Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Weidlinger Associates and President Bush seem to disagree on what killed most of the people on 9/11

Lead structural engineer for investigation that determined that the collapse of one WTC tower did not cause or contribute to the collapse of the other.


http://www.weidlinger.com/projectslist.aspx?cat=450&type=400&print=true

An investigation of the collapses of the World Trade Center towers was performed by a pre-eminent group of engineering firms led by Weidlinger Associates. The study, conducted on behalf of the attorneys for Silverstein Properties, Inc., is the most comprehensive study to date of why the Twin Towers stood for as long as they did and why they ultimately collapsed. The results of the study were released to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency charged with conducting an in-depth investigation of the causes of the collapses. The study established that the strength and redundancy of the superstructure of the towers initially allowed them to withstand the high-speed impact of the Boeing 767s and that the subsequent collapses were initiated separately by a combination of immediate damage from the impact of the airliners and the resulting fires on the floors that were struck.


http://www.weidlinger.com/project.aspx?id=1817&type=400&cat=450

According to Levy, little could be done to prevent the buildings' destruction, considering the damage the planes had caused. However, he feels that a more effective rescue-plan could have saved more people.

"A critical aspect of the event was the location of the fire stairs," he noted. "They were clustered around the centers of the buildings and were made unusable when the explosions occurred. That is why almost everyone on the lower floors managed to get out and almost no one from the upper floors escaped."

This destruction of the fire escapes and the fact that it took firefighters almost an hour to reach the upper floors accounted for most of the lives lost. Though the New York Fire Department was using the most sophisticated technology available, Weidlinger determined that a more efficient system for putting out high-rise fires needs to be developed.

. . .

Weidlinger's study was done on behalf of Larry Silverstein for the purpose of his insurance claim. In its investigation the firm used advanced computer modeling, photo and video analyses, and original engineering plans for the World Trade Center.


http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_39_49/ai_101679160/

Various analyses of the buildings' destruction, including those of Weidlinger Associates and NIST, are discussed by Jeff King here:

http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/Confronting%20the%20Evidence/what_failed_and_how.htm

King points out that Matthys P. Levy, chairman of Weidlinger Associates Inc., stated that for the "collapses" to appear as they did, all of the core columns must have failed simultaneously.

Weidlinger Associate's report is summarized here:

http://enr.construction.com/news/buildings/archives/021025.asp

I am most interested in the assertion, based on this report that was commissioned by attorneys and presumably submitted in the insurance case in federal court, that most of the people died as a result of the plane impacts blocking the fire stairs, and firemen not being able to get up to the fires.

I am still waiting for the "9/11 Truth and Justice" physicist Steven Jones, and for the "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth," to make a serious critique of NIST's crash physics claims in NIST NCSTAR 1-2.

http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/NCSTAR1-2index.htm

Let me repeat a quote from the Real Estate Weekly, which is accurate:

This destruction of the fire escapes and the fact that it took firefighters almost an hour to reach the upper floors accounted for most of the lives lost.

What really happened to the stairs, and what really happened to the elevators?

President Bush, channeling "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," told a much more plausible version of events:



"For example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed described the design of planned attacks of buildings inside the U.S. and how operatives were directed to carry them out. That is valuable information for those of us who have the responsibility to protect the American people. He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a high -- a point that was high enough to prevent people trapped above from escaping."