Simulation finds 9/11 fireproofing key
You know, five years ago I had the honor of viewing a video presentation by the chief engineer of the World Trade Center, Mr. Leslie Robertson, and got to hear a detailed review of the findings of the FEMA report of the collapse.
The simulation mentioned in the article above is a good and valuable tool to verify what most of us have known all along, and that is that the collapse of the World Trade Center towers (and surrounding buildings) is both more simple and more complicated than what many people believe--simple in that it was not the result of a massive government conspiracy culminating in a controlled demolition. Complicated in that there were a variety of influences that worked together to ensure the collapse of the buildings. If the airplanes had been nearly empty of fuel, it's doubtful the towers would have collapsed. If the fireproofing and sprinkler lines in the building had been protected from the potential for catastrophic impact, it's again possible the buildings could have withstood the hit. If the buildings had been hit several more floors up, it's possible there wouldn't have been sufficient mass to trigger the progressive collapse onto the floors below.
But in the end, the fireproofing applied to the steel was applied without the idea in mind that it could be forcefully scraped off by a loaded jetliner travelling at 500 mph. Likewise, the sprinkler standpipes were just that--pipes designed to carry water, not ever designed to withstand an impact by a 275,000 pound airplane.
People seem to have a great need to believe in cranks and crackpots and demogogues, and this event more than any other seems to have triggered this pychopathy in some folks.
"Free country" and all that, but you folks who can't get the conspiracies out of your heads need to understand that if the world really existed as you seem to think it does--with multiple dark conspiracies by our own citizens to inflict damage upon others--YOU, my friend, would not be around to talk about it.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 20, 2007 09:44 AM