The item, dated: Thursday, 13 September, 2001, 12:59 GMT 13:59 UK , by BBC News Online’s Sheila Barter, comes complete with diagrams and expert opinions on how hot the fires were, ‘that melted the steel.’ No calculations were included, as to how much of the fuel would have been burned up in the initial-impact fireball, or how thick the 49 steel beams were that made up the central cores of the buildings; most of which would have had to have melted through at exactly the same time to make these two, almost-identical, first-time-ever events possible.

To make life marginally simpler (dealing with time zones always gives me a headache), let’s say that that the South Tower (the first to collapse) was well on the ground at 1000 hours, New York time, on September 11th., and that the BBC item went out a minute later than it did, at 1400 hours, UK time, on September 13th.*

Both time zones were subject to summer time, so we can subtract the time-zone difference of 5 hours from London time, which gives us the time in New York when the BBC first put out their item about why the Towers had collapsed. That would be at 0900 hours on September 13, New York time. Which means it took the BBC less than 48 hours to get this prepared—presumably carefully checking their facts, all the way—and have it on the Internet for all the world to see, before the dust had settled.

Fast work? Or an unseemly rush to judgement?

Considering that the BBC announced the collapse of WTC7 before it happened, is this another indication that they could have been in the loop?

By the way, if you haven’t yet seen: ‘WTC7 - This is an Orange’ it can be viewed at: