Who was The Falling Man?

Who was The Falling Man?

World September 11, 2018 08:16

new york - It is exactly 17 years ago today and one of the questions that still concerns us: who was the man who jumped down on the iconic photo of the WTC building during 9/11?

The photo was given the name 'Falling Man'. And he has been looking for his identity for seventeen years. After the first publication, a heated debate arose. Many readers of newspapers still found the picture too painful, too confrontational, too shocking. Many media decided to take the photo offline, until attention was paid again in 2003.

Like hundreds of others, the man was imprisoned in the Twin Towers in New York where a devastating fire had broken out in the meantime. In the streets around the towers and on television, hundreds of people could see how people in the WTC towers saw no other way out than jumping from the windows, dozens, sometimes hundreds of meters down.

The Falling Man did this at 9 o'clock, 41 minutes and 15 seconds local time, according to the data from the photo taken at that time. He stands still on the photo, but in reality he fell down fast and fell like others; chaotic, rotating, violently moving with arms and legs. With a speed of almost 250 kilometers per hour, he would smack the ground a few seconds after the photo. No man who survives that.

It is estimated that about 200 people jumped from the burning towers in New York that day. First through the windows that broke through the impact of the plane and the fires, then they smashed windows themselves.

They jumped to escape the smoke, they jumped to escape the fire, they jumped so as not to get under the collapsing ceilings and floors. They jumped to be able to breathe one more time before they would die.

The jump lasted an average of 10 seconds. Some tried in vain with curtains that they found to make parachutes. One of the jumpers landed on the ground at a firefighter, after which he also died.

The Falling Man may be an employee of the Windows of the World restaurant, at the top of the northern tower of the WTC. But possibly he worked at catering company Forte Food.

One of the most frequently mentioned names is Norberto Hernandez. Journalist Peter Cheney went with the photo to the Norberto family. His brother and sister recognized him, but another family member and his wife denied it again.

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