Point WTC7-2: The Claim in NIST’s Draft Report that WTC 7 Did Not Come Down at Free Fall Acceleration

The Official Account

Having denied for years that WTC 7 came down at free fall acceleration, NIST repeated this position in August 2008, when it issued a report [1] on WTC 7 in the form of a 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡.

Shyam Sunder, the head of NIST’s WTC project, said – speaking within the framework of its claim that the building was brought down by fire – that free fall would have been physically impossible. [2]

The Best Evidence

Scientific analysis [3] by mathematician David Chandler shows that WTC 7 came down in absolute free fall for a period of about 2.25 seconds. NIST’s 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 had been challenged by Chandler and Dr. Steven Jones in a public review, and NIST then re-analyzed the fall of WTC 7.

In its 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡, [4] NIST provided a detailed analysis and graph that conceded that WTC 7 came down at free-fall acceleration for over 100 feet, or about 2.25 seconds, consistent with the findings of Chandler and Jones.

References for Point WTC7-2

2.

…you had a sequence of structural failures that had to take place. Everything was not instantaneous

(“WTC 7 Technical Briefing,” NIST, August 26, 2008). Although NIST originally had a video and a transcript of this briefing at its Internet website, it removed both of them. However, the video is now available

3.

Chandler’s report of free fall was supported by NIST itself: