Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon?

intro • official claim • timeline • undamaged lawn • generator oddity • building damage • inside damage • suspicious debris • crash videos
 alleged hijackers • unusual passengers • pentagon fatalities • conflicting witnesses • debunking sites • theories • performance report • links

The official claim...

(To link this page, please use the following address:  http://www.geocities.com/killtown/flight77/claim.html)

Last updated:  10/17/2007

If you didn't know what had caused the fire in this photo, would you have guessed it was caused by a large commercial airliner?

(Photo source:  radified.com)

The Pentagon's official claim...

"The Boeing 757 struck Wedge 1 on the Heliport side of the Pentagon very low to the ground and entered Wedge 1 just to the north of Corridor 4 on the first and second floors.  The plane traveled through the Pentagon at roughly 45-degree angle to the face of the building.  It went through Wedge 1 and into the un-renovated Wedge 2 before exiting the C-ring, the third ring of offices, and into a roadway (A/E Drive) that circles the perimeter of the Pentagon between the B and C-rings.

"American 77 was then 5 miles west-southwest of the Pentagon and began a 330-degree turn. At the end of the turn, it was descending through 2,200 feet, pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. The hijacker pilot then advanced the throttles to maximum power and dove toward the Pentagon.
At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour." - 9/11 Commission

"Investigators have identified remains of 184 people who were aboard American Airlines Flight 77 or inside the Pentagon, including those of the five hijackers, but they say it is impossible to match what is left with the five missing people.
A team of more than 100 workers at a military morgue at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware used several methods to identify remains but primarily relied on DNA testing and dental records.  The fifth unidentified victim was a passenger on the hijacked plane.
The remains of the five hijackers have been identified through a process of exclusion, as they did not match DNA samples contributed by family members of all 183 victims who died at the site." - Washington Post (11/21/01)

(AA 77 flight path.  Click map for hi-res.  Source:  gwu.edu)

"And the plane came through the first floor, right through Naval Ops," Michael Flocco, whose only son Matthew was killed at the Pentagon doing the duty he loved. Mike put muscle into his mornings, helping rebuild the Pentagon as part of Operation Phoenix." -CNN (9/08/02)

Was it just "luck" that the crash happened right in the middle of the only renovated section of the Pentagon that was being retrofitted to bolster it against an attack, has a new sprinkler system, was only five days away from being completed (although it's contract was officially completed), was right next to the Pentagon's new personal fire station with their fire truck already parked outside, and was where President Bush was going to be landing two hours later?

► "Luck — if it can be called that — had it that the terrorists aimed the Boeing 757 at the only part of the Pentagon that already had been renovated in an 11-year, $1.3 billion project meant to bolster it against attack. That significantly limited the damage and loss of life by slowing the plane as it tore through the building and reducing the explosion's reach."
"The reconstruction is expected to cost over $700 million and take until spring 2003." - USA Today (1/01/02)

► "Schwartz explained that renovations on the Pentagon began several years earlier and were nearing completion, particularly the section called Wedge 1, when the crash occurred.
He said the plane struck the building almost in the middle of the space where the renovation had been completed. Personnel had not completely reoccupied this area of the building.
"This contributed to the relatively low number of casualties," Schwartz said. "The number could have been far greater had the plane struck another portion of the building not affected by the renovation.”
He said one of the worst places the airplane could have gone was the building's center court.
Schwartz said that from information received from the radio tower at the Virginia state police barracks, as the aircraft came in, it actually dipped its wing to avoid hitting the tower and brought the wing back up before going into the building.
"The aircraft did not strike the ground before it hit the building," explained Schwartz.
"They (Fort Myer) provide a crash, fire and rescue truck at the Pentagon heliport on standby during the daylight hours," Schwartz added." - Fort Meade/Army

► The 'Other' Tragedy

"Part of that area had been renovated recently, and that saved lives. Not all the offices were occupied that morning because of the renovation. In addition, the outer ring had been reinforced by floor-to-ceiling steel beams that ran through all five floors. Between them was a Kevlar-like mesh, similar to the material in bulletproof vests, which kept masonry from becoming shrapnel. Together, the beams and the mesh formed a citadel that kept the top floors from collapsing for about 35 minutes, time enough for some people to escape. New blast-resistant windows above the crash site didn't shatter. A new sprinkler system kept the fires from consuming the entire place.

When the plane hit wedge 1, workers were just a few days away from completing a three-year renovation of that section." -USNews (12/10/01)

► "At 9:38 a.m. on September 11, only one fire crew, Foam 161 of the Fort Myer Fire Department, knew the exact location of the crash site. Captain Dennis Gilroy and his team were already on station at the Pentagon when Flight #77 slammed into it, just beyond the heliport. Foam 161 caught fire and suffered a flat tire from flying debris. Firefighters Mark Skipper and Alan Wallace were outside the vehicle at impact and received burns and lacerations.

Ongoing Pentagon renovation work lowered the number of potential victims. A portion of the impacted area was not yet fully repopulated following recently completed upgrades.

The fact that the terrorist attack struck a large military facility ensured the availability of military doctors, nurses, and first aid responders." -HRSA; Arlington County After-Action Report

► Web Exclusive: Washington’s Heroes

"President Bush had used the heliport the day before: he’d motorcaded to the Pentagon, then flown to Andrews Air Force Base for a trip to Florida. Bush was scheduled to return to the Pentagon helipad later on Tuesday..." -MSNBC (09/28/03)

► "...The whole back of the fire truck had melted."
Just prior to the impact there were three firemen on the helipad at the Pentagon. The president was supposed to land at the helipad two hours after the impact, and so they had just pulled the foam truck out of the firehouse and were standing there when they looked up and saw the plane coming over the Navy Annex building." -Smithsonian Institution

► "Alan Wallace of the FMMC Fire Department was one of three post firefighters on scene at the Pentagon when a hijacked American Airlines jet deliberately flew into the building.
The firefighters had arrived there at about 7:30 a.m. as part of the routine duty of providing fire protection for the Pentagon heliport and tower in the event of an accident.
"Every day they have an aircraft flying, we're there," said Wallace.
Wallace had just positioned a new fire-crash rescue vehicle so that it was pointed toward the heliport, where rescue personnel could get it to an aircraft in a hurry if they had to. He had walked around to the front of the truck with firefighter Mark Skipper when he saw the plane heading straight for the building near 9:40 a.m." -DC Military (09/14/01) 

► "One hundred fifty feet (45.7 meters) from the impact zone was a new heliport fire station, staffed by a three-person ARFF crew from nearby Fort Myer. Captain Defina saw that the Fort Myer crew was trying to fight the Pentagon fire with their disabled new E-One Titan. Its back end was on fire, having been parked against the building with the front end facing the heliport.
One of the Fort Myer firefighters had been inside the station watching the World Trade Center events on television and the other two were outside when they saw the 757 roaring toward them. Suffering minor burns and injuries as they dove for cover, they tried unsuccessfully to start their burning rig, which was soon a total loss."
The wall that the 757 hit was the first and only one so far to be reinforced and have blast-resistant windows installed after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
That afternoon, Captain Defina and airport Battalion Chief Walter Hood, as well as other jurisdictions' battalion chiefs, led crews inside with attack lines to fight fires on every floor of the "D" and "E" rings. The aircraft had penetrated all the way to the "C" ring."
"The only way you could tell that an aircraft was inside was that we saw pieces of the nose gear. The devastation was horrific." -NFPA Journal (11/01/01) (Photo source:  Smithsonian)

► "Because of its advanced age, the Pentagon has been undergoing some structural upgrades and retrofits, including new blastproof windows made of KevlarT that were, fortuitously, in place on the side of impact. This reinforced section of the building had a significant effect on reducing the extent of damage.

The federal fire department, located at Fort Myer, maintains a crash unit at the Pentagon heliport that is staffed by three firefighters during normal business hours.

Because of the KevlarT windows' absorption of the force of impact, there was not very much glass debris to generate laceration-type injuries." -Fire Engineering Magazine (11/02)

► "The 1,000,000-square-foot wedge was five days away from completion when it was struck by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77." -Annual Status Report to Congress (3/01/02)

► Web Exclusive: Washington’s Heroes

"A year’s work finally finished. Dan Fraunfelter counted himself lucky when he landed a job working on the first phase of the massive Pentagon renovation project.

Even though the Pentagon is massive... the wedge construction allowed engineers to remake the building one, easy-to-close-off section at a time. Contractors could simply move workers, seal off a wedge, and install new features like reinforced steel columns and two-inch-thick blast-resistant windows.

On Sept. 11, the contract officially complete, Fraunfelter was finishing up a few last punch-list items.

As he felt around the floor, all the construction worker could think was, “This isn’t supposed to be cracked like this. What happened here?” Fraunfelter didn’t know that American Flight 77 was directly below him." -MSNBC (09/28/03)

What are the odds that the crash happened in the very spot that was being renovated?  Notice the mysterious line mark in the lawn before 9/11 that is just to right of the actual trajectory of the aircraft in question that hit the Pentagon.  Was this line mark in the lawn put there on purpose to help "guide" the aircraft in question to crash into the building?   

► "Where the plane hit was an area that had just been renovated by Singleton Electric,” said Hardy. “It was really lucky that was the area that got hit because there weren’t as many people, not everyone was moved in yet.” -CEE News (09/20/01)

► "Much of Enercon's equipment is used for military projects, but...it's the "Pentagon project" as he calls it, that causes Tangel to pause and think.
"It's amazing they hit that part of the building," Tangel said of the area that was being renovated at the Pentagon. "If they had hit any other part of the Pentagon, they would've killed a lot more people and done a lot more damage." -PJStar (09/10/02)

► "Ongoing Pentagon renovations include designs for force protection that saved military and civilian lives after the hijacked commercial airliner smashed into the building Sept. 11, a DoD official said.
The terrorist assault "happened to hit an area that we had built so sturdily," Pentagon renovation program manager Lee Evey said to reporters Sept. 15. In addition to saving lives, the renovations helped to keep more of the building intact.
"It could have been much, much worse," he said. The airliner crashed low and diagonally into the Pentagon's outside "E" ring limestone wall, Evey explained. The plane first hit a recently renovated wedge section near the heliport on the west side of the building before passing into an unrenovated area, he said.
Floor-to-floor and interconnected vertical steel beams, sturdier windows and Kevlar armor panels used in the revamped exterior wall helped slow down the plane and mitigate effects of the explosion as the plane crashed through the Pentagon, Evey noted.
Evey said the hijacked aircraft slammed through the E, D, and C rings before coming to rest in an open-air service passageway separating the C and B rings.
An initial $145 million construction contract to start repairs to the damaged sections was awarded Sept. 14, Evey said. Total cost of repairs to the damaged sections of the building, he said, "would cost hundreds of millions of dollars."
The contract also covers renovations on remaining portions of the building and has a potential value of up to $758 million. All renovations are to be completed by 2012." -DoD (9/15/01)

► "Evey said the hijacked aircraft hit a portion of the building that had been renovated and reinforced with blast resistant windows, a special reinforced steel construction, and even fire-resistant Kevlar cloth."
"A $145 million contract was awarded Friday to Hensel Phelps Construction Co., of Chantilly, Va., to begin rebuilding part of the damaged portion, he said. The contract has the potential value of up to $758 million for the future renovation of the undamaged portions of the building, said a statement issued by the Pentagon." -Wired News

► "The wall that the 757 hit was the first and only one so far to be reinforced and have blast-resistant windows installed after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing." -NFPA Journal (10/01/01)

► "Nicholas Holland, an engineer with AMEC Construction Management of Bethesda, Md., had spent the last two years working to reinforce the walls. Two summers ago, a blast wall of reinforced steel and concrete was installed right where the plane hit. It stood for 25 minutes after it was hit before collapsing, long enough for people to escape, Holland said." -Detroit News (9/11/01)

► "The fact that more people were not killed at the Pentagon is due in part to the renovation project underway on 9/11 that had forced many people out of their offices in the area the plane hit. Another factor was that much of the work already done had reinforced the structure with extra steel, blast-resistant windows and Kevlar." -IBEW (Nov. '02)

Isn't it just too coincidental that the crash happened in the worst spot for the terrorist hijackers, but the best spot if it was an inside job?

"KING: Michael, the Pentagon was kind of lucky in a sense, wasn't it?
FLOCCO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
KING: The side they hit wasn't that populated and it didn't make a direct, full -- like top of the Pentagon hit, right?
FLOCCO: Correct. Also, the other contributing factors -- fewer engines [fewer engines?] -- was the fact that it hit initially on the newly renovated section that had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wire inside of -- able to withstand more of an impact.
Plus, some of the columns and the windows had previously been reinforced for the first phase of the renovation. It was a five-phase renovation program. The first phase had just been completed only a week before. And where the plane hit was under restructured, reinforced part of it. So initially, it hit a very solid part and then, glanced off of that and went into the old section that had just been evacuated for phase two renovation. Had it hit anywhere else, it could have been catastrophic." - CNN (9/08/02)

"The area hit by the plane was newly renovated and reinforced, while the areas surrounding the impact zone were closed in preparation for renovation, so the death toll could have been much higher if another area had been hit." -Patriot Resource

Are we supposed to believe that the military had no anti-aircraft defenses protect their own headquarters?

"Among the questions being asked here: How could the Pentagon, the center of the U.S. defense establishment, not be prepared to defend itself against an attack by an airplane?
Spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the Pentagon has no anti-aircraft defense system that he is aware of. The White House is assumed to have surface-to-air missiles available for protection." -USA Today (09/11/01)

"For years, staff at the Pentagon joked that they worked at "Ground Zero", the spot at which an incoming nuclear missile aimed at America's defenses would explode. There is even a snack bar of that name in the central courtyard of the five-sided building, America's most obvious military bullseye." -Telegraph (9/16/01)

"The Pentagon itself was built to be a fortress, virtually impregnable; it had long been considered a prime target for an enemy attack." -Fire Engineering Magazine (11/02)

Was it just a coincidence that Donald Rumsfeld was safely on the opposite side of the Pentagon when the crash happened?

Why did Sect. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld immediately go outside after the Pentagon got hit at about 9:38 am to help carry the injured away on stretchers for "about 15 minutes" when the U.S., by all accounts, was still under attack and he was needed to approve any hijacking intercept requests forwarded from the National Military Command Center (NMCC)? 

► Aircraft Crashes Into Pentagon, Triggering Chaos

"Quigley said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 69, was in his office on the north side of the complex when the plane hit the opposite side and he went over to help the injured.
"He went outside the building and was helpful in getting several people that were injured onto stretchers. He was out there 15 minutes or so helping the injured," he said. -Reuters (9/11/01)

► Plane Hits America's Military Headquarters

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in his office at the time of the attack, according to Quigley. He said Rumsfeld went immediately to the scene and helped recover victims for about 15 minutes before proceeding to the National Military Command Center, a crisis compound on the other side of the Pentagon. There, he met with top defense and intelligence officials. ''His intentions are to stay in the Pentagon indefinitely, keeping track of what we know,'' Quigley said Tuesday afternoon." - Pittsburg 11 News (09/13/01)

(Watch video clip. See also: The Secretary of Defense Stands Down on 9/11, by Shoestring.)

► CNN Presents: "America Remembers, Part 1"

"STARR: Secretary Rumsfeld was in his suite of offices on the other side of the building from the impact zone. He felt it and he immediately was on the attack site within moments, much to the displeasure of his security people, but he did it, and there are pictures of the secretary helping other men carry stretchers of the injured." -CNN (08/17/02)

► 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes

"Listening to the tapes, you hear that inside NEADS there was no sense that the attack was over with the crash of United 93; instead, the alarms go on and on. False reports of hijackings, and real responses, continue well into the afternoon, though civilian air-traffic controllers had managed to clear the skies of all commercial and private aircraft by just after 12 p.m." -Vanity Fair (08/01/06)

"In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will, with the exception of immediate responses as authorized by reference d, forward requests for DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval." - Defense Technical Information Center (06/01/01)

Did Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld accidentally admit to a missile crashing into the Pentagon and not Flight 77 in this interview?

Rumsfeld:  "Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center." -DoD (10/12/01)

Was Donald Rumsfeld psychic on 9/11, or was he just "spilling the beans"?

Inside, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had some people in to talk about missile defense and the risk that terrorism seen in the past would happen again.
“Let me tell ya,” he said, “I’ve been around the block a few times. There will be another event.”
Two minutes later, a plane smashed into the first World Trade Center tower and proved him right. - Fayetteville Observer/AP (9/16/01)

Seven minutes later, as Mr Bush, his entourage and the accompanying press corps were boarding Air Force One, American Flight 77 swooped low over the suburbs of northern Virginia and slammed into the Pentagon.
Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, was in his office on the eastern side of the building, in a meeting with Christopher Cox, the defence policy committee chairman of the House of Representatives. Mr Rumsfeld, recalls Mr Cox, watched the TV coverage from New York and said: "Believe me, this isn't over yet. There's going to be another attack, and it could be us."
Moments later, the plane hit. -Telegraph UK (12/16/01)

Excerpts from an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Patty Horoho, who was Assistant Deputy/Personnel & Health Management Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower & Reserve Affairs.
"I stood behind Charlie and looked at the TV. At that time, it showed the second plane attacking. I watched and this calm feeling came over me and I said, “There’s going to be a series of attacks across the United States…We’re going to be next.” I could just feel in my heart that that was exactly what was going to happen." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

Who first informed the rest of the people inside the Pentagon that the explosion that shocked the building was caused by a plane?

"Secretary Clarke: The secretary [Donald Rumsfeld] was in his office, really not that far away from the side of the building that got hit by the plane. He and another person immediately ran down the hallway and went outside and helped some of the people, some of the casualties getting off the stretchers, etc. When he came back in the building about half an hour later, he was the first one that told us he was quite sure it was a plane. Based on the wreckage and based on the thousands and thousands of pieces of metal. He was the one that told us, the staff that was in the room. So he was really the first one who told us that it was most likely a plane." - DoD (09/15/04)

Was Donald Rumsfeld being brave in refusing to leave the Pentagon* upon hearing another hijacked plane was approaching D.C., or was it because he was involved with the attacks and new the 4th plane wasn't going to reach D.C.?

*Reports says "State Department."  Assumed report meant Pentagon.

Minute by Minute with the Broadcast News

“Mik” reports that security officials have evacuated the entire area around the State Department following reports of a car bomb outside the department. He says another plane [Flight 93] has been reported hijacked and is 20-25 miles outside Washington D.C., headed for D.C. Reports Donald Rumsfeld refused to leave the State Department." -Poynter Online (09/11/01)

Who was telling the media what crashed into the Pentagon?

"Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane that struck the Pentagon was an American Airlines jetliner that had taken off from Dulles International Airport on a scheduled flight to Los Angeles." - The Post (09/11/01)

Why are the first reports of what crashed into the Pentagon a helicopter and why was Vice President Cheney told a helicopter packed with explosives was headed for the White House before the crash?

► 2:41:05 PM
"The Pentagon is being evacuated in expectation of a terrorist attack.
It is believed a fire has broken out in the building." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► 2:47:43 PM
"There are reports that a helicopter has crashed into the Pentagon.
An eyewitness said that they saw the helicopter circle the building and after it disappeared behind it, an explosion occured." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► 2:52:26 PM
"Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed a explosion near the Pentagon shortly after two planes crashed into World Trade Centre.
‘‘It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball,’’ Begala said.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

(Note the time on photo is Pacific Time, not Eastern.  Photo source:  DU Forum)

► 'Everyone was screaming, crying, running. It's like a war zone'

"Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed an explosion near the Pentagon. "It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball," he said in an interview on his mobile phone.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded." -Guardian (09/12/01)

► Terrorism Strikes In The United States in a Massive Attack

"PLANT: Well, and speaking to people here at the Pentagon, as they're being evacuated from the building. I'm told by several people that there was, in fact, an explosion.
I was told by one witness, an Air Force enlisted - senior enlisted man, that he was outside when it occurred. He said that he saw a helicopter circle the building. He said it appeared to be a U.S. military helicopter, and that it disappeared behind the building where the helicopter landing zone is - excuse me - and he then saw fireball go into the sky.
It's a very tense situation obviously, but initial reports from witnesses indicate that there was in fact a helicopter circling the building, contrary to what the AP reported, according to the witnesses I've spoken to anyway, and that this helicopter disappeared behind the building, and that there was then an explosion. That's about all I have from here." - CNN (09/11/01)

► Excerpts from an interview with Captain William B. Durm, USN, who was Commander of the Pentagon’s Triservice Dental Clinic.
"Still, I did not know a plane hit us. As I got close, somebody said a helicopter had hit the other side of the building. I had not seen that area yet.
An interesting story. I had an appointment with a gentleman to have a root canal finished at 10:00 that morning. He actually had an appointment for 1:00 in the afternoon; however, because I had a meeting with my staff that afternoon, I had my technician call him up and move him to 10:00. There are 27 employees in his office. Twenty-six were immediately killed. He was the only one that survived that thing, and that's because we called him up to come in early for a root canal." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

► Terrorist attacks rock US, destroy World Trade Centre

"I saw this large American Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low," said Army Captain Lincoln Liebner.
Captain Liebner says the aircraft struck a helicopter on the helipad, setting fire to a fire truck.." -Australian BC (09/12/01)

► Inside the Bunker

"At 9:03 a.m. Tuesday, as Vice President Dick Cheney was staring at the TV screen, the second hijacked airliner exploded against the Twin Towers. At that moment his Secret Service detail grabbed him and hurried him down to "PEOC."
The President's Emergency Operations Center is an underground facility hardened to withstand blast overpressure from a nuclear detonation. On the way to the tubular structure, Cheney was told that another plane, or a helicopter loaded with explosives, was headed for the White House." -NY Times (09/13/01) [Reprinted at:  papillonsartpalace.com]

Did another aircraft strike the Pentagon, or are these reports referring to the two explosions that were heard?

► 4:05:16 PM
"A second aircraft has crashed into the Pentagon building.
It is not known whether this plane was that which was hijacked from Boston airport a short time ago, the fourth such plane to be used in this major attack on the US.
Earlier, a small plane had slammed into the building and set it ablaze." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► 4:17:03 PM
"Part of the Pentagon building outside Washington has collapsed.
It had been hit by two planes apparently hijacked by terrorists in Boston earlier today." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► 6:40:29 PM
Fighter jets are patrolling the skies above Washington after a jet hijacked by terrorists struck the Pentagon.
An aircraft has crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon, and the White House.
The Pentagon has taken a direct hit from an aircraft.
The nerve centre of the US military burst into flames and a portion of one side of the five-sided structure collapsed when the plane struck.
Secondary explosions were reported in the aftermath of the attack and great billows of smoke drifted skyward towards the Potomac River. Authorities immediately began deploying troops, including a regiment of light infantry.
General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that prior to the crash into the Pentagon, military officials had been notified that another hijacked plane had been heading from the New York area to Washington.
He says he assumed that hijacked plane was the one that hit the Pentagon, though he could not be sure." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► "9:40 Fox reports it was US Air flight 737 that crashed into the south end of the Pentagon." -Poynter Online (09/11/01)

Just how fast was Flight 77 going when it supposedly crashed into the Pentagon?

"CALCM (AGM-86C) Specifications - Speed:  About 500 mph" -Boeing

Why did so many reports say Flight 77 crashed on the helicopter pad when the Pentagon says it flew to the right of it?

Why wasn't the Pentagon warned that an aircraft was heading its way when the FAA had warned the White House that one was?

► "But Cheney says when he heard the other officials were safe, he decided to stay at the White House, no matter what.
Cheney was joined by transportation secretary Norm Mineta who remembers hearing the FAA counting down the hijacked jets closing in on the capital.
“Someone came in and said, ‘Mr. Vice President, there’s a plane 50 miles out,’ then he came in and said, ‘It's now 10 miles out, we don’t know where it is exactly, but it’s coming in low and fast,’” says Mineta.
It was American Flight 77. At 9:38 a.m., it exploded into the Pentagon, the first successful attack on Washington since the War of 1812." -CBS (9/10/03)

► "General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that prior to the crash into the Pentagon, military officials had been notified that another hijacked plane had been heading from the New York area to Washington." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

► "When Flight 77 hit, the defense secretary thought it was a bomb.
"I had no idea," Rumsfeld said on ABC's This Week.
Though the trade center was burning, Pentagon employees had received no warnings to take cover or clear out.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld thought a bomb had exploded at the Pentagon, even though the military defense command had been warned 12 minutes before impact that an errant airliner was headed toward Washington.

"And even though a World Trade Center tower was on fire, the Pentagon was placed only on "Alpha" alert status, just one level up from normal and two levels down from the "Charlie" threat level the building is now under, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said." -USA Today (9/16/01)

► "Before the plane hit, the scene at the Pentagon was already chaotic. Sheriff's deputies were screaming at people to move along quickly. 'There's a hijacked plane two minutes away. We don't know where it's going to hit. Keep moving,' they shouted."

The U.S. Capitol was evacuated shortly after 9 a.m. ET, and officials were telling people to stay away from the building by 10:30 a.m." -USA Today (9/11/01)

► "The American military air defence command was told by the federal aviation administration that a hijacked commercial airliner was heading towards Washington 12 minutes before it hit. But during that crucial time the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his top aides remained unaware of any imminent danger.
Defence command also failed to inform Pentagon authorities responsible for guarding the building and so no steps were taken to order an evacuation or otherwise alert the building's 20,000 employees.

But while officials knew of the attacks in New York, few imagined that the Pentagon itself could be a target." -Guardian (9/17/01)

► "...neither the FAA, NORAD, nor any other federal government organization made any effort to evacuate the buildings in Washington."  -CNN (9/17/01)

► Excerpts from an interview with Captain Michael J. Neri, Jr., who was Special Assistant to the Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection.
"Colonel Fruendt, our secretary Doreen, and myself were in there. I looked at Colonel Fruendt and said, “I’m surprised we haven’t heard an announcement about increased levels of THREATCON here at the Pentagon.” - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

► "In the moments immediately before impact at the Pentagon, the Arlington County ECC began receiving 9-1-1 calls reporting a low flying airliner that seemed off the normal flight path." -Arlington County After-Action Report

Why wasn't there an order to shoot down Flight 77 before it crashed?

"McKinley and retired NORAD commander Larry Arnold, who was at the helm on 9/11, said it would have been possible to scramble fighter jets over the capital before hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon if the Federal Aviation Administration had notified NORAD earlier of that particular hijacking.
FAA officials say they were in early informal contact with NORAD, even though the official notification came later.
Two F-16 fighter jets mobilized from Virginia were 12 minutes away when the Pentagon was hit, according to McKinley's submitted testimony.
Even with earlier official notification from the FAA, Arnold said it was "speculative" to say whether Flight 77 could have been shot down before it hit the Pentagon.
He said he never received authorization to shoot down Flight 77. Additionally, he said he only learned of President Bush's authorization to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93, which eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, minutes after that plane already was down.

Yesterday's hearing also revealed that two unarmed District of Columbia Air National Guard jet pilots who mobilized over Washington, D.C., that day had expressed a willingness if necessary to fly their planes into a hijacked jet to thwart an attack.
But their heroic offers were moot because Flight 77 already had struck the Pentagon, and Flight 93 ended up crashing in the field after passengers tried to retake the plane." -Star-Ledger/NJ.com (5/24/03)

Why did a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly cancel their travel plans the day before 9/11?

On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns. -MSNBC (9/24/01)

 Did this General get tipped off that the Pentagon was going to be hit?

Excerpts from an interview with Captain Michael J. Neri, Jr., who was Special Assistant to the Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection.
"We got word that General Bester canceled the rest of his meetings for the day. He was going to return to the Pentagon to start monitoring in case we had to start moving medical assets to New York." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

Why was most of the Marine Aviation moved further away from where the crash happened the weekend before?

"Most of Marine Aviation had just the weekend before been moved to the "Butler building," an extension of the Pentagon and about 200 yards from where the impact occurred, not nearly as close as their previous offices." -Leatherneck: "Instincts Told Them to Flee"

 Another instance of office at the Pentagon moving away from the crash area...

 More "lucky" people?...

Excerpts from an interview with Miss Beverly Ann Preston, who was an Occupational Health Nurse for the Civilian Employee Health Service at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"I’ll tell you one story. One woman was in the new part of the building … She was in the new part of the building and there were eight people in her section. Within three weeks before this happened, three people had retired and then three people were on vacation. So that day there was only herself and her secretary in the building." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

"...most of the ACPD [Arlington County Police Dept.] senior leadership was away from Arlington County on the morning of September 11." -Arlington County After-Action Report

Who warned San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown not to fly 8 hours before the attacks?

"For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel.
Exactly where the call came from is a bit of a mystery. The mayor would say only that it came from "my security people at the airport."
"We can only do what we can," the mayor said, adding, "Hell, if they can't protect the Pentagon from attack, what can they protect?" -S.F. Chronicle (9/12/01)

Did the Pentagon purposely inflate the number of casualties right after the crash?

► "Up to 800 people may have died Tuesday when a hijacked commercial airliner was crashed into the Pentagon, officials said.
The more than 20,000 civilians and military men and women who work in the Pentagon streamed into the surrounding parking lots, driven by blue and white strobe alarm lights and wailing sirens." -CNN (9/12/01)

► PENTAGON CASUALTIES OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK
"125 people were killed on the ground at the Pentagon.  * An additional 59 perished aboard American Airlines Flight #77.  We do not count the five terrorists.  Approximately 63 people were wounded/injured in the attack." -DoD

► "...in the first few hours, the media obtained information from any available source...Estimates of “up to 800 fatalities” were based on the potential occupancy of the impact area at the Pentagon, despite the renovation work that left a significant part of the area uninhabited." -Arlington County After-Action Report

Why haven't we heard what's on the flight recorders supposedly from Flight 77, how do we know that these recorders weren't planted there or that they were just said to have been recovered there, why did they say there wasn't information recovered from them then there was, and is it just a coincidence they were found in the middle of the night?