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Posted on 09/29/2001 5:19:10 PM PDT by CommiesOut

Experts have found many reasons to reject this picture

Is this 'picture' the cruellest hoax of all?
DARRELL GILES in Los Angeles
30sep01
THE date is right: September 11, 2001. The time is right: 8.45am.

Everything about this image is chilling but law enforcement officials are convinced it is a hoax.

The tourist poses on the World Trade Centre observation deck, seconds before American Airlines Flight 11 ploughs into it.

According to sources, the camera used to take the photograph was found in the rubble of the collapsed towers by a rescue worker, who had the film developed.

Newspapers in the US ran the photograph, though unsure of its accuracy.

Upon closer examination, there is a lot wrong with it.

The man in the picture is wearing a beanie cap and heavy winter coat. But New York weather that morning was perfect, over 20C.

What about the deafening noise of a Boeing 767 a few hundreds metres away?

Surely he would have turned, as did people on the ground?

And how did the camera and film survive the explosion and fire from the jet fuel – which melted steel – then the 110-storey fall?

Other doubts arose because authorities could not match the man with any of the 6000 missing persons.

The north tower, on which he is supposed to be posing, was hit first. But it did not have an outdoor observation deck.

The south tower, struck at 9.05am, did have an open air observation deck, but it was not open to the public until 9.30am.

Photographic experts say sunlight on the plane is from a different angle to the rest of the shot and the plane, travelling almost 800km/h, would have produced a blurry image in the background.

In other words, someone has computer-enhanced the photograph, adding the American Airlines jet to an old photo.

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