9/11 NYPD Helicopter Video Released

[Dowly]

A new 17-minute video of the twin towers after they were hit on Sept. 11, 2001,
taken from aboard a New York Police Department helicopter, shows thick, black smoke
billowing out into the Lower Manhattan sky.http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/07/nypd-helicopter-video-shows-9-11-aftermath-video/

[CCIP]

I always wondered whether it might've been possible to land a chopper on top of the buildings to rescue some people in that manner, but well, this answers why that didn't happen.

Man... send chills down my spine.

I finally made it to NYC and spent a lot of time at and near Ground Zero during my visit, and it was only after actually getting there that the enormity, both physical and collective-psychological, of 9/11 to NYC really dawned on me.

[gimpy117]

I would bet doors to the roof were blocked. I'm sure they would have been on the roof if it would have been possible.

[Dowly]

I would bet doors to the roof were blocked. I'm sure they would have been on the roof if it would have been possible.

Other tower's (don't remember which one it was) roof access was locked according to the book "102 Minutes".

[Armistead]

Lot's of graphic youtube video's. The phone call recordings really were tough, those ones where the person is talking to 911 and the tower falls and you just hear a brief scream and the phone goes dead.

[GoldenRivet]

I always wondered whether it might've been possible to land a chopper on top of the buildings to rescue some people in that manner, but well, this answers why that didn't happen.

The amount of convection created by a sizable fire of that sort makes it next to impossible to land a helicopter atop the building, the heat from a fire that size causes insane updrafts and downdrafts that makes it a full time job just to fly very near the building - let alone directly above it.. Additionally, the thick black smoke would substantially reduce visibility in the landing zone.

A helicopter pilot would have likely considered a few variables in his decision to land.

1) The pilot may have considered that the fire department has a chance of controlling the fire, and that by attempting to land his helicopter he risks a crash - and the last thing they needed was another aircraft crashing onto the building

2) Smoke reduced the rooftop visibility substantially, creating an even more hazardous landing zone

3) A helicopter pilot would have likely considered structural integrity of the landing zone, if he thought for a moment that the roof top might not bear the load of his helicopter he wouldnt risk it.

Im sure there were many other considerations, but the bottom line is he decided not to land on the roof, and the number of reasons opposing a landing decision must have obviously been greater than the number of reasons supporting a landing decision.

[Jimbuna]

Striking, horrible memories and a reminder of mans inhumanity against his fellow men :nope:

[GoldenRivet]

I remember i was working toward my Commercial Pilot's Certificate Multi Engine add-on.

I had flown through the weekend and had a practice check ride the day before and was off the schedule on 9/11. I had decided to take the opportunity to sleep in that morning.

My sister, assuming i would be interested in any sort of airplane related news called me and told me she heard that a plane crashed in new york into a building to put the TV on and see what happened.

I spent most of that entire day in front of the television.

I was enraged

I was enraged because i knew innocent people had died needlessly

I was enraged because my nation had been violently attacked

I was enraged because i anticipated the problems this would create in my career field.

One of my friends had been hired the month before at American Eagle Airlines in Ft. Worth... the phone rang in the simulator during his check ride, they shut the sim down and canceled the check ride immediately.

he was jobless the next day.

It occurs to me that there is a generation of kids now nearing their 10th birthday and our nation has been at one degree of war or another their entire life so far.

This is a very different America - and a very different world - we live in due to that one day.

It makes me sick just to think of those attacks, let alone see video or hear audio of them.

I've been through the American Airlines HQ and training center, spent a lot of time there, spoke to the pilots that knew those crews, sat in the same briefing rooms as they have, walked through the same halls, dined in the same cafeteria, seen the memorials, worn the uniform and done the job... I have friends and family in the middle east right now as a direct result of 9/11, and we've buried one cousin who was KIA in Afghanistan, one cannot help but feel a special closeness to it all from that vantage point.

but i guess we all lost something - and have a lot invested on that infamous day.

[Armistead]

Yep, my uncle was killed in building one. I didn't see him much his last 15 years of life when he moved from NC to NY, but he was family and out of 14 siblings, my moms only living brother. Obvious we know how he died, but nothing was never found of him. It took a few days, but we all knew he was dead.

[Oberon]

The whole world changed that day. It does seem strange to consider people who have no experience of life pre-9/11. I guess it's like people who grew up in the Cold War or during World War two.

[CCIP]

The amount of convection created by a sizable fire of that sort makes it next to impossible to land a helicopter atop the building, the heat from a fire that size causes insane updrafts and downdrafts that makes it a full time job just to fly very near the building - let alone directly above it.. Additionally, the thick black smoke would substantially reduce visibility in the landing zone.

A helicopter pilot would have likely considered a few variables in his decision to land.

1) The pilot may have considered that the fire department has a chance of controlling the fire, and that by attempting to land his helicopter he risks a crash - and the last thing they needed was another aircraft crashing onto the building

2) Smoke reduced the rooftop visibility substantially, creating an even more hazardous landing zone

3) A helicopter pilot would have likely considered structural integrity of the landing zone, if he thought for a moment that the roof top might not bear the load of his helicopter he wouldnt risk it.

Im sure there were many other considerations, but the bottom line is he decided not to land on the roof, and the number of reasons opposing a landing decision must have obviously been greater than the number of reasons supporting a landing decision.

Yeah, this is exactly what I got out of the video. It's just that from the previous perspectives I've seen of the towers, it looked like MAYBE it could be possible to do something. But when I saw this from the chopper's perspective, with that smoke just blasting out of the building and blocking clear view of the rooftop by at least 2/3 at all times, that definitely settled it. I agree, there was no reasonable chance for him to come in. Even if it was attempted, I think the risk of crashing and creating only more casualties, would've outweighed the possibility of saving lives. I mean, the other thing you can definitely tell from this video, is that noone even contemplated that the towers would just go down. You can definitely tell the crew's shock when the south tower gives in. But that was an unbelievable moment for absolutely everyone - that whole day was unreal and I think for even the most trained emergency people, it was hard to contemplate that things were actually going to be as bad as they turned out. I'm pretty sure noone thought that there was going to be that little time to evacuate the towers - and all things considered, I honestly don't think anyone could've done a better job saving the people in the towers in the time and circumstances. The FDNY and NYPD response that day was and still stands as unquestionably heroic.

[RickC Sniper]

That view of the towers after they land in the grassy area around 3:00 is a bit surreal.

Not a person moving. No one walking, running either toward or away from the towers.

Good that they did not stay there very long.