''Impending Death'' is a

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

taken by freelance photographer Thomas Dallal during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. The photograph depicts the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, on fire after being struck by

American Airlines Flight 11 American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic Airline, passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into ...

at 8:46 a.m., and shortly before its collapse at 10:28 a.m. Visible in the photograph are numerous people trapped in the upper floors of the building, hanging out of windows because of the intense smoke and heat. They were unable to escape because all of the stairwells and elevators above the 91st floor were severed by Flight 11's impact. The photograph was later nominated for the

Pictures of the Year International Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalism, visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an a ...

award, coming in second place. A similar, closer photograph, taken at a different angle by Jeff Christensen of

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, was later used in an attempt to identify the victims depicted.

Background

On September 11, 2001, four commercial aircraft were hijacked and deliberately crashed as part of a coordinated attack on the United States. Two,

and

United Airlines Flight 175 United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as ...

, were crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. respectively. Both towers collapsed in one hour and 42 minutes and 56 minutes respectively because of structural failure caused by the weakening of their support beams from the intense fire; the South Tower at 9:59 a.m., and the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. Because of the angle at which Flight 11 impacted, nobody above the 91st floor of the North Tower was able to escape the building, trapping 1,344 people. All of them died due to

smoke inhalation Smoke inhalation is the breathing in of harmful fumes (produced as by-products of combusting substances) through the respiratory tract. This can cause smoke inhalation injury (a kind of acute inhalation injury) which is damage to the respirator ...

, burns/incineration, jumping/falling from the building, or the eventual collapse of the tower. Numerous photographs were taken of victims as they fell from the building or were trapped inside of it. '' The Falling Man'', taken by

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

photographer Richard Drew, has become one of the most famous and controversial images of September 11. ''Impending Death'' was taken by freelance photojournalist Thomas Dallal, shortly before the collapse of the North Tower. Present in the image are roughly 50 people, located on the floors occupied by Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees in the attacks, or nearly two-thirds of its workforce, and Windows on the World, which lost 73 people.

Identification

In September 2006, '' Vanity Fair'' published an excerpt from the book ''Watching the World Change'', detailing the efforts of family members of 9/11 victims to identify their relatives in the photograph and similar ones taken at other angles.

Notes

References

*''Watching the World Change''. Friend, David. 2006. {{September 11 attacks 2001 in art Color photographs Images of Manhattan Photographs from the September 11 attacks