Spike Jones wrote,
> Evidently a few WTCers decided a few
> seconds of freefall with zero chance of survival was
> preferrable to these fates.
I am curious. Do we really have direct evidence that a lot of people were
consciously making a decision to jump? Or are people just assuming that
most of the falling bodies were suicides?
The smoke and heat would drive everyone to hang out the windows for air.
Explosions, firestorms, backdrafts, wind gusts, structure instability,
falling debris would have knocked many people from their precarious perches
hanging out the windows. Burning metal, cutting glass, suffocating smoke
and fatigue would also cause many to lose their grip or be unable to
continue to hang on. We also have seen many sad examples of trampling and
uncontrolled stampeding when too many people are trying to squeeze toward a
small opening to escape a fire.
I'm not saying that suicide is not an option, but I have no reason to assume
that most of the falling bodies are people who decided to take their own
lives. Human psychology usually drives people to more desperate measures to
survive. To my knowledge, a mass suicide during a disaster seems unlikely.
We have not seen this in previous disaster or in war time. Some cases of
suicide undoubtedly exist, but I think the vast majority of these people
were direct victims of the disaster and did not take their own lives.
-- Harvey Newstrom <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> Principal Security Consultant, Newstaff Inc. <www.Newstaff.com> Board of Directors, Extropy Institute <www.Extropy.org> Early Supporter, Pro-Act <www.ProgressAction.org>
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