I hate to bring this up and I hope it doesn't offend anyone, but I have a question that has been bothering me for years. I'm from NY and went to the World Trade Center only once as a kid in the mid-90's with a family friend and I remember it vividly, but I'm no architect and I wouldn't know the answer to this question.
Would it have been possible for the people trapped in One World Trade Center at the very top floors to have climbed the outside of the building to the roof so that one of the helicopters could have at least attempted a rescue? I know the roof was inaccessible from inside, but I honestly think climbing up the outside is what I would have tried since so many people jumped and it would have given me the courage to try the opposite seeing the desperate nature of the situation.
I remember reading a long time ago that the windows were very easy to break (hence why so many people were able to do so). Would it have been possible for someone on the 106th floor to just stack objects close to his window that he could stand on and then use another object to break the window above him and then pull himself up into that window? Then you would just keep doing it.
I notice when it comes to the mechanical floors though (the two top floors before the roof), the structure of the building changed and it looked like there were vents/shutters instead of windows:
http://stevespak.com/spak/nypdesu.html (3rd photo from the top)
Photo from the collection of Steve Spak
If one were to have above average body strength and get himself onto that, couldn't he just spider climb his way to one of the enclosed areas just below the ledge and then pull himself over the ledge? Then from the ledge, I believe there was a 10-15 foot steep steel incline that you'd have to get up to get to the actual roof.
I guess what I'd really worried about with this whole idea would be being able to actually grip the steel (and whether or not the heat/smoke would be deadly as you're climbing), especially when trying to pull yourself into the enclosed area and when you're trying to pull yourself over the ledge. I'm not even sure if the incline would have been capable of being gripped.
Was this idea at least possible if someone had it in his mind to give it a shot?