They could of got helicopters

I remember seeing the 9/11 on the news and i thought they could of got hundreds of helicopters to save people who where hanging out the windows waveing white flags etc why couldnt they get hundreds of helicopters and rescure those who where nearly hanging out the window?. Instead they where helicopters so that they can watch the people sufer isnt it sick? i think so.

It's "could have"
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I think getting helicopters that close would be more dangerous than helpful.

The only way that a helicopter rescue would have been feasible was if the victims had reached the roof. Even then it would have been a chancy thing because of the turbulence caused by the fires in the towers. The roofs were not rated for the weight of helicopters landing on them and there was some obstruction due to antennaes.

Coudn't they have lowered harnesses from a safer altitude?

Helicopters are hard enough to fly when you DON'T have major thermal activity from a fire, plus smoke obscuring your visibility. It would have been more dangerous to try it than it was to not try it.

I am not trying to patronize, but are you an expert on this? I have read that it would have been possible even given the conditions. BUT access to the roofs was locked anyway so no one could get up there.

I guess it is kind of a moot point if the access doors/hatches were locked.

I'm not saying it wasn't possible. It COULD have been done. I'm saying that it would have been really dangerous to do. I KNOW how hard it is to fly a helicopter in NORMAL conditions. I've known and been good friends with many helicopter pilots, including one who went down on a clear day just because the helicopter decided to stop working. Add in thermals and smoke and it gets a lot harder and a lot more dangerous. COULD it have been done, yes. Would it have been an incredible risk to even TRY? Yes. In my OPINION, the risks outweighed the gains.

Most buildings I've been on have had access to the roof locked. That's why you have to coordinate with the property manager to have access. But back to the arguement that it would have been impossible to rig the towers without anyone knowing....is correct. You have to get access from the property manager. Not that they always know exactly what's going on. Many times they just allow you access because you say you're with so and so to do this and that....but that is another arguement for another thread.

I'm not sure about Zaphod, but after serving as a Search and Rescue helicopter crewman in the US Navy for 4 years I guess I'm about as close to an expert as we are going to get.

The main problem with long hoist rescues is guiding the sling or basket to the victim. While a hovering helicopter may look stationary it is actually constantly moving in all directions. This causes what ever is on the hoist to swing about. The longer the hoist cable the more movement there is at the end of the hoist.

Another problem is with the helicopter itself. There are certain weather conditions that control if and for how long a helicopter can hover. As the air temperature increases the air density decreases and more power is required to hover. With decreased air density there is a decrease in engine power and rotor effiency. In temperatures over 80 degrees F. it is sometimes impossible to hover.
The temperature can be a factor in another way as well. The main gearbox that drives the rotor is lubricated with oil that needs to be kept within certain temperature limits. This is usually accomplished by running the oil through a radiator to transfer the excess heat to the air. While this radiator is usually equipped with a belt driven fan, the fan often doesn't provide enough air to cool the oil and relies on air flow derived from the helicopter's forward airspeed. This also can limit the time availible to hover. The pilot has to watch his main gearbox temperature indicator, when it reaches a certain limit he has to start moving the aircraft forward to cool his gearbox down.

In my opinion the only practical way to rescue large numbers of people from the roof of a burning building is by landing the helicopter on the roof, loading as many people as the aircraft can safely carry and flying them to a nearby roof top and coming back for another load. Multiple helicopters can be used if there is coordination to prevent collisions.

Helicopter rescue was never planned for in the evacuation plan for the WTC despite almost two dozen people being rescued from the roof after the 1993 bombing. There are numerous references to this in the 9-11 report and other documentation. If the towers hadn't collapsed as quickly as they did it might have been possible to put rescue teams on to the roofs of both towers and after forcing the locked doors, evacuating survivors from above the impact zones. In the amount of time that there was before the collapse it just wasn't possible.

There have been reports that state that a Police helicopter had been seen hovering over one of the towers and some people try to use that as a basis of saying that a helicopter rescue could have been possible. While a skilled pilot in a small helicopter may have been able to hold position over a building roof top conditions still may have prevented a rescue by a larger more capable aircraft, it one had been availible.