September 11: The truth behind the famous Falling Man and his true identity

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

The usually bustling express subway was completely empty on the morning of September 11, 2001. Except for one man.

It was unusual for a carriage speeding from downtown Times Square into New York City’s financial business district during the morning rush hour to have only one solo bicyclist, and Richard Drew had no idea who was there. about to capture one of the most compelling and controversial photographs ever. .

Drew, an AP photographer, was filming a maternity show for New York Fashion Week in Bryant Park, downtown, when he received a tip from a CNN cameraman that a plane had just crashed into the north tower of the Twin. Towers. Sixteen minutes later, another would hit the south tower.

He took a chance and headed for the subway.

What he saw when he came out, one block from the World Trade Center, was total chaos. Both buildings were on fire. Smoke filled the air. He had no idea a second plane had crashed until he was standing between a police officer and an emergency medical technician (EMT).

“The officer said the second plane was a great plane,” Drew recalled.

I could see both towers in this setting.

“There goes another one,” the nearby EMT said, and when Drew looked up, flashing objects appeared above. At first, onlookers thought they were rubble; American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the building just minutes earlier. It was 8:46 in the morning.

“It took three or four to figure out: they were people,” James Logozzo told USA Today at the time. Logozzo was with his co-workers on the 72nd floor of the South Tower when the plane crashed.

“So this woman fell.”

Logozzo remembered her face, her dark hair, her olive skin, and the way she fell.

Many survivors of that day still say that the bodies that fell from the sky were one of their most haunting memories. The north tower stood for 102 minutes after the plane’s impact. People jumped steadily and constantly throughout that time. Most jumped from the north tower; a handful from the south.

They were “blown out by smoke and flames or put out,” Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office, told USA Today.

It only took 10 seconds to fall. They were not unconscious when they fell, but death was instantaneous. Some jumped alone. Some jumped in groups. Some jumped two by two.

Drew, watching the horror unfold, began taking pictures. At this stage, both towers had been hit and a cloud of smoke was visible.

Then he heard the roar of the south tower as it began to crumble. It fell around her, “exploding like a mushroom.”

Some of those in the south tower included Joseph Visciano, whose family told news.com.au he was on the 89th floor when the tragedy occurred.

“Joe was 22 years old and graduated from Boston University. He had only been working for six weeks. He was training to be a merchant. He was so happy he got the job.”

Images and footage of the horror unfolding in New York were viewed around the world. But one photo captured the tragedy like no other: The Falling Man.

Drew told The Telegraph that while his subject’s story is still shrouded in mystery, “he likes to think of him as the unknown soldier, representing everyone (for whom) that was his destiny that day.”

“I hope people can see it now and accept that it is part of what happened that day. We saw photos of the rescuers, we saw photos of the planes hitting the building, we saw the recovery effort and now we can also try to accept that as part of what really happened that day. “

THE TRUE STORY OF MAN WHO FALLS

When newspapers published shocking images of the most photographed and videotaped day in history, some were deemed too horrible, too confrontational for the public to face.

In particular, the images of the approximately 200 people who fell to their deaths from the Twin Towers.

However, one photo was the most controversial of all: The Falling Man.

“On a day of massive tragedy, Falling Man is one of the only widely viewed images that shows someone dying,” Time magazine said.

After The New York Times published the photo on page seven the next day, it was labeled “disturbing,” “exploitative,” and “voyeuristic.”

It was delisted from the record, until two years later it appeared in an Esquire article in 2003.

In the days after the terrorist attack, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, images of heroism and triumph amid the tragedy appeared on the front pages of newspapers.

But as time passed, requests were made that Drew’s image be investigated; Who was Fallen Man and what was his story?

Captured at 9.41am, the man, falling from the north tower of the World Trade Center, is believed to have been trapped on one of the upper levels.

Although attempts have been made to formally identify it, none have been successful.

Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Peter Cheney, initially charged with solving the mystery, discovered that he was of Latino origin, with a goatee, black pants and a white tunic; similar to that of a restaurant worker.

The man may have worked at Windows on the World, a restaurant atop the North Tower, which lost 79 of its employees.

It is also possible that he worked at the catering service Forte Food, which lost 21 employees, mostly Indians, Arabs and Latinos. Many had short hair and goatee.

One of the men most closely linked to Falling Man is Norberto Hernández, who worked at Windows as a pastry chef.

Cheney took the photo of his brother Tino and his sister Milagros, who identified Fallen Man as Norberto.

He then tried to show the image to Norberto’s wife, Eulogia, who refused to speak to him or confirm that he was her husband. With nowhere else to go, Cheney brought the photograph to Norberto’s funeral and showed it to the oldest of her three daughters, Jacqueline.

She looked at the photo, then angrily replied, “That piece of shit isn’t my dad,” Esquire wrote.

Since then, the image has divided the Hernández family.

“They said my father was going to hell because he jumped,” said Catherine, one of Norberto’s daughters.

“On the Internet. They said my father was taken to hell with the devil. I don’t know what I would have done if I were him.”

A detail in Falling Man’s clothing could be the key to discovering his identity: a bright orange T-shirt that he wore under his robe, seen in several of the 12 images captured by Drew.

“I dressed it,” Eulogia said.

“Every morning. That morning, I remember. He was wearing Old Navy underwear. Green. He was wearing black socks. He was wearing blue pants, jeans. He was wearing a Casio watch. He was wearing an Old Navy shirt. Blue. Plaid.

“My husband didn’t have an orange shirt.”

However, someone who regularly wore an orange jersey was Jonathan Briley.

Briley was a 43-year-old sound engineer who also worked on Windows and was a light-skinned black man with a mustache, goatee and short hair. His co-workers believe that the man who falls is him.

His brother, Timothy, who was assigned the task of identifying his brother, knew him by his shoes, black high-top sneakers, similar to the ones in the photo.

According to Jonathan’s sister, Gwendolyn, she had asthma and the rising smoke would have made it difficult for her to breathe.

He wore an orange T-shirt so often that Timothy used to tease him.

“When are you going to ditch that orange shirt, Slim?”

But it is unlikely that we will ever know for sure who the Falling Man was.

Now, 19 years later, while still confronting each other, we can look at the picture and recognize the courage of those souls who had no other choice, who experienced all the horror of September 11, and who need to be remembered, not erased from the record. .