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Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day. ... Then he heard people gasping. People on the ground were gasping because people in the building were jumping. He started shooting pictures through a 200mm lens. He was standing between a cop and an emergency technician, and each time one of them cried, "There goes another," his camera found a falling...

In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity's divine suction or by what awaits him. His arms are by his side, only slightly outriggered. His left leg is bent at the knee, almost casually. His white shirt, or jacket, or frock, is billowing free...

"A few days after the falling man picture was published, Peter Cheney a journalist from the Globe and Mail was asked to attempt to identify him. He had the image enhanced and immediately saw that the man was black or hispanic with a goatee and a waiter's jacket. Cheney thought that he might have jumped from Windows on the World restaurant which was crowded with over 150 guests and staff at the time of the attack. He began to look for one man among the thousands who were missing that day. It seemed hopeless but late one night Cheney saw...

9/11: The Falling Man, a journey to identify the falling man from one of 9/11's most startling images

The Falling Man Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.

Almost all of them jumped alone, although eyewitnesses talked of a couple who held hands as they fell. One woman, in a final act of modesty, appeared to be holding down her skirt. Others tried to make parachutes out of curtains or tablecloths, only to have them wrenched from their grip by the force of their descent. The fall was said to take about ten seconds. It would vary according to the body position and how long it took to reach terminal velocity — around 125mph in most cases, but if someone fell head down with their body straight, as

Most of us have seen the following picture, of the man falling from the burning towers, poised in an upside down plunge. Writers have opined many things regarding that falling man. Most feel he was plunging as victim toward his chosen death. None I've read have bothered--once it was established that the man in the photo is Norberto Hernandez, assistant chef in the Windows On The World restaurant--to pose the notion I'm about to offer: When Norberto chose to plummet from the inferno, he likely had only the choice to be burned alive or die instantly from a fall of...

THE FALLING MAN REVISITED By Michelle Malkin   ·   March 15, 2006 10:49 PM Some images leave an indelible mark on your heart and soul. Like "The Falling Man" on 9/11: Credit: Richard Drew, AP His identity has not been confirmed, though many have speculated over the last 4 1/2 years. Tom Junod wrote an extraordinary piece for Eqsuire in September 2003 on "The Falling Man," offering several possibilities. His piece ended with this one: Jonathan Briley worked at Windows on the World. Some of his coworkers, when they saw Richard Drew's photographs, thought he might be the Falling Man....

At dawn on September 11, 2001 in Mount Vernon, New York, a man wakes, dresses, pulls black high-top trainers onto his feet, kisses his sleeping wife and heads to work in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Meanwhile in Queens another man — a pastry chef at Windows on the World, the twin towers’ top-floor restaurant — puts on jeans, a blue checked shirt and a Casio watch handed to him by his wife. She drives him to the station, where he waves goodbye, disappearing down the subway steps. In New York City and its suburbs more than...

I'd like to make some stickers out of 9/11 photos. I'm having trouble finding the picture of the poor man falling from the WTC with his clothes on fire. In LA some jerks and their guerilla vandalism are putting out paste-on posters with diatribes about arms and legs flying and does anyone have a needle and thread. I'd like to put this picture on some Avery labels, along with a shot of the 2nd plane approaching the South Tower, and put them on top of this poster with a caption saying: "You Mean For This?"

To observe this Sept. 11, 2001, anniversary, I urge critics of Attorney General John Ashcroft - especially the Democratic presidential candidates - to read the article "The Falling Man" in the current Esquire. A photo on page 176 shows the article's subject plunging headfirst from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Taken by celebrated Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, the picture was printed once in various newspapers - then banned by the U.S. media as too awful for public consumption. The riveting article, by Tom Junod, chronicles the search to identify the "falling man," but the larger point...

      September 2003, Volume 140, Issue 3         The Falling Man By Tom Junod Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were...