Eyewitnesses: Flight 77 Crash
most eyewitnesses were not interviewed by the media
on this page:
- the ONLY eyewitness who claimed to see a missile hit the building was supposedly in the UNDERGROUND Pentagon metro station
- eyewitnesses vs. physical evidence: another false claim
- compilations of eyewitness statements
from John Judge, expert researcher in the Washington DC area:
Families of victims and others who work at the airlines, as well as many witnesses I have spoken to, are offended and shocked by these unfounded speculations. Those willing to do a modicum of investigative work here in DC will be quickly disabused of this disinformation. For a more thorough presentation of the range of witness testimonies, and linking sites, see the work on Flight 77 and the Pentagon attack by Penny Schoner at www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/F77pentaToC.html
| Hoaxers misrepresent eyewitness testimonies |
"Pentagon Strike" implies that the eyewitnesses did not see American Airlines Flight 77. These eyewitness reports (from various media sources) were used selectively in this "film" to imply that they saw a missile - when the full quote clearly states they saw the plane.
Many people who had a good view of the plane were surprised that the aftermath did not leave large pieces of the plane (although many, many small pieces were scattered widely).
The RED TEXT shows the section that was used by Pentagon Strike.
“I was going up Interstate 395, up Washington Boulevard, listening to the radio, to the news, to WTOP, and from my left side, I don’t know whether I saw or heard it first -- this silver plane; I immediately recognized it as an American Airlines jet,” said the 25-year-old O’Keefe, managing editor of Influence, an American Lawyer Media publication about lobbying. “It came swooping in over the highway, over my left shoulder, straight across where my car was heading. I’d just heard them saying on the radio that National Airport was closing, and I thought, ‘That’s not going to make it to National Airport.’ And then I realized where I was, and that it was going to hit the Pentagon. There was a burst of orange flame that shot out that I could see through the highway overpass. Then it was just black. Just black thick smoke. The eeriest thing about it, was that it was like you were watching a movie. There was no huge explosion, no huge rumbling on ground, it just went ‘pfff.’ It wasn’t what I would have expected for a plane that was not much more than a football field away from me. The first thing I did was pull over onto the shoulder, and when I got out of the car I saw another plane flying over my head, and it scared ...me, because I knew there had been two planes that hit the World Trade Center. And I started jogging up the ramp to get as far away as possible. Then the plane -- it looked like a C-130 cargo plane -- started turning away from the Pentagon, it did a complete turnaround.
- John O'Keefe"I was right underneath the plane." "I heard a plane. I saw it. I saw debris flying. I guess it was hitting light poles," said Milburn. "It was like a WHOOOSH whoosh, then there was fire and smoke, then I heard a second explosion."
- Kirk MilburnMichael DiPaula 41, project coordinator Pentagon Renovation Team - He left a meeting in the Pentagon just minutes before the crash, looking for an electrician who didn't show, in a construction trailer less than 75 feet away. "Suddenly, an airplane roared into view, nearly shearing the roof off the trailer before slamming into the E ring. 'It sounded like a missile,' DiPaula recalls . . . Buried in debris and covered with airplane fuel, he was briefly listed by authorities as missing, but eventually crawled from the flaming debris and the shroud of black smoke unscathed.
http://www.sunspot.net/search/bal-archive-1990.htmlstoryAs I came up along the Pentagon I saw helicopters. That's not strange. It's the Pentagon. Then I saw the plane. There were only a few cars on the road, we all stopped. I know I wanted to believe that plane was making a low descent into National Airport, but it was nearly on the road. And it was headed straight for the building. It made no sense. The pilot didn't seem to be planning to pull up anytime soon. It was there. A huge jet. Then it was gone. A massive hole in the side of the Pentagon gushed smoke. The noise was beyond description. ... I called my boss. I had no memory of how to work my cellphone. I hit redial and his number came up. "Something hit the Pentagon. It must have been a helicopter." I knew that wasn't true, but I heard myself say it. I heard myself believe it, if only for a minute. "Buildings don't eat planes. That plane, it just vanished. There should have been parts on the ground. It should have rained parts on my car. The airplane didn't crash. Where are the parts?" That's the conversation I had with myself on the way to work. It made sense this morning. I swear that it did. ... There seems to be no footage of the crash, only the site. The gash in the building looks so small on TV. The massiveness of the structure lost in the tight shots of the fire. There was a plane. It didn't go over the building. It went into the building. I want them to find it whole, wedged between floors or something. I know that isn't going to happen, but right now I pretend. I want to see footage of the crash. I want to make it make sense. I want to know why there's this gap in my memory, this gap that makes it seem as though the plane simply became invisible and banked up at the very last minute, but I don't think that's going to happen.
- "skarlet"I was at a complete stop on the road in front of the helipad at the Pentagon; what I had thought would be a shortcut was as slow as the other routes I had taken that morning. I looked idly out my window to the left -- and saw a plane flying so low I said, “holy cow, that plane is going to hit my car” (not my actual words). The car shook as the plane flew over. It was so close that I could read the numbers under the wing. And then the plane crashed. My mind could not comprehend what had happened. Where did the plane go? For some reason I expected it to bounce off the Pentagon wall in pieces. But there was no plane visible, only huge billows of smoke and torrents of fire.
- Christine Peterson
Pentagon Strike also superimposed quotes from eyewitnesses (some of them out of context) in a black stripe over a photo of the impact zone - the stripe obscures the view that shows the full extent of the damage caused by the plane.
http://home.planet.nl/~reijd050/pentahole_dimensions_est.htm
Why it is most likely that an American Airlines 757-223 hit it the Pentagon by Joel v.d Reijden
I have proven the following things, which seem to make a couple of dents into the works of most of the well-known 9/11 gurus:
So before the 9/11 skeptics start complaining that this
or that hasn't been explained to their satisfaction, first disprove
the list I typed above. I personally don't care if you
see a 737 engine or an alien spacecraft in a pile of rubble on a
blurry photograph. I don't care if you assume there has to be an
indentation of the tail on the building, even though it's complete
speculation whether or not it should have left it. I don't care
if you believe the color blue from a piece of wreckage on the Pentagon
lawn isn't the exact same color blue from another American Airlines
jet, which has been photographed under different light conditions
and might have a much older or younger layer of paint. I don't care
about those "Pentalawn 2000" theories if 97% of the witnesses
state the plane didn't touch it. The 3% that claimed it did touch
the ground said it was only a couple of feet before the wall that
the nose touched the ground, which means the lawn has never been
touched. (By the way, a lot of small debris has been photographed
towards the left of the impact hole, maybe because the plane came
in at a 50 degree angle) I don't care about things that can easily
be explained away by conventional theories, like why so little of
the plane has been recovered, why a hole has been punched out in
one of the interior walls or basicly anything else brought forward
by the conspiracy community on the Pentagon...
|
| the only claim of an eyewitness to a missile - published in January 2006 by 911truth.org |
Many who have debunked the "Pentagon missile hoax" have pointed out that no one - absolutely none of the hundreds of people who saw the events - reported seeing a missile hit the Pentagon. One bystander said that the plane acted as if it was a cruise missile, and some hoaxers twisted his words to pretend that he supposedly saw a missile - the opposite of what he actually said.
In January 2006, 911truth.org posted the following article on its website. It seems convincing if you don't think about it. There are at least two problems with this article.
First, why would anyone wait more than four years to say they heard an eyewitness say they saw a missile?
Second, the only way that an eyewitness could possibly have seen a missile while waiting on the Pentagon metro station platform is if the missile was launched from the subway tunnels, since that station is UNDERGROUND. Even an eyewitness from the above ground bus station would not have had a good view of the events on the other side of the building.
If there is any truth to this article (which is unlikely), then it would suggest some sort of disinformation operation was underway to have fake "witnesses" telling misleading stories (similar to the effort to sequester the nearby surveillance videos before many people had a chance to see the captured images of Flight 77 hitting the mostly empty side of the Pentagon.
It is more likely that this article is deliberately sloppy, since anyone who is familiar with the Washington Metro would understand that this is nonsense. The only question is why 911truth.org posted this on their website without making an effort to verify it.
www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060127195417919
9/11 Personal Accounts
“We Saw a Missile Fly into the Pentagon!”
An Account of a Personal Experience
Professor David H. Edwards
I have shared with people an experience I had on the morning of September 11, 2001. Recently, it was suggested to me that I write down this experience so that it could be shared more broadly. Here is my response to this suggestion.
On that fateful morning, I, in my capacity as the Bolivia/Peru Country Specialist for Amnesty International-USA, was in Washington, D.C., traveling to the Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, in order to attend the confirmation hearings for the Bush Administration’s new Drug Czar, which were scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM.
Following my usual commuting pattern, I parked my car at the Anacostia Station of the Metro Line sometime after 9:00 AM, then took the Green Line into L’Enfante Station, where I transferred to the Orange Line on my way to the Capitol South Station.
Immediately after I boarded the Orange Line train, a young man and a young woman, both in their early twenties and wearing backpacks, burst into the subway car, shouting and exhibiting extreme excitement and agitation. They addressed the entire car, which was mostly empty except for me and perhaps three or four other men in suits. The young people yelled: “We were standing at the Pentagon Station, waiting for the train to come, and we saw a missile fly into the Pentagon! We saw it, we saw it!” One of the men sitting closer to them must have asked for clarification, because they reiterated the same information several times, saying repeatedly: “A missile, we saw it, a missile, it flew right into the Pentagon. I can’t believe it. Now it’s on fire, there’s smoke!” They continued in this vein from the L’Enfante Plaza Station until I got off at the Capitol South exit.
At the time, I did not know what to think and was, in any case, primarily concerned with hurrying to the Senate Office Building to secure a seat prior to the commencement of the hearings. Once I climbed the steep steps out of the station and ran to the building, however, the doors immediately sprang open and people began to surge out. I asked one of the building security personnel what was happening. He informed me that the buildings were being evacuated and then pointed behind me. I turned and saw smoke billowing from across the river. At that point, I turned and sprinted back down the hill and into the station and managed to get back on the Orange Line and then the Green Line to my car and out of the city, barely ahead of traffic.
Only later did I realize the significance of this event.
David H. Edwards
Professor of Anthropology
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland
www.wmata.com/metrorail/Stations/station.cfm?station=43
note the roof would make it difficult for 911truth.org's alleged correspondent
to be telling the truth that anyone could have seen anything outside while
waiting for a train ...
the missile hoax was intended to alienate people who live in DC or are
familiar with it, the reason it is the most important hoax
not a good place to see what is happening outside, on the other side of
the Pentagon
www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/PENTAGON/pentagon.html
those on I-395 and Route 27 who had a good view were unanimous in their
report that they saw the plane hit the building
someone in the above ground part of the transit center would not have
had a view of the plane crash on the other side of the Pentagon complex
The side of the Pentagon that was hit by Flight 77 was on the opposite side of the transit center.
note: standing at the transit center (where the main metrorail entrance is, although the station itself is underground), one would not be able to clearly see any event on the other side of the complex
| Eyewitnesses vs. Physical Evidence - another false claim |
Some of the most vocal no-plane theorists imply that the eyewitness are part of the coverup. The people stuck in traffic who thought the plane was about to hit them are therefore all government agents spreading disinformation.
Many of the loudest advocates for the various "no plane" claims argue that the physical evidence of the attack supports their point(s) of view, and that the eyewitness testimonies are an inferior form of evidence that does not override scientific analysis of the event. There are several gross errors in this approach:
1. There isn't any physical evidence that actually supports the "no plane" claims. Photoshopped images and other forms of misrepresentation are not facts that can be scientifically examined -- they are only evidence of a slick psychological warfare attack against the 9/11 truth movement.
2. The one piece of "physical evidence" that is not challenged by anyone is the fact that the nearly empty part of the Pentagon was attacked -- something that most of the "no plane" advocates talk about. Who would have flown the plane into the one part of the building where it would do the least amount of damage? Would an expert pilot working for the semi-mythical al-Qaeda have chosen to minimize casualties in this manner?
3. The eyewitness comments are NOT a mix of wildly differing claims -- in reality, they are almost all in agreement on the basic facts, comments from a semi-random cross section of society (especially those commuting on the nearby highways at the time of the attack). Those who saw a "small plane" were in Rosslyn, Virginia and therefore did not have a good view of the events. For those readers unfamiliar with the geography of northern Virginia, find a map that shows where Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn, Virginia is -- and then guess how good of a view persons at that location would have had of the Pentagon building more than two miles away (through tree covered Arlington National Cemetary).
Cheryl's Daily Diatribe: Monday, June 10, 2002 -- SMOKING
GUN feedback:
Where Was G.W. Bush on the Morning of Sept. 11?
www.unknownnews.net/cdd061002.html
I did not get my information from mainstream media sources. I, for one, trust "everyday people" a whole lot more than I trust the mainstream media or U.S. government. Most of the Pentagon info. was obtained from the type of sites that escape mainstream scrutiny, such as newsletters (one put out for the ordinary folks working at the Pentagon, for example). The plane was clearly seen by many people working at the Pentagon that day, including the construction foreman still trying to complete work on Wedge One. He was standing in the parking lot. Other credible witnesses: several people on the metro coming toward the Pentagon (it has its own stop), at least one witness on the beltway. I am familiar with D.C. and know the layout (I live in Maryland) so I am sure that these people truly did have the view they said they did. And in any case, why make a story up about a fancy 180-degree maneuver? After all, the wedge struck faces west and the plane was coming from a westerly direction. Doesn't it make more sense to make a bee line for the Pentagon? The U-turn strongly suggests remote controlled piloting — why on Earth would conspirators trying to hide their part in the event put out a story like that?
Regarding the dismissal of eyewitnesses and the psychological impacts, there are a lot of parallels between Holocaust Denial and denying the fact that hundreds of people saw a large plane hit the Pentagon (and it is not a surprise that the Holocaust Denial advocates who have infiltrated the 9/11 truth movement are pushing this hoax). The rudeness that many apparently well meaning people have by dismissing the fact that so many people saw the plane, the crash and/or the debris afterwards shows the power of this psychological warfare campaign to get otherwise smart people to undermine themselves in the public eye. It's a case study in the effectiveness of propaganda.
from www.holocaust-history.org
How Reliable Are the Hoess Memoirs?
by
John C. Zimmerman
Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
One of the issues that has arisen in connection with the Holocaust is the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Holocaust deniers are forever attacking eyewitnesses as liars or people prone to exaggeration. There can be no doubt that not all eyewitness testimony is reliable. Also, it is true that some witnesses lie or exaggerate.
The main problem with such testimony, however, is that there will often be inconsistencies with regard to details. This is not unusual. Any prosecuting attorney knows that there are differences in the way witnesses view an event. But even though witnesses may differ as to the details of an event, they are seldom wrong as to the event itself.
Victoria Ashley (regarding "New Pearl Harbor's" choice of sources):
To me, any person supposedly in a faith-based or spiritual-based profession who says something like "those eyewitnesses can't trump the physical evidence," or that the eye witness testimony isn't valid, has some issues, or has something else going on.
Why would a person invest his life and career in what it means to be human and spiritual, but discount all the views of over 100 people in the event of a tragedy, in favor of a handful of internet personas and people in other countries who have never even been to DC?
www.questionsquestions.net/blog/050224pentagon_eberle.html
24 February 2005: Another Pentagon distraction
Jim Hoffman has shown that the arguments against a 757 crash have been littered with fallacies and gross scientific errors. A number of other skeptics, including myself, have pointed out misrepresentations in the popular "Pentagon Strike" video and "In Plane Site" (I also have to point out that these misrepresentations were accepted and promoted by virtually all of the Pentagon no-plane crowd for some time, and disavowed only by a few among them -- and only AFTER critiques had made support for these works of disinfo conspicuously untenable). So the fallacy of construction here is the backhanded attempt to claim that there is already a conflict between witnesses and physical evidence, when in fact a careful reconsideration of the evidence reconciles both. The insinuation being made in many quarters that a pro-757 position relies overwhelmingly on witness testimony, and that there is an either-or choice between physical evidence and witnesses, is false -- and as I increasingly suspect, deliberately misleading. Or at least self-deceptive. ...
What really disturbs me about this cheapshot undermining of the witnesses as a whole by Karl Rove-style guilt-by-association tactics and suspicion-mongering, is not only that it is being done so gratuitously in lieu of a really slam-dunk, devastating proof, but also that it is, or will be percieved to be, an all-out attack on the victims themselves. Some of these Pentagon witnesses were hurt, and many more were psychologically traumatized. Rushing into ill-supported hatchet jobs for no other purpose than to keep the unnecessary no-plane speculation alive just helps to smear 9/11 Truth activists as hateful maniacs. Maybe that's the idea. ...
Finally, I have to recommend in particular reading the section, "An Opening for Attacker" from Jim Hoffman's "Pentagon Trap", to counter the contention that the mass media are afraid of and trying to suppress Pentagon no-plane theories. On the contrary, with just a few examples (there are many more), Hoffman shows that media debunkers have shown maximum enthusiasm for portraying this as the heart and soul of 9/11 skepticism and making it the centerpiece of practically every hit piece. Now why is that?
http://arabesque911.blogspot.com/2007/04/911-and-pentagon-attack-what.html
9/11 and the Pentagon Attack: What Witnesses Described
| plane and missile: a desperate attempt to further muddy the waters |
The idea that the Pentagon attack involved two planes (or a plane plus a missile) and one overshot the Pentagon to land on the runway at nearby National Airport is one of the absurd theories, and only could work on those unfamiliar with the basic geography around the Pentagon. Anyone traveling southbound on I-395 at the 14th Street bridge would have witnessed this scenario -- and it does not deserve detailed discussion except to point out that it is a fall back claim for the "no plane" hoax.
There are a LARGE number of large office buildings parallel to the National Airport runway (mostly inhabited by Pentagon workers and contractors). There is also a major highway and elevated rapid rail next to the airport, and surely at least one of them would have seen a plane come from the unprecedented direction of the Pentagon. Jets arriving at National generally follow the river in that vicinity -- a plane that overshot the Pentagon and then made multiple sharp turns to line up with the National runway would have been noticed by LOTS of people. In addition, those that would have seen the plane emerge on the other side of the Pentagon would have looked toward the area that the plane was flying at the exact moment of the flash and smoke cloud from the explosion. In other words, the people on I-395, in the Pentagon's south parking lot, and other vantage points would have been drawn to look at the potential airspace of this extra plane by the blast, it would not have distracted them to look elsewhere. This theory is being promoted most loudly on the internet by Mr. Dick Eastman of Yakima, Washington, who has stated that he has never been anywhere near Washington, D.C. (the webmaster of oilempire.us lived half of his life in that region, and is very familiar with the roads, bike paths and Metrorail line around the Pentagon, having traveled in that area and attended numerous peace protests at the Pentagon).
The "two planes" theory requires the first plane to come from a direction that planes landing at National normally do not arrive from. National has a short runway that is only in one direction (because it is built on a former swamp in the river). The odds that the second plane would have been seen are virtually a certainty, and this "theory" has zero evidence (of people seeing the plane overfly "Pentagon City" and / or the 14th Street Bridge).
| eyewitness accounts of Flight 77 Hitting the Pentagon |
lists of witnesses:
http://eric-bart.net/iwpb/witness.html
www.unknownnews.net/cdd061002.html
http://911research.wtc7.net/pentagon/evidence/witnesses/bart.html
www.geocities.com/someguyyoudontknow33/witnesses.htm
http://home.planet.nl/%7Ereijd050/JoeR/911_dump_of_Pentagon_quotes.html
www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/24/13197/3420
Not going to waste too much of my time ... (5+ / 0-)
in this ...
No matter how I write my words, you will find a way to spin them and this
is a debate that I will not engage in ...
I was in a location (high in what passes for a skyrise in the DC area,
in a conference room with windows overlooking the Potomac, Pentagon, Arlington
Cemetary) with a clear, direct, unobstructed view of the entire area of
flight ... just after having watched television of the planes in New York
... was with other people ... with someone in essence saying 'oh shit,
that plane is on a weird flight path' and for the next few seconds we
six watched the plane and watched it go into the Pentagon ...
A co-worker was driving (late) into the office and was on the road coming
off I-395 by the Pentagon and had the plane fly right above her ...
I believe that BushCo has done and is doing great damage to the nation,
the world, the future ... but -- putting aside so many other things --
I do not believe that these clowns have the skill to do what you would
choose to assert that they did. This is a conspiracy theory that doesn't
fly ...
Focus your -- and others' -- attention and efforts on uncovering and disseminating
the truth about the real sins of those who fly the Elephant above the
Stars and Stripes ...
9/11/05, Day 1469, A count worth keeping? Or, Osama Bin Forgotten?
by besieged by bush on Fri Mar 24, 2006 at 12:18:23 PM PDT
www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/blflight77w.htm
Eyewitness Accounts
Flight 77 Crash at the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2001 "On a Metro train
to National Airport, Allen Cleveland looked out the window to see a jet
heading down toward the Pentagon. 'I thought, "There's no landing
strip on that side of the subway tracks,"' he said. Before he could
process that thought, he saw 'a huge mushroom cloud. The lady next to
me was in absolute hysterics.'"
- "Our Plane Is Being Hijacked." Washington Post, 12 Sep 2001
"I was supposed to have been going to the Pentagon Tuesday morning
at about 11:00am (EDT) and was getting ready, and thank goodness I wasn't
going to be going until later. It was so shocking, I was listening to
the news on what had happened in New York, and just happened to look out
the window because I heard a low flying plane and then I saw it hit the
Pentagon. It happened so fast... it was in the air one moment and in the
building the next..."
- "U.S. Under Attack: Your Eyewitness Accounts." BBC News, 14
Sep 2001
"As I approached the Pentagon, which was still not quite in view,
listening on the radio to the first reports about the World Trade Center
disaster in New York, a jetliner, apparently at full throttle and not
more than a couple of hundred yards above the ground, screamed overhead.
... Seconds before the Pentagon came into view a huge black cloud of smoke
rose above the road ahead. I came around the bend and there was the Pentagon
billowing smoke, flames and debris, blackened on one side and with a gaping
hole where the airplane had hit it."
- "Eyewitness at the Pentagon." Human Events, 17 Sep 2001
"Frank Probst, an information management specialist for the Pentagon
Renovation Program, left his office trailer near the Pentagon's south
parking lot at 9:36 a.m. Sept. 11. Walking north beside Route 27, he suddenly
saw a commercial airliner crest the hilltop Navy Annex. American Airlines
Flight 77 reached him so fast and flew so low that Probst dropped to the
ground, fearing he'd lose his head to its right engine."
- "A Defiant Recovery." The Retired Officer Magazine, January
2002
"USAToday.com Editor Joel Sucherman saw it all: an American Airlines
jetliner fly left to right across his field of vision as he commuted to
work Tuesday morning. It was highly unusual. The large plane was 20 feet
off the ground and a mere 50 to 75 yards from his windshield. Two seconds
later and before he could see if the landing gear was down or any of the
horror-struck faces inside, the plane slammed into the west wall of the
Pentagon 100 yards away. 'My first thought was he's not going to make
it across the river to [Reagan] National Airport. But whoever was flying
the plane made no attempt to change direction,' Sucherman said. 'It was
coming in at a high rate of speed, but not at a steep angleâalmost
like a heat-seeking missile was locked onto its target and staying dead
on course.'"
- "Journalist Witnesses Pentagon Crash." eWeek.com, 13 Sep 2001
"'I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings, went right there
and slammed into the Pentagon,' eyewitness Mike Walter said of the plane
that hit the military complex. 'Huge explosion, great ball of fire, smoke
started billowing out, and then it was just chaos on the highway as people
either tried to move around the traffic and go down either forward or
backwards,' he said."
- "Witnesses and Leaders on Terrorist Attacks." CNN, 11 Sep
2001
[note: some of the "no plane" hoaxers claim that this quote meant that the witness saw a cruise missile, even though the quote is clearly a metaphor]
"'(The plane) was flying fast and low and the Pentagon was the
obvious target,' said Fred Gaskins, who was driving to his job as a national
editor at USA Today near the Pentagon when the plane passed about 150
feet overhead. 'It was flying very smoothly and calmly, without any hint
that anything was wrong.'"
- "Bush Vows Retaliation for 'Evil Acts'." USA Today, 11 Sep
2001
"Aydan Kizildrgli, an English language student who is a native
of Turkey, saw the jetliner bank slightly then strike a western wall of
the huge five-sided building that is the headquarters of the nation's
military. 'There was a big boom,' he said. 'Everybody was in shock. I
turned around to the car behind me and yelled "Did you see that?"
Nobody could believe it.'"
- "Bush Vows Retaliation for 'Evil Acts'." USA Today, 11 Sep
2001
"'I saw the tail of a large airliner. ... It plowed right into
the Pentagon," said an Associated Press Radio reporter who witnessed
the crash. 'There is billowing black smoke.'"
- "America's Morning of Terror." ChannelOne.com, 2001
"Omar Campo, a Salvadorean, was cutting the grass on the other
side of the road when the plane flew over his head. 'It was a passenger
plane. I think an American Airways plane,' Mr Campo said. 'I was cutting
the grass and it came in screaming over my head. I felt the impact. The
whole ground shook and the whole area was full of fire. I could never
imagine I would see anything like that here.'"
- "Pentagon Eyewitness Accounts." The Guardian, 12 Sep 2001
"Afework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work but
stuck in a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the plane flew over. 'There
was a huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came
over. Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting
its wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts
on the way in.'"
- "Pentagon Eyewitness Accounts." The Guardian, 12 Sep 2001
"A pilot who saw the impact, Tim Timmerman, said it had been an
American Airways 757. "'It added power on its way in,' he said. 'The
nose hit, and the wings came forward and it went up in a fireball.'"
- "Pentagon Eyewitness Accounts." The Guardian, 12 Sep 2001
"Steve Eiden, a truck driver, had picked up his cargo that Tuesday
morning in Williamsburg, Va., and was en route to New York City and witnessed
the aftermath. ... He took the Highway 95 loop in the area of the Pentagon
and thought it odd to see a plane in restricted airspace, thinking to
himself it was odd that it was flying so low. 'You could almost see the
people in the windows,' he said as he watched the plane disappear behind
a line of trees, followed by a tall plume of black smoke. Then he saw
the Pentagon on fire, and an announcement came over the radio that the
Pentagon had been hit."
- "Sept. 11, the Day America Changed." The Baxter Bulletin,
2001
"Traffic is normally slow right around the Pentagon as the road
winds and we line up to cross the 14th Street bridge heading into the
District of Columbia. I donât know what made me look up, but I did
and I saw a very low-flying American Airlines plane that seemed to be
accelerating. My first thought was just 'No, no, no, no,' because it was
obvious the plane was not heading to nearby Reagan National Airport. It
was going to crash."
- "September 11 Remembered." University Week, 4 Oct 2001
"Father Stephen McGraw was driving to a graveside service at Arlington
National Cemetery the morning of Sept. 11, when he mistakenly took the
Pentagon exit onto Washington Boulevard, putting him in a position to
witness American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon. 'I was in
the left hand lane with my windows closed. I did not hear anything at
all until the plane was just right above our cars.' McGraw estimates that
the plane passed about 20 feet over his car, as he waited in the left
hand lane of the road, on the side closest to the Pentagon. 'The plane
clipped the top of a light pole just before it got to us, injuring a taxi
driver, whose taxi was just a few feet away from my car. I saw it crash
into the building,' he said. 'My only memories really were that it looked
like a plane coming in for a landing. I mean in the sense that it was
controlled and sort of straight. That was my impression,' he said. 'There
was an explosion and a loud noise and I felt the impact. I remember seeing
a fireball come out of two windows (of the Pentagon). I saw an explosion
of fire billowing through those two windows.'"
- "Pentagon Crash Eyewitness Comforted Victims." MDW News Service,
28 Sep 2001
"'I glanced up just at the point where the plane was going into
the building,' said Carla Thompson, who works in an Arlington, Va., office
building about 1,000 yards from the crash. 'I saw an indentation in the
building and then it was just blown-up upred, everything red,' she said.
'Everybody was just starting to go crazy. I was petrified.'"
- "Terrorists Attack New York, Pentagon." Los Angeles Times,
12 Sep 2001
"I witnessed the jet hit the Pentagon on September 11. From my
office on the 19th floor of the USA TODAY building in Arlington, Va.,
I have a view of Arlington Cemetery, Crystal City, the Pentagon, National
Airport and the Potomac River. ... Shortly after watching the second tragedy,
I heard jet engines pass our building, which, being so close to the airport
is very common. But I thought the airport was closed. I figured it was
a plane coming in for landing. A few moments later, as I was looking down
at my desk, the plane caught my eye. It didn't register at first. I thought
to myself that I couldn't believe the pilot was flying so low. Then it
dawned on me what was about to happen. I watched in horror as the plane
flew at treetop level, banked slightly to the left, drug it's wing along
the ground and slammed into the west wall of the Pentagon exploding into
a giant orange fireball. Then black smoke. Then white smoke."
- Steve Anderson, Director of Communications, USA Today
"Henry Ticknor, intern minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church
of Arlington, Virginia, was driving to church that Tuesday morning when
American Airlines Flight 77 came in fast and low over his car and struck
the Pentagon. 'There was a puff of white smoke and then a huge billowing
black cloud,' he said."
- "Hell on Earth." UU World, Jan/Feb 2002
"Northern Virginia resident John O'Keefe was one of the commuters
who witnessed the attack on the Pentagon. 'I was going up 395, up Washington
Blvd., listening to the the news, to WTOP, and from my left side-I don't
know whether I saw or heard it first- I saw a silver plane I immediately
recognized it as an American Airlines jet,' said the 25-year-old O'Keefe,
managing editor of Influence, an American Lawyer Media publication about
lobbying. 'It came swooping in over the highway, over my left shoulder,
straight across where my car was heading. I'd just heard them saying on
the radio that National Airport was closing, and I thought, "That's
not going to make it to National Airport." And then I realized where
I was, and that it was going to hit the Pentagon. There was a burst of
orange flame that shot out that I could see through the highway overpass.
Then it was just black. Just black, thick smoke.'"
- "Terrorist 'Situation'." American Lawyer Media, 11 Sep 2001
| ANALYSIS OF EYE WITNESS STATEMENTS TO 9/11 CRASH OF AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77 INTO THE PENTAGON, by Penny Schoner |
Paper presented by Penny Schoner, December 4, 2003 in Oakland, on American Airlines Flight 77 Hitting the Pentagon, an analysis of Eye Witness accounts.
ANALYSIS OF EYE WITNESS STATEMENTS TO 9/11 CRASH OF AMERICAN AIRLINES
FLIGHT 77 INTO THE PENTAGON
By Penny Schoner
December 2003
CONTENTS
Introduction Page 1
List of Points, re Plane hitting Pentagon Page 2
Eye Witness reports before and after the plane crashed Pentagon
84 Witness statements Pages 3-26
Eye Witness reports of JET FUEL Pages 27-30
Photographs of site, parts of plane Pages 31-35
[In the email version, page numbers are not accurate because photos not
included]
Eye Witness reports of PLANE CLIPPING LAMP POSTS, SIGN Pages 36-39
Eye Witness reports of PLANE PARTS after the crash Pages 40-46
Eye Witness reports referring to MISSILE-LIKE plane Pages 47-48
Eye Witness reports referring to SOUNDS Pages 49-51
Eye Witness reports regarding REINFORCED WALLS of Pentagon Pages 52-53
Eye Witness reports of OTHER AIRCRAFT IN AREA of Pentagon Pages 54-55
Eye Witness reports by RADAR operators Pages 56
Eye Witness reports of FBI combing area after crash Page 57
ANALYSIS OF EYE WITNESS STATEMENTS
TO 9/11 CRASH OF AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 77
INTO THE PENTAGON
By Penny Schoner
December 2003
I was one of the people who was, at first, receptive to hearing about the
theory that a missile could have crashed the Pentagon. I listened and I
read. And then I phoned John Judge. John lives in DC. He is a thorough
observer and researcher, as many of you know. John advised me that
indeed a plane had hit the Pentagon and gave me his reasons, which has
led me to tonight's talk.
I have analyzed the Eye Witness List in the same format as a deposition
summary, with all the references intact. There is a great deal more
evidence available if you are on the east coast, by talking to witnesses
and victims families, and visiting the sites of the crashes.
John Judge works with Kyle Hence, in a group called 9/11 Citizens Watch,
that is assisting the families of victims of all the crashes, in bringing
pertinent questions to the Keane Commission, investigating 9/11.
CITIZENS WATCH is also demanding that the govt. release all the videos
and photos and other evidence concerning all the crashes, particularly
videos from the Pentagon parking lot cameras and gas station in DC that
would have been recording during the approach of the aircraft. The black
boxes from all 4 airliners were seized by the FBI, who got to the crash
sites early. The contents of these black boxes need to be made public.
The biggest evidence of govt. complicity in the events of 9/11/01 is the
stand down of air and missile defense systems. Only NORAD could have
ordered that stand down. Researchers who are serious about interesting
the public in an analysis of who was behind 9/11, should concentrate on
putting before the public the obvious evidence, not unsubstantiated work.
Our research has to be responsible and cites have to be thoroughly
checked, and listed with observations and pictures, otherwise the public
will quickly tire of talking to us.
This is a working paper and comments are welcome.
Penny Schoner
pschoner@ ix.netcom.com
POINTS ADDRESSING American Airlines, Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon on
9/11/01, or whether another object might have been guided into the
Pentagon.1. Consider which nations, or resistance groups such as Al Qaeda, are
capable of attacking the Pentagon, or any other U.S. target with a
missile:
A. The Middle East has been inspected for WMDs. There is no
chance that missile sites capable of launching missiles would not
have been found.
B. A launching from a ship at sea is not a capability of Al
Qaeda, let alone would it go undetected if a missile made its way
toward U.S. defenses. Reportedly, all U.S. radar units were facing
away from U.S. shores, not inward, and this was an excuse for not
detecting an attack within.
C. A U.S. land base launching site has not been discovered.
2. AA 77 flew into the Pentagon over rolling hills and residential areas,
clipping lamp posts and cars, AS IT MANEUVERED TO AVOID HILLTOPS in a
tight pattern, dipping its wings to line up with the Pentagon walls. It
was seen by many witnesses on the whole flight into the DC area, because
the TV news channels were reporting it and people looked to the skies and
saw it come in.
3. EYE WITNESS reports, taken shortly after AA 77 crashed into the
Pentagon, firmly hold that AA 77, with its silver body and red and blue
letters and logo, hit the building.
4. JET FUEL was all over the Pentagon walls and inside the building,
covering victims with fuel burns. Doctors told victims that they had been
burned with jet fuel. Photographs taken immediately after the crash, show
jet fuel fires burning over vast areas on both sides of the hole where the
fuselage crashed through the walls.
5. PLANE PARTS were all over the area outside the Pentagon, after the
crash. They rained down on witnesses, their cars and the whole surrounding
area.
6. The HOLE in the Pentagon where the plane entered, is the size of the
fuselage of a Boeing 757. The wings exploded on contact when they crashed
against a fortified surface, unlike the WTC towers in New York, that were
of different construction.
7. LAMP POSTS and other objects were clipped off as the jet flew into the
Pentagon.
8. SOUNDS of a jet were reported by most eye witnesses, as they watched
the plane hit the Pentagon.
9. RADAR tracking stations tracked AA 77 to the Pentagon and reported
their sightings during flight.
10. STAND DOWN of military defense systems points to U.S. govt.
complicity, and not an outside nation, as the perpetrator of AA 77
crashing into the Pentagon.
11. DOCUMENTS NEED TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC, just as photographs of
the crash, and other important materials have been available, during and
after 9/11, concerning the crashes in NEW YORK.
12. BLACK BOX CONTENTS from all the crashes need to be released to the
public.
EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF AA FLIGHT 77 CRASHING INTO PENTAGON
1. Conclusive proof of what hit the Pentagon is not available due to
parking lot videos and materials similar being held secret by the govt.
DOCUMENTS NEED TO BE RELEASED. Similar types of documents are in the
hands of the public in New York regarding the WTC towers. We need FULL
DISCLOSURE from the FBI.
2. If AA 77 was crashed somewhere other than the pentagon, where was this?
Evidence of any other crash site has never been produced.
3. The Black Boxes from AA 77 have never been produced, nor have the
contents been discussed in the news.
4. There is no evidence that bodies were carried from another site to
Pentagon morgue.
5. There was a woman at her desk in the Pentagon, who saw the nose of the
plane push through her office wall, and filed an eye witness report about
it.
Abel Ashes: I think that it is logical to assume that with Rumsfeld and
other important insiders, still inside the Pentagon at the time of
impact, that whatever thing or things hit the Pentagon, would have had
to be under remote control. If the exact impact location and time,
along with extent of damage, was not fully under control, there‚s no
way an unidentified aviation vehicle, Flight 77, or a missile would
have been allowed anywhere near the Pentagon, or the White
House.
Donald Rumsfeld was interviewed by Parade Magazine, in September or
October 2001 and the article appeared in the Oct. 12, 01 issue:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2002/t11182001_t1012pm.html
"... well, I was sitting right here in the building when it was struck."
"Here we‚re talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines
flight filled with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building
and similar (inaudible).."
WITNESS STATEMENT by T. CARTER, flight attendantT. Carter, flight attendant,
was scheduled to fly on her regular flight,
AA 77, on Sept. 11, 2001, but she instead opted out of duty that day, and
her friend and fellow flight attendant, Rene, took the plane, replacing
her.
Rene boarded AA 77 in Washington DC and on this regularly scheduled
route, proceeded to Dallas. Over Ohio, Rene called her mother on her
cell phone and told her to call American Airlines Operations and report
that the plane had been hijacked. Rene said there were 6 hijackers.
Press releases since then have only reported 5 hijackers, but that is a
separate subject due to its size and scope.
There were no sounds of struggle when Rene phoned her mother and Rene did
not call her again.
In an affidavit, T. Carter states that she went to the crash
site within 48 hours after the 757 hit the Pentagon, with her
mother, to give support to the crews retrieving bodies and
wreckage. Her visit could have been late in the day Sept. 11,
or on Sept. 12.
At the pentagon, she recognized the tail section of AA 77 that she had
flown on many times, as she walked past it. The tail was on the grass,
near the crash site. She went inside the pentagon and saw other parts of
this plane that she knew from her work. She saw many charred bones of
people, among the luggage. She saw more parts of the plane inside the
pentagon, and recognized them as parts of the plane that she used to fly
on.
T. Carter was shown photographs, a few days later, of the crash scene, and
identified the bracelet she had given her friend Rene, for her birthday,
on the charred arm bones of her friend. T. Carter has no doubts that
Flight 77 crashed into the pentagon on Sept. 11th.
I first heard T. describe her memories of the Pentagon crash, in Dallas at
the COPA Conference on the anniversary of the JFK assassination, on Nov.
23, 2002. She was still shaken by the loss of her friend and the
devastation she had seen on Sept. 11, 01.
Her words can be heard on the website,
The pentagon and govt. sources are not releasing any photographs taken by
witnesses, collected after the pentagon crash. 9/11 Citizens Watch in
Washington DC is asking for the release of all witness materials, citing
that none of this material is classified or should be withheld from the
public. Photographs of the NY Trade Center crashes are all public
information. There is no reason to not release all photos and witness
statements.
October 14, 2003, there was a press conference in DC, concerning the
release of records by the govt. to the Keane Commission. But when the
press conference convened, the commission balked at giving the information
that it was scheduled to announce and said that it would make a statement
the next day. Oct. 15th, subpoenas were served on FAA officials, and John
Judge believes that the FAA will possibly be blamed for not responding in
time to stop the planes from crashing buildings on 9/11, thereby taking
NORAD off the hook for not scrambling fighter jets from military bases.
The most compelling evidence we have so far is that American Airlines
Flight 77 was flown into the pentagon. The question arises that if the
govt. is complicit in planning or allowing 9/11 to happen, why put a
missile into the pentagon? What would this cover up, or change, or add to
the incident if it is a „black op.‰
The families and friends of the deceased passengers on Flight 77 certainly
are convinced that the plane flew into the pentagon, having visited the
site and identified their loved ones when possible, and they are pursuing
legal avenues the same as the New York victims families are.
EYE WITNESS REPORTS BY ONLOOKERS WHO
"Saw plane hit the Pentagon:"
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.htmlBoger Sean
Sean Boger, Air Traffic Controller and Pentagon tower chief - "I just
looked up and I saw the big nose and the wings of the aircraft coming
right at us and I just watched it hit the building." "It exploded.
I fell
to the ground and covered my head. I could actually hear the metal going
through the building."
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_46/local_news/12049-1.html
Bouchoux Donald R.
Donald R. Bouchoux, 53, a retired Naval officer, a Great Falls resident, a
Vietnam veteran and former commanding officer of a Navy fighter squadron,
was driving west from Tysons Corner to the Pentagon for a 10am meeting. He
wrote: At 9:40 a.m. I was driving down Washington Boulevard (Route 27)
along the side of the Pentagon when the aircraft crossed about 200 yards
in front of me and impacted the side of the building. There was an
enormous fireball, followed about two seconds later by debris raining
down. Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2001
http://web.lexis-nexis.com...
Dobbs Mike
"... we saw a plane coming toward us, for about 10 seconds ... It was like
watching a train wreck. I was mesmerized. ... At first I thought it was
trying to crash land, but it was coming in so deliberately, so level...
Everyone said there was a deafening explosion, but with the adrenaline, we
didn't hear it."St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 13, 2001 - Philip Dine
http://web.lexisnexis.com ...
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~julianr/lexisnexis/dobbs.txt
Hemphill Albert
Standing in his office, looking out the window at the Pentagon,
instinctively ducked at the extremely loud roar and whine of a jet engine
spooling up. The large silver cylinder of an aircraft appeared in my
window. The aircraft, looking to be either a 757 or Airbus. The aircraft
was moving fast, at what I could only be estimate as between 250 to 300
knots. He was slightly left wing down as he appeared in my line of sight,
as if he'd just "jinked" to avoid something. As the plane crossed
Route
110 it appeared to level it‚s wings, making a slight right wing slow
adjustment as it impacted low on the Westside of the building to the right
of the helo, tower and fire vehicle around corridor 5. What instantly
followed was a large yellow fireball accompanied by an extremely bass
sounding, deep thunderous boom. The yellow fireball rose quickly as black
smoke engulfed the entire Westside of the Pentagon, obscuring the whole of
the heliport
http://lists.travellercentral.com/pipermail/tml/2001-September/013153.html
http://www.ournetfamily.com/WarOnTerror/emails/pentagonwitness.shtmlMcGraw Stephen
Father Stephen McGraw was driving and witnessed American Airlines Flight
77 crash into the Pentagon. "The traffic was very slow moving. I was in
the left hand lane with my windows closed. I did not hear anything at all
until the plane was just right above our cars. The plane clipped the top
of a light pole just before it got to us, injuring a taxi driver, whose
taxi was just a few feet away from my car. I saw it crash into the
building. It looked like a plane coming in for a landing. I mean in the
sense that it was controlled and sort of straight. There was an explosion
and a loud noise and I felt the impact. I remember seeing a fireball come
out of two windows (of the Pentagon). I saw an explosion of fire billowing
through those two windows.
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_39/local_news/10772-1.html
http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Pentagon%5Fcrash%5Feyewitness%5Fcomforted%5Fvictims.html
O'Brien
At the Dulles tower, O'Brien saw the TV pictures from New York and headed
back to her post to help other planes quickly land. "We started moving
the
planes as quickly as we could," she says. "Then I noticed the aircraft.
It
was an unidentified plane to the southwest of Dulles, moving at a very
high rate of speed ... I had literally a blip and nothing more." O'Brien
asked the controller sitting next to her, Tom Howell, if he saw it too. "I
said, 'Oh my God, it looks like he's headed to the White House,'" recalls
Howell. "I was yelling ... 'We've got a target headed right for the White
House!'" At a speed of about 500 miles an hour, the plane was headed
straight for what is known as P-56, protected air space 56, which covers
the White House and the Capitol.
"The speed, the maneuverability, the way that he turned, we all thought
in
the radar room, all of us experienced air traffic controllers, that that
was a military plane," says O'Brien. "You don't fly a 757 in that
manner.
It's unsafe." The plane was between 12 and 14 miles away, says O'Brien,
"and it was just a countdown. Ten miles west. Nine miles west .... Our
supervisor picked up our line to the White House and started relaying to
them the information, [that] we have an unidentified very fast-moving
aircraft inbound toward your vicinity, 8 miles west."
Vice President Cheney was rushed to a special basement bunker. White
House staff members were told to run away from the building. "And it
went six, five, four. And I had it in my mouth to say, three, and all
of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room, it was almost a sense
of relief. This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent
in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president, and
we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second," says
O'Brien. But the plane continued to turn right until it had made a
360-degree maneuver. "We lost radar contact with that aircraft. And we
waited. And we waited. And your heart is just beating out of your chest
waiting to hear what's happened," says O'Brien. "And then the
Washington National [Airport] controllers came over our speakers in our
room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic. The Pentagon's
been hit.'"
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/2020/2020_011024_atc_feature.html
Sucherman Joel
USAToday.com Multimedia Editor, saw it all: an American Airlines jetliner
fly left to right across his field of vision as he commuted to work
Tuesday morning. It was highly unusual. The large plane was 20 feet off
the ground and a mere 50 to 75 yards from his windshield. It was coming in
at a high rate of speed, but not at a steep angle--almost like a
heat-seeking missile was locked onto its target and staying dead on
course.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,9306,00.asp
It was a silver jet with the markings along the windows that spoke to
me as an American Airlines jet, it was not a commercial, excuse me, a
business jet, it was not a lear jet, ... it was a bigger plane than
that.. (Video)
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/day.video.09.html
http://play.rbn.com/?url=usat/usat/g2demand/010911_joel.rm&proto=rtsp
Terronez Tony
Around 9:40 a.m. I reached the heliport area (beside the Pentagon). So I
got about 100 yards or so past the heliport and then all of the sudden I
heard this loud screeching sound that just came out of nowhere and it
intensified. This huge WHOOSH! When I looked up I saw the side of the
Pentagon explode.
As the fireball got higher and higher, you saw this debris go up in the
air. I am watching this in my rearview mirror, and then I thought, Oh
my God, there is debris coming toward me! So my reaction was, I ducked
into my passenger seat and I heard the pitter-patter of pebbles and
concrete bouncing off my car. And the next thing you know, I heard this
big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being shattered
and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I popped up
to look but everything was fine. But when I looked to the car next to
me I realized that something went through (the drivers) rear windshield
and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that something
went through it. Then both I and the guy in front of me looked at his
rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and the
rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to
it. At that point I didn't know it was a plane, I thought it was a
missile strike.
Pulling away from the Pentagon there was tons of stuff on the ground,
big pieces of metal, concrete, everything. We got up to a certain point
and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it
looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there
was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person,
with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it. (...) I looked
back and I saw the fire, it was just huge
http://www.counseling.org/ctonline/news/amazing1001.htm
Velasquez Jose
Jose Velasquez : "It was like an earthquake" , "By the time I
got outside
all I could see was a giant cloud of smoke, first white then black, coming
from the Pentagon," he said.Velasquez says the gas station's security
cameras are close enough to the Pentagon to have recorded the moment of
impact. "I've never seen what the pictures looked like," he said.
"The FBI
was here within minutes and took the film."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1211_wirepentagon.html
Anderson Steve
I witnessed the jet hit the Pentagon on September 11. From my office on
the 19th floor of the USA TODAY building in Arlington, Va. Marc Abshire‚s
office is on the D ring, near the eighth corrider, he said. "It shot me
back in my chair. There was a huge blast. I could feel the air shock wave
of it," Abshire said. "I didn't know exactly what it was. It didn't
rumble. It was more of a direct smack. And we found ourselves on the lawn
and looking back on our building. It was very much a surrealistic sort of
experience. It's just definitely not right to see smoke coming out of the
Pentagon. It was a very strange sight to see."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
Anlauf Deb & Jeff
Mrs. Deb Anlauf, resident of Colfax, Wisconsin, was in her 14th floor of
the Sheraton Hotel [located 1.6 mile from the explosion], (immediately
west of the Navy Annex) when she heard a "loud roar": Suddenly I saw
this
plane right outside my window. You felt like you could touch it; it was
that close. "Then it shot straight across from where we are and flew right
into the Pentagon. It was just this huge fireball that crashed into the
wall (of the Pentagon).
http://www.leadertelegram.com/specialreports/attack/storydetail.asp?ID=7
Bauer Gary
Gary Bauer, a former Presidential candidate, driving into Washington, D.C.
that morning, to a press conference on Capitol Hill."I was in a massive
traffic jam, hadn't moved more than a hundred yards in twenty minutes.
Then the jet was coming up behind us on that major highway. And it veered
to the right into the Pentagon. The blast literally rocked all of our
cars. massnews.com / Amy Contrada / December 2001
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2001/dec%202001/1201bauer.htm
Bell Mickey
Mickey Bell : The jet came in from the south and banked left as it entered
the building, narrowly missing the Singleton Electric trailer and the
on-site foreman, Mickey Bell. Bell, who had been less than 100 feet from
the initial impact of the plane, was nearly struck by one of the plane´s
wings as it sped by him. Coworkers noticed damage to Bell´s work vehicle.
He had plastic and rivets from an airplane imbedded in its sheet metal,
but Bell had no idea what had happened.
http://www.necanet.org/whats_new/report.cfm?ID=1003
Benedetto Richard
Richard Benedetto, a USA TODAY reporter, was on his way to work, driving
on the Highway parrallel to the Pentagon : " It was an American Airlines
airplane, I could see it very clearly
http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/491/Benedetto2.ram
low bandwidth : http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/491/Benedetto.ram
Biggert Judy
She saw remnants of the airplane. ''There was a seat from a plane, there
was part of the tail and then there was a part of green metal, I could not
tell what it was, a part of the outside of the plane,'' she said. ''It
smelled like it was still burning.''
http://www.hjpa.org/morenews.htmlBraman Chris
Staff Sgt. Chris Braman : The lawn was littered with twisted pieces of
aluminum. He saw one chunk painted with the letter ``A,'' another with a
``C.'' It didn't occur to Braman what the letters signified until a man in
the crowd stooped to pick up one of the smaller metal shards. He examined
it for a moment, then announced: ``This was a jet.''
http://www.dcmilitary.com/marines/hendersonhall/6_39/local_news/10797-1.html
Campo
It was a passenger plane. I think an American Airways plane, Mr Campo
said. "I was cutting the grass and it came in screaming over my head. I
felt the impact. The whole ground shook and the whole area was full of
fire. I could never imagine I would see anything like that here."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Cissell James R.
James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon.
He saw the blur of a commercial jet and wondered why it was flying so low.
The plane plowed into the Pentagon, sending a fireball exploding into the
air and scattering debris - including a tire rim suspected of belonging to
the airplane - past his car. It didn't slow down. I want to say it
accelerated. It just shot straight in.
http://www.cincypost.com/attack/cissel091201.html
Cleveland Allen
Allen Cleveland of Woodbridge Virginia looked out from a Metro train going
to National Airport, to see a jet heading down toward the Pentagon.. a
silver pasenger jet, mid sized"
http://mfile.akamai.com/920/rm/thepost.download.akamai.com/920/nation/091101-5s.ram
Cook Scott P.
"It was a 757 out of Dulles, which had come up the river in back of our
building, turned sharply over the Capitol, ran past the White House and
the Washington Monument, up the river to Rosslyn, then dropped to treetop
level and ran down Washington Boulevard to the Pentagon (...)
http://www.clothmonkey.com/91101.htm
Dobbs Mike [another statement]
Marine Corps officer Mike Dobbs was standing on one of the upper levels of
the outer ring of the Pentagon looking out the window when he saw an
American Airlines 737 twin-engine airliner strike the building. "It seemed
to be almost coming in slow motion," he said later Tuesday. "I didn't
actually feel it hit, but I saw it and then we all started running.
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news01/091201_news_dcscene.shtml
Dubill Bob
∑. when he saw a jetliner fly over the roadway. It filled his field of
vision. The jet was 40-feet off the ground speeding toward the Pentagon.
The wheels were up
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=5425475&BRD=386&PAG=461&dept_id=444919&rfi=6
Eberle Bobby
"Riding in a convertible ... I looked back and saw a jet airliner flying
very low and very fast.
http://www.gopusa.com/bobby/bobby_091201.shtmlEiden Steve
Steve Eiden, a truck driver, witnessed the aftermath. He took the Highway
95 loop in the area of the Pentagon and thought it odd to see a plane in
restricted airspace, thinking to himself it was odd that it was flying so
low. "You could almost see the people in the windows," he said as
he
watched the plane disappear behind a line of trees, followed by a tall
plume of black smoke. Then he saw the Pentagon on fire, and an
announcement came over the radio that the Pentagon had been hit.
http://www.baxterbulletin.com/ads/chronology2001/page2.htmlElgas Penny
Traffic was at a standstill. I heard a rumble, looked out my driver's side
window and realized that I was looking at the nose of an airplane coming
straight at us from over the road (Columbia Pike) that runs perpendicular
to the road I was on. The plane just appeared there- very low in the air,
to the side of (and not much above) the CITGO gas station. I saw the plane
coming in slow motion toward my car and then it banked in the slightest
turn in front of me, toward the heliport. In the nano-second that the
plane was directly over the cars in front of my car, the plane seemed to
be not more than 80 feet off the ground and about 4-5 car lengths in front
of me. I saw the end of the wing closest to me and the underside of the
other wing, as that other wing rocked slightly toward the ground. I
remember recognizing it as an American Airlines plane -- I could see the
windows and the color stripes. And I remember thinking that it was just
like planes in which I had flown many times.
I did not hear or feel anything -- not the roar of the plane, or wind
force, or impact sounds. I watched in horror as it gently rocked and
slowly glided straight into the Pentagon. At the point where the fuselage
hit the wall, it seemed to simply melt into the building. I saw a smoke
ring surround the fuselage as it made contact with the wall. It appeared
as a smoke ring that encircled the fuselage at the point of contact and it
seemed to be several feet thick. . . . the wings disappeared into the
Pentagon. And then I saw an explosion and watched the tail of the plane
slip into the building.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/supporting.asp?ID=30
Elliott Bruce
Former ammunition plant official Col. Bruce Elliott watched as a hijacked
757 airliner crashed into the Pentagon. Elliott, said he had just left
the Pentagon and was about to board a shuttle van in a south parking lot
when he saw the plane approach and slam into the west side of the
structure. "I looked to my left and saw the plane coming in. "It was
like
a kamikaze pilot.‰ He said the craft clipped a utility pole guide wire,
which may have slowed it down a bit before it crashed into the building
and burst into flames. (...) Elliott said the rubble was still smoldering
Wednesday morning.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/features/911/IdxThur.html
Evey Walker Lee
Internally, the Wedge One project included: complete demolition of
existing facilities; significant abatement of hazardous materials (most
notably, 28 million lbs. of asbestos-contaminated material was removed);
installation of all new electrical, mechanical, plumbing and
telecommunication systems within the existing floorplan; structural steel
reinforcement; and replacement of all 1,282 windows in the section,
including 386 blast-resistant units on the outermost "E Ring" and
innermost "A Ring" of the building. All-new office space was created
with
an open space plan aimed at enhancing flexibility (...) Amazingly, the
plane pushed through the outermost "E Ring", and drove deep into the
interior, its nose coming to rest just inside the "C Ring."
http://www.designbuildmag.com/oct2001/pentagon1001.asp
EVEY: Actually, there's considerable evidence of the aircraft outside the
E ring. It's just not very visible. When you get up close -- actually, one
of my people happened to be walking on this sidewalk and was right about
here as the aircraft approached. It came in. It clipped a couple of light
poles on the way in. He happened to hear this terrible noise behind him,
looked back, and he actually -- he's a Vietnam veteran -- jumped prone
onto the ground so the aircraft would not actually -- he thinks it (would
have) hit him; it was that low. On its way in, the wing clipped. Our guess
is an engine clipped a generator. The wing actually clipped that
generator, and portions of it broke off. There are other parts of the
plane that are scattered about outside the building. None of those parts
are very large, however. You don't see big pieces of the airplane sitting
there extending up into the air. But there are many small pieces. And the
few larger pieces there look like they are veins out of the aircraft
engine. They're circular.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0915/DoD.html
Flyler Kim
Kim Flyler was trying to sneak into a parking space near to the building
when she saw the plane: "At that moment I heard a plane and then a loud
cracking noise.... Right before the plane hit the building, you could see
the silhouettes of people in the back two rows. You couldn't see if they
were male or female, but you could tell there was a human being in there."
The Observer, Sept. 8, 2002
Ford Ken
Ken Ford : One eyewitness, State Department employee Ken Ford, said he
watched from the 15th floor of the State Department Annex, just across the
Potomac River from the Pentagon. We were watching the airport through
binoculars, Ford said, referring to Reagan National Airport, a short
distance away. The plane was a two-engine turbo prop that flew up the
river from National. Then it turned back toward the Pentagon. We thought
it had been waved off and then it hit the building.
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2001/09/pdf/09112001EXTRA2.pdf
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0912/wor5.htm
Gaines Kat
Kat Gaines, heading south on Route 110, approached the parking lots, saw a
low-flying jetliner strike the top of nearby telephone poles. "
http://www.fccc.org/News/valor.htm
Hagos Asework
Asework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work but stuck in
a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the plane flew over. "There was a
huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over.
Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its
wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on
the way in."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Hagos, Asework
I know this plane is going to crash. I've never seen a plane like this so
low." He said he looked at it and saw American Airline insignia and when
it made impact with the Pentagon initially he saw smoke, then flames.
Harrington Joe
Harrington was working on the installation of new furniture in Wedge One.
One of my guys pointed to an American Airlines airplane 20 feet high over
Washington Blvd.," Harrington said. "It seemed like it made impact
just
before the wedge. It was like a Hollywood movie or something.
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_37/local_news/10380-1.html
Hovis Tom
Being a former transport type (60's era) I cannot understand how that
plane hit where it did giving the direction the aircraft was taking at the
time. As most know, the Pentagon lies at the bottom of two hills from the
west with the east side being next to the river at 14th street bridge. One
hill is at the Navy Annex and the other is Arlington Cemetery. The plane
came up I-395 also known as Shirley Hwy. The plane had been seen making a
lazy pattern in the no fly zone over the White House and US Cap. The
aircraft went southwest near Springfield and then veered left over
Arlington and then put the nose down coming over Ft Myer picking off trees
and light poles near the helicopter pad next to building. It was as if the
pilot leveled out at the last minute and put it square into the building.
The wings came off as if it went through an arch way leaving a hole in the
side of the building it seems a little larger than the wide body of the
aircraft. The entry point was so clean that the roof fell in on the
wreckage.
The nose wheel I understand is in the grass near the second ring.
When the plane hit, fire rolled down the hallway. The fireball also went
along the outside of the building as shown by the blackend side of the
building to left of the impact point. The reason the fire took so long to
put out was because the attic was filled with "horse hair" for insulation
put there in 1942 when the building was built.
http://www.beanerbanner.com/a_father____.htm
Kean Terrance
Terrance Kean, 35, who lives in a 14-story building nearby, heard the loud
jet engines and glanced out his window. "I saw this very, very large
passenger jet. It just plowed right into the side of the Pentagon. The
nose penetrated into the portico. And then it sort of disappeared, and
there was fire and smoke everywhere. . . . It was very sort of surreal."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A13766-2001Sep11
Khavkin D. S.
from an 8th floor high-rise:"At first, we thought it was the jets that
sometimes fly overhead. However, it appeared to be a small commercial
aircraft..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1540000/1540586.stmKizildrgli
Aydan
Kizildrgli, while driving by the Pentagon,"saw the jetliner bank slightly"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/11/attack-usat.htm
Lagasse William
Sgt. William Lagasse, a pentagon police dog handler, the son of an
aviation instructor, was filling up his patrol car at a gas station near
the Pentagon when he noticed a jet fly in low. He watched as the plane
plowed into the Pentagon. The 757's flaps were not deployed and the
landing gear was retracted. It was close enough that I could see the
windows and the blinds had been pulled down. I read American Airlines on
it.
http://206.181.245.163/ebird/e20011108vivid.htm
http://web.lexis-nexis.com...
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~julianr/lexisnexis/lagasse1.txtLiebner Lincoln
After the second plane hit the World Trade Center, Major Lincoln Leibner
jumped in his pickup truck and raced to the Pentagon. As he ran to an
entrance, he heard jet engines and turned in time to see the American
Airlines plane diving toward the building. "I saw this large American
Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low," "I was close enough
that I
could see through the windows of the airplane, and watch as it as it hit,"
he said. "There was no doubt in my mind what I was watching. It was
accelerating," he said. "It was wheels up, flaps up, engines full
throttle. "
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/23/1030052968648.html
http://www.theosuobserver.com/main.cfm/include/smdetail/synid/54846.html
M. K.
It was so shocking, I was listening to the news on what had happened in
New York, and just happened to look out the window because I heard a low
flying plane and then I saw it hit the Pentagon. It was in the air one
moment and in the building the next... K.M., Pentagon City, USA
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/newsid%5F1537000/1537530.stm
Marra David
David Marra, 23, an information-technology specialist, saw an American
Airlines jet swooping in, its wings wobbly, looking like it was going to
slam right into the Pentagon: "It was 50 ft. off the deck when he came
in.
It sounded like the pilot had the throttle completely floored. The plane
rolled left and then rolled right. Then he caught an edge of his wing on
the ground." There is a helicopter pad right in front of the side of the
Pentagon. The wing touched there, then the plane cart wheeled into the
building.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,174655-4,00.html
Martinez Oscar
``I saw a big jet flying close to the building coming at full speed. There
was a big noise when it hit the building,'' said Oscar Martinez, who
witnessed the attack..
http://www.firehouse.com/terrorist/11_APdc.html
McCusker Elaine
I looked up, and saw a very low-flying American Airlines plane that seemed
to be accelerating. My first thought was just 'No, no, no, no,' because it
was obvious the plane was not heading to nearby Reagan National Airport.
It was going to crash.
http://depts.washington.edu/uweek/archives/2001.10.OCT_04/_article9.html
McClellan Kenneth
The crew of a military cargo plane watched as a hijacked airliner plunged
into the Pentagon, a defense official confirmed Tuesday. The report
confirms the eyewitness account of two Hampton Roads residents who were
near the Pentagon that day.
They said they saw a second plane flying near the doomed passenger jet.
A C-130 cargo plane had departed Andrews Air Force Base en route to
Minnesota that morning and reported seeing an airliner heading into
Washington 'at an unusual angle,' said Lt. Col. Kenneth McClellan, a
Pentagon spokesman. Air-traffic control officials instructed the
propeller-powered cargo plane 'to let us know where it's going,'
McClellan said.
But, he said, there was no attempt to intercept the hijacked airliner.
'A C-130 obviously goes slower than a jet,' McClellan said. The C-130
pilot 'followed the aircraft and reported it was heading into the
Pentagon,' he said. 'He saw it crash into the building. He saw the
fireball.
In the days immediately following the Sept. 11 hijackings, the Pentagon
had no knowledge of the C-130's encounter, because all reports were
classified by the Air National Guard, the Pentagon spokesman said. 'It
was very hard to get any information out,' McClellan said. ("C-130 crew
saw Pentagon strike, official confirms", Terry Scanlon et David Lerman,
Daily Press, 17 octobre 2001) - http://dailypress.com
Middleton William Sr.
The worker, William Middleton Sr., was running his street sweeper through
the cemetery when he heard a harsh whistling sound overhead. Middleton
looked up and spotted a commercial jet whose pilot seemed to be fighting
with his own craft. Middleton said the plane was no higher than the tops
of telephone poles as it lurched toward the Pentagon. The jet accelerated
in the final few hundred yards before it tore into the building.
http://www.s-t.com/daily/12-01/12-20-01/a02wn018.htm
Milburn Kirk
I was right underneath the plane, said Kirk Milburn, a construction
supervisor for Atlantis Co., who was on the Arlington National Cemetery
exit of Interstate 395 when he said he saw the plane heading for the
Pentagon. "I heard a plane. I saw it. I saw debris flying. I guess it was
hitting light poles," said Milburn. "It was like a WHOOOSH whoosh,
then
there was fire and smoke, then I heard a second explosion." - (Washington
Post, September 11, 2001) -
http:// www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
Mitchell Terry
This is a hole in -- there was a punch-out. They suspect that this was
where a part of the aircraft came through this hole, although I didn't see
any evidence of the aircraft down there. (...) This pile here is all
Pentagon metal. None of that is aircraft whatsoever. As you can see,
they've punched a hole in here. This was punched by the rescue workers to
clean it out. You can see this is the -- some of the unrenovated areas
where the windows have blown out.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0915/DoD.html
Morin Terry
Terry Morin, a former USMC aviator, Program Manager for SPARTA, Inc was
working as a contractor at the BMDO offices at the old Navy Annex. Having
just reached the elevator in the 5th Wing of BMDO Federal Office Building
(FOB) #2. He heard "an increasingly loud rumbling" One to two seconds
later the airliner came into my field of view. By that time the noise was
absolutely deafening. The aircraft was essentially right over the top
of me and the outer portion of the FOB (flight path parallel the outer
edge of the FOB). Everything was shaking and vibrating, including the
ground. I estimate that the aircraft was no more than 100 feet above me
(30 to 50 feet above the FOB) in a slight nose down attitude.
The plane had a silver body with red and blue stripes down the
fuselage. I believed at the time that it belonged to American Airlines,
but I couldn't be sure.
It looked like a 737 and I so reported to authorities.
Within seconds the plane cleared the 8th Wing of BMDO and was heading
directly towards the Pentagon. Engines were at a steady high-pitched
whine, indicating to me that the throttles were steady and full.
I estimated the aircraft speed at between 350 and 400 knots. The flight
path appeared to be deliberate, smooth, and controlled. As the aircraft
approached the Pentagon, I saw a minor flash (later found out that the
aircraft had sheared off a portion of a highway light pole down on Hwy
110). As the aircraft flew ever lower I started to lose sight of the
actual airframe as a row of trees to the Northeast of the FOB blocked my
view.
I could now only see the tail of the aircraft. I believe I saw the tail
dip slightly to the right indicating a minor turn in that direction. The
tail was barely visible when I saw the flash and subsequent fireball rise
approximately 200 feet above the Pentagon. There was a large explosion
noise and the low frequency sound echo that comes with this type of sound.
Associated with that was the increase in air pressure, momentarily, like a
small gust of wind. For those formerly in the military, it sounded like a
2000lb bomb going off roughly ∏ mile in front of you. At once there was
a
huge cloud of black smoke that rose several hundred feet up. Elapsed time
from hearing the initial noise to when I saw the impact flash was between
12 and 15 seconds. (...) T
The aircraft had been flown directly into the Pentagon without hitting
the ground first or skipping into the building. (...)
http://www.coping.org/911/survivor/pentagon.htm
Mosley James
James Mosley, four stories up on a scaffold at the Navy Annex, "`... I
looked over and saw this big silver plane run into the side of the
Pentagon"
http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/admin_dept/ext_affairs/loeb/finalists/entry/september11-2.pdf
Munsey Christopher
A silver, twin-engine American Airlines jetliner gliding almost
noiselessly over the Navy Annex, fast, low and straight toward the
Pentagon, just hundreds of yards away. The plane, with red and blue
markings, hurtled by and within moments exploded in a ground-shaking
"whoomp" as it appeared to hit the side of the Pentagon.
A huge flash of orange flame and black smoke poured into the sky. Smoke
seemed to change from black to white, forming a billowing column in the
sky.
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-467181.php
Myers Richard
General Richard Myers, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
that before the crash into the Pentagon, military officials had been
notified that another hijacked plane had been heading from the New York
area to Washington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Narayanan Vin
At 9:35 a.m., I pulled alongside the Pentagon. With traffic at a
standstill, my eyes wandered around the road, looking for the cause of the
traffic jam. Then I looked up to my left and saw an American Airlines jet
flying right at me. The jet roared over my head, clearing my car by about
25 feet. The tail of the plane clipped the overhanging exit sign above me
as it headed straight at the Pentagon. The windows were dark on American
Airlines Flight 77 as it streaked toward its target, only 50 yards away.
The hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon at a ferocious speed. But the
Pentagon's wall held up like a champ. It barely budged as the nose of the
plane curled upwards and crumpled before exploding into a massive
fireball. I saw the bodies of passengers burning. But I'm not sure. It
could have been Pentagon workers. It could have been my mind playing
tricks on me. I hope it was my mind playing tricks on me.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/17/first-person.htm
O'Keefe John
'I was going up 395, up Washington Blvd., listening to the the news,
and from my left side I saw a silver plane. I immediately recognized it
as an American Airlines jet,' said the 25-year-old O'Keefe, managing
editor of Influence, an American Lawyer Media publication about
lobbying. 'It came swooping in over the highway, over my left shoulder,
straight across where my car was heading.
I'd just heard them saying on the radio that National Airport was
closing, and I thought, That's not going to make it to National
Airport." And then I realized where I was, and that it was going to hit
the Pentagon. There was a burst of orange flame that shot out that I
could see through the highway overpass. Then it was just black. Just
black, thick smoke.'"
http://www.lexisone.com/news/nlibrary/b091201a.html
http://www.nylawyer.com/news/01/09/091201l.html
Owens Mary Ann
Mary Ann Owens, a journalist with Gannett News Service - was driving along
by the side of the Pentagon.
„Realizing the Pentagon was its target, I didn't think the careering,
full-throttled craft would get that far. Its downward angle was too
sharp, its elevation of maybe 50 feet, too low. Street lights toppled
as the plane barely cleared the Interstate 395 overpass. Gripping the
steering wheel of my vibrating car, I ducked as the wobbling plane
thundered over my head. Once it passed, I raised slightly and saw the
left wing dip and scrape the helicopter area just before the nose
crashed into the southwest wall of the Pentagon. I could feel both the
car and my heart jolt at the moment of impact. An instant inferno
blazed about 125 yards from me. The plane, the wall and the victims
disappeared under coal-black smoke, three-story tall flames and intense
heat
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/display.var.624436.Top+Stories.0.html
Patterson Steve
Steve Patterson, who lives in Pentagon City, said it appeared to him that
a commuter jet swooped over Arlington National Cemetery and headed for the
Pentagon "at a frightening rate .∫.∫. just slicing into that
building."
Steve Patterson, 43, said he was watching television reports of the World
Trade Center being hit when he saw a silver commuter jet fly past the
window of his 14th-floor apartment in Pentagon City. The plane was about
150 yards away, approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground,
Patterson said. He said the plane, which sounded like the high-pitched
squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he
thought it was going to land on I-395. He said it was flying so fast that
he couldn't read any writing on the side. The plane, which appeared to
hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon but was
flying as if coming in for a landing on a nonexistent runway, Patterson
said. "At first I thought 'Oh my God, there's a plane truly misrouted from
National,'" Patterson said. "Then this thing just became part of the
Pentagon.
He said the plane, which approached the Pentagon below treetop level,
seemed to be flying normally for a plane coming in for a landing other
than going very fast for being so low. Then, he said, he saw the
Pentagon "envelope" the plane and bright orange flames shoot out the
back of the building.
"It looked like a normal landing, as if someone knew exactly what they
were doing," said Patterson, a graphics artist who works at home.
"This looked intentional.".
Barbara Vobejda - Washington Post Staff Writer Sept. 11, 4:59 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
Peterson Christine
October 18, 2001 - Christine Peterson, was at a complete stop on the road
in front of the helipad at the Pentagon. I looked idly out my window to
the left -- and saw a plane flying so low I said, "holy cow, that plane
is
going to hit my car" The car shook as the plane flew over. It was so
close that I could read the numbers under the wing. And then the plane
crashed. For some reason I expected it to bounce off the Pentagon wall in
pieces. But there was no plane visible, only huge billows of smoke and
torrents of fire. (∑) A few minutes later a second, much smaller explosion
got the attention of the police arriving on the scene.
http://www.naualumni.com/News/News.cfm?ID=613&c=4
Plaisted
Plaisted, an artist, was sitting at her desk at home less than one mile
from the Pentagon ... I jumped up from my chair as the screeching and
whining of the engine got even louder and I looked out the window to the
West just in time to see the belly of that aircraft and the tail section
fly directly over my house at treetop height. It was utterly sickening to
see, knowing that this plane was going to crash. The sound was so
incredibly piercing and shrill- the engines were straining to keep the
plane aloft.
I was unaware at this time that the World Trade center had been
attacked so I thought this was just" a troubled plane en route to the
airport. I started to run toward my front door but the plane was going
so fast at this point that it only took 4 or 5 seconds before I heard a
tremendously loud crash and books on my shelves started tumbling to the
floor.
http://arlingtondpca.homestead.com
http://www.wherewereyou.org contribution #1148
Probst Frank
Frank Probst : a Pentagon renovation worker and retired Army officer, he
was inspecting newly installed telecommunications wiring inside the
five-story, 6.5-million-square-foot building. About 9:35 a.m., he saw
the airliner in the cloudless September sky. American Airlines Flight 77
approached from the west, coming in low over the nearby five-story Navy
Annex on a hill overlooking the Pentagon. He had lights off, wheels up,
nose down," Probst recalled. The plane seemed to be accelerating directly
toward him. He dove to his right. He recalls the engine passing on one
side of him, about six feet away. The plane's right wing went through a
generator trailer "like butter," Probst said. The starboard engine
hit a
low cement wall and blew apart.
I dove towards the ground and watched this great big engine from this
beautiful airplane just vaporize. It looked like a huge fireball,
pieces were flying out everywhere."
He still can't remember the sound of the explosion. . . the jet
vanishing in a cloud of smoke and dust, and bits of metal and concrete
drifting down like confetti. On either side of him, three streetlights
had been sheared in half by the airliner's wings at 12 to 15 feet above
the ground. An engine had clipped the antenna off a Jeep Grand Cherokee
stalled in traffic not far away.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/fortress1.html
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_55/local_news/10660-1.html
Rains Lon
Eyewitness: The Pentagon By Lon Rains Editor, Space News, was driving up
Interstate 395 from Springfield to downtown Washington I heard a very
loud, quick whooshing sound that began behind me and stopped suddenly in
front of me and to my left. In fractions of a second I heard the impact
and an explosion. The next thing I saw was the fireball.
I was convinced it was a missile. It came in so fast it sounded nothing
like an airplane.
Friends and colleagues have asked me if I felt a shock wave and I
honestly do not know. I felt something, but I don't know if it was a
shock wave or the fact that I jumped so hard I strained against the
seat belt and shoulder harness and was thrown back into my seat.
'http://www.space.com/news/rains_september11-1.html
Regnery Alfred S.
Alfred S. Regnery, saw (∑) a jetliner ... not more than a couple of
hundred yards above the ground"
http://www.humanevents.org/articles/09-17-01/regnery.html
Renzi Rick
Rick Renzi a law student - ''The plane came in at an incredibly steep
angle with incredibly high speed,''... was driving by the Pentagon at the
time of the crash about 9:40 a.m. The impact created a huge yellow and
orange fireball, he added. Renzi, who was interviewed at the scene by FBI
agents, said he stopped his car to watch and saw another plane following
and turn off after the first craft's impact.
http://www.pittsburgh.com/partners/wpxi/news/pentagonattack.html
Robbins James S
James S Robbins a national-security analyist, lives 6 floors up in an
apartment building. "The Pentagon is about a mile and half distant in the
center of the tableau. I was looking directly at it when the aircraft
struck. The sight of the 757 diving in at an unrecoverable angle is frozen
in my memory. "There was a silvery flash, an explosion, and a dark,
mushroom shaped cloud rose over the building. I froze, gaping for a second
until the sound of the detonation, a sharp pop at that distance, shook me
out of it. "
http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins040902.asp
Rodriguez Meseidy
Meseidy Rodriguez confirms "it was a mid size plane". His brother
inlaw
also saw a jetliner flying low over the tree tops near Seminary Rd. in
Springfield, VA. and soon afterwards a military plane was seen flying
right behind it.
http://mfile.akamai.com/920/rm/thepost.download.akamai.com/920/nation/091101-5s.ram
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170005.html
http://www.spooky8.com/reviews.htm
Ryan James
He tilted his wings, this way and in this way (Ryan mimics). He kinda did
like that. At that point the plane was slow, so that happened concurrently
with the engines going down. And then straighten up in sort of suddenly
and hit full gas. (Ryan mimics). It was just so loud.(Video)
low bandwidth : http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/488/Ryan.ram
high bandwidth : http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/488/Ryan2.ram
Sayer John
Lt. Commander John Sayer, a Navy reservist, was riding on a bus when he
heard a thud. "It sounded like a very loud clap," he said. "At
first I
thought an airplane had hit in front of the Pentagon, but when I got
closer I saw that it had struck the Pentagon."
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news01/091201_news_dcscene.shtml
Scott Don
Don Scott, a Prince William County school bus driver living in Woodbridge,
was driving eastward past the Pentagon on his way to an appointment at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center:"I had just passed the Pentagon and was
near the Macy's store in Crystal City when I noticed a plane making a
sharp turn from north of the Pentagon. I had to look back at the road and
then back to the plane as it sort of leveled off. I looked back at the
road, and when I turned to look again, I felt and heard a terrible
explosion. I looked back and saw flames shooting up and smoke starting to
climb into the sky."Washington Post, 9/16/01(Lexis Nexis)
http://web.lexis-nexis.com...
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~julianr/lexisnexis/scott.txt
Seibert Tom
Tom Seibert : "We heard what sounded like a missile, then we heard a loud
boom," said Tom Seibert, 33, a network engineer at the Pentagon. "We
were
sitting there and watching this thing from New York, and I said, you know,
the next best target would be us. And five minutes later, boom."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Sepulveda Noel
Noel Sepulveda, a Master Sgt. left Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., for a
meeting at the Pentagon. Walking back to his motorcycle he saw a
commercial airliner coming from the direction of Henderson Hall the Marine
Corps headquarters.. He was standing in the parking lot at the Pentagon
when he noticed a jetliner lower its landing gear as if to make a landing
and then he realized that the airplane was actually heading towards the
southwest wall of the Pentagon. It "flew above a nearby hotel and dropped
its landing gear. The plane's right wheel struck a light pole, causing it
to fly at a 45-degree angle", he said. The plane tried to recover, but
hit
a second light pole and continued flying at an angle. "You could hear the
engines being revved up even higher," The plane dipped its nose and
crashed into the southwest side of the Pentagon. "The right engine hit
high, the left engine hit low. For a brief moment, you could see the body
of the plane sticking out from the side of the building. Then a ball of
fire came from behind it." An explosion followed, sending Sepulveda flying
against a light pole. http://www.jimroche.com/pentagon_hero.htm
http://www.af.mil/news/Apr2002/n20020415_0585.shtml
http://www.lulac.org/Issues/Resolve/2002/30%20Sepulveda.html
Singleton Jack
"Where the plane came in was really at the construction entrance,"
says
Jack Singleton, president of Singleton Electric Co. Inc., Gaithersburg MD,
the Wedge One electrical subcontractor. "The plane's left wing actually
came in near the ground and the right wing was tilted up in the air. That
right wing went directly over our trailer, so if that wing had not tilted
up, it would have hit the trailer.
http://www.designbuildmag.com/oct2001/pentagon1001.asp
Skarlet
Skarlet, webmaster of punkprincess.com : As I came up along the Pentagon I
saw helicopters. (∑) it was headed straight for the building. (∑)
A huge
jet. Then it was gone. A massive hole in the side of the Pentagon gushed
smoke. The noise was beyond description. The smell seemed to singe the
inside of my nose. "Something hit the Pentagon. It must have been a
helicopter." I knew that wasn't true, but I heard myself say it. I heard
myself believe it, if only for a minute.
"Buildings don't eat planes. That plane, it just vanished. There should
have been parts on the ground. It should have rained parts on my car. The
airplane didn't crash. Where are the parts?" That's the conversation I
had
with myself on the way to work.
I spent an eternity in my car. I couldn't roll up the windows, the car
smelled like the Inferno. Concrete dust coats the outside of the car,
turning it a weird color.
The gash in the building looks so small on TV. The massiveness of the
structure lost in the tight shots of the fire. There was a plane. It
didn't go over the building. It went into the building. same smoke
drifts by your windows.
I've showered and showered. Ultimately, I think I'm going to throw away
my clothes. I don't think the smell will ever come out. September 11,
2001 08:41 PM
http://punkprincess.com/archives/002150.html
Slater Mike
Mike Slater, a former Marine : "It sounded like a roar," said Mr.
Slater,
who was 500 yards away from where the jet slammed into the Pentagon's west
side. As soon as Mr. Slater stepped outside, he saw and smelled something
uncomfortably familiar. "I saw a mass of oily smoke and thought of the
oil
fields of Kuwait," he said.
http://www.americanmemorials.com/memorial/tribute.asp?idMemorial=1316&idContributor=7466
Snavely Dewey
SGT Dewey Snavely was driving along Arlington's Quaker Lane when the radio
blasted the morning's first harrowing reports, then warned that a third
plane was heading his way. Minutes later, jet engines rumbled overhead.
"The guy I was with looked up and said: 'What the hell is that plane
doing?' Then we heard an explosion and the truck rocked back and forth."
Snavely, a member of the Engr. Co. on transition leave, knew deep in his
gut that the Pentagon was under attack.
http://www.army.mil/soldiers/oct2001/features/aftermath.html
Sucherman Joel
I heard a sonic boom and then the impact, the explosion. ... There were
light poles down. There was what appeared to be the outside covering of
the jet strewn about. ... Within about two minutes there were fire trucks
on the scene. Within a minute another plane started veering up and to the
side. At that point it wasn't clear if that plane was trying to maneuver
out of the air space or if that plane was coming round for another hit.
(Audio)
http://play.rbn.com/?url=usat/usat/g2demand/010911sucherman.ra&
Sutherland Jim
Jim Sutherland, a mortgage broker, was on his way to the Pentagon when he
saw ... a white 737 twin-engine plane with multicolored trim fly 50 feet
over I-395 in a straight line, striking the side of the Pentagon..
http://www.cincypost.com/2001/sep/11/wash091101.html
www.thedailycamera.com...
Stephens Levi
Levi Stephens 23, courier Armed Forces Information Service - According to
one witness, "what looked like a 747" plowed into the south side of
the
Pentagon, possibly skipping through a heliport before it hit the building.
Personnel working in the Navy Annex, over which the airliner flew, said
they heard the distinct whine of jet engines as the airliner approached.
"I was driving away from the Pentagon in the South Pentagon lot when I
hear this huge rumble, the ground started shaking ∑ I saw this [plane]
come flying over the Navy Annex. It flew over the van and I looked back
and I saw this huge explosion, black smoke everywhere."
http://www.pstripes.com/01/sep01/ed091201i.html
Thompson Carla
"I glanced up just at the point where the plane was going into the
building," said Carla Thompson, who works in an Arlington, Va., office
building about 1,000 yards from the crash. "I saw an indentation in the
building and then it was just blown-up up--red, everything red,"
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20010912170838.asp
Thompson Phillip
On my way to work Sept. 11, I saw an American Airlines jet come overhead
and slam into the Pentagon. I was sitting in heavy traffic in the I-395
HOV lanes about 9:45 a.m., directly across from the Navy Annex. I heard
the scream of a jet engine and, turning to look, saw my driver's side
window filled with the fuselage of the airliner. It was flying only a
couple of hundred feet off the ground.
I could see the passenger windows glide by. The plane looked as if it
were coming in for a landing - cruising at a shallow angle, wings
level, very steady. But, strangely, the landing gear was up and the
flaps weren't down.
The fireball that erupted upon impact blossomed skyward, and the blast
hit us in a wave. I don't remember hearing a sound. It was so eerily
similar to another experience during the Gulf War.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/911_1068139.html
Ticknor Henry
Henry Ticknor, intern minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of
Arlington, Virginia, was driving to church that Tuesday morning when
American Airlines Flight 77 came in fast and low over his car and struck
the Pentagon. "There was a puff of white smoke and then a huge billowing
black cloud," he said.
http://www.uua.org/world/2002/01/feature3a.html
Timmerman Tim
A pilot who saw the impact, Tim Timmerman, said it had been an American
Airways 757. "It added power on its way in," he said. "The nose
hit, and
the wings came forward and it went up in a fireball." Smoke and flames
poured out of a large hole punched into the side of the Pentagon. A piece
of twisted aircraft fuselage lay nearby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550486,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.32.html
Timmerman Donald "Tim"
Donald "Tim" Timmerman, a pilot, watched from across Interstate 395:
I was
looking out the window; I live on the 16th floor, overlooking the
Pentagon. I hear jets all the time, but this jet engine was way too loud.
I looked out to the southwest, and it came right down 395, right over
Colombia Pike, and as it went by the Sheraton Hotel, the pilot added power
to the engines. I heard it pull up a little bit more, and then I lost it
behind a building. And then it came out, and I saw it hit right in front
of -- it didn't appear to crash into the building; most of the energy was
dissipated in hitting the ground, but I saw the nose break up, I saw the
wings fly forward, and then the conflagration engulfed everything in
flames. It was horrible.
It was a Boeing 757, American Airlines, no question. It was so close to
me it was like looking out my window and looking at a helicopter.
cnn.com TRANSCRIPT
http://commemoratewtc.com/transcripts/tr-13-46.php
Wallace Alan
Wallace and his buddy Mark Skipper looked up and saw the gleam of a
silver jetliner. But it was flying too low. Maybe less than 25 feet off
the ground. And it was heading right at them. "I yelled to Mark, 'Let's
go!' " He bolted to the right, and a second later felt the searing heat
of the blast behind him. He hit the ground and rolled under a parked van
as a fire engulfed his fire truck, then blew through the firehouse.
Wallace got back to his feet, saw Skipper had escaped, then rushed to
the scorched fire truck to see if it would run, but the truck only
belched fire. It wouldn't move.
The airplane was a 757 Boeing or a 320 Airbus."
With bits of cloth and fiberglass still raining down outside the
blackened section of the Pentagon, Alan Wallace's instincts focused on
trying to help somehow. The truck was useless. So he dashed for his
gear inside the torched firehouse. His boots were filled with debris.
His suspenders were on fire. Wallace and two other firefighters rushed
to a window, where Pentagon employees were crammed together, frantic to
escape the darkness. Fire burst through the windows above them. The
ground burned near Wallace with heat so hot he thought several times
that his pants were on fire.
www.gosanangelo.com...
Walter Mike
Washington, Mike Walter, USA Today, on the road when a jet slammed into
the Pentagon: "I was sitting in the northbound on 27 and the traffic was,
you know, typical rush-hour -- it had ground to a standstill. I looked out
my window and I saw this plane, this jet, an American Airlines jet,
coming. And I thought, 'This doesn't add up, it's really low.' "And I saw
it. I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings. It went right there
and slammed right into the Pentagon. "Huge explosion, great ball of fire,
smoke started billowing out.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/09/11/witnesses/
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/pentagon.terrorism/
Wheelhouse Keith
Her brother, [Keith Wheelhouse], of Virginia Beach, spotted the planes
first. The second plane looked similar to a C- 130 transport plane, he
said. He believes it flew directly above the American Airlines jet, as if
to prevent two planes from appearing on radar while at the same time
guiding the jet toward the Pentagon.
http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=131871
Daily Press; Newport News; Sep 14, 2001; TERRY SCANLON
Winslow Dave
Dave Winslow : AP reporter Dave Winslow also saw the crash. He said, "I
saw the tail of a large airliner ... It ploughed right into the Pentagon."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550486,00.html
Wyatt Ian
"It was going so fast and it was so low," he said, standing on Army-Navy
Drive. "The only intelligent thought that came into my head was, 'Oh my
God, they hit the Pentagon.' I could then hear cars squealing all around
and people were just stunned." After the plane struck the west side of
the
five-sided building, thick black smoke billowed from a huge crater as fire
raged within.
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2001/092001/09122001/390193/printer_friendly
Zakhem Madelyn
Madelyn Zakhem, executive secretary at the STC, had just stepped outside
for a break and was seated on a bench when she heard what she thought was
a jet fighter directly overhead. It wasn't. It was an airliner coming
straight up Columbia Pike at tree-top level. "It was huge! It was silver.
It was low -- unbelievable! I could see the cockpit. I fell to the
ground.... I was crying and scared," Zakhem recalls.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/VA_Sept21.txt
NEWSCASTS on 9/11, that were on the BBC List:
Cbsnews
Radar shows Flight 77 did a downward spiral, turning almost a complete
circle and dropping the last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes. The
steep turn was so smooth, the sources say, it's clear there was no fight
for control going on. And the complex maneuver suggests the hijackers had
better flying skills than many investigators first believed. The jetliner
disappeared from radar at 9:37 and less than a minute later it clipped the
tops of street lights and plowed into the Pentagon at 460 mph.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/11/national/main310721.shtml
Maryland Geological Survey
Since the time of plane impact at the Pentagon had often been reported
with large scatter, the United States Army contacted us to inquire whether
we could obtain an accurate time of the Pentagon attack on September 11,
2001 based upon our seismic network. We analyzed seismic records from five
stations in the northeastern United States, ranging from 63 to 350 km from
the Pentagon. Despite detailed analysis of the data, we could not find a
clear seismic signal. We concluded that the plane impact to the Pentagon
generated relatively weak seismic signals. However, we positively
identified seismic signals associated with United Airlines Flight 93 that
crashed near Shanksville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The time of the
plane crash was 10:06:05_5 (EDT).
http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/publications/download/911pentagon.pdf
Patriotresource
The fire was so hot that firefighters could not approach the impact point
itself until approximately 1 P.M. The collapse and roof fires left the
inner courtyard visible from outside through a gaping hole. 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.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/timeline/pentagon.html
JET FUEL ON OUTSIDE WALLS AND INSIDE PENTAGON
Source: http:///perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html
The explosion and ballooning fire afterwards, in pictures, is typical
of jet fuel in the wings of an airliner upon impact.
Photos of jet fuel on front of Pentagon:
http://criticalthrash.com/teror/crashthumbnails.html
Eye Witness statements re Jet Fuel:
LTC Brian Birdwell. He was just heading back down the hall to his office
when the building exploded in front of him. He was transferred to George
Washington Hospital, where [he was treated by] the best, cutting edge burn
doctor in the U.S. The doctor told him that had he not gone to Georgetown
first, he probably would not have survived because of the jet fuel in his
lungs.
http://www.aog.usma.edu/Class/1961/BirdwellLuncheon.htm
Rosati Arthur
Arthur Rosati, another security officer and an army reservist : You could
smell the jet fuel, it was unbearable"
http://www.dcmilitary.com/marines/hendersonhall/6_39/local_news/10797-1.html
Schickler Rob
Rob Schickler, a Baylor University 2001 graduate and Arlington, Va.
resident, said. "A plane flew over my house," (one mile away from
the
Pentagon). "It was loud, [and] you can smell the burning concrete and
burning jet fuel."
http://www3.baylor.edu/Lariat/091201/alumni.html
Turner Ron
Ron Turner, the Navy's deputy chief information officer, was standing
solemnly at a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery when American
Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon Tuesday morning. He had only
to turn to watch the disaster unfold. "There was a huge fireball,"
he
said, "followed by the [usual] black cloud of a fuel burn." Turner,
a
helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, said the explosion was just the
same as explosions of jet fighters and helicopters during his tour of duty
in 1971. "It reminded me of being back in Vietnam," he said, "watching
Tan
Son Nhut Air Base burn."
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0901/091301j3.htm
Day Wayne T.
According to Matt Hahr, Kirlin's senior project manager at the Pentagon,
the employee "was thrown about 80 ft down the hall through the air. As
he
was traveling through the air, he says the ceiling was coming down from
the concussion. He got thrown into a closet, the door slammed shut and the
fireball went past him," recounts Hahr. "Jet fuel was on him and it
irritated his eyes, but he didn't get burned.
http://www.designbuildmag.com/oct2001/pentagon1001.asp
DiPaula Michael
Michael DiPaula 41, project coordinator Pentagon Renovation Team - He left
a meeting in the Pentagon just minutes before the crash, looking for an
electrician who didn't show, in a construction trailer less than 75 feet
away. "Suddenly, an airplane roared into view, nearly shearing the roof
off the trailer before slamming into the E ring. 'It sounded like a
missile,' DiPaula recalls . . . Buried in debris and covered with airplane
fuel, he was briefly listed by authorities as missing, but eventually
crawled from the flaming debris and the shroud of black smoke unscathed.
http://www.sunspot.net/search/bal-archive-1990.htmlstory (killtown)
Evey Walker Lee
Walker Lee Evey, program manager of the Pentagon restoration project :
Fires from the plane's 20,000 gallons of fuel melted windows into pools of
liquid glass. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/2821782.htm
Henson Jerry
Inside ∑ his office, Jerry Henson freed his hands enough to move rubble
off of his shoulders. Fires were burning closer as deposits of jet fuel
ignited. "You could hear them lighting off," Henson said. "They
would go
'poof,' kind of like when you light a furnace. You could hear these
getting closer."
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/america_at_war/article/0,1426,MCA_945_1300676,00.html
Jarvis Will
>From time spent on military aircraft, Will Jarvis knows what aviation fuel
smells like. That smell was his only clue that a plane had crashed into
the Pentagon, where he works as an operations research analyst for the
Office of the Secretary of Defense.
http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/02winter/f02.htm#jarvis
Kirk Mark Steven
Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.), a Naval Reserve intelligence officer. The
first thing you smell is the burning. And then you can smell the aviation
fuel. And then you can smell this sickly, rotten-meat smell, he said.
Liebner, Lincoln
Maj. Leibner recounted. "The plane went into the building like a toy into
a birthday cake," he said. "The aircraft went in between the second
and
third floors." At that point, no one was outside. Spotting a Pentagon door
that had been blown off its hinges, Maj. Leibner went in and out several
times, helping rescue several people. "The very first person was right
there," he said. "She could walk. I walked her out onto the grass."
Maj.
Leibner said a police officer pulled up onto the grass and began to help.
"Everybody was hurt," Maj. Leibner said. "They were all civilian
females.
Everybody was burned on their hands and faces.
http://www.usmedicine.com/article.cfm?articleID=384&issueID=38
Pfeilstucker Daniel C. Jr
. . .he was thrust 70 feet down the corridor and into a tiny telephone
closet halfway down the hallway connecting E Ring and A Ring. All I know
is that the blast must have pushed open the steel door to the closet,"
says Mr. Pfeilstucker, who had been 40 feet away from the plane's point of
impact. Then he smelled jet fuel and smoke. The putrid odor was seeping
into the closet. "It was this odor that I can't describe, but one that
I'll never forget, that's for sure,"
http://www.washtimes.com/september11/heaven.htm
Owens Mary Ann
Gripping the steering wheel of my vibrating car, I ducked as the wobbling
plane thundered over my head. Once it passed, I raised slightly and saw
the left wing dip and scrape the helicopter area just before the nose
crashed into the southwest wall of the Pentagon. I could feel both the car
and my heart jolt at the moment of impact. An instant inferno blazed about
125 yards from me. The plane, the wall and the victims disappeared under
coal-black smoke, three-story tall flames and intense heat
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/display.var.624436.Top+Stories.0.html
Shaeffer Kevin
Kevin Shaeffer was sprawled by the shock wave, then watched from the floor
as a roiling, bright orange ball of fire shot toward him and everything --
cubicles, desks, ceiling tiles, the building's concrete support columns --
everything blew to pieces. Flames bathed his skin, his eyes, his lungs.
The room went dark. Shaeffer, dazed, prone on the carpet, realized his
back and head were on fire. He rolled to put himself out, then staggered
to his feet. He ran a hand through his hair. His scalp felt wet.
http://www.pilotonline.com/special/911/pentagon2.html
Slater, Mike
As soon as Mr. Slater stepped outside [the Pentagon], he saw and
smelled something uncomfortably familiar. "I saw a mass of oily smoke
and thought of the oil fields of Kuwait," he said. "There were 3,000
Americans killed in Pearl Harbor, this will be at least that many, if
not more, and I hope Congress has the guts to do something about it."
http://www.americanmemorials.com/memorial/tribute.asp?idMemorial=1316&idContributor=7466
Wallace Alan
Wallace and Skipper, firemen, were walking along the right side of the
truck when the two looked up and saw an airplane. It was about 25 feet off
the ground and just 200 yards away. Both men ran. Wallace hadn't gotten
far when the plane hit. "I hadn't even reached the back of the van when
I
felt the fireball. I felt the blast," he says. He saw Skipper out in the
field, still standing.
"Everything is on fire. The grass is on fire. The building is on fire.
The
firehouse is on fire," Wallace recalls. "There was fire everywhere.
Areas
of the blacktop were on fire." His boots were on fire. There was trash
and
debris everywhere. The trees were on fire.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/635293.asp
Yates, John
Security officer John Yates, [in Pentagon office] was picked up and hurled
30 feet. a fireball rolled through the cubicle farm like a wave, with
bulbous head and tapered tail, and as it passed, everything around it
burst into flames. Cabinets overturned, partitions exploded, ceiling tiles
burned and danced and fell with their metal frames. Yates could not
breathe. He could not see. The room was ablaze around him. His glasses
remained on his face. They were smeared with something -- unburned jet
fuel, which Yates mistook for blood. He carefully took them off, folded
them, and slipped them into his shirt pocket.
http://www.pilotonline.com/special/911/pentagon2.html
Yeingst William
Just prior to the impact there were three firemen on the helipad at the
Pentagon. They looked up and saw the plane coming over the Navy Annex
building. They turned and ran, and at the point of impact were partially
shielded by their fire truck from the flying debris of shrapnel and
flames. They were knocked to the ground by the concussion. They had to
put out parts of their uniform--their bunker gear was actually on fire, so
the first thing they had to do was put out their own fire truck and their
fire equipment and they tried to start the truck and move it, but they
discovered that it wouldn't move. They got out and looked, and the whole
back of the fire truck had melted.
Audio : http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/audio.asp?ID=6
Transcript :
http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/transcript.asp?ID=6
Aviationnow
The large aircraft struck the outermost corridor (E-ring) of the five-ring
building at ground level (the second floor) at 9:43 a.m. EDT and continued
smashing its way through the D and C rings. Fuel triggered an intense fire
that caused the roof of the damaged E-ring section to give way at 10:10
a.m. It was still burning 18 hr. later.
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/publication/awst/20010917/aw48.htm
Usatoday
In the renovated section outside the immediate crash zone, most damage was
caused by smoke and water that poured out of brand-new sprinklers. Many of
these offices are occupied again.But there was extensive fire damage
hundreds of feet away in unrenovated areas that had not yet had sprinklers
installed. The fire was so intense it cracked concrete.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/01/01/pentagon.htm
PHOTOGRAPHS OF PENTAGON SITE and related materials:
1. Photograph by Steve Riskus at this site:
http://criticalthrash.com/terror/P1010015
2. Photograph by Steve Riskus at this site:
http://criticalthrash.com/terror/P1010016
These two photographs were taken by Steve Riskus within 10 minutes after
American Airlines #77 hit the side of the Pentagon. The photos show
widespread fires as a result of burning jet fuel, described by smell,
sight and burn injuries, which were diagnosed by doctors at nearby
hospitals.
3. Webpage by Steve Riskus, showing overview of damage to Pentagon, a
photo of the famous plane part on the lawn [only one part that we have
been allowed to see], and Steve‚s account of the crash. It is interesting
to note his impressions of mis-information being discussed in the weeks
soon after the crash.
4. Photographs of Pentagon. One shows the roof caved in, the next day, or
2 days later. The evidence of burns on the Pentagon walls are in the
pattern of a plane crashing the walls and the burning fuel having
splattered all over them.5. Steve Riskus website
http://criticalthrash.com/terror/crashthumbnails.htmlEYE WITNESS REPORTS OF
American Airlines Flight 77
CLIPPING objects on way to crash:
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html
McGraw Stephen
Father Stephen McGraw was driving and witnessed American Airlines Flight
77 crash into the Pentagon. "The traffic was very slow moving. I was in
the left hand lane with my windows closed. I did not hear anything at all
until the plane was just right above our cars. The plane clipped the top
of a light pole just before it got to us, injuring a taxi driver, whose
taxi was just a few feet away from my car. I saw it crash into the
building. It looked like a plane coming in for a landing. I mean in the
sense that it was controlled and sort of straight. There was an explosion
and a loud noise and I felt the impact. I remember seeing a fireball come
out of two windows (of the Pentagon). I saw an explosion of fire billowing
through those two windows.
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_39/local_news/10772-1.html
http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Pentagon%5Fcrash%5Feyewitness%5Fcomforted%5Fvictims.html
Elliott Bruce
Former ammunition plant official Col. Bruce Elliott watched as a hijacked
757 airliner crashed into the Pentagon. Elliott, said he had just left
the Pentagon and was about to board a shuttle van in a south parking lot
when he saw the plane approach and slam into the west side of the
structure. "I looked to my left and saw the plane coming in. "It was
like
a kamikaze pilot.‰ He said the craft clipped a utility pole guide wire,
which may have slowed it down a bit before it crashed into the building
and burst into flames. (...) Elliott said the rubble was still smoldering
Wednesday morning.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/features/911/IdxThur.html
Evey Walker Lee
EVEY: Actually, there's considerable evidence of the aircraft outside the
E ring. It's just not very visible. When you get up close -- actually, one
of my people happened to be walking on this sidewalk and was right about
here as the aircraft approached. It came in. It clipped a couple of light
poles on the way in. He happened to hear this terrible noise behind him,
looked back, and he actually -- he's a Vietnam veteran -- jumped prone
onto the ground so the aircraft would not actually -- he thinks it (would
have) hit him; it was that low. On its way in, the wing clipped. Our guess
is an engine clipped a generator. The wing actually clipped that
generator, and portions of it broke off. There are other parts of the
plane that are scattered about outside the building. None of those parts
are very large, however. You don't see big pieces of the airplane sitting
there extending up into the air. But there are many small pieces. And the
few larger pieces there look like they are veins out of the aircraft
engine. They're circular.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0915/DoD.html
Hagos Asework
Asework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work but stuck in
a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the plane flew over. "There was a
huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over.
Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its
wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on
the way in."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Hovis Tom
Being a former transport type (60's era) I cannot understand how that
plane hit where it did giving the direction the aircraft was taking at the
time. As most know, the Pentagon lies at the bottom of two hills from the
west with the east side being next to the river at 14th street bridge. One
hill is at the Navy Annex and the other is Arlington Cemetery. The plane
came up I-395 also known as Shirley Hwy. The plane had been seen making a
lazy pattern in the no fly zone over the White House and US Cap. The
aircraft went southwest near Springfield and then veered left over
Arlington and then put the nose down coming over Ft Myer picking off trees
and light poles near the helicopter pad next to building. It was as if the
pilot leveled out at the last minute and put it square into the building.
The wings came off as if it went through an arch way leaving a hole in the
side of the building it seems a little larger than the wide body of the
aircraft. The entry point was so clean that the roof fell in on the
wreckage.
The nose wheel I understand is in the grass near the second ring.
When the plane hit, fire rolled down the hallway. The fireball also went
along the outside of the building as shown by the blackend side of the
building to left of the impact point. The reason the fire took so long to
put out was because the attic was filled with "horse hair" for insulation
put there in 1942 when the building was built.
http://www.beanerbanner.com/a_father____.htm
Morin Terry
Terry Morin, a former USMC aviator, Program Manager for SPARTA, Inc was
working as a contractor at the BMDO offices at the old Navy Annex. Having
just reached the elevator in the 5th Wing of BMDO Federal Office Building
(FOB) #2. He heard "an increasingly loud rumbling" One to two seconds
later the airliner came into my field of view. By that time the noise was
absolutely deafening. The aircraft was essentially right over the top
of me and the outer portion of the FOB (flight path parallel the outer
edge of the FOB). Everything was shaking and vibrating, including the
ground. I estimate that the aircraft was no more than 100 feet above me
(30 to 50 feet above the FOB) in a slight nose down attitude.
The plane had a silver body with red and blue stripes down the
fuselage. I believed at the time that it belonged to American Airlines,
but I couldn't be sure.
It looked like a 737 and I so reported to authorities.
Within seconds the plane cleared the 8th Wing of BMDO and was heading
directly towards the Pentagon. Engines were at a steady high-pitched
whine, indicating to me that the throttles were steady and full.
I estimated the aircraft speed at between 350 and 400 knots. The flight
path appeared to be deliberate, smooth, and controlled. As the aircraft
approached the Pentagon, I saw a minor flash (later found out that the
aircraft had sheared off a portion of a highway light pole down on Hwy
110). As the aircraft flew ever lower I started to lose sight of the
actual airframe as a row of trees to the Northeast of the FOB blocked
my view.
I could now only see the tail of the aircraft. I believe I saw the
tail dip slightly to the right indicating a minor turn in that
direction. The tail was barely visible when I saw the flash and
subsequent fireball rise approximately 200 feet above the Pentagon.
There was a large explosion noise and the low frequency sound echo
that comes with this type of sound. Associated with that was the
increase in air pressure, momentarily, like a small gust of wind. For
those formerly in the military, it sounded like a 2000lb bomb going
off roughly ∏ mile in front of you. At once there was a huge cloud of
black smoke that rose several hundred feet up. Elapsed time from
hearing the initial noise to when I saw the impact flash was between
12 and 15 seconds. (...) T
The aircraft had been flown directly into the Pentagon without hitting
the ground first or skipping into the building. (...)
http://www.coping.org/911/survivor/pentagon.htm
Narayanan Vin
At 9:35 a.m., I pulled alongside the Pentagon. With traffic at a
standstill, my eyes wandered around the road, looking for the cause of the
traffic jam. Then I looked up to my left and saw an American Airlines jet
flying right at me. The jet roared over my head, clearing my car by about
25 feet. The tail of the plane clipped the overhanging exit sign above me
as it headed straight at the Pentagon. The windows were dark on American
Airlines Flight 77 as it streaked toward its target, only 50 yards away.
The hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon at a ferocious speed. But the
Pentagon's wall held up like a champ. It barely budged as the nose of the
plane curled upwards and crumpled before exploding into a massive
fireball. I saw the bodies of passengers burning. But I'm not sure. It
could have been Pentagon workers. It could have been my mind playing
tricks on me. I hope it was my mind playing tricks on me.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/17/first-person.htm
Owens Mary Ann
Mary Ann Owens, a journalist with Gannett News Service - was driving along
by the side of the Pentagon.
„Realizing the Pentagon was its target, I didn't think the careering,
full-throttled craft would get that far. Its downward angle was too
sharp, its elevation of maybe 50 feet, too low. Street lights toppled
as the plane barely cleared the Interstate 395 overpass. Gripping the
steering wheel of my vibrating car, I ducked as the wobbling plane
thundered over my head. Once it passed, I raised slightly and saw the
left wing dip and scrape the helicopter area just before the nose
crashed into the southwest wall of the Pentagon. I could feel both the
car and my heart jolt at the moment of impact. An instant inferno
blazed about 125 yards from me. The plane, the wall and the victims
disappeared under coal-black smoke, three-story tall flames and intense
heat
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/display.var.624436.Top+Stories.0.html
Probst Frank
Frank Probst : a Pentagon renovation worker and retired Army officer, he
was inspecting newly installed telecommunications wiring inside the
five-story, 6.5-million-square-foot building. About 9:35 a.m., he saw
the airliner in the cloudless September sky. American Airlines Flight 77
approached from the west, coming in low over the nearby five-story Navy
Annex on a hill overlooking the Pentagon. He had lights off, wheels up,
nose down," Probst recalled. The plane seemed to be accelerating directly
toward him. He dove to his right. He recalls the engine passing on one
side of him, about six feet away. The plane's right wing went through a
generator trailer "like butter," Probst said. The starboard engine
hit a
low cement wall and blew apart.
I dove towards the ground and watched this great big engine from this
beautiful airplane just vaporize. It looked like a huge fireball,
pieces were flying out everywhere."
He still can't remember the sound of the explosion. . . the jet
vanishing in a cloud of smoke and dust, and bits of metal and concrete
drifting down like confetti. On either side of him, three streetlights
had been sheared in half by the airliner's wings at 12 to 15 feet above
the ground. An engine had clipped the antenna off a Jeep Grand Cherokee
stalled in traffic not far away.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/fortress1.html
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_55/local_news/10660-1.html
EYE WITNESS REPORTS OF
PLANE PARTS AND LAMP POSTS SHEARED OFF
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html Raining debris after the
crash, on the highway and parking lots,
indicates that it was a plane smacking into a building, not a missile
penetrating a building.Carter, T.
T. Carter saw the tail section when she went to the site to support the
people who were doing recovery of bodies and evidence. If the tail
section was there and hauled away soon after the crash, then it is
possible that the photos that we see commonly, of the front of the
pentagon were taken late in the day, or the next day, after removal of
the tail section. Documents now being held by the govt. as secret,
need to be released, as they have been in NY. [See statement included
in Eye Witness reports.]
McClain Tom
Lt Col (ret) Tom McClain : I saw the remains of the engines in the North
parking lot of the Pentagon as well as melted aluminum and other debris
left from the aircraft.
[email] http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/pentagon/pentagon-email_20020316.html
Krohn Charles H.
One of the aircraft's engines somehow ricocheted out of the building and
arched into the Pentagon's mall parking area between the main building and
the new loading dock facility, said Charles H. Krohn, the Army's deputy
chief of public affairs.
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/publication/awst/20010917/aw48.htm
Tamillow Michael
FBI evidence teams combing the area of impact along the building's
perimeter found parts of the fuselage from the Boeing 757, said Michael
Tamillow, a battalion chief and search and rescue expert for the Fairfax
County, Virginia, Fire Department.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/pentagon.terrorism/
Washingtonpost
A Pentagon employee, a 37-year-old Marine major, said that at one point, a
column of 50 FBI officers walked shoulder-to-shoulder across the south
grounds of the Pentagon, picking up debris and stuffing it into brown
bags. The lawn was scattered with chunks of the airplane, some up to four
feet across.
http://www.washingtonpost.com...
Delawareonline
Smoke and flames engulfed the west wall. Cars traveling nearby were lifted
up off the roadway and showered with rocks and other debris. Among the
trash littering the road was a scorched green oxygen tank marked "Cabin
air. Airline use." When the debris shower stopped, people began getting
out of their cars, some of them screaming.
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2001/09/12terrorspreadsto.html
http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/091201/12wtcpentagon.html
Wallace, Alan
The ground was on fire. Trees were on fire. Hot slices of aluminum were
everywhere. Wallace could hear voices crying for help and moved toward
them. People were coming out a window head first, landing on him. He had
faced incoming fire before -- he was with the hospital corps in Vietnam
when mortars and rocket shells dropped on the operating room near Da Nang
-- but he had never witnessed anything of this devastating intensity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38407-2001Sep15
Timmerman Tim
A pilot who saw the impact, Tim Timmerman, said it had been an American
Airways 757. "It added power on its way in," he said. "The nose
hit, and
the wings came forward and it went up in a fireball." Smoke and flames
poured out of a large hole punched into the side of the Pentagon.
A piece of twisted aircraft fuselage lay nearby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550486,00.html
Terronez Terry
There was tons of stuff on the ground, big pieces of metal, concrete,
everything. We got up to a certain point and there was this huge piece of
something - I mean it was big, it looked like a piece of an engine or
something - in the road. And there was somebody, definitely a security
guard or maybe a military person, with his car in front of it making sure
no one touched it. I looked back and I saw the fire, it was just huge and
just incredible. I still cannot believe it. At that point in time, I
remembered I had a camera in my trunk. I got off an off-ramp beside the
Pentagon and parked my car in the grass and started taking pictures. The
whole time I was taking pictures it was so detailed. I could this huge
piece of a wheel on fire through the black smoke, but I could not see into
the Pentagon itself.
http://www.counseling.org/ctonline/news/amazing1001.htm
Sucherman Joel
USAToday.com Multimedia Editor, saw an American Airlines jetliner fly left
to right across his field of vision as he commuted to work Tuesday
morning. ∑ the passage of emergency vehicles got traffic moving again,
which was now crunching over twisted metal Sucherman guessed was the skin
of the plane.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,9306,00.asp
Probst Frank
Frank Probst : a Pentagon renovation worker and retired Army officer, he
stopped by the renovation workers' trailer just south of the Pentagon
heliport. Probst took a sidewalk alongside Route 27, which runs near the
Pentagon's western face. He recalls the engine passing on one side of him,
about six feet away. The plane's right wing went through a generator
trailer "like butter," Probst said. The starboard engine hit a low
cement
wall and blew apart. On either side of him, three streetlights had been
sheared in half by the airliner's wings at 12 to 15 feet above the ground.
An engine had clipped the antenna off a Jeep Grand Cherokee stalled in
traffic not far away.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/fortress1.html
Fortunato Don
"Traffic was at a standstill, so I parked on the shoulder, not far from
the scene and ran to the site. Next to me was a cab from D.C., its
windshield smashed out by pieces of lampposts. There were pieces of the
plane all over the highway, pieces of wing, I think. (...) "There were
a
lot of people with severe burns, severe contusions, severe lacerations, in
shock and emotional distress"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/635293.asp
Faram Mark
I was a senior writer with Navy Times newspaper. When the explosion
happened I ran down the hill to the site and arrived there approximately
10 minutes after the explosion. I saw the piece, that was near the
heliport pad and had to work around to get a shot of it with the building
in the background. Because the situation was still fluid, I was able to
get in close and make that image within fifteen minutes of the explosion
because security had yet to shut off the area. I photographed it twice,
with the newly arrived fire trucks pouring water into the building in the
background. That was the only piece of wreckage of any SIZE that I saw,
but was by no means the ONLY piece. As I stepped onto the highway next to
the triage area, I knelt down to tie my shoe and all over the highway were
small pieces of aircraft skin, none bigger than a half-dollar. Anyone
familiar with aircraft has seen the greenish primer paint that covers many
interior metal surfaces - that is what these shards were covered with.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frameup/message/1254
Evey, Walker Lee
Actually, there's considerable evidence of the aircraft outside the E
ring. It's just not very visible. When you get up close -- actually, one
of my people happened to be walking on this sidewalk and was right about
here as the aircraft approached. It came in. It clipped a couple of light
poles on the way in. He happened to hear this terrible noise behind him,
looked back, and he actually -- he's a Vietnam veteran -- jumped prone
onto the ground so the aircraft would not actually -- he thinks it (would
have) hit him; it was that low. On its way in, the wing clipped. Our guess
is an engine clipped a generator. We had an emergency temporary generator
to provide life-safety emergency electrical power, should the power go off
in the building. The wing actually clipped that generator, and portions of
it broke off. There are other parts of the plane that are scattered about
outside the building. None of those parts are very large, however. You
don't see big pieces of the airplane sitting there extending up into the
air. But there are many small pieces. And the few larger pieces there look
like they are veins out of the aircraft engine. They're circular.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0915/DoD.html
Damoose
Damoose said the worst part was leaving the Pentagon and walking along
Fort Meyer Drive, a bike trail, "you could see pieces of the plane."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
Defina
"The only way you could tell that an aircraft was inside was that we saw
pieces of the nose gear. Captain Defina was the shift commander [of an
aircraft rescue firefighters crew.]
http://www.nfpa.org/NFPAJournal/OnlineExclusive/Exclusive_11_01_01/exclusive_11.01.01.asp
Cissell James R.
James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon
Tuesday morning. The plane plowed into the Pentagon, sending a fireball
exploding into the air and scattering debris - including a tire rim
suspected of belonging to the airplane - past his car.
http://www.cincypost.com/attack/cissel091201.html
Braman Chris
Staff Sgt. Chris Braman : The lawn was littered with twisted pieces of
aluminum. He saw one chunk painted with the letter ``A,'' another with a
``C.'' It didn't occur to Braman what the letters signified until a man in
the crowd stooped to pick up one of the smaller metal shards. He examined
it for a moment, then announced: ``This was a jet.''
http://www.dcmilitary.com/marines/hendersonhall/6_39/local_news/10797-1.html
Bouchoux Donald R.
Donald R. Bouchoux, 53, a retired Naval officer, a Great Falls resident, a
Vietnam veteran and former commanding officer of a Navy fighter squadron,
was driving to the Pentagon. There was an enormous fireball, followed
about two seconds later by debris raining down. The car moved about a foot
to the right when the shock wave hit. I had what must have been an
emergency oxygen bottle from the airplane go flying down across the front
of my Explorer and then a second piece of jagged metal come down on the
right side of the car. Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2001
http://web.lexis-nexis.com...
Biggert Judy
Members of Congress have been shuttled to the site to inspect the damage.
Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) made the trip on Thursday. She saw remnants of
the airplane. ''There was a seat from a plane, there was part of the tail
and then there was a part of green metal, I could not tell what it was, a
part of the outside of the plane,'' she said. ''It smelled like it was
still burning.''
http://www.hjpa.org/morenews.html
Bell, Mickey
The full impact of the closeness of the crash wasn´t realized until
coworkers noticed damage to Bell´s work vehicle. He had plastic and rivets
from an airplane imbedded in its sheet metal,
Narayanan Vin
"The plane exploded after it hit, the tail came off and it began burning
immediately. Within five minutes, police and emergency vehicles began
arriving," said Vin Narayanan, a reporter at USA TODAY.com, who was
driving near the Pentagon when the plane hit.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/11/washscene.htm
Narayhanan Vin
The jet roared over my head, clearing my car by about 25 feet. The tail of
the plane clipped the overhanging exit sign above me as it headed straight
at the Pentagon.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/17/first-person.htm
Probst Frank
He recalls the engine passing on one side of him, about six feet away. The
plane's right wing went through a generator trailer "like butter,"
Probst
said. The starboard engine hit a low cement wall and blew apart.
I dove towards the ground and watched this great big engine from this
beautiful airplane just vaporize. It looked like a huge fireball,
pieces were flying out everywhere."
He still can't remember the sound of the explosion. . . the jet
vanishing in a cloud of smoke and dust, and bits of metal and concrete
drifting down like confetti. On either side of him, three streetlights
had been sheared in half by the airliner's wings at 12 to 15 feet above
the ground. An engine had clipped the antenna off a Jeep Grand Cherokee
stalled in traffic not far away.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/fortress1.html
http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_55/local_news/10660-1.html
Sheuerman Philip
Philip Sheuerman, exiting the freeway, turning into the parking lot, of
the Pentagon. saw "... a passenger plane ..."
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2001/09/20_spalu.html
Tamillow Michael
FBI evidence teams combing the area of impact along the building's
perimeter found parts of the fuselage from the Boeing 757, said Michael
Tamillow, a battalion chief and search and rescue expert for the Fairfax
County, Virginia, Fire Department. No large pieces apparently survived.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/pentagon.terrorism/
Tamillow, Michael
I thought, Oh my God, there is debris coming toward me! So my reaction
was, I ducked into my passenger seat and I heard the pitter-patter of
pebbles and concrete bouncing off my car. And the next thing you know, I
heard this big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being
shattered and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I
popped up to look but everything was fine. But when I looked to the car
next to me I realized that something went through (the drivers) rear
windshield and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that
something went through it. Then both I and the guy in front of me looked
at his rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and
the rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to
it. At that point I didn't know it was a plane, I thought it was a missile
strike.
Pulling away from the Pentagon there was tons of stuff on the ground,
big pieces of metal, concrete, everything. We got up to a certain point
and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it
looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there
was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person,
with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it. (∑) I looked
back and I saw the fire, it was just huge
http://www.counseling.org/ctonline/news/amazing1001.htmElgas Penny
Traffic was at a standstill. I heard a rumble, looked out my driver's side
window and realized that I was looking at the nose of an airplane coming
straight at us from over the road (Columbia Pike) that runs perpendicular
to the road I was on. The plane just appeared there- very low in the air,
to the side of (and not much above) the CITGO gas station. I saw the plane
coming in slow motion toward my car and then it banked in the slightest
turn in front of me, toward the heliport. In the nano-second that the
plane was directly over the cars in front of my car, the plane seemed to
be not more than 80 feet off the ground and about 4-5 car lengths in front
of me. I saw the end of the wing closest to me and the underside of the
other wing, as that other wing rocked slightly toward the ground. I
remember recognizing it as an American Airlines plane -- I could see the
windows and the color stripes. And I remember thinking that it was just
like planes in which I had flown many times.
I did not hear or feel anything -- not the roar of the plane, or wind
force, or impact sounds. I watched in horror as it gently rocked and
slowly glided straight into the Pentagon. At the point where the fuselage
hit the wall, it seemed to simply melt into the building. I saw a smoke
ring surround the fuselage as it made contact with the wall. It appeared
as a smoke ring that encircled the fuselage at the point of contact and it
seemed to be several feet thick. . . . the wings disappeared into the
Pentagon. And then I saw an explosion and watched the tail of the plane
slip into the building.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/supporting.asp?ID=30
Sepulveda Noel
Noel Sepulveda, a Master Sgt. left Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., for a
meeting at the Pentagon. Walking back to his motorcycle he saw a
commercial airliner coming from the direction of Henderson Hall the Marine
Corps headquarters.. He was standing in the parking lot at the Pentagon
when he noticed a jetliner lower its landing gear as if to make a landing
and then he realized that the airplane was actually heading towards the
southwest wall of the Pentagon. It "flew above a nearby hotel and dropped
its landing gear. The plane's right wheel struck a light pole, causing it
to fly at a 45-degree angle", he said. The plane tried to recover, but
hit
a second light pole and continued flying at an angle. "You could hear the
engines being revved up even higher," The plane dipped its nose and
crashed into the southwest side of the Pentagon. "The right engine hit
high, the left engine hit low. For a brief moment, you could see the body
of the plane sticking out from the side of the building. Then a ball of
fire came from behind it." An explosion followed, sending Sepulveda flying
against a light pole. http://www.jimroche.com/pentagon_hero.htm
http://www.af.mil/news/Apr2002/n20020415_0585.shtml
http://www.lulac.org/Issues/Resolve/2002/30%20Sepulveda.html
No parts seen -- reasoning with herself. But she SAW the PLANE.
Skarlet "Buildings don't eat planes. That plane, it just vanished. There
should have been parts on the ground. It should have rained parts on my
car. The airplane didn't crash. Where are the parts?" That's the
conversation I had with myself on the way to work.
I spent an eternity in my car. I couldn't roll up the windows, the car
smelled like the Inferno. Concrete dust coats the outside of the car,
turning it a weird color.
The gash in the building looks so small on TV. The massiveness of the
structure lost in the tight shots of the fire. There was a plane. It
didn't go over the building. It went into the building. Smoke drifts by
your windows.
I've showered and showered. Ultimately, I think I'm going to throw away
my clothes. I don't think the smell will ever come out. September 11,
2001 08:41 PM
http://punkprincess.com/archives/002150.html
EYE WITNESS REPORTS concerning
MISSILE-LIKE SOUNDS
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html No photos of missile. No
parts of missile. No radar tracking of
missile reported. Radar spotted the planes. How did they miss a
missile, which the govt. prides itself on being able to detect at any
given moment? The govt. had 43 minutes of warning, between the time a
second jet hit the South WTC tower and the time that AA 77 hit the
Pentagon. In those 43 minutes, I feel that NORAD had the time to find
any other aircraft in the area, besides AA 77 and the plane in
Pennsylvania.
Smoke out behind supposed missile on its way to Pentagon crash, looks
fake to me. The supposed smoke could be anything; dust; or it could
have been a retouch on the photo itself. This document/photo was
issued by the govt. We should be suspicious of its authenticity
because of its source, first. Secondly, it is not a picture of a
missile.
The 5 frames issued by the govt.: what is the official cite on this?
A legal cite?
Question: What is the point of foreign planners of 9/11 using a
missile, if they‚ve already got 4 airliners hijacked and in the air?
A missile goes on a straight or looping trajectory, not a tight, sudden
elevation -changing pattern like the pattern of the plane that was
radar tracked to the Pentagon.
If a missile had been used, its parts would be inside the Pentagon, not
outside on the lawn. The time that the photos were shot needs to be
established. The photos that are usually produced in the news, look
like they were taken late into the clean-up. So the cites, with times,
need to be established.
Associated Press first reported that a „booby trapped truck‰ might
have
been responsible for the Pentagon explosion, a la the Murtaugh Building
demolition in Oklahoma City.
Terronez Tony
Around 9:40 a.m. I reached the heliport area (beside the Pentagon). So I
got about 100 yards or so past the heliport and then all of the sudden I
heard this loud screeching sound that just came out of nowhere and it
intensified. This huge WHOOSH! When I looked up I saw the side of the
Pentagon explode.
As the fireball got higher and higher, you saw this debris go up in the
air. I am watching this in my rearview mirror, and then I thought, Oh
my God, there is debris coming toward me! So my reaction was, I ducked
into my passenger seat and I heard the pitter-patter of pebbles and
concrete bouncing off my car. And the next thing you know, I heard this
big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being shattered
and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I popped up
to look but everything was fine. But when I looked to the car next to
me I realized that something went through (the drivers) rear windshield
and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that something
went through it. Then both I and the guy in front of me looked at his
rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and the
rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to
it. At that point I didn't know it was a plane, I thought it was a
missile strike.
Pulling away from the Pentagon there was tons of stuff on the ground,
big pieces of metal, concrete, everything. We got up to a certain point
and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it
looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there
was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person,
with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it. (∑) I looked
back and I saw the fire, it was just huge
http://www.counseling.org/ctonline/news/amazing1001.htm
Rains Lon
Eyewitness: The Pentagon By Lon Rains Editor, Space News, was driving up
Interstate 395 from Springfield to downtown Washington I heard a very
loud, quick whooshing sound that began behind me and stopped suddenly in
front of me and to my left. In fractions of a second I heard the impact
and an explosion. The next thing I saw was the fireball.
I was convinced it was a missile. It came in so fast it sounded nothing
like an airplane.
Friends and colleagues have asked me if I felt a shock wave and I
honestly do not know. I felt something, but I don't know if it was a
shock wave or the fact that I jumped so hard I strained against the
seat belt and shoulder harness and was thrown back into my seat.
'http://www.space.com/news/rains_september11-1.html
Sucherman Joel
I heard a sonic boom and then the impact, the explosion. ... There were
light poles down. There was what appeared to be the outside covering of
the jet strewn about. ... Within about two minutes there were firetucks on
the scene. Within a minute another plane started veering up and to the
side. At that point it wasn't clear if that plane was trying to manouver
out of the air space or if that plane was coming round for another hit.
(Audio)
http://play.rbn.com/?url=usat/usat/g2demand/010911sucherman.ra&EYE WITNESS
REPORTS on the
SOUNDS OF JET ENGINES BEFORE CRASH
Source: http://perso.wandao.fr/ericbart/witness.html
Thompson Phillip
On my way to work Sept. 11, I saw an American Airlines jet come overhead
and slam into the Pentagon. I was sitting in heavy traffic in the I-395
HOV lanes about 9:45 a.m., directly across from the Navy Annex. I heard
the scream of a jet engine and, turning to look, saw my driver's side
window filled with the fuselage of the airliner. It was flying only a
couple of hundred feet off the ground.
I could see the passenger windows glide by. The plane looked as if it
were coming in for a landing - cruising at a shallow angle, wings
level, very steady. But, strangely, the landing gear was up and the
flaps weren't down.
The fireball that erupted upon impact blossomed skyward, and the blast
hit us in a wave. I don't remember hearing a sound. It was so eerily
similar to another experience during the Gulf War.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/911_1068139.html
Hagos Asework
Asework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work but stuck in
a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the plane flew over. "There was a
huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over.
Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its
wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on
the way in."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0%2C1300%2C550486%2C00.html
Morin Terry
Terry Morin, a former USMC aviator, Program Manager for SPARTA, Inc was
working as a contractor at the BMDO offices at the old Navy Annex. Having
just reached the elevator in the 5th Wing of BMDO Federal Office Building
(FOB) #2. He heard "an increasingly loud rumbling" One to two seconds
later the airliner came into my field of view. By that time the noise was
absolutely deafening. The aircraft was essentially right over the top
of me and the outer portion of the FOB (flight path parallel the outer
edge of the FOB). Everything was shaking and vibrating, including the
ground. I estimate that the aircraft was no more than 100 feet above me
(30 to 50 feet above the FOB) in a slight nose down attitude.
The plane had a silver body with red and blue stripes down the
fuselage. I believed at the time that it belonged to American Airlines,
but I couldn't be sure.
It looked like a 737 and I so reported to authorities.
Within seconds the plane cleared the 8th Wing of BMDO and was heading
directly towards the Pentagon. Engines were at a steady high-pitched
whine, indicating to me that the throttles were steady and full.
I estimated the aircraft speed at between 350 and 400 knots. The flight
path appeared to be deliberate, smooth, and controlled. As the aircraft
approached the Pentagon, I saw a minor flash (later found out that the
aircraft had sheared off a portion of a highway light pole down on Hwy
110). As the aircraft flew ever lower I started to lose sight of the
actual airframe as a row of trees to the Northeast of the FOB blocked
my view.
I could now only see the tail of the aircraft. I believe I saw the tail
dip slightly to the right indicating a minor turn in that direction. The
tail was barely visible when I saw the flash and subsequent fireball rise
approximately 200 feet above the Pentagon. There was a large explosion
noise and the low frequency sound echo that comes with this type of sound.
Associated with that was the increase in air pressure, momentarily, like a
small gust of wind. For those formerly in the military, it sounded like a
2000lb bomb going off roughly ∏ mile in front of you. At once there was
a
huge cloud of black smoke that rose several hundred feet up. Elapsed time
from hearing the initial noise to when I saw the impact flash was between
12 and 15 seconds. (...) T
The aircraft had been flown directly into the Pentagon without hitting
the ground first or skipping into the building. (...)
http://www.coping.org/911/survivor/pentagon.htm
Patterson Steve
Steve Patterson, who lives in Pentagon City, said it appeared to him that
a commuter jet swooped over Arlington National Cemetery and headed for the
Pentagon "at a frightening rate .∫.∫. just slicing into that
building."
Steve Patterson, 43, said he was watching television reports of the World
Trade Center being hit when he saw a silver commuter jet fly past the
window of his 14th-floor apartment in Pentagon City. The plane was about
150 yards away, approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground,
Patterson said. He said the plane, which sounded like the high-pitched
squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he
thought it was going to land on I-395. He said it was flying so fast that
he couldn't read any writing on the side. The plane, which appeared to
hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon but was
flying as if coming in for a landing on a nonexistent runway, Patterson
said. "At first I thought 'Oh my God, there's a plane truly misrouted from
National,'" Patterson said. "Then this thing just became part of the
Pentagon.‰
He said the plane, which approached the Pentagon below treetop level,
seemed to be flying normally for a plane coming in for a landing other
than going very fast for being so low. Then, he said, he saw the
Pentagon "envelope" the plane and bright orange flames shoot out the
back of the building.
"It looked like a normal landing, as if someone knew exactly what they
were doing," said Patterson, a graphics artist who works at home.
"This looked intentional.".
Barbara Vobejda - Washington Post Staff Writer Sept. 11, 4:59 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
Sayer John
Lt. Commander John Sayer, a Navy reservist, was riding on a bus when he
heard a thud. "It sounded like a very loud clap," he said. "At
first I
thought an airplane had hit in front of the Pentagon, but when I got
closer I saw that it had struck the Pentagon."
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news01/091201_news_dcscene.shtml
Sepulveda Noel
Noel Sepulveda, a Master Sgt. left Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., for a
meeting at the Pentagon. Walking back to his motorcycle he saw a
commercial airliner coming from the direction of Henderson Hall the Marine
Corps headquarters.. He was standing in the parking lot at the Pentagon
when he noticed a jetliner lower its landing gear as if to make a landing
and then he realized that the airplane was actually heading towards the
southwest wall of the Pentagon. It "flew above a nearby hotel and dropped
its landing gear. The plane's right wheel struck a light pole, causing it
to fly at a 45-degree angle", he said. The plane tried to recover, but
hit
a second light pole and continued flying at an angle. "You could hear the
engines being revved up even higher," The plane dipped its nose and
crashed into the southwest side of the Pentagon. "The right engine hit
high, the left engine hit low. For a brief moment, you could see the body
of the plane sticking out from the side of the building. Then a ball of
fire came from behind it." An explosion followed, sending Sepulveda flying
against a light pole. http://www.jimroche.com/pentagon_hero.htm
http://www.af.mil/news/Apr2002/n20020415_0585.shtml
http://www.lulac.org/Issues/Resolve/2002/30%20Sepulveda.html
Dobbs Mike
"... we saw a plane coming toward us, for about 10 seconds ... It was like
watching a train wreck. I was mesmerized. ... At first I thought it was
trying to crash land, but it was coming in so deliberately, so level...
Everyone said there was a deafening explosion, but with the adrenaline, we
didn't hear it."St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 13, 2001 - Philip Dine
http://web.lexisnexis.com ... and
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~julianr/lexisnexis/dobbs.txt
Peterson Christine
October 18, 2001 - Christine Peterson, was at a complete stop on the road
in front of the helipad at the Pentagon. I looked idly out my window to
the left -- and saw a plane flying so low I said, "holy cow, that plane
is
going to hit my car" The car shook as the plane flew over. It was so
close that I could read the numbers under the wing. And then the plane
crashed. For some reason I expected it to bounce off the Pentagon wall in
pieces. But there was no plane visible, only huge billows of smoke and
torrents of fire. (∑) A few minutes later a second, much smaller explosion
got the attention of the police arriving on the scene.
http://www.naualumni.com/News/News.cfm?ID=613&c=4
WALLS OF PENTAGON WERE REINFORCED
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html
REINFORCED WALLS of the Pentagon:
The air liner smashed into the Pentagon walls at the point between the
newly restructured walls and the original walls. The Pentagon had been
recently reinforced at the point of impact. [Observing from in front of
the impact site: on the left were walls constructed in 1947, or
un-reinforced walls. To the right were the recently reinforced walls and
windows.]
ONLY 90 foot HOLE IN PENTAGON:
The hole in the Pentagon is in keeping with penetration by the
fuselage of the plane. The wings were full of fuel and exploded
upon impact. Scattering fires show the expected pattern from
burning fuel from a plane just splattered on the side of a solid
object
IMPRINT of PLANE:
That the walls of the pentagon did not cave in for an imprint of the
plane, as happened in NY, is evidence that the walls were of a
different consistency, construction, not that a plane didn‚t hit.
Below is an accounting by Pentagon contractors who worked on recent
reinforcements of the walls.
PENETRATION PAST OUTSIDE WALLS
A missile would have penetrated a lot further into the Pentagon than
the plane did, [and would not have left jet fuel all over the place.]Eye Witness
statements re Walls of Pentagon were reinforced:
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html
Pfeilstucker Daniel C. Jr
Danny Pfeilstucker is a commissioning agent for John J. Kirlin Inc., a
Maryland-based mechanical contracting company that worked on the Pentagon
renovation project that was nearing completion September 11. (∑) Kirlin
Inc., among many companies involved in renovating the Pentagon since the
early 1990s, was in charge of updating plumbing and heating units. Mr.
Pfeilstucker says. "It was so hard to breathe. I didn't think I was going
to make it out."
http://www.washtimes.com/september11/heaven.htm
Slater, Mike
Within the last year, the Pentagon had put up shatter-reducing Mylar
sheeting to reduce the impact of a potential terrorist bomb.
http://www.americanmemorials.com/memorial/tribute.asp?idMemorial=1316&idContributor=7466
Aviationnow
Blast damage was also limited by new Kevlar panels, but they didn't
protect those nearby from fires from exploding fuel tanks, estimated to
have produced the equivalent of 200-400 tons of TNT. Fuel triggered an
intense fire that caused the roof of the damaged E-ring section to give
way at 10:10 a.m. It was still burning 18 hr. later.
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/publication/awst/20010917/aw48.htm
Singleton Jack
"Where the plane came in was really at the construction entrance,"
says
Jack Singleton, president of Singleton Electric Co. Inc., Gaithersburg MD,
the Wedge One electrical subcontractor. "The plane's left wing actually
came in near the ground and the right wing was tilted up in the air. That
right wing went directly over our trailer, so if that wing had not tilted
up, it would have hit the trailer. My foreman, Mickey Bell, had just
walked out of the trailer and was walking toward the construction
entrance." http://www.designbuildmag.com/oct2001/pentagon1001.asp
Usatoday
In the renovated section outside the immediate crash zone, most damage was
caused by smoke and water that poured out of brand-new sprinklers.
But there was extensive fire damage hundreds of feet away in
unrenovated areas that had not yet had sprinklers installed. The fire
was so intense it cracked concrete.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/01/01/pentagon.htm
Skarlet
The gash in the building looks so small on TV. The massiveness of the
structure lost in the tight shots of the fire. There was a plane. It
didn't go over the building. It went into the building. Smoke drifts by
your windows.
I've showered and showered. Ultimately, I think I'm going to throw away
my clothes. I don't think the smell will ever come out. September 11,
2001 08:41 PM
http://punkprincess.com/archives/002150.html
Patriotresource
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.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/timeline/pentagon.html
Mitchell Terry
This is a hole in -- there was a punch-out. They suspect that this was
where a part of the aircraft came through this hole, although I didn't see
any evidence of the aircraft down there. (...) This pile here is all
Pentagon metal. None of that is aircraft whatsoever. As you can see,
they've punched a hole in here. This was punched by the rescue workers to
clean it out. You can see this is the -- some of the unrenovated areas
where the windows have blown out.
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0915/DoD.html
EYE WITNESS REPORTS of OTHER AIRCRAFT
IN AREA OF CRASH,
an accounting of C-130 cargo plane, and helicopter
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.htmlMcClellan, Kenneth
A C-130 cargo plane had departed Andrews Air Force Base en route to
Minnesota that morning and reported seeing an airliner heading into
Washington 'at an unusual angle,' said Lt. Col. Kenneth McClellan, a
Pentagon spokesman. Air-traffic control officials instructed the
propeller-powered cargo plane 'to let us know where it's going,' McClellan
said. But, he said, there was no attempt to intercept the hijacked
airliner. 'A C-130 obviously goes slower than a jet,' McClellan said.
'There was no way he was going to intercept anything.' The C-130 pilot
'followed the aircraft and reported it was heading into the Pentagon,' he
said. 'He saw it crash into the building.‚
In the days immediately following the Sept. 11 hijackings, the Pentagon
had no knowledge of the C-130's encounter, because all reports were
classified by the Air National Guard, the Pentagon spokesman said. 'It
was very hard to get any information out,' McClellan said. ("C-130 crew
saw Pentagon strike, official confirms", Terry Scanlon et David Lerman,
Daily Press, 17 octobre 2001) -
http://dailypress.com
O'Keefe John
"∑ silver plane; I immediately recognized it as an American Airlines
jet,"
said the 25-year-old O'Keefe, managing editor of Influence, an American
Lawyer Media publication about lobbying. "It came swooping in over the
highway, over my left shoulder, straight across where my car was heading.
"There was no huge explosion, no huge rumbling on ground, it just went
'pfff'. It wasn't what I would have expected for a plane that was not much
more than a football field away from me. "The first thing I did was pull
over onto the shoulder, and when I got out of the car I saw another plane
flying over my head, and it scared ...me, because I knew there had been
two planes that hit the World Trade Center. And I started jogging up the
ramp to get as far away as possible. "Then the plane -- it looked like
a
C-130 cargo plane -- started turning away from the Pentagon, it did a
complete turnaround.
http://www.nylawyer.com/news/01/09/091201l.html
Rodriguez Meseidy
Meseidy Rodriguez confirms "it was a mid size plane". His brother
inlaw
also saw a jetliner flying low over the tree tops near Seminary Rd. in
Springfield, VA. and soon afterwards a military plane was seen flying
right behind it.
http://mfile.akamai.com/920/rm/thepost.download.akamai.com/920/nation/091101-5s.ram
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170005.html
http://www.spooky8.com/reviews.htm
Skarlet, webmaster of punkprincess.com : As I came up along the Pentagon I
saw helicopters. (∑) it was headed straight for the building. (∑)
A huge
jet. Then it was gone. A massive hole in the side of the Pentagon gushed
smoke. The noise was beyond description. The smell seemed to singe the
inside of my nose. "Something hit the Pentagon. It must have been a
helicopter." I knew that wasn't true, but I heard myself say it. I heard
myself believe it, if only for a minute.
http://punkprincess.com/archives/002150.html
Sucherman, Joel
Within about two minutes there were fire trucks on the scene. Within a
minute another plane started veering up and to the side. At that point it
wasn't clear if that plane was trying to maneuver out of the air space or
if that plane was coming round for another hit. (Audio)
http://play.rbn.com/?url=usat/usat/g2demand/010911sucherman.ra&
Thompson Phillip
Then a gray C-130 flew overhead, setting off a new round of panic.
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/911_1068139.html
Wheelhouse Keith
Her brother, [Keith Wheelhouse], of Virginia Beach, spotted the planes
first. The second plane looked similar to a C- 130 transport plane, he
said. He believes it flew directly above the American Airlines jet, as if
to prevent two planes from appearing on radar while at the same time
guiding the jet toward the Pentagon.
http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=131871
Daily Press; Newport News; Sep 14, 2001; TERRY SCANLON
CNN
An Air Force enlisted man 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 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.
September 11 Live CNN Transcript, Europe
Ournetfamily
Anon, from the Naval Annex: We constantly scanned skyward with our
"eyeball radar," noting the sound of every jet engine seemed to make
us
jump. Fortunately, the only aircraft noise was the crisp distinctive
ripping sound was of Air Force F-16's or the roar and popping of the rotor
blades of a Park Police UH-1 helicopter surveying the damage. The only
large fixed wing aircraft to appear was a gray C-130, which appeared to be
a Navy electronic warfare aircraft, he seemed to survey the area and
depart in on a westerly heading.
http://www.ournetfamily.com/WarOnTerror/emails/pentagonwitness.html
EYE WITNESS REPORTS concerning
RADAR TRACKING OF AA #77
Source: http://perso.wanado.fr/ericbart/witness.html Flight 77 was tracked on
radar from Ohio to the Pentagon. Immediately
after the plane was hijacked, near Cleveland, the radar control system
lost the plane on the tracking monitors, because the plane reversed
direction suddenly. 2 or 3 minutes later, the radar tracking system
picked it up again and mapped its flight all the way to the pentagon.
This is official and the information is public.
In Ohio, AA 77 reversed direction, and was not visible to the radar
tracking system. But this was only for a few air miles. It was picked
up again and nationwide broadcasts, reported its direction and
speculated upon its target, from Ohio to DC.
FLIGHT PATTERN of AA 77
A missile could not have approached the Pentagon in the pattern
reported by radar. A missile could not have flown over the rolling
hills countryside to hit the Pentagon where at the point of impact;
would have hit a hill.
The plane clipped several things on the way in and left evidence at the
sites.Eye Witness statements re Radar Tracking:
Cbsnews
Radar shows Flight 77 did a downward spiral, turning almost a complete
circle and dropping the last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes. The
steep turn was so smooth, the sources say, it's clear there was no fight
for control going on. And the complex maneuver suggests the hijackers had
better flying skills than many investigators first believed. The jetliner
disappeared from radar at 9:37 and less than a minute later it clipped the
tops of street lights and plowed into the Pentagon at 460 mph.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/11/national/main310721.shtmlO'Brien
At the Dulles tower, O'Brien saw the TV pictures from New York and headed
back to her post to help other planes quickly land. "We started moving
the
planes as quickly as we could," she says. "Then I noticed the aircraft.
It
was an unidentified plane to the southwest of Dulles, moving at a very
high rate of speed ∑ I had literally a blip and nothing more." O'Brien
asked the controller sitting next to her, Tom Howell, if he saw it too. "I
said, 'Oh my God, it looks like he's headed to the White House,'" recalls
Howell. "I was yelling ∑ 'We've got a target headed right for the
White
House!'" At a speed of about 500 miles an hour, the plane was headed
straight for what is known as P-56, protected air space 56, which covers
the White House and the Capitol.
"The speed, the maneuverability, the way that he turned, we all thought
in the radar room, all of us experienced air traffic controllers, that
that was a military plane," says O'Brien. "You don't fly a 757 in
that
manner. It's unsafe." The plane was between 12 and 14 miles away, says
O'Brien, "and it was just a countdown. Ten miles west. Nine miles west
∑ Our supervisor picked up our line to the White House and started
relaying to them the information, [that] we have an unidentified very
fast-moving aircraft inbound toward your vicinity, 8 miles west."
Vice President Cheney was rushed to a special basement bunker. White
House staff members were told to run away from the building. "And it
went six, five, four. And I had it in my mouth to say, three, and all
of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room, it was almost a sense
of relief. This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent
in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president, and
we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second," says
O'Brien. But the plane continued to turn right until it had made a
360-degree maneuver. "We lost radar contact with that aircraft. And we
waited. And we waited. And your heart is just beating out of your chest
waiting to hear what's happened," says O'Brien. "And then the
Washington National [Airport] controllers came over our speakers in our
room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic. The Pentagon's
been hit.'"
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/2020/2020_011024_atc_feature.html
EYE WITNESS REPORTS OF
FBI SEIZURE OF PHOTOS AND EVIDENCE
Source: http://perso.wandao.fr/ericbart/witness.html
Washingtonpost
A Pentagon employee, a 37-year-old Marine major, said that at one point, a
column of 50 FBI officers walked shoulder-to-shoulder across the south
grounds of the Pentagon, picking up debris and stuffing it into brown
bags. The lawn was scattered with chunks of the airplane, some up to four
feet across.
http://www.washingtonpost.com...
Velasquez Jose
Jose Velasquez : "It was like an earthquake" , "By the time I
got outside
all I could see was a giant cloud of smoke, first white then black, coming
from the Pentagon," he said.Velasquez says the gas station's security
cameras are close enough to the Pentagon to have recorded the moment of
impact. "I've never seen what the pictures looked like," he said.
"The FBI
was here within minutes and took the film."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/12/1211_wirepentagon.html