The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers initially surprised not only ordinary people, but also some experts. Despite initial doubts, careful research and modeling showed that the collapse of buildings was due to aircraft collision with them and the accompanying damage. However, according to the supporters of the conspiracy theory, the most plausible version is the explosion of skyscrapers with explosives.
Mysterious bombs
The first hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 94-98 floors. The second rammed the South Tower in the area of 78-84 floors. The collisions and subsequent fire destroyed the elevators in both buildings. In addition, the lower part of the buildings was damaged, including the lobby. However, according to the conspiracy theorists, the planes could not cause significant damage to floors below the 80th, which speaks in favor of the version of the explosive devices that went off at the time of the collision.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) played a huge role in clarifying the circumstances of the destruction of the WTC, which carefully reconstructed the processes that took place after the aircraft explosions. Naturally, the study was not carried out in order to refute unofficial points of view. The destruction mechanism of the towers had to be understood in order to develop new building standards. Airplane collisions with skyscrapers are an unprecedented event, and no expert has undertaken to predict what effect it will have. But it was possible to study the data post hoc (in other words, "after the incident").
NIST shared the results of his research with Popular Mechanics magazine. It was found that the wreckage of the aircraft cut the utility shaft in the core of the buildings, creating a channel for the spread of burning fuel. As a result, a wave of fire swept to the lower floors, damaging the lobby. According to James Quintiere, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland, some elevators fell and an explosion knocked down doors on the first floors, killing those around. This is confirmed by journalists who entered the lobby of the North Tower a few minutes after the collision - they found burnt corpses there.
Controlled demolition
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Perhaps one of the most common arguments from conspiracy theorists is that the rapidly burning jet fuel could not melt the supporting columns. Fuel burns at a temperature of 400-800 degrees Celsius. This is indeed well below the melting point of steel (about 1510 degrees Celsius). But the nuance is that the structures could not melt, but only lose part of their structural strength. For this, even lower temperatures are sufficient. At 600 degrees Celsius, steel loses 50 percent of its strength. A fatal role was also played by the fact that the heat-resistant coating protecting the steel supports was damaged by debris from the aircraft and the vulnerability of steel to fire increased.
Photo: Gulnara Samoilova / Zuma / TASS
In addition, the fuel did not need to burn for a long time, it simply served as a catalyst for extensive fires inside the WTC. The explosion ignited carpets, curtains, furniture and paper. According to NIST, the temperature in the area of fires could reach thousands of degrees Celsius, which lowered the strength of steel by 90 percent.
The South Tower collapsed first, although the plane crashed into it 17 minutes after another airliner collided with the North. One of the reasons for this, most likely, is that the impact fell 10 floors below and the damaged columns experienced a stronger load.
Photo: Peter Morgan / Reuters
Conspiracy theorists also drew attention to the fact that when the towers were destroyed, clouds of dust were clearly visible, which escaped from buildings, as if they were successively detonating explosives from top to bottom. However, explosive devices have nothing to do with it. When the collapse began, the mass that had lost its support collapsed onto the rest of the building. Since the topmost floor could not absorb all the impact energy, it transmitted it below. That is, there was a domino effect. This process does not require any explosive devices. Just when flattening occurred, masses of air were thrown out of the windows with tremendous force, creating the appearance of a controlled explosion.
Blown up building
The planes did not crash into the seventh building of the WTC. Nevertheless, this building also collapsed after a few hours. Supporters of controlled demolition believe that the collapse of WTC 7 is one of the main pieces of evidence for pre-planted explosives. However, the NIST report indicates that the initial research underestimated the damage caused by the destruction of adjacent skyscrapers. The south side of WTC 7 was severely damaged by burning debris.
Serious damage to the structure and intense fires caused the Seventh Corps to collapse under its own weight. Researchers believe that the fall of WTC 7 is an example of progressive collapse, when the destruction of part of the load-bearing structures causes deformation of the rest of the building and its subsequent destruction.
With the help of computer modeling, it was found that the main factor in the destruction of a building is its structure. The load-bearing columns are under heavy loads, and if one of them is removed, the whole section collapses. Beams on the fifth and seventh floors transferred loads from one column to another, and the supporting structures on the south side of WTC 7 were damaged, so strong stress was distributed to the columns in other parts of the building, which exceeded their strength limits. The collapse could have occurred even without initial structural damage. The fire was enough.
Evaporated plane
The collision of one of the hijacked planes with the Pentagon also raised doubts among non-specialists. There were several objections to the official version: too small a breach in the wall, surviving glass in the windows and the absence of airliner wreckage.
When the plane crashed into the Pentagon, it left a gap 23 meters wide. This was found out by the number of destroyed supporting columns on the first floor. Appraisal for visible damage was hampered by the fact that the building's facade collapsed 20 minutes after the collision. The wings of the plane did not play a special role, since one of them hit the ground, and the other was torn off by the supporting columns of the building.
The fact that the glass survived even in the windows near the impact is explained by their explosion resistance. And finally, in fact, there were wreckage of the plane. Photos captured them outside and inside the Pentagon.
Questions remain
Usually, conspiracy theorists cannot prove anything. In the arguments of the opponent, they will find many things to find fault with. If you explain these nuances to them, the conspiracy theorists will dismiss them too, saying that the final picture is too complex to be true. They will also accuse scientists, experts and specialists of conspiracy, and nothing will shake their confidence in their innocence. In addition, conspiracy theorists are incredibly imaginative and can create hundreds of conflicting versions. There are many more myths about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and in order to expose them all, one would have to write not one article, but several books.
Alexander Enikeev