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It took a total of 102 minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center for both towers to collapse.

Although it was the second tower to be hit, the South Tower was the first to collapse, collapsing after just fifty six minutes of burning following Marwan ash-Sheḥḥi's crashing of the plane. There are several reasons for this:

  1. The South Tower was hit lower down and thus the stresses on the building were greater
  2. The South Tower was hit at a greater speed (950 km/h as against 748 km/h) so that the ignition of jet fuel upon collision was more energetic and spread more rapidly
  3. The North Tower had been upgraded with newer and thicker fireproofing on the impacted floors, whereas only one floor (the seventy-eighth) of the South Tower had been so upgraded.
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10y ago

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