Twenty-five years after one of the most haunting images from 9/11 was captured, the sister of the man widely believed to be pictured has spoken about her family's grief and the meaning she's found in it since.
The photograph itself
Taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew at 9:41am and 15 seconds on 11 September 2001, the image shows a man falling head-first from the World Trade Center, appearing calm in his final moments. It became known as "Falling Man" and proved so controversial that several publications, including the New York Times, withdrew it from circulation within days after readers said it was too painful to look at. No official record of those who jumped from the towers was ever compiled, with New York's Chief Medical Examiner classifying all related deaths as homicides. Estimates suggest between 50 and more than 200 people jumped over a roughly 90-minute window that morning.
The search for his identity
Identifying the man took years. A Canadian journalist initially linked the image to Norberto Hernandez, a pastry chef at Windows on the World, after his sister recognised his clothing, though Hernandez's devoutly Catholic family rejected the theory. Esquire writer Tom Junod later reopened the investigation, discovering that Drew's camera had captured a full sequence of frames. In later images, the man's shirt blew open to reveal a distinctive orange T-shirt, ruling out Hernandez, who didn't own one. Junod identified the most likely match as Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer at Windows on the World who stood 6ft 5in tall and was known to wear an orange T-shirt beneath his work uniform.
Briley's widow had packed away his clothes shortly after his death, meaning what he actually wore that morning has never been definitively confirmed.
His sister's reflection
Briley's sister, Gwen Briley-Strand, now 72, told the Daily Mail she still watches anniversary coverage each year, describing grief that comes in waves, some years harder than others. She said her brother, who had asthma, had been ordained a deacon just six months before his death and grew up playing gospel piano. He'd joined her and her husband on a holiday in Florida the week before the attacks, the last time she saw him.
Briley-Strand said she doesn't believe faith condemns those who jumped that day, rejecting the view held by some religious families that it amounted to suicide.
The truth she holds onto
Briley-Strand said she believes everyone who jumped that day was caught in some way, describing it as their spirits being caught, and said she thinks of her brother as representing the nearly 3,000 people who died on 9/11. He was the middle of five siblings; one of his brothers, Alex Briley, was an original member of the Village People.
The photographer's perspective
Richard Drew has spoken about the image publicly over the years, explaining in 2021 that he didn't consciously choose the moment, describing how his camera simply cycled through frames as he tracked the man's fall, and that he didn't fully register the image until reviewing his photos afterward. In a 2023 interview, he addressed the criticism the photo received, saying it captured the last moments of the man's life rather than his death, and suggesting the backlash stemmed from how quiet and undramatic the image appeared compared to the more violent imagery people had grown used to that day.
The photograph is reportedly now held in the private collection of Sir Elton John, who has previously described it as one of the most perfect photographs ever taken.
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