Below the Belt

There is substantial evidence that explosions occurred well BELOW the areas impacted by the planes hitting the Twin Towers on 9/11. Indeed, according to some witnesses, some of these explosions occurred before the plane even hit the building:

Prior to Plane Hit

9/11 hero, who was the last person out of the north tower, said that there was a massive explosion in the North Tower BEFORE the plane hit (see also this interview and also this interview)

Assistant Chief Engineer at the World Trade Center arrived on the 38th floor of the North Tower before the plane hit, got out of the elevator, and about 50 feet down the hallway, he heard a loud explosion and was lifted into the air. "I can't even tell you how far I traveled," he recalled. When he landed, people were already coming out of their offices into the hallway . . .Upon reaching the 43rd floor, "there were patches of ceiling that was just down on the floor, water pipes were broken, water was gushing like a brook or river that was just running down the corridor of the machine room."

Maintenance worker who worked in the basement of north tower witnessed an explosion in the basement at around the same time the plane hit far above

Two other eyewitnesses working in the Twin Towers witnesssed explosions in the basement at about the same time the plane hit

Phenomena Wholly Inconsistent with Official Story

Stationary engineer who worked in world trade center one described tremendous damage in the basement of the building more consistent in nature and timing with a bomb than with damage from jet fuel: "'There was nothing there but rubble . . . We're talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press—gone!'. . . They then went to the parking garage, but found that it was also gone. Then on the B level, they found that a steel-and-concrete fire door, which weighed about 300 pounds, was wrinkled up 'like a piece of aluminum foil.' Having seen similar things after the terrorist attack in 1993, [he] was convinced that a bomb had gone off."

NYC firefighter stated “It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit. . . [W]e originally had thought there was like an internal detonation, explosives, because it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came down.”

Firefighter said "this, huge incredible force of wind and debris actually came UP the stairs, knocked my helmet off, knocked me to the ground"

Similarly, employee of an insurance company in south tower heard an explosion from BELOW the impact of the airplane, an "exploding sound" shook the building, a tornado of hot air, smoke and ceiling tiles and bits of drywall came flying UP the stairwell, and the wall split from the bottom UP

Firefighter stated "my lieutenant said he looked down at the first floor, and he could see the first floor of the south tower like exploding out" (page 5; Google's web version is here)

Firefighter said "I was distracted by a large explosion from the south tower and it seemed like fire was shooting out a couple of hundred feet in each direction, then all of a sudden the top of the tower started coming down in a pancake . . . It appeared somewhere below [the area where the plane had hit]. Maybe twenty floors below the impact area of the plane" (pages 3 & 4)

A fire department batallion chief stated "it actually looked -- the lowest floor of fire in the south tower actually looked like someone had planted explosives around it because the whole bottom I could see (redacted) I could see two sides of it and the other side, it just looked like that floor blew out" (what was in the redacted portion?)

CBS News reporter stated "All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow ... I saw from street level as though it exploded up, a giant rolling ball of flame...". (same reporter stated "I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a gigantic fireball rising up at ground level . . . I remember seeing this giant ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar" (pages 119 & 239))

An eyewitness reported a large explosion at ground level right before the collapse of the North Tower

Police Officer described events which occurred inside Tower One after the second plane hit and well before that tower collapsed: "We went back up to the sixth floor . . . . Then there was an eerie silence and it was like you knew something was going to happen. There just seemed to be one explosion after another. I was separated from the guys from the bridge . . . by another explosion, massive again, sucking the air out of your lungs and then just a wind more intense this time with larger pieces of debris flying." (pages 94 & 95, which is page 2 & 3 of a hand-written memorandum)

BBC reporter stated "Then, an hour later, we had that big explosion, from much much lower [well below the plane impact]. I don't know what on earth caused that".

Firefighter describes elevators "blown off the hinges" which only went to lower floors (page 7)(Note: this statement about the elevators still needs to be verified)

Other Evidence of Explosions Well Below the Area of Plane Impact

A janitor witnessed explosions in the sub-basement

A carpenter witnessed explosions in the sub-basement

A Port Authority Police Department officer, who was intimately familiar with the World Trade Center from his years of police duties patrolling there, described how the hallway began to shudder as a "terrible deafening roar" swept over him, then a giant fireball exploded in the street seconds before the south tower collapsed

Firefighters discovered that the lobby of one of the twin towers suffered explosive damage with blown-out windows

Firefighter stated "the Maydays started coming in to vacate the north tower . . . we started going down. At that point, we proceeded down . . . Made it down to the lobby. There were about maybe 30 firefighters that were with us. Made it to the lobby, and the lobby was like a war zone. All the windows were blown out, and the command post wasn't there. We made it to the corner of West and Vesey when the building came down." (pages 5 & 6)

A WTC survivor said "We get to the 8th floor. Big Explosion. Blew us back into the eighth floor."

Another survivor experienced an explosion in the mezzanine of the tower

Another survivor experienced an explosion in the lobby

World trade center employee stated "the bottom of our building was blown out"

Paramedic "heard ground level explosions" (page 29)

A police report states World Trade Center "Police Desk reporting an explosion on the lower level" 8 minutes after plane crash (page 17, which is page 2 of the Chronological Report of the WTC Radio Transmissions on 9/11/01)

Construction worker discusses explosions in the sub-basement of tower 1; same worker talks about explosions in the basements of tower 2

See also witness statements here

How could the fire damage from airplanes or their jet fuel have caused such extensive explosions over so many floors over such a long timeframe below the airplane impacts? Do you remember that most of the fuel spilled outside of the towers in those dramatic fireballs, and the rest supposedly lit the paper, rugs and other office contents of the twin towers on fire?

Given these facts, how could fires or jet fuel have caused the events described above by credible eyewitnesses?