"LOL SUPERMAN" (lost World Trade Center Plaza footage from the September 11th attacks; existence unconfirmed; 2001)

This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter and graphic imagery.

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Single frame image purportedly from the video.

Status: Partially Lost

On September 11th, 2001, a series of four coodinated terrorist attacks occurred across the United States. Orchestrated by the extremist Islamic terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda, nineteen individuals committed four hijackings against domestic airliners; two of these hijacked airliners were then crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, another crashed into the Pentagon, whilst another crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, respectively. In total, 2,977 people were killed in the attacks.

Background

The infamous Falling Man image, capturing a man falling from the North Tower.

As a result of the two attacks on the World Trade Center, only one staircase remained passable past the 78th floor in the South Tower and no staircases were passable past floor 91 in the North Tower, respectively. As a result, hundreds who survived the initial impact of the planes became trapped above in the higher floors of the towers. As time passed, many of those trapped (either by accident or in making an impossible decision to avoid the fires engulfing the floors) began to fall from the higher floors onto the ground below. All together, it is estimated that up to 200 of these 'jumpers' fell from both towers.

Due to the enormity of the catastrophe, many individuals and groups captured footage of the attacks during and after they had occurred. As such, many were able to capture images and videos of jumpers falling from towers. The vast majority of these videos do not show the jumpers impacting with the ground, leaving any footage that does indeed capture impact extremely rare or near impossible to find.

"LOL SUPERMAN" video

In or around 2006, a video purportedly began to surface on video-sharing websites showing footage taken from the ground around the towers. Entitled "LOL SUPERMAN" (or something along the lines of such), the video in question reportedly captured footage of jumpers impacting the ground at high speeds, as well as showing the aftermath of said collisions. The video served the purpose of a "shock video" (imagery or videos which had the intention to shock or disturb any that came across it) and thus was allegedly reposted around the internet. Since then, likely due to takedowns, the video has eluded those who have attempted to find it.

In 2015, an anonymous poster recounted their experience with the video to the x/ (Paranormal) board on 4chan. They alleged that the video was hosted "back in the early days" of YouTube and featured graphic imagery of jumpers as stated above. The channel involved was allegedly "disabled not long after" and the comment section of the video received overwhelmingly negative feedback from those who watched it. The poster also stated that they had tried to find the video but to no avail.

Renewed attention

On July 30, 2022, Reddit user u/Thesketchydude made a post on the r/lostmedia subreddit looking for more information on the video. As such, the video and its search received increased attention. It is speculated that the video is no longer than two minutes at most and is comprised of shaky cam footage. It is also alleged that, like the aforementioned 4chan thread, the video contains graphic imagery of bodies falling onto the pavement and onto nearby cars.

Due to the increased attention, the potential for leads skyrocketed. One redditor was alleged to have sent a FOIA request to the FBI but that they had declined to share the footage due it being used as evidence in ongoing legal cases. As such, it remains unlikely that the video will resurface from the end of any government organisation or archival groups. As a result (apart from the single frame from the video), the footage remains lost.