The unfortunate tourist

The unfortunate tourist on top of the World Trade Center just seconds away from his death on the fateful day on September 11, 2001

This image of a tourist standing on the terrace of the Twin Towers just seconds before the flight crashed onto them may look dramatic. Also the way in which this photo has been edited to absolute perfection so as to fool others and grab the limelight can be appreciated. But its just one of many such photos which floated on the internet claiming so. There were many contradictory elements that led to it being called a hoax. Such as:

• September 11th, 2001 was a warm and sunny late summer day, not the type of weather in which a tourist would have been decked out in a winter coat and hat.

• The airline shown in the picture is approaching from the north and therfore would have been the plane that hit the north tower of the World Trade Ceter (WTC 1), but WTC1 did not have an indoor observation deck on the 107th floor and an outdoor deck above the 110th floor, but WTC1 housed only Windows on the World, an indoor restaurant with magnificient view of the city but WTC1 housed only the Windows on the world, an indoor restaurant with a magnificient view of the city but no outdoor deck.

• The opening hours in September for the WTC2 observatories were 9.30 am to 9.30 pm, meaning they opened too early for a tourist to have been present on one of them on September 11th before the first plane hit the WTC at 8.49am.

• The aircraft shown is a Boeing 757 bearing American Airlines markings, but Flight 11, the only American flight to crash into the WTC was a 767( The 767 is a wide-body jet; the 757 is a smaller, standard-body craft)

Finally a guy named Peter, a Hungarian came forward and admitted to have created the infamous "Accidental Tourist" image. He later on supplied similar snapshots from the same session.

The truth finally revealed
Infact he grabbed the spotlight, and even got a website dedicated to his name and this one too ;)