Do you think the 9/11 hijackers knew that the WTC buildings would collapse?

[u/JMRooDukes808]

I really don’t know where else to ask this. There is obviously an overload of information about the event itself online, but one thing I can’t find out is if the hijackers intended to, or knew that the WTC buildings would collapse. Do you think they just planned on the impact and fires to be the extent of the damage caused? As far as I know, no steel structure buildings in history had collapsed from fire at that point, so it makes me wonder if they actually “succeeded” in their plan more than they intended.

Edit: no conspiracies please, that was not the point of my post

[u/Christmas2025]

100% no—everyone was incredibly surprised that day when they did.

If the hijackers had anticipated the physics of what would’ve happened, they would’ve hit the buildings as low as possible and after 9:00 AM, as this would’ve resulted in tens of thousands of more deaths. In the North Tower (the first hit), no one above the floor where the airplane impacted survived, as all the staircases were severed. If Atta had hit a lower floor and after 9:00 AM (instead of 8:45 AM), tens of thousands more would’ve assuredly died from that tower alone, and the tower also would’ve collapsed much sooner, and potentially toppled over, which would’ve caused even more deaths below.

[u/John_Walker → u/Christmas2025]

While obviously, trapping more people would have resulted in greater deaths, but the plane that hit the south tower hit on the level that had the sky lobby with the elevators that took people to the ground. It had hundreds of people crammed in there trying to evacuate after the north tower had been hit.

That was one of the worst places it could have hit. The only saving grace was that the angle it hit at left one of the staircases intact, allowing 18 people to escape from at or above the impact zone.

[u/P3for2 → u/John_Walker]

Where they hit was a lucky break for them. It hadn't been deliberate. They weren't very good pilots.

But a while ago I was watching a documentary on the 9/11 attack. I don't remember which tower (I have trouble remembering what happened where), probably the one you're talking about, but there were trapped people, because the staircases and elevators were taken out of service by the plane crash. And there was audio recordings of firefighters making it up to the floor where they were trapped at. And you can just imagine the elation they all felt when they realized if someone came up, that meant there was a way down. But the entire time this documentary was running, there was a countdown timer in the corner until the building collapses. And it was not long after when the firefighters made it up to those trapped people that the countdown ran out of time. That was so heartbreaking.

[u/John_Walker → u/P3for2]

I’d like to see that. It had to be south tower, the north tower had all of its staircases severed. Not a single person from at or above the impact zone survived in the north tower.

The man in the red bandana is another 9/11 legend. You could be thinking about him maybe.

[u/P3for2 → u/John_Walker]

Yeah, I just looked it up, it was the south tower. Sorry, can't remember which documentary it was.

It was firefighter chief Orio Palmer's audio recording. I do know of Welles Crowther, but this was the FDNY.

[u/FoldAdventurous2022 → u/P3for2]

Could the documentary have been Inside 9/11? Aired on the National Geographic channel in the spring of 2006. I think I might have seen the timer thing on it at one point.

[u/P3for2 → u/FoldAdventurous2022]

Sorry, I don't know. I'm pretty sure I watched it on Youtube, but I just tried looking it up and did not see it, so I can't confirm if it's the same documentary.

[u/FoldAdventurous2022 → u/P3for2]

No worries. Still recommend Inside 9/11, especially the second hour.