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/Stop_icant]

People in tower 2 were told to stay put by the port authority after the first plane hit so that it was easier to manage the evacuation and rescue effort in tower 1.

Luckily for thousands of Morgan Stanley employees in tower 2, their independent security guy was like fuck that and got his people out despite instructions to stay put.

[u/ckdblueshark → u/Stop_icant]

Rick Rescorla. Amazing life story, including service in the Vietnam War (he's the guy in the cover photo of the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young), teaching, and then his career in corporate security.

After the 1993 bombing, he argued for moving the company offices elsewhere but the lease wasn't up until 2006. He then did what we could, including holding surprise evacuation drills that he would time with his stopwatch.

On that day, he got most of his people out and died trying to get everyone out -- he was last seen heading upstairs.

Of ~2,700 employees, 13 died. Rescorla, two of his deputies, and a security guard were among them as all four had stayed behind to save others.

[u/DrunkOnRedCordial → u/ckdblueshark]

The NY Times shares his widow's story on Facebook every year on the anniversary. One of his friends told her that Rick could never have lived with himself if he had left one other person to die in the tower, so it was his fate to be one of the casualties, because he was always going to keep going.

[u/BruceForsyth55 → u/ckdblueshark]

My wife’s employer GWR here in the UK named a train after Rick. Amazing guy.

https://www.tiktok.com/@gwrailway/video/7277493766926126369

https://x.com/GWRHelp/status/1436672372367511557

[u/bex199 → u/[deleted]]

hey! new yorker here. two tips: 1. take your lithium 2. shut the fuck up. don’t use our tragedy to preach ya gibberish

[u/Stop_icant → u/bex199]

Sorry, I just can never get the firefighters out of my head when 9/11 comes around. They stay with me for weeks afterwards. I watch the Naudet brothers’ 9/11 document every year and I just admire all the men that sacrificed their lives in a way I could never imagine if I hadn’t seen this footage.

I know I rambled without really expressing a clear point.

You sound like a New Yorker;)

[u/overeducatedhick → u/bex199]

That is right. Most of society realizes men are expendable and have outlived their usefulness to a society that improves more quickly when there are fewer of them around. Some would argue that a historical socal benefit of wars was that it killed off surplus men en masses.

Out were I live male suicides are relatively more common and kind of expected and accepted.

[u/thrashgordon → u/[deleted]]

Jesus. What a read.

[u/grumpybadger456 → u/Stop_icant]

In some of the documentaries there is audio from 911 where they advised people to stay put. I think they also told people (from below the crash zone) who got down to the lobby to go back to their offices, where a lot did - which made it a lot harder than just evacuating both buildings from the first crash. I know we are looking back now with hindsight about what happened with the second crash, and the buildings falling, none of which was anticipated, and none of which the first responders were trained to deal with, but so heartbreaking to watch the footage.

[u/Stop_icant → u/grumpybadger456]

Wow, I can’t imagine why they told people in the lobby to go back upstairs. Wouldn’t that have clogged the stairwells up even more during rescue efforts?

[u/Onetap1 → u/Stop_icant]

,>their independent security guy was like fuck that and got his people out despite instructions to stay put.

Rick Rescorla. RIP.

[u/penguineatingpancake → u/Stop_icant]

Rick Rescorla was that Morgan Stanley security expert. He was a veteran of several wars and sang during the evacuation to keep morale up. Rescorla evacuated almost everyone from Morgan Stanley and went back up to make sure nobody was left behind. He was killed when the tower collapsed. The New Yorker has a great story about his life.

[u/BrightFireFly → u/Stop_icant]

Not only did he react appropriately in the moment but he had made the employees run evacuation drills. They all knew what to do and where they were supposed to be going.

[u/Felaguin → u/Stop_icant]

Remember that nothing like this had been seen before. I’m sure Port Authority thought the first plane was some crazy accident and they didn’t want people killed in a stampede out of the buildings. I remember a coworker coming down into the office commenting about a plane hitting the WTC and everyone was thinking it was some odd general aviation accident, like the pilot had a heart attack. I went to file some paperwork to another office that had a TV and saw the second plane go in, went back to my office and told everyone, “that was no accident, we’re at war.”

[u/Stop_icant → u/Felaguin]

I am making absolutely no judgement on the decisions made by port authority or first responders on 9/11. I agree, everyone did the best they could.

[u/BuffaloRedshark → u/Stop_icant]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla

Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart is a great book about him including 9/11