] In a phone message to his wife by a victim who worked for AON Risk Management, part of the initial announcement can be heard stating: "May I have your attention, please. Repeating this message: the situation occurred in Building 1. If conditions warrant on your floor, you may wish to start an orderly evacuation."[19] A package deliverer told reporters he heard the first crash and as he evacuated he heard: "The building is secure. The safest place is inside; stay calm and do not leave." Others who ignored the message were met with officials at the lobby who told them to return to their respective floors.[30] In a recorded radio conversation about two minutes after the first plane hit, the director of the South Tower stated: "I'm not going to do anything until we get orders from the Fire Department or somebody."[19] This was done in order to avoid overcrowding on the plaza and concourse levels, which was feared would slow the evacuation and rescue operations in the North Tower.[31 [UNQUOTE]

    I find the idea that a full evacuation of the South Tower immediately after the North Tower was hit absurd. Surely, it would have been possible for all of the South Tower's occupants to leave the area without impacting on the emergency services or on those people who were fleeing the North Tower.


    Even allowing for the failure to imagine the use of airliners as terror weapons against skyscrapers, how could the Port Authority (PA)think that getting out of the area as fast as possible would not be a safe course of action?


    As a public organisation, the PA ought to have known that it had no right to undermine the right of anyone who was anxious to leave the South Tower, especially given the fact that false imprisonment is a crime. It's not like people in the South Tower would have had the will to continue doing their jobs as the fire in the North Tower raged, even if the crashing of the plane into the North Tower had been an accident.



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