>From the NY Times web site:
"After the 1993 trade center bombing, one of the engineers who worked on the
towers' structural design in the 1960's claimed that each one had been built to
withstand the impact of a fully loaded, fully fueled Boeing 707, then the
heaviest aircraft flying."
-more-
There was some disagreement yesterday about whether...the trade center towers
had been designed to withstand an impact from an airliner filled with fuel.
The engineer who said after the 1993 bombing that the towers could withstand a
Boeing 707, Leslie Robertson, was not available for comment yesterday, a partner
at his Manhattan firm said.
"We're going to hold off on speaking to the media," said the partner, Rick
Zottola, at Leslie E. Robertson Associates.
"We never were asked to consider trying to protect the building from such a
threat," said Mr. Cracchiolo, who was among those who coordinated the
reconstruction after the 1993 bombing. "As structural engineers, there is
nothing we could have done to protect the building from a direct impact from a
plane as large as these."
Melvin Schweitzer, a member of the Port Authority board of commissioners from
1993 to 1999, said, however, that the board
repeatedly inquired about that possibility. "We were just told that architects
had explained that the building was designed to withstand a jet," Mr. Schweitzer
said.
The architectural firm for the trade center, Minoru Yamasaki Associates of
Rochester Hills, Mich., declined to answer specific
questions about the collapse....
Thanks to Chuck,
-J
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