Proponents of the "controlled demolition" theory of 9/11 like to point out that the collapse of WTC7 somewhat resembled a "normal" controlled demolition. But have been a little frustrated by the fact that the collapse of WTC1 and WTC2 looked nothing like this, and instead looked just like a localized collapse of some floors, followed by the upper mass of the building crashing down through the lower floors.
The group AE911 recently promoted a link to a Daily Paul story they wrote last year that tries to promote the idea that the way WTC1/2 collapsed was in fact a type of demolition technique called "banana peel demolition":
[bunk]WTC 7 differed from Towers One and Two in that WTC7 was a traditional "bottom-up" implosion. The Twin Towers, on the other hand, exhibited the more unfamiliar pattern of a "banana peel" demolition, which starts at the middle or the top of a building and progresses downward. The below demolition in China shows the pattern of streamers of arcing debris that we see coming from the Twin Towers, as the cutting of supports begins high above ground level and works its way down.
Banana peel demolitions are used for taller, narrower buildings, where there is danger of the building tipping over should the bottom be cut and the rest of the sequence not execute perfectly.[/bunk]
And now this is being repeated by supported on Facebook, etc:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/161415886170/permalink/10152392360801171/?stream_ref=1
[bunk]As public awareness grows about the truth about 9/11, it serves to point out that many features of the towers’ destruction fit perfectly with standard patterns of demolition. Evidence which at first seems puzzling is in fact consistent with known demolition techniques.[/bunk]
The first problem with this is that the term "banana peel demolition" is not a demolition industry term for any kind of demolition - not even informally. It's simply something that AE911 made up. You can verify this with a Google search, nothing that the ONLY results are from the AE911 and Daily Paul stories, blog posts about those stories, and this page here on Metabunk.
https://www.google.com/search?q="banana peel demolition"
The sole example they give of this supposed demolition technique is a building in China:
They claim this demonstrates the features of the WTC1/2 collapses, the peeling away of the sides of the building, a top down collapse, and the expulsion of building material as it collapses.
The problem here is that it really looks nothing alike. In fact it's actually a bottom up demolition. The only difference here that that there were three regions of larger explosions, at the base, and at about 1/3 and 2/3 the ways up. It was these explosions that expulsed material. The building collapse was not in fact a top down demolition, but a bottom up demolition.
http://english.sina.com/china/p/2009/0813/263056.html
http://bbs.wx.house365.com/showthread.php?threadid=69768
And there was no "peeling" of the sides of the building. It simply collapse in a downwards manner, disappearing into a cloud of dust at the base, as most buildings do when they collapse. The expulsion of material is clearly from the initial (very loud) explosions before the building starts to collapse. This expulsion is also only on one side - the side the larger explosives were place to make the building lean in that direction.
So this looks like a rather disingenuous attempt by AE911 to suggest that the collapse of WTC1 and WTC2 resembled some kind of controlled explosive demolition. In reality they were very different.
There's a (Chinese) Discussion of the technical challenges with this demolition here:
http://www.gd.xinhuanet.com/dishi/2009-08/13/content_17389017.htm
Notable points:
The group AE911 recently promoted a link to a Daily Paul story they wrote last year that tries to promote the idea that the way WTC1/2 collapsed was in fact a type of demolition technique called "banana peel demolition":
[bunk]WTC 7 differed from Towers One and Two in that WTC7 was a traditional "bottom-up" implosion. The Twin Towers, on the other hand, exhibited the more unfamiliar pattern of a "banana peel" demolition, which starts at the middle or the top of a building and progresses downward. The below demolition in China shows the pattern of streamers of arcing debris that we see coming from the Twin Towers, as the cutting of supports begins high above ground level and works its way down.
Banana peel demolitions are used for taller, narrower buildings, where there is danger of the building tipping over should the bottom be cut and the rest of the sequence not execute perfectly.[/bunk]
And now this is being repeated by supported on Facebook, etc:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/161415886170/permalink/10152392360801171/?stream_ref=1
[bunk]As public awareness grows about the truth about 9/11, it serves to point out that many features of the towers’ destruction fit perfectly with standard patterns of demolition. Evidence which at first seems puzzling is in fact consistent with known demolition techniques.[/bunk]
The first problem with this is that the term "banana peel demolition" is not a demolition industry term for any kind of demolition - not even informally. It's simply something that AE911 made up. You can verify this with a Google search, nothing that the ONLY results are from the AE911 and Daily Paul stories, blog posts about those stories, and this page here on Metabunk.
https://www.google.com/search?q="banana peel demolition"
The sole example they give of this supposed demolition technique is a building in China:
They claim this demonstrates the features of the WTC1/2 collapses, the peeling away of the sides of the building, a top down collapse, and the expulsion of building material as it collapses.
The problem here is that it really looks nothing alike. In fact it's actually a bottom up demolition. The only difference here that that there were three regions of larger explosions, at the base, and at about 1/3 and 2/3 the ways up. It was these explosions that expulsed material. The building collapse was not in fact a top down demolition, but a bottom up demolition.
http://english.sina.com/china/p/2009/0813/263056.html
http://bbs.wx.house365.com/showthread.php?threadid=69768
And there was no "peeling" of the sides of the building. It simply collapse in a downwards manner, disappearing into a cloud of dust at the base, as most buildings do when they collapse. The expulsion of material is clearly from the initial (very loud) explosions before the building starts to collapse. This expulsion is also only on one side - the side the larger explosives were place to make the building lean in that direction.
So this looks like a rather disingenuous attempt by AE911 to suggest that the collapse of WTC1 and WTC2 resembled some kind of controlled explosive demolition. In reality they were very different.
There's a (Chinese) Discussion of the technical challenges with this demolition here:
http://www.gd.xinhuanet.com/dishi/2009-08/13/content_17389017.htm
Notable points:
- The sectioning of the building was done because of the proximity of other buildings.
- It took 800 Kg of explosive, drilling 8,343 holes, all connected with detonation cord.
- The blasting took 3.6 seconds.
- Shear wall construction required specialized cutting equipment, and the remove of 350 cubic meters of walls before the explosions
- The stages of explosion were from the bottom up, half a second apart.
- To prevent damage to surrounding buildings, the main charges around supporting columns were wrapped in "barbed wire, quilts, bamboo, straw, etc. 6-8 layers for protection" which was likely the majority of the ejecta.
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