Court Document Indicates The Trio Exposed Serious Security Issues At The Building

A trio of BASE jumpers who climbed to the top of the unfinished Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site, spent about four hours admiring the view, and then parachuted off the building, did the city a public service, according to a court document filed on their behalf.

A group of parents of firefighters killed on 9/11 said in their court filing that the BASE jumpers exposed a "glaring" security problem at the site. They went through a hole in the fence and got into the then-doorless building, climbed to the top, then jumped from the building in the middle of the night.

The jumpers said they encountered no security as they went through the fence and climbed to the top of the building, and retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches and Sally Regenhard, both of the 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims organization wrote in the filing that shows "there is a huge problem at the WTC site, and no lessons were learned from the nearly 3,000 people who perished on 9/11, including our heroic sons."

The New York Daily News reports that the letter asks for leniency for the three jumpers and their lookout, who appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday where they pleaded "Not Guilty" to charges that include felony burglary, reckless endangerment, reckless endangerment of property, and BASE jumping.

The letters to Justice Charles Solomon also pointed out that, several months after the BASE jumping incident, a teenage boy also got through the fence at the Freedom Tower and entered the building, showing that the security issue had not been addressed. The BASE jumpers "should not be made scapegoats," the letters said.

A defense fund  has been established for the BASE jumpers.

FMI: www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/supreme