9/11 Helicopter rescues

[blithering]

I recently saw a picture of what appeared to be a 412 hovering off to one side of one of the Twin Towers (as the tower burned).
Its a question I've often wondered; was anyone lifted off either of the towers prior to their collapse?

Did any of the occupants actually make it to the top of the towers?

[PANews]

Ah now thats a can of worms!

The 412 is that of the NYPD who had plans to repeat the relatively large scale operations of the previous attack on the Twin Towers. No great numbers involved, under 100 shuttled to and from in a rescue and fire fighting roles but high profile and good PR. It showed what might be achieved in the future despite the aerials and other bits making roof landings dicey.

Unfortunately they upset many of their opponents first time out - mainly the NY Fire Department and their supporters in high places - that resulted in the doors on to the roof being firmly locked against a repeat performance. There was and still is friction between the emergency services over this very aspect of 911 although they are reportedly at least more flexible about roof doors now.

There were a lot of floors above the 911 aircraft strikes - forcing some, perhaps many, upwards ..........

It does not bear thinking about too long...

[Tandemrotor]

Wow

I had a feeling nobody had been rescued from the roof, and never understood why. I can easily imagine this is true. What a tragedy!

[NickLappos]

I know the pilot of that 412, he is a great guy, and he gets teared-up when he recounts how helpless he felt at that time. The roof pads were previously filled in with antennas and other goodies, and so were not accessible, and the roof access doors were locked, so the roof was not an option on 911, a real crime.

The Sikorsky factory is only 45 miles from NY city, so the factory hustled to complete the un-delivered aircraft in the hangar (they got them finished and airworthy in about 2 hours). In all, they sent about 6 Black Hawks and an S76 downtown by early afternoon. Because of the total airspace shutdown, they flew with special dispensation from the FAA. There were so few injured that the helos were simply not needed, and were sent home by nightfall.

[ConwayB]

There's an interesting article by Bill Wagstaff on AIN Online about the attempted rescue, locked doors, FDNY and NYPD animosity re helicopters and the rescues from the '93 bombings of the WTC.

A sad state of affairs.

Here's the URL:

Safe flying
CB

http://www.ainonline.com/issues/12_01/12_01_rescuesquabblepg74.html

[tottigol]

OMG, this is indeed a sad state of affairs.
Were there any legal fall-outs from that stupid feud?
Was ever there any follow up? People ought to have been jailed over that or worse.:*
Were those doors originally classified as EMERGENCY EXITS?
If so and then locked..................

[PANews]

No, as far as I can see nothing ever happened even though the story was broken by the Wall Street Journal immediately after the 9/11 attack.

Politicians and senior civil servants have always been pretty good at clearing up their own troubles no matter which city or country they work in. Anyway from the size of this mess it would probably have shut down City Hall and a few other departments if they had [foolishly] blown the whistle on themselves! Who else is there to do the deed when it comes from the top?

Over the years I have been aware of a number of similar articles including a couple from NYPD fliers one is about the first attack and was written by their boss Willian Wilkens in 2000. No direct link but you will find it on www.nycop.com among the back issues as the World Trade Center bombing in FEATURES VOLUME II, NUMBER 12 Dec, 2000

The allegations about 9/11 are one and the same though - just how many ways can you tell that sorry tale?