Enter the Truss Failure Theory

With the evidence blatantly contradicting the column failure theory, the truss failure theory was trotted out.

Since the lightweight trusses undergirding the floor slabs were not visible from the outside, it could be imagined that they became very hot, and softened enough to succumb to their loads.

The failure of some of these trusses would be the first in a rapidly cascading chain-reaction of events resulting in the total destruction of the buildings.

This is the theory that would be presented to the American public on popular science programs like NOVA. FEMA would endorse it in its World Trade Center Building Performance Assessment Report.