A small detail in his clothing is believed to have helped confirm the identity of the man photographed falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11, 25 years after the image was taken.
25 years have passed since the September 11 attacks. Among everything being remembered this week is one photograph that’s followed people for decades: AP photographer Richard Drew’s image of a man falling from one of the Twin Towers, known as “The Falling Man.”
For years, his identity was a mystery. Eventually journalists narrowed it down to two possibilities: Jonathan Briley, a sound engineer at Windows on the World, the restaurant that sat on the North Tower’s top floors, and Norberto Hernandez, a pastry chef who worked at the same restaurant.
What eventually tipped it toward Briley over Hernandez was a small detail.
In the photo, his shirt has come open in the fall, and underneath is an orange t-shirt. Hernandez wasn’t known to own anything orange. Briley, on the other hand, regularly wore an orange tee under his work clothes.
This detail is what led most people to believe it was him in the photo.
Briley’s sister opened up about the tragedy
Jonathan’s sister Gwen Briley-Strand spoke about her brother ahead of this year’s anniversary, speaking about how the grief hasn’t moved in a straight line.
“There are times when it feels like 25 years, but then again, there are times when it feels like yesterday,” she told the Daily Mail.
“It’s a wave of grief. Some years are better than others.”
She also mentioned that Jonathan had asthma, meaning the smoke that day would have hit him hard almost immediately.
A week before the attacks, Jonathan had joined Briley-Strand and her husband on a trip to Florida, deciding to come along last minute.
“I was such a gift of God that we could spend that time,” she said. “We were right there on the ocean and we would get up and have Kahlua and coffee and watch the sunrise. It was really special because he decided to join us at the last minute.”
He flew home to New York just three days before September 11.
Briley-Strand has only looked at the famous photo one time
Briley-Strand revealed she’s seen the picture one single time, then never being able to bring herself to look at it again. It caused immense pain, both for her family and the others trying to figure out who the falling man was.
She also brought up something that’s stayed with her, hearing about a deeply religious family who struggled with the image through the lens of their faith.
“I remember hearing about a family who were deeply religious and, with Catholicism, this man that jumped, that’s suicide and that’s the unforgivable sin,” she said.
She doesn’t see it that way, though.
“I don’t believe in an unforgivable sin,” she said. “God is too benevolent. He’s too wonderful. I think the only unforgivable sin is not to believe in Him.”
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