I watched the Ch4 Documentary about ‘The Falling Man,’ on thursday evening with tears in my eyes, particularly when I heard the testimony of Jack Gentul (highlighted below). I remember seeing the pictures on the BBC news in the early morning, but don’t remember them mentioning anything about the 6-7% who jumped from the burning building. Apparently, the person who was investigating the identity of ‘the falling man’ asked a croner, “How many people jumped from the twin towers?” and he replied, “Nobody jumped, people were either blown out by explosions or fell,” (or words to that effect) but loved ones and spectactors depicted a different story. Christian fundamentalists refused to believe that people had committed suicide as this would mean they were damned to hell for eternity but how can it be suicide if you know you are going to die? The photograph of ‘the falling man’ was in my humble opinion, the most poignant and empathetic image of 9/11. It forces you to question, what would I have done in that situation? It’s hard to imagine. >>

Mother-of-two Alayne Gentul, 44, a senior vice-president of the Fiduciary Trust, was among them, and in her last few moments she called her husband, Jack.

“She told me smoke was coming in the room, coming through the vents,” Jack Gentul says.

“Her breath was laboured. I asked her why she didn’t go down and she said it was really hot out there. She said to me ‘I’m scared’. She wasn’t a person who got scared, and I said, ‘Honey, it’ll be all right, it’ll be all right, you’ll get down.’

“She said she loved me and said to tell the boys she loved them. I was so shocked I said, ‘Of course I will, but it’s going to be all right.’ When I hung up the phone I was horrified.” It was the last time the couple ever spoke.

“She was found on the street in front of the building across from hers,” says Jack. “Whether she jumped or fell, I don’t know. I hoped that she had succumbed to the smoke, but it doesn’t seem likely.

“In some ways it might just be the last element of control… something you can do. To be out of the smoke and the heat, to be out in the air, it must have felt like flying.”

More in depth article here >>
Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030903_mfe_falling_1.html)