20 Years After 9/11, Here’s What You Didn’t Realize About the Man Who Fell From the World Trade Center
Rethinking the deadly choice of the “Falling Man”
A question about death
On this 20th anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks that took place at The World Trade Center in New York City, I want to draw your attention to the very small group of individuals who chose to fall from the buildings, instead of staying inside.
Of the 2606 victims that were murdered on September 11th, 2001, after two passenger jets were hijacked and driven into the North and South Towers, most of them died as a result of the impact of the jets, or when the buildings came crashing down to the ground afterward.
Less than 200 (or 8 percent) of them died a completely different way. They decided to jump or fall.
Photographer Richard Drew captured one such individual in an iconic and controversial image titled “The Falling Man”.
To me, this picture of a man, mid-air, streaming to his death, doesn’t just show us one of the few real images of someone actually dying in the terrorist attacks that day.
