The Tourist Guy (Accidental Tourist)

Netlore Archive: Purportedly a snapshot taken atop the World Trade Center seconds before the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001

Description: Email hoax / Joke
Circulating since: Sept. 2001
Status: Fake
Analysis: See below

Email example contributed by E. La Combe, 09/21/01:

Fw: Different Perspective on the New York Tragedy Attached is a picture that was taken of a tourist atop the World Trade Center Tower, the first to be struck by a terrorist attack. This camera was found but the subject in the picture had not yet been located. Makes you see things from a very different position. Please share this and find any way you can to help Americans not to be victims in the future of such cowardly attacks. Click to Enlarge

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If you look closely at the above image, Midtown Manhattan is discernible in the background behind the blissfully unaware subject, indicating that the photographer was facing north from the location of the Twin Towers at the moment the photo was snapped. Only one of the airliners that collided with the World Trade Center on September 11 approached from that direction - the first, American Airlines Flight #11, which struck the north tower (One World Trade) at 8:45 a.m. The trouble is, the north tower had no rooftop observation deck like the one pictured here. Even if it had, it wouldn't have been open to tourists at such an early hour.

• Why isn't the fast-moving aircraft blurry in the photo?
• Why doesn't the subject (or the photographer, for that matter) seem cognizant of the plane's high-decibel approach?
• The temperature was between 65 and 70 degrees that morning, according to news reports. Why is this man dressed for winter?
• How did the camera survive the 110-story fall when the tower collapsed?
• How was the camera found so quickly amidst all the rubble?
• Why did this one-of-a-kind, newsworthy photo never appear in the media until after it had already been well circulated via email?

As to the question of why anyone would invent a hoax as callous and tasteless as this in the first place, I would simply point out that the emergence of sick jokes is more often the rule than the exception in the wake of tragic events such as 9/11. Much as we may not like to accept it, the behavior is both predictable and understandable in terms of how people cope with the unthinkable. The example before us demonstrates that, in the words of folklorist Alan Dundes, "one person's tragedy may become a point of projection or catharsis for the fears and anxieties of others. Remember, people joke about only what is most serious."

It doesn't get much more serious than this.

Updates:

Gallery of 'Tourist Guy' Variants
The "Accidental Tourist" prank inspired numerous variants parodying the original and building upon its dark humor. This is a gallery of some of the more bitterly amusing specimens in circulation.

'Tourist Guy' Revealed!
The prankster who was the brains (as well as the face) behind the infamous photo steps forward to take the credit.

Sources and further reading:

Vital Statistics of the World Trade Center
From PBS.org

Current Hoaxes / Netlore
The Urban Legends Top 25