In regards to the FDNY radio transmissions...
This is something I've looked into a fair bit. IIRC, when Chief Pfeifer arrived at the North Tower (he witnessed AA11 hitting the tower and called in the first three alarms) the repeater system appeared not to work. From memory, it was concluded later that it had simply been overloaded by the mass of traffic.
In any event, Pfeifer made the split-second sort of decision that people have to make in these sorts of situations. They chose to go with the hand-held walkie talkies.
At that moment they didn't know the building would collapse around them. It would be a decision that would cost the lives of hundreds of firemen - including Pfeifer's own brother. My heart aches when I consider how he must feel (especially in the post mortum of the operation where the investigators laid the key decision at his feet).
As such many firemen in the North Tower could not be contacted. In the hour before the North Tower collapsed there were six FDNY radio communications indicating imminent building collapse. At the same time the NYPD helicopter was reporting critical information about the structure's imminent failure, but again because of communication problems, the firemen in the building would never be told.
Over three hundred firemen and police officers headed into that inferno, heedless of their own risk, determined to rescue civilians. And because of poor equipment, they never came out.
Now, Submersible, I would LOVE to hear how you think this tragedy is evidence of a government operation?
Also, for the sake of accuracy, I'd like to add that the "a fire chief" on the 78th Floor was none other than Chief Palmer. His radio report runs like so:
... Ladder 15, we've got two isolated pockets of fire. We should be able to knock it down with two lines. Radio that, 78th floor numerous 10-45 Code Ones.
"10-45 Code One" is the FDNY radio code for a fatality. This call was placed at 0952 - 49 minutes after UA175 hit the tower. Seven minutes later the tower collapsed.
It should be pointed out that the 78th floor was the Sky Lobby, and at the moment that UA175 hit the South Tower, it was full of people evacuating the building. An estimate of between 50 and 200 people were killed instantly when the left wing ripped through the floor spilling a fireball of jet fuel and turning the marble wall panels, elevator floors, and pieces of aircraft in shrapnel.
I would imagine, being a sky lobby, there wasn't much burnable office furniture on the 78th floor, so once that jet fuel was burned out, there would be nothing left to burn.
Even so, when Palmer reached the sky lobby the scene before his eyes must have resembled a slaughter house.
-Andrew
