Debunking 9/11: Controlled Demolition Theory

One of the major and prevailing conspiracy theories regarding September 11th is the theory that the buildings were brought down by a carefully orchestrated controlled demolition using pre-planted explosives and high-tech thermite plasma to bring down the buildings. The plane crash alone, though often controlled demolition believers do not believe there was a plane crash, did not generate enough damage to cause the building to collapse according to these theorists. They cite the fact that of numerous high-rise fires throughout the world in history, no high-rise building has ever suffered complete collapse. The collapse itself is also scrutinized, saying that it occurred much too quickly and cleanly to have been a "natural" event. Let us examine the collapses, however, and compare them to a controlled demolition and see how they compare.

There are aspects of the collapse of the Twin Towers that do in fact resemble a controlled demolition. There are other aspects, however, that do not. Let's examine some of the main claims of evidence of controlled demolition:

1. Vertical collapse into building's footprint
2. "Squibs" visible as evidence of explosions
3. buildings collapse at free fall speed
4. Evidence of explosions to sever columns
5. Collapse beginning at the base of tower

Let's start with a quick refresher of the two collapses:

South Tower Collapse:

North Tower collapse:

I. VERTICAL COLLAPSE INTO BUILDING'S FOOTPRINT
It is true that both the north and south towers collapsed with somewhat vertical trajectory, this is due more to their structure than anything else. The buildings were not rigid, like a falling tree, but composed of thousands and thousands of relatively small steel beams. When the joints were overloaded the crumbled as it did not have the structural integrity to remain rigid as it fell to one side. As far as collapsing into its footprint, the collapse was actually not very clean at all and the debris was scattered over a huge area and took over eight months to clean up. Buildings damaged by the collapse were still being repaired and/or demolished five or more years after the initial damage. This was no clean, controlled collapse.

II. "SQUIBS" SEEN DURING COLLAPSE ARE A SIGN OF EXPLOSIONS