The Mystery Of 9/11’s “Falling Man”
Richard Drew/Associated PressTrapped in the burning towers, many people, like the so-called “Falling Man,” had to make an impossible choice.
Another gut-wrenching photo from 9/11 is the “Falling Man” picture. That morning, at around 9:41 a.m., Associated Press photographer Richard Drew snapped a photo of a man falling, almost gracefully, from the North Tower. But, to this day, no one is 100 percent sure who he is.
To date, journalists have offered two possible names: Jonathan Briley and Norberto Hernandez. Both men worked at Windows on the World, a restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower.
“When I first looked at the picture… and I saw it was a man — tall, slim, I said, ‘If I didn’t know any better, that could be Jonathan,'” Briley’s sister Gwendolyn told The Sunday Mirror.
Indeed, the man seems to be wearing what Briley usually wore, according to his family. But since no one saw him leave for work that morning — he got up early and left before his wife had woken up — they can’t know for sure.
Hernandez’s family also thinks that the picture could show their loved one — maybe. They believe that the Falling Man looks like him, but after examining the photo more closely, they aren’t entirely certain about that.
Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty ImagesAnother unidentified 9/11 victim who likely jumped to avoid being burned alive.
Whoever the Falling Man is, the image of his descent is truly one of the most haunting images from 9/11. Tragically, he was far from the only person who chose to jump that day, instead of burning alive in the World Trade Center.
“[W]hen these people were falling, I would then put my finger on the trigger of the camera and I’d hold the camera up, and I’d photograph and follow them going down, and then the camera would open and close and take the pictures as they were going down,” Drew later told CBS.
His now-famous photo of the “Falling Man” ran the next day, September 12th, offering a heartstopping look at one anonymous 9/11 victim. It was considered so disturbing that many newspapers refused to print it, and those that did choose to run it only showed it once.
