What if the Twin Towers survived 9/11?

I was wondering. You all know about what happened on 9/11. Plane hits World Trade Center, both collapse, thousands die. But what if were different? What if the Twin Towers survived the attack of 9/11. I mean, sure, the thousands of people that died wouldn't have died, but still, I mean like, would the Twin Towers be demolished anyway due to being unstable? Would the terrorists perform a counter-attack that is much worse than the first one?

What do you think would happen?
 
depends on the amount of damage sustained. if they were unstable they would have to be taken down carefully. i imagine another strike would be possible but such big long range attacks take years of planning.
 

pnyckqx

Banned
I was wondering. You all know about what happened on 9/11. Plane hits World Trade Center, both collapse, thousands die. But what if were different? What if the Twin Towers survived the attack of 9/11. I mean, sure, the thousands of people that died wouldn't have died, but still, I mean like, would the Twin Towers be demolished anyway due to being unstable? Would the terrorists perform a counter-attack that is much worse than the first one?

What do you think would happen?
Congratulations! You just got rid of the 9/11 'Truthers':)

Yes, the towers would probably have to come down, at least from the point of impact upwards.

The second answer is "Not likely". Just because we don't have that big hole in the NYC skyline doesn't mean that the US doesn't ramp up it's vigilance and we will still go into "Kick Ass Mode".

The bad guys are going to be too busy running for their lives for a while.
 
As a matter of fact, I don't know if the terrorists meant to knock down the buildings as they did, rather than simply hitting them and causing major damage and death and doing something visible.

I think just the action of flying the passenger jets into the towers and the pentagon would have been enough to set America off like it did in the OTL. Those actions sans the towers collapsing would have been shocking enough, and would have caused enough deaths and mayhem to push the American psyche to the point it went to.
 
Noone knows, if the terrosts thought the Towers would come down.
They did however hijack wide body aircraft flying long trans-USA routes soon after take off, so that the planes would be full of fuel still.
 
There would still be many, many deaths - at least several hundred on the planes. And probably at least several hundred more in the towers.

And an interesting butterfly is that United 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania) may instead continue on to its target (the US Capitol) and hit that. Based on what we know from phone calls the passengers made, a major factor in their decision to try and take back the planes was hearing that the towers had fallen. If the towers don't fall, possibly the passengers on United 93 don't try and take back the plane, and it crashes into the Capitol Dome. That would change things, for sure.

Cheers (sad, depressed cheers),
Ganesha
 
Noone knows, if the terrosts thought the Towers would come down.
They did however hijack wide body aircraft flying long trans-USA routes soon after take off, so that the planes would be full of fuel still.

They did want to take them down, or at least people think that.

I heard a story that one of the people who went on to be somehow involved in the attacks was taken into US custody a while before and his captors mocked him about the fact that the WTC survived the first attack
 
I don't see much changing. While the death toll is much lower,it is still a terrorist attack on the United States. There is still wars in Iraq and Afganistan. There is still upgrade in airport security
 
There would still be many, many deaths - at least several hundred on the planes. And probably at least several hundred more in the towers.

And an interesting butterfly is that United 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania) may instead continue on to its target (the US Capitol) and hit that. Based on what we know from phone calls the passengers made, a major factor in their decision to try and take back the planes was hearing that the towers had fallen. If the towers don't fall, possibly the passengers on United 93 don't try and take back the plane, and it crashes into the Capitol Dome. That would change things, for sure.

Cheers (sad, depressed cheers),
Ganesha

Thoughts on this, anyone?

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
Instead of a commemorative park the Towers get rebuilt regardless of the cost, even if they have to be torn down first.

Internationally nothing changes. You still have a foreign attack on US soil and the deaths of US citizens. The reaction is going to be identical except instead of 'Ground Zero' the US will look on the image of the 'Broken Towers.'
 
Would they have caught any Congress members in the attack? That could be something.

I don't think so. After the first two planes hit the towers, and it was confirmed as "not an accident", Congress was immediately evacuated and moved to a safe bunker (I'm not sure where). So was the White House, and several other potential targets.

I don't think anyone (or at least not many people) would have died apart from on the plane, but it would have a powerful symbolic impact to see the Capitol Dome as a pile of smoking rubble.

Additionally, it's also a much harder target to hit, being lower and smaller, and there's always a chance the terrorists could miss, particularly if the passengers choose to rebel later on in the flight than they did OTL.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 

pnyckqx

Banned
How? Why wouldn't "Truthers" in such a timeline insist that USA/New World Order/a conspiracy was behind the attack?
If the towers do not collapse, and especially Tower 7, then the biggest part of their rhetoric is gone. There's no talk about a 'controlled detonation' bringing down the towers because the towers didn't fall.

To be sure, i believe that there is "9/11 truth" BUT, that truth is simply that the commission whitewashed the mistakes of past administrations and the Bush43 administration to protect careers and reputations of incompetent DC insiders.

JUST FOR THE RECORD: (so i don't get accused of being a Truther) In point of fact it was 19 Middle Eastern hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis and a hell of a lot of burning jet fuel from four airliners that brought on the events of 9/11


 

pnyckqx

Banned
There would still be many, many deaths - at least several hundred on the planes. And probably at least several hundred more in the towers.

And an interesting butterfly is that United 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania) may instead continue on to its target (the US Capitol) and hit that. Based on what we know from phone calls the passengers made, a major factor in their decision to try and take back the planes was hearing that the towers had fallen. If the towers don't fall, possibly the passengers on United 93 don't try and take back the plane, and it crashes into the Capitol Dome. That would change things, for sure.

Cheers (sad, depressed cheers),
Ganesha
i may be mistaken on this, but i don't believe that the timing works out on that. They might have been aware that the towers were hit, but not that they'd collapsed. i believe that when Flight 93 went down in Shanksville PA, that the towers were on fire but still standing.
 
The point of departure would have to be during the design of WTC No. 1 & No. 2 Towers and the WTC No. 7 Tower. In other words, don't build each building like bridges, but have a proper forest of columns on each floor, like the Empire State Building.

Remember, the Empire State Building was struck by a B-25 (B-29?) Bomber on a foggy day during World War 2, and it still stands, unto this very day.
 
Instead of a commemorative park the Towers get rebuilt regardless of the cost, even if they have to be torn down first.

Internationally nothing changes. You still have a foreign attack on US soil and the deaths of US citizens. The reaction is going to be identical except instead of 'Ground Zero' the US will look on the image of the 'Broken Towers.'

Absolutely exactly! :)
 

pnyckqx

Banned
The point of departure would have to be during the design of WTC No. 1 & No. 2 Towers and the WTC No. 7 Tower. In other words, don't build each building like bridges, but have a proper forest of columns on each floor, like the Empire State Building.

Remember, the Empire State Building was struck by a B-25 (B-29?) Bomber on a foggy day during World War 2, and it still stands, unto this very day.
True, but the airliners that hit the World Trade Towers were a hell of a lot more dense, going a hell of a lot faster, and carrying a hell of a lot more fuel. Not sure that the different design would have meant much had the Empire State building been hit.
 
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