What If

[guest]

The recent suicide of the teenager flying a Cessna into a building down in Tampa Florida got me thinking. Here is a little speculation.
What if it was during the week when all the offices were full of workers?
With the images of Sept 11th still so strong in everyone's mind's, I wonder if the sound of alarm bells and the fact of a plane crashing into the building and the ensuing panic it would cause.
Would people had needlessly jumped if they had one of those escape parachutes?

[guest]

The biggest flaw in your proposition is "the ensuing panic."

One of the principal characteristics of the WTC attack was the distinct and pervasive LACK OF PANIC among the people in the buildings -- which contributed mightily to the fact that "only" 2,880 people died, while almost 20,000 lived.

In the aftermath of the Twin Towers Massacre, this spectacular accomplishment is often overlooked: Almost 20,000 people were evacuated from those two buildings in one hour. Nothing like it has ever been done before in the face of so much damage and destruction. It was a truly amazing achievement.

Moreover, of all those who died, only 10 or 15 were on floors below where the two airplanes hit.

Even more interesting was that only 500 died in Tower 2, which was hit almost 20 floors lower than Tower 1 (where 1,500 died).

The reason? When the first plane hit, almost everybody in Tower 2 bailed on their own, in direct disobedience to the loudspeaker instructions to stay at their desks, and without much help at that point from any safety and security personnel.

They did it on their own, and it was precisely because there was essentially NO PANIC that so many of these "ordinary" people lived through the experience.

As for people needlessly jumping... HIGHLY unlikely.

Why?

Because the average whuffo pretty much has to be on fire before they will jump from a building, because fear of falling to death is probably second only to fear of burning to death.

The funny thing about the Tampa incident is that it graphically illustrated what AOPA and other general aviation itnerest groups have been trying to explain to the National Security Council, Congress and the FAA since 9-11: Light planes don't cause much damage and are unequivocally NOT a threat of any serious consequence.

Think about it:

The plane took out part of one office and three windows on two floors.

It penetrated less than ten feet into the office.

When the wings hit the wall, they sheared off and fell to the ground. (In fact, had the plane hit the building wall and not one of its windows, it probably would've splatted like a bug on a windshield and not gone inside the building at all.)

The tail remained outside the building.

There was no explosion.

There was no fire.

So if there was no panic at the WTC, the chances of people panicking in Tampa would have been infinitesimal -- and without smoke and fire, everyone with parachutes in their offices might have put them on "just in case" but then they would've headed for the stairwell to go downstairs, not upstairs to the roof.

If there'd been a properly-equipped BASE jumper-office worker, of course, there may have been a "needless jump" but that's another story. :D

Robin Heid
BASE 44

[guest]

What if natural selection were re-introduced to the human species and only those able to survive by there own means were the ones to procreate.
Well, I'll tell ya. They would have padded sidewalks below them to obviate the need for parachutes.

[guest]

And this has to do with BASEjumping in what way ?