
Why the World Trade Center Buildings Collapsed: A Fire Chief’s Assessment - da02
http://vincentdunn.com/wtc.html
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pseingatl
The real question is why the third building, WTC 7, went down. It wasn't hit
by an airplane and the fires were trivial compared to other buildings. I'm not
suggesting conspiracy or aliens, just that WTC 7 should not have fallen given
the damage it suffered.

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rapsey
That and about a 100 other unexplained questions. Like how it's impossible for
commercial aircraft to fly at that altitude with that speed. Like how it's
impossible for any passenger to make a phone call during flight, yet there
were quite a few making phone calls home when they were suppose to be flying.
How the pentagon damage pictures make zero sense. How there not being any
security footage for one of the most secure buildings in the world.

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6nf
Why would it be impossible for passengers to make calls during the flight?
I've made calls from a 747, it's definitely possible?

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rapsey
You can not make cell phone calls during flight.

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KozmoNau7
Many airlines have repeaters on their planes, allowing people to place cell
phone calls and send/receive text messages, usually at inflated prices.

So why do you think it's impossible?

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dogma1138
Not in 2001 tho, I have no beef in this but people forget the times...

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6nf
Yea but clearly these planes were not flying at 30,000 feet so regular cell
tower calls would have worked

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dogma1138
Also with much older cellular technology, in 2001 the US mostly used 2G
TDMA/CDMA networks with carriers like Verizon still relying on older AMPS
systems on the 850mhz band.

I'm not entirely sure how that would've worked, even today having a phone call
from low altitude is pretty hard jets are pretty decent Faraday cages and the
speed is just as much of a problem as the altitude.

There is a difference between having the cellphone pining a tower or even
managing to get a short data packet from time to time and having an
uninterrupted phone call.

I don't think there 9/11 was a "conspiracy" I think there was just a lot of
random information that amplified to conspiratorial levels.

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6nf
I know I'm supposed to turn my phone to flight mode but I often use my phone
on planes so I know it works. I've been doing this for years. Jets are not
faraday cages. The speed of the jet slows down your connection and you need to
be over a city but it works just fine. I can browse the web, watch youtube
vids, etc. I don't make calls on a plane cause that would just annoy everyone
around me but I'm confident it will work.

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codewritinfool
This photo always illustrated a lot for me about WTC 1 & 2 composition:
[http://www.rumormillnews.com/pix4/wtcTowers-
night2.jpg](http://www.rumormillnews.com/pix4/wtcTowers-night2.jpg)

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bmh_ca
I summarized the information I have read on this topic in an answer on
Skeptics.SO:

[https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/31144/1792](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/31144/1792)

To quote a much more authoritative Europhysics article that subsequently came
out (and which I since put at the head of my answer):

> ... The NIST reports, which attempted to support that unlikely conclusion
> [that a steel frame building collapsed from a fire], fail to persuade a
> growing number of architects, engineers, and scientists. Instead, the
> evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that all three buildings
> were destroyed by controlled demolition. ...

