http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/flight77/claim.html
JAMIE MCINTYRE: "From my close-up inspection, there's no evidence of a
plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon.
The only site, is the actual side of the building that's crashed in. And
as I said, the only pieces left that you can see are small enough that
you pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing
sections, fuselage, nothing like that anywhere around which would
indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon and
then caused the side to collapse.
Even though if you look at the pictures of the Pentagon you see that the
floors have all collapsed, that didn't happen immediately. It wasn't
until almost about 45 minutes later that the structure was weakened
enough that all of the floors collapsed." -CNN (09/11/01) [Video archived
at: Prison Planet; The Web Fairy]
The Pentagon's official claim...
"The Boeing 757 struck Wedge 1 on the Heliport side of the Pentagon very
low to the ground and entered Wedge 1 just to the north of Corridor 4 on
the first and second floors. The plane traveled through the Pentagon at
roughly 45-degree angle to the face of the building. It went through
Wedge 1 and into the un-renovated Wedge 2 before exiting the C-ring, the
third ring of offices, and into a roadway (A/E Drive) that circles the
perimeter of the Pentagon between the B and C-rings.
According to federal investigators, the fully fueled plane was traveling
at 350 mph when it struck the Pentagon."
- Annual Status Report to Congress (3/01/02)
"At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon,
traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour." - 9/11 Commission
"Investigators have identified remains of 184 people who were aboard
American Airlines Flight 77 or inside the Pentagon, including those of
the five hijackers, but they say it is impossible to match what is left
with the five missing people.
A team of more than 100 workers at a military morgue at Dover Air Force
Base in Delaware used several methods to identify remains but primarily
relied on DNA testing and dental records. The fifth unidentified victim
was a passenger on the hijacked plane.
The remains of the five hijackers have been identified through a process
of exclusion, as they did not match DNA samples contributed by family
members of all 183 victims who died at the site." - Washington Post
(11/21/01)
Mr. Lee Evey, the Pentagon's renovation manager, at the DoD news briefing
on the Pentagon renovation. (Click photo to read the briefing.)
Video shown in this briefing.
Slides used in this briefing.
Official Pentagon drawing showing the angle of impact and penetration of
Flight 77coming in to the right of the Helipad. (Photo source:
defenselink.mil)
Flight 77's stats...
Date of Accident: 11 September 2001; Airline: American Airlines,
Aircraft: Boeing 757-223; Location: Washington, D.C., USA; Registration:
N644AA; Previous Registrations: ---; Flight Number: 77; Fatalities:
64:64; MSN: 24602; Line Number: 365; Engine Manufacturer: Rolls Royce;
Engine Model: RB211-535E4B; Year of Delivery: 1991 - airdisaster.com
American Airlines Flight 77 (Photo source: airliners.net)
(Lost link to source. Please email if found.)
Punch-out hole the nose of Flight 77 supposedly made. (See photos at
inside damage.)
Simulation by Purdue University. Notice it shows Flight 77 flying in
level and touching the lawn.
"And the plane came through the first floor, right through Naval Ops,"
Michael Flocco, whose only son Matthew was killed at the Pentagon doing
the duty he loved. Mike put muscle into his mornings, helping rebuild the
Pentagon as part of Operation Phoenix." -CNN (9/08/02)
"By the time Flight 77 reached the C corridor, the airliner and 64
passengers and crew were a moving ball of fire.
The impact destroyed a lot of offices and 189 lives, 125 inside the
building. The Army's personnel management shop took a direct hit. So did
the Navy's command center, where casualties were the heaviest. The center
is a large open facility with lots of cubicles." -Washington Times
(12/26/03)
This simulation shows a Boeing 757 banking slightly to the left before it
crashes and not touching the lawn although it's arguable that the left
engine is. (Graphic source: "Pentagon Building Performance Report"
[PDF])
"Schwartz said that from information received from the radio tower at the
Virginia state police barracks, as the aircraft came in, it actually
dipped its wing to avoid hitting the tower and brought the wing back up
before going into the building.
"The aircraft did not strike the ground before it hit the building,"
explained Schwartz." - Fort Meade/Army
Was it just "luck" that the crash happened right in the middle of the
only renovated section of the Pentagon that was being retrofitted to
bolster it against an attack, has a new sprinkler system, was only five
days away from being completed, was right next to the Pentagon's new
personal fire station with their fire truck already parked outside, and
was where President Bush was going to be landing two hours later?
(Photo source: ncsu.edu)
(Close up.)
"Luck if it can be called that had it that the terrorists aimed the
Boeing 757 at the only part of the Pentagon that already had been
renovated in an 11-year, $1.3 billion project meant to bolster it against
attack. That significantly limited the damage and loss of life by slowing
the plane as it tore through the building and reducing the explosion's
reach."
"The reconstruction is expected to cost over $700 million and take until
spring 2003." - USA Today (1/01/02)
"Schwartz explained that renovations on the Pentagon began several years
earlier and were nearing completion, particularly the section called
Wedge 1, when the crash occurred.
He said the plane struck the building almost in the middle of the space
where the renovation had been completed. Personnel had not completely
reoccupied this area of the building.
"This contributed to the relatively low number of casualties," Schwartz
said. "The number could have been far greater had the plane struck
another portion of the building not affected by the renovation.
He said one of the worst places the airplane could have gone was the
building's center court.
Schwartz said that from information received from the radio tower at the
Virginia state police barracks, as the aircraft came in, it actually
dipped its wing to avoid hitting the tower and brought the wing back up
before going into the building.
"The aircraft did not strike the ground before it hit the building,"
explained Schwartz.
"They (Fort Myer) provide a crash, fire and rescue truck at the Pentagon
heliport on standby during the daylight hours," Schwartz added." - Fort
Meade/Army
The 'Other' Tragedy
"Part of that area had been renovated recently, and that saved lives. Not
all the offices were occupied that morning because of the renovation. In
addition, the outer ring had been reinforced by floor-to-ceiling steel
beams that ran through all five floors. Between them was a Kevlar-like
mesh, similar to the material in bulletproof vests, which kept masonry
from becoming shrapnel. Together, the beams and the mesh formed a citadel
that kept the top floors from collapsing for about 35 minutes, time
enough for some people to escape. New blast-resistant windows above the
crash site didn't shatter. A new sprinkler system kept the fires from
consuming the entire place.
When the plane hit wedge 1, workers were just a few days away from
completing a three-year renovation of that section." -USNews (12/10/01)
"One hundred fifty feet (45.7 meters) from the impact zone was a new
heliport fire station, staffed by a three-person ARFF crew from nearby
Fort Myer. Captain Defina saw that the Fort Myer crew was trying to fight
the Pentagon fire with their disabled new E-One Titan. Its back end was
on fire, having been parked against the building with the front end
facing the heliport.
One of the Fort Myer firefighters had been inside the station watching
the World Trade Center events on television and the other two were
outside when they saw the 757 roaring toward them. Suffering minor burns
and injuries as they dove for cover, they tried unsuccessfully to start
their burning rig, which was soon a total loss."
The wall that the 757 hit was the first and only one so far to be
reinforced and have blast-resistant windows installed after the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing.
That afternoon, Captain Defina and airport Battalion Chief Walter Hood,
as well as other jurisdictions' battalion chiefs, led crews inside with
attack lines to fight fires on every floor of the "D" and "E" rings. The
aircraft had penetrated all the way to the "C" ring."
"The only way you could tell that an aircraft was inside was that we saw
pieces of the nose gear. The devastation was horrific." -NFPA Journal
(11/01/01) (Photo source: Smithsonian)
"At 9:38 a.m. on September 11, only one fire crew, Foam 161 of the Fort
Myer Fire Department, knew the exact location of the crash site. Captain
Dennis Gilroy and his team were already on station at the Pentagon when
Flight #77 slammed into it, just beyond the heliport. Foam 161 caught
fire and suffered a flat tire from flying debris. Firefighters Mark
Skipper and Alan Wallace were outside the vehicle at impact and received
burns and lacerations.
Ongoing Pentagon renovation work lowered the number of potential victims.
A portion of the impacted area was not yet fully repopulated following
recently completed upgrades.
The fact that the terrorist attack struck a large military facility
ensured the availability of military doctors, nurses, and first aid
responders." -Arlington County After-Action Report
"...The whole back of the fire truck had melted."
Just prior to the impact there were three firemen on the helipad at the
Pentagon. The president was supposed to land at the helipad two hours
after the impact, and so they had just pulled the foam truck out of the
firehouse and were standing there when they looked up and saw the plane
coming over the Navy Annex building." -Smithsonian Institution
"Because of its advanced age, the Pentagon has been undergoing some
structural upgrades and retrofits, including new blastproof windows made
of KevlarT that were, fortuitously, in place on the side of impact. This
reinforced section of the building had a significant effect on reducing
the extent of damage.
The federal fire department, located at Fort Myer, maintains a crash unit
at the Pentagon heliport that is staffed by three firefighters during
normal business hours.
Because of the KevlarT windows' absorption of the force of impact, there
was not very much glass debris to generate laceration-type injuries." -
Fire Engineering Magazine (11/02)
"The 1,000,000-square-foot wedge was five days away from completion when
it was struck by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77." -Annual Status
Report to Congress (3/01/02)
What are the odds that the crash happened in the very spot that was being
renovated? Notice the mysterious line mark in the lawn before 9/11 that
is just to right of the actual trajectory of the aircraft in question
that hit the Pentagon. Was this line mark in the lawn put there on
purpose to help "guide" the aircraft in question to crash into the
building?
Satellite photo taken 12/28/00. White arrow points to mysterious line
mark on lawn. (Photo source: ncsu.edu)
Satellite photo taken 9/07/01, 4 days before 9/11. White oval around the
mysterious line mark on lawn. (Photo source: spaceimaging.com)
Aerial photo taken after 9/11. (Photo source: september11news.com.
This photo has been rotated 180 deg. from the original.)
Where the plane hit was an area that had just been renovated by
Singleton Electric, said Hardy. It was really lucky that was the area
that got hit because there werent as many people, not everyone was moved
in yet. -CEE News (09/20/01)
"Much of Enercon's equipment is used for military projects, but...it's
the "Pentagon project" as he calls it, that causes Tangel to pause and
think.
"It's amazing they hit that part of the building," Tangel said of the
area that was being renovated at the Pentagon. "If they had hit any other
part of the Pentagon, they would've killed a lot more people and done a
lot more damage." -PJStar (09/10/02)
"Ongoing Pentagon renovations include designs for force protection that
saved military and civilian lives after the hijacked commercial airliner
smashed into the building Sept. 11, a DoD official said.
The terrorist assault "happened to hit an area that we had built so
sturdily," Pentagon renovation program manager Lee Evey said to reporters
Sept. 15. In addition to saving lives, the renovations helped to keep
more of the building intact.
"It could have been much, much worse," he said. The airliner crashed low
and diagonally into the Pentagon's outside "E" ring limestone wall, Evey
explained. The plane first hit a recently renovated wedge section near
the heliport on the west side of the building before passing into an
unrenovated area, he said.
Floor-to-floor and interconnected vertical steel beams, sturdier windows
and Kevlar armor panels used in the revamped exterior wall helped slow
down the plane and mitigate effects of the explosion as the plane crashed
through the Pentagon, Evey noted.
Evey said the hijacked aircraft slammed through the E, D, and C rings
before coming to rest in an open-air service passageway separating the C
and B rings.
An initial $145 million construction contract to start repairs to the
damaged sections was awarded Sept. 14, Evey said. Total cost of repairs
to the damaged sections of the building, he said, "would cost hundreds of
millions of dollars."
The contract also covers renovations on remaining portions of the
building and has a potential value of up to $758 million. All renovations
are to be completed by 2012." -DoD (9/15/01)
"Evey said the hijacked aircraft hit a portion of the building that had
been renovated and reinforced with blast resistant windows, a special
reinforced steel construction, and even fire-resistant Kevlar cloth."
"A $145 million contract was awarded Friday to Hensel Phelps Construction
Co., of Chantilly, Va., to begin rebuilding part of the damaged portion,
he said. The contract has the potential value of up to $758 million for
the future renovation of the undamaged portions of the building, said a
statement issued by the Pentagon." -Wired News
"The wall that the 757 hit was the first and only one so far to be
reinforced and have blast-resistant windows installed after the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing." -NFPA Journal (10/01/01)
"Nicholas Holland, an engineer with AMEC Construction Management of
Bethesda, Md., had spent the last two years working to reinforce the
walls. Two summers ago, a blast wall of reinforced steel and concrete was
installed right where the plane hit. It stood for 25 minutes after it was
hit before collapsing, long enough for people to escape, Holland said." -
Detroit News (9/11/01)
"The fact that more people were not killed at the Pentagon is due in part
to the renovation project underway on 9/11 that had forced many people
out of their offices in the area the plane hit. Another factor was that
much of the work already done had reinforced the structure with extra
steel, blast-resistant windows and Kevlar." -IBEW (Nov. '02)
Isn't it just too coincidental that the crash happened in the worst spot
for the terrorist hijackers, but the best spot if it was an inside job?
"KING: Michael, the Pentagon was kind of lucky in a sense, wasn't it?
FLOCCO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
KING: The side they hit wasn't that populated and it didn't make a
direct, full -- like top of the Pentagon hit, right?
FLOCCO: Correct. Also, the other contributing factors -- fewer engines
[fewer engines?] -- was the fact that it hit initially on the newly
renovated section that had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wire inside of -- able to
withstand more of an impact.
Plus, some of the columns and the windows had previously been reinforced
for the first phase of the renovation. It was a five-phase renovation
program. The first phase had just been completed only a week before. And
where the plane hit was under restructured, reinforced part of it. So
initially, it hit a very solid part and then, glanced off of that and
went into the old section that had just been evacuated for phase two
renovation. Had it hit anywhere else, it could have been catastrophic." -
CNN (9/08/02)
"The area hit by the plane was newly renovated and reinforced, while the
areas surrounding the impact zone were closed in preparation for
renovation, so the death toll could have been much higher if another area
had been hit." -Patriot Resource
Are we supposed to believe that the military had no anti-aircraft
defenses protect their own headquarters?
"Among the questions being asked here: How could the Pentagon, the center
of the U.S. defense establishment, not be prepared to defend itself
against an attack by an airplane?
Spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the Pentagon has no anti-aircraft
defense system that he is aware of. The White House is assumed to have
surface-to-air missiles available for protection." -USA Today (09/11/01)
"For years, staff at the Pentagon joked that they worked at "Ground
Zero", the spot at which an incoming nuclear missile aimed at America's
defenses would explode. There is even a snack bar of that name in the
central courtyard of the five-sided building, America's most obvious
military bullseye." -Telegraph (9/16/01)
"The Pentagon itself was built to be a fortress, virtually impregnable;
it had long been considered a prime target for an enemy attack." -Fire
Engineering Magazine (11/02)
Was it just a coincidence that Donald Rumsfeld was safely on the opposite
side of the Pentagon when the crash happened?
"Quigley said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 69, was in his office on
the north side of the complex when the plane hit the opposite side and he
went over to help the injured." -Reuters (9/11/01)
"The Pentagon was hit a short while after the World Trade Center was
struck. A plane, described by witnesses as a jetliner, made impact in the
portion of the building on side opposite from where Rumsfeld's office are
located." -The Ark City Traveler/AP (9/11/01)
"To give an idea of the power of the impact when American Airlines Flight
77 hit the building Tuesday, Bush said Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld felt the explosion in his office - on the opposite side of the
massive five-sided structure." -The Augusta Chronicle/AP (9/12/01)
"The secretary was in his office, really not that far away from the side
of the building that got hit by the plane." - Assistant Secretary of
Defense Torie Clarke, DoD (09/15/01) ["Really not that far away"??? LOL
Torie!]
(Note that this graphic shows the plane coming in at the wrong angle.
Source: armytimes.com)
Note: This website had asked the question, "Why is there not one single
photo confirming that Donald Rumsfeld was helping the injured outside of
the Pentagon as reported?" Although not a single photo of Rumsfeld has
been found showing him helping the injured, I personally saw a video on
TV that showed Rumsfeld help carrying the injured on a stretcher. The
next question would be, it's very nice of the Sect. of Defense to be out
there helping the injured, but since the U.S. was still under attack,
shouldn't the Sect. of Defense be worrying less about looking like a hero
helping the injured and more about combating the existing ongoing
terrorist attack?
Remember: "In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the
most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will, with the exception of
immediate responses as authorized by reference d, forward requests for
DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval." - Defense
Technical Information Center (06/01/01)
"Quigley said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 69, was in his office on
the north side of the complex when the plane hit the opposite side and he
went over to help the injured.
"He went outside the building and was helpful in getting several people
that were injured onto stretchers. He was out there 15 minutes or so
helping the injured," he said. -Reuters (9/11/01)
Rumsfeld went immediately to the scene and helped recover victims for
about 15 minutes before proceeding to the National Military Command
Center, a crisis compound on the other side of the Pentagon. -Pittsburg
11 News
Did Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld accidentally admit to a missile
crashing into the Pentagon and not Flight 77 in this interview?
Rumsfeld: "Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American
Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this
building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center." -
DoD (10/12/01)
Was Donald Rumsfeld psychic on 9/11, or was he just "spilling the beans"?
Inside, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had some people in to talk
about missile defense and the risk that terrorism seen in the past would
happen again.
Let me tell ya, he said, Ive been around the block a few times. There
will be another event.
Two minutes later, a plane smashed into the first World Trade Center
tower and proved him right. - Fayetteville Observer/AP (9/16/01)
Seven minutes later, as Mr Bush, his entourage and the accompanying press
corps were boarding Air Force One, American Flight 77 swooped low over
the suburbs of northern Virginia and slammed into the Pentagon.
Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, was in his office on the
eastern side of the building, in a meeting with Christopher Cox, the
defence policy committee chairman of the House of Representatives. Mr
Rumsfeld, recalls Mr Cox, watched the TV coverage from New York and said:
"Believe me, this isn't over yet. There's going to be another attack, and
it could be us."
Moments later, the plane hit. -Telegraph UK (12/16/01)
Excerpts from an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Patty Horoho, who was
Assistant Deputy/Personnel & Health Management Policy, Office of the
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower & Reserve Affairs.
"I stood behind Charlie and looked at the TV. At that time, it showed the
second plane attacking. I watched and this calm feeling came over me and
I said, Theres going to be a series of attacks across the United
States
Were going to be next. I could just feel in my heart that that
was exactly what was going to happen." - Soldiers to the
Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Who first informed the rest of the people inside the Pentagon that the
explosion that shocked the building was caused by a plane?
"Secretary Clarke: The secretary [Donald Rumsfeld] was in his office,
really not that far away from the side of the building that got hit by
the plane. He and another person immediately ran down the hallway and
went outside and helped some of the people, some of the casualties
getting off the stretchers, etc. When he came back in the building about
half an hour later, he was the first one that told us he was quite sure
it was a plane. Based on the wreckage and based on the thousands and
thousands of pieces of metal. He was the one that told us, the staff that
was in the room. So he was really the first one who told us that it was
most likely a plane." - DoD (09/15/04)
Who was telling the media what crashed into the Pentagon?
"Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
plane that struck the Pentagon was an American Airlines jetliner that had
taken off from Dulles International Airport on a scheduled flight to Los
Angeles." - The Post (09/11/01)
Why are the first reports of what crashed into the Pentagon is a
helicopter?
2:41:05 PM
"The Pentagon is being evacuated in expectation of a terrorist attack.
It is believed a fire has broken out in the building." -TCM Breaking News
(9/11/01)
2:47:43 PM
"There are reports that a helicopter has crashed into the Pentagon.
An eyewitness said that they saw the helicopter circle the building and
after it disappeared behind it, an explosion occured." -TCM Breaking News
(9/11/01)
2:52:26 PM
"Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed a explosion near
the Pentagon shortly after two planes crashed into World Trade Centre.
It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball, Begala said.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded." -TCM Breaking
News (9/11/01)
Excerpts from an interview with Captain William B. Durm, USN, who was
Commander of the Pentagons Triservice Dental Clinic.
"Still, I did not know a plane hit us. As I got close, somebody said a
helicopter had hit the other side of the building. I had not seen that
area yet.
An interesting story. I had an appointment with a gentleman to have a
root canal finished at 10:00 that morning. He actually had an appointment
for 1:00 in the afternoon; however, because I had a meeting with my staff
that afternoon, I had my technician call him up and move him to 10:00.
There are 27 employees in his office. Twenty-six were immediately killed.
He was the only one that survived that thing, and that's because we
called him up to come in early for a root canal." - Soldiers to the
Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Did another aircraft strike the Pentagon, or are these reports referring
to the two explosions that were heard?
4:05:16 PM
"A second aircraft has crashed into the Pentagon building.
It is not known whether this plane was that which was hijacked from
Boston airport a short time ago, the fourth such plane to be used in this
major attack on the US.
Earlier, a small plane had slammed into the building and set it
ablaze." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)
4:17:03 PM
"Part of the Pentagon building outside Washington has collapsed.
It had been hit by two planes apparently hijacked by terrorists in Boston
earlier today." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)
6:40:29 PM
Fighter jets are patrolling the skies above Washington after a jet
hijacked by terrorists struck the Pentagon.
An aircraft has crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon,
and the White House.
The Pentagon has taken a direct hit from an aircraft.
The nerve centre of the US military burst into flames and a portion of
one side of the five-sided structure collapsed when the plane struck.
Secondary explosions were reported in the aftermath of the attack and
great billows of smoke drifted skyward towards the Potomac River.
Authorities immediately began deploying troops, including a regiment of
light infantry.
General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says
that prior to the crash into the Pentagon, military officials had been
notified that another hijacked plane had been heading from the New York
area to Washington.
He says he assumed that hijacked plane was the one that hit the Pentagon,
though he could not be sure." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)
Just how fast was Flight 77 going when it supposedly crashed into the
Pentagon?
"According to data on the recorder, the plane was going 345 miles per
hour when it crashed at about 9:30 Tuesday morning." -Fox (09/15/01)
According to federal investigators, the fully fueled plane was traveling
at 350 mph when it struck the Pentagon.
-Annual Status Report to Congress (3/01/02)
"It was traveling at a speed of about 400 miles per hour,
accelerating with close to its full complement of fuel at the time of
impact." -Arlington County After-Action Report
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. -CBS (9/21/01)
"At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon,
traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour." -9/11 Commission
American Airlines Flight 77, bound from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles
with 64 passengers and crew, flew low to the ground and then crashed into
the Pentagon going 600 mph and loaded with 30,000 pounds of fuel. -MSNBC
(9/12/01)
"CALCM (AGM-86C) Specifications - Speed: About 500 mph" -Boeing
Why did so many reports say Flight 77 crashed on the helicopter pad when
the Pentagon says it flew to the right of it?
"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." -Stars and Stripes
"It slammed into the side of the Pentagon at an estimated 350 miles per
hour after first hitting the helipad." -Patriot Resource
"Captain Liebner says the aircraft struck a helicopter on the helipad,
setting fire to a fire truck." -Australian BC (9/12/01)
Official trajectory. (Source: washingtonpost.com)
"9:45: A third passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757
carrying 64 people, crashes on a helicopter landing pad beside the
Pentagon, near Washington, D.C." -Globe and Mail (9/12/01)
"The plane crashed on the helicopter landing pad adjacent to the
Pentagon." -Guardian (9/12/01)
"An aircraft has crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon,
and the White House." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)
Why wasn't the Pentagon warned that an aircraft was heading its way when
the FAA had warned the White House that one was?
But Cheney says when he heard the other officials were safe, he decided
to stay at the White House, no matter what.
Cheney was joined by transportation secretary Norm Mineta who remembers
hearing the FAA counting down the hijacked jets closing in on the
capital.
Someone came in and said, Mr. Vice President, theres a plane 50 miles
out, then he came in and said, It's now 10 miles out, we dont know
where it is exactly, but its coming in low and fast, says Mineta.
It was American Flight 77. At 9:38 a.m., it exploded into the Pentagon,
the first successful attack on Washington since the War of 1812. -CBS
(9/10/03)
"General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says
that prior to the crash into the Pentagon, military officials had been
notified that another hijacked plane had been heading from the New York
area to Washington." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)
"When Flight 77 hit, the defense secretary thought it was a bomb.
"I had no idea," Rumsfeld said on ABC's This Week.
Though the trade center was burning, Pentagon employees had received no
warnings to take cover or clear out.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld thought a bomb had exploded at the
Pentagon, even though the military defense command had been warned 12
minutes before impact that an errant airliner was headed toward
Washington.
"And even though a World Trade Center tower was on fire, the Pentagon was
placed only on "Alpha" alert status, just one level up from normal and
two levels down from the "Charlie" threat level the building is now
under, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said." -USA Today (9/16/01)
"Before the plane hit, the scene at the Pentagon was already chaotic.
Sheriff's deputies were screaming at people to move along quickly.
'There's a hijacked plane two minutes away. We don't know where it's
going to hit. Keep moving,' they shouted."
The U.S. Capitol was evacuated shortly after 9 a.m. ET, and officials
were telling people to stay away from the building by 10:30 a.m." -USA
Today (9/11/01)
"The American military air defence command was told by the federal
aviation administration that a hijacked commercial airliner was heading
towards Washington 12 minutes before it hit. But during that crucial time
the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his top aides remained
unaware of any imminent danger.
Defence command also failed to inform Pentagon authorities responsible
for guarding the building and so no steps were taken to order an
evacuation or otherwise alert the building's 20,000 employees.
But while officials knew of the attacks in New York, few imagined that
the Pentagon itself could be a target." -Guardian (9/17/01)
"...neither the FAA, NORAD, nor any other federal government organization
made any effort to evacuate the buildings in Washington." -CNN (9/17/01)
Excerpts from an interview with Captain Michael J. Neri, Jr., who was
Special Assistant to the Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection.
"Colonel Fruendt, our secretary Doreen, and myself were in there. I
looked at Colonel Fruendt and said, Im surprised we havent heard an
announcement about increased levels of THREATCON here at the Pentagon. -
Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
"In the moments immediately before impact at the Pentagon, the Arlington
County ECC began receiving 9-1-1 calls reporting a low flying airliner
that seemed off the normal flight path." -Arlington County After-Action
Report
Why wasn't there an order to shoot down Flight 77 before it crashed?
"McKinley and retired NORAD commander Larry Arnold, who was at the helm
on 9/11, said it would have been possible to scramble fighter jets over
the capital before hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the
Pentagon if the Federal Aviation Administration had notified NORAD
earlier of that particular hijacking.
FAA officials say they were in early informal contact with NORAD, even
though the official notification came later.
Two F-16 fighter jets mobilized from Virginia were 12 minutes away when
the Pentagon was hit, according to McKinley's submitted testimony.
Even with earlier official notification from the FAA, Arnold said it was
"speculative" to say whether Flight 77 could have been shot down before
it hit the Pentagon.
He said he never received authorization to shoot down Flight 77.
Additionally, he said he only learned of President Bush's authorization
to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93, which eventually crashed in
Pennsylvania, minutes after that plane already was down.
Yesterday's hearing also revealed that two unarmed District of Columbia
Air National Guard jet pilots who mobilized over Washington, D.C., that
day had expressed a willingness if necessary to fly their planes into a
hijacked jet to thwart an attack.
But their heroic offers were moot because Flight 77 already had struck
the Pentagon, and Flight 93 ended up crashing in the field after
passengers tried to retake the plane." -Star-Ledger/NJ.com (5/24/03)
Why did a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly cancel their travel
plans the day before 9/11?
On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials
suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because
of security concerns. -MSNBC (9/24/01)
Did this General get tipped off that the Pentagon was going to be hit?
Excerpts from an interview with Captain Michael J. Neri, Jr., who was
Special Assistant to the Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection.
"We got word that General Bester canceled the rest of his meetings for
the day. He was going to return to the Pentagon to start monitoring in
case we had to start moving medical assets to New York." - Soldiers to
the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Why was most of the Marine Aviation moved further away from where the
crash happened the weekend before?
"Most of Marine Aviation had just the weekend before been moved to the
"Butler building," an extension of the Pentagon and about 200 yards from
where the impact occurred, not nearly as close as their previous
offices." -Leatherneck: "Instincts Told Them to Flee"
Another instance of office at the Pentagon moving away from the crash
area...
Excerpts from an interview with Colonel Jonathan Fruendt, who was Deputy
Assistant Surgeon General/Force Protection.
"Our office was located on the second floor in the A Ring. The office had
moved there about six months before I arrived. The office had previously
been in the E Ring, right in the area that was subsequently destroyed by
the aircraft." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
More "lucky" people?...
Excerpts from an interview with Miss Beverly Ann Preston, who was an
Occupational Health Nurse for the Civilian Employee Health Service at the
DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"Ill tell you one story. One woman was in the new part of the building
She was in the new part of the building and there were eight people in
her section. Within three weeks before this happened, three people had
retired and then three people were on vacation. So that day there was
only herself and her secretary in the building." - Soldiers to the
Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
"...most of the ACPD [Arlington County Police Dept.] senior leadership
was away from Arlington County on the morning of September 11." -
Arlington County After-Action Report
Who warned San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown not to fly 8 hours before the
attacks?
For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came
late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport
security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist
attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air
travel.
Exactly where the call came from is a bit of a mystery. The mayor would
say only that it came from "my security people at the airport."
"We can only do what we can," the mayor said, adding, "Hell, if they
can't protect the Pentagon from attack, what can they protect?" -S.F.
Chronicle (9/12/01)
Did the Pentagon purposely inflate the number of casualties right after
the crash?
"Up to 800 people may have died Tuesday when a hijacked commercial
airliner was crashed into the Pentagon, officials said.
The more than 20,000 civilians and military men and women who work in the
Pentagon streamed into the surrounding parking lots, driven by blue and
white strobe alarm lights and wailing sirens." -CNN (9/12/01)
PENTAGON CASUALTIES OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK
"125 people were killed on the ground at the Pentagon. * An additional
59 perished aboard American Airlines Flight #77. We do not count the
five terrorists. Approximately 63 people were wounded/injured in the
attack." -DoD
"...in the first few hours, the media obtained information from any
available source...Estimates of up to 800 fatalities were based on the
potential occupancy of the impact area at the Pentagon, despite the
renovation work that left a significant part of the area uninhabited." -
Arlington County After-Action Report
Why haven't we heard what's on the flight recorders supposedly from
Flight 77? How do we know that these recorders weren't planted there or
that they were just said to have been recovered there? Is it just a
coincidence they were found in the middle of the night?
(Graphic source: usatoday.com) Pic of a flight recorder.
"Searchers today found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from
the hijacked plane that flew into the Pentagon and exploded, Department
of Defense officials said.
The two "black boxes," crucial to uncovering details about the doomed
flight's last moments, were recovered at about 4 a.m., said Army Lt. Col.
George Rhynedance, a Pentagon spokesman.
Rhynedance said the recorders were in the possession of the FBI, and that
officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were providing
technical assistance in reading any data they contain.
Dick Bridges, deputy manager for Arlington County, Va., said the voice
recorder was damaged on the outside and the flight data recorder was
charred. But he said the FBI still was confident the data can be
recovered from both.
Bridges said the recorders were found "right where the plane came into
the building." -Houston Chronicle/AP (09/14/01)
"FBI Director Robert Mueller said Friday investigators have recovered
some information from the flight data recorder from American Airlines
Flight 77, the hijacked jet that slammed into the Pentagon." -CNN
(9/15/01)
"...officials in Washington said they may not be able to retrieve any
information the flight data and voice recorders aboard the airliner that
hit the Pentagon.
Federal sources said the Pentagon crash black boxes were taken to the
National Transportation Safety Bureau lab where a quick readout was
attempted. But preliminary information shows there is nothing that
appears to be useful on the cockpit voice tape. The tape appears to be
blank or erased.
Data from the Pentagon crash flight data recovered hasn't been processed
yet." -CBS (9/16/01)
"Searchers found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders about 4 a.m.
today in the wreckage of the hijacked plane that slammed into the
Pentagon on Sept. 11, Defense Department officials said.
The recorders were turned over the FBI." -DoD (9/14/01)
"FBI Director Robert Mueller said Flight 77's data recorder provided
altitude, speed, headings and other information, but the voice recorder
contained nothing useful." -CBS (2/23/02)
"Meanwhile, investigators tell Fox News they are getting "good, solid
readings" from American Airlines Flight 77's data recorder.
According to data on the recorder, the plane was going 345 miles per hour
when it crashed at about 9:30 Tuesday morning. Investigators also say the
recorder has speed an altitude information for the plane's entire flight.
The plane's voice recorder was also recovered, but National
Transportation Safety Board officials say it was too damaged in the fire
to obtain any information from it." -Fox (09/15/01)
Why does one report say the Black Boxes were found "right where the plane
came into the building," yet the ASCE Pentagon building report claims
they were found near the punch-out hole in Ring C?
Figure 3.17 Flight data recorder and landing gear. (Graphic source:
"Pentagon Building Performance Report" [PDF])
"Searchers sifting through the rubble at the Pentagon early Friday said
they recovered the "black boxes" containing the flight data and voice
recorders of the hijacked plane that crashed into the building Tuesday.
Bridges said the recorders were found "right where the plane came into
the building." -PBS (09/14/01)
"A study of the locations of fatalities also yields insight into the
breakup of the aircraft and, therefore, its influence on the structure.
The remains of most of the passengers on the aircraft were found near the
end of the travel of the aircraft debris. The front landing gear (a
relatively solid and heavy object) and the flight data recorder (which
had been located near the rear of the aircraft) were also found nearly
300 ft into the structure." -Pentagon Building Performance Report (06/03)
Was it just a " bizarre coincidence" that John Fulton and the CIA were
planned a simulated plane crash into one of it's buildings on the morning
of 9/11?
John Fulton - Intelligence Networking & Analysis
On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA
were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response
issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building.
Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way
that day.
(Photo source: National Law Enforcement & Security Institute)
Agency was to simulate plane crash on September 11.
In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S.
intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an
errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause
wasn't terrorism it was to be a simulated accident.
Officials at the Chantilly, Va.-based National Reconnaissance Office had
scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would
crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building
after experiencing a mechanical failure.
The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles
International Airport.
Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 the Boeing 767
that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon took off from Dulles at
8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It
struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125
on the ground.
The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy
satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA.
In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief
of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the
morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running
a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that
would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they
know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day." -
Boston Globe/AP (05/22/02)
Why did Gen. Richard Myers and the Bush Administration say they never
thought about hijacked planes crashing into the Pentagon or any other
building even though they practiced twice for a passenger aircraft
accidentally crashing into the Pentagon 11 months earlier and NORAD was
even going to specifically practice for a hijacked commercial jetliner
crashing into the Pentagon five months earlier?
"You hate to admit it, but we hadn't thought about this," Air Force Gen.
Richard Myers said. -DoD 10/23/01
"Never did anybody's thought process about how to protect America did we
ever think that the evil-doers would fly not one, but four commercial
aircraft into precious U.S. targets - never," said Bush. -White House
(9/16/01)
(Photos source: army.mil)
Contingency planning Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates scenarios in
preparing for emergencies
The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft billows from the
Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the crash
sight. Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid. An
Arlington Fire Department chief dispatches his equipment to the affected
areas.
Don Abbott, of Command Emergency Response Training, walks over to the
Pentagon and extinguishes the flames. The Pentagon was a model and the
"plane crash" was a simulated one.
The Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, as the crash was called, was just
one of several scenarios that emergency response teams were exposed to
Oct. 24-26 in the Office of the Secretaries of Defense conference room.
On Oct. 24, there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro
stop and a construction accident to name just some of the scenarios that
were practiced to better prepare local agencies for real incidents.
"The most important thing is who are the players?" Geiling said. "And
what is their modus operandi?"
Brown thought the exercise was excellent preparation for any potential
disasters.
"This is important so that we're better prepared," Brown said. "This is
to work out the bugs. Hopefully it will never happen, but this way we're
prepared."
"You get to see the people that we'll be dealing with and to think about
the scenarios and what you would do," Sgt. Kelly Brown said. "It's a real
good scenario and one that could happen easily."
A major player in the exercise was the Arlington Fire Department.
"Our role is fire and rescue," Battalion Chief R.W. Cornwell said. "We
get to see how each other operates and the roles and responsibilities of
each. You have to plan for this. Look at all the air traffic around
here."
Burrell has coordinated these exercises for four years and he remarked
that his team gets better each year.
Abbott, in his after action critique, reminded the participants that the
actual disaster is only one-fifth of the incident and that the whole
emergency would run for seven to 20 days and might involve as many as 17
agencies.
"The emergency to a certain extent is the easiest part," Abbott said. He
reminded the group of the personal side of a disaster. "Families wanting
to come to the crash site for closure."
In this particular crash there would have been 341 victims. -MDW
(11/02/00)
"Over the years, accidental aircraft crash landings into the Pentagon
have occasionally been simulated.
Prior planning and training allowed responders to effect a large,
multijurisdictional response. The ACFD routinely participates in Pentagon
mass casualty tabletop exercises such as Abbottsville in May 2001, and
full-scale exercises such as Cloudy Office in 1998.
DTHC participation in an Arlington County EMS tabletop exercise with
Arlington County EMS in May 2001 helped response preparation for the
Pentagon attack. The scenario in that tabletop exercise featured a
commuter airplane crashing into the Pentagon. Additionally, Major Brown
and other DTHC staff had recently conducted a detailed disaster plan
review. The familiarity with its content helped adapt the DTHC disaster
plan to this situation.
The DPS was able to draw on the experience of previous interaction with
many of the responding agencies. The USSS, DC Metropolitan Police
Department, Virginia State Police, ACPD, and MDW frequently work together
when dignitaries visit the Pentagon. Area fire, rescue, medical, and law
enforcement agencies regularly participate together in tabletop and full-
scale exercises." -Arlington County After-Action Report
Five months before Sept. 11, 2001, the officers responsible for defending
American airspace wanted to test their ability to prevent a hijacked
airliner from being crashed into the Pentagon, but the scenario was
rejected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as impractical, a Joint Chiefs
spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The disclosure was made after a government watchdog group released a
leaked e-mail from a former official at the North American Air Defense
Command. In the message, the official told colleagues a week after the
attacks that in April 2001 NORAD requested that war games run by the
Joint Chiefs include an ''event having a terrorist group hijack a
commercial airline . . . and fly it into the Pentagon."
Last night, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Dan Hetlage confirmed
the account, saying: ''That scenario was rejected because it would have
become a whole exercise in and of itself. It wasn't looked on at the time
as being practicable."
The NORAD proposal is the clearest sign yet that national security
officials were worried before 9/11 about terrorists using hijacked
airliners as missiles, despite testimony that senior leaders, including
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, didn't know of such concerns.
Officials at NORAD apparently were concerned. But the e-mail said, the US
Pacific Command, which was overseeing the exercises simulating a war with
North Korea, ''didn't want it because it would take attention away from
their exercise objectives, and Joint Staff action officers rejected it as
too unrealistic."
Peter Stockton, chief investigator for the Project on Government
Oversight, said yesterday he was told by the source who provided the memo
that a special forces officer attached to the NORAD command at the time
had first proposed the Pentagon scenario be practiced.
Concerns that terrorists might use hijacked airliners as missiles dates
back to the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, when jets were placed on
patrol to guard against such a threat." -Boston Globe (4/14/04)
Is it just a coincidence that hours before the Pentagon was hit, Pentagon
medic Matt Rosenberg was studying the new MASCAL medical emergency
disaster plan which is based on the unlikely scenario of an airplane
crashing into the Pentagon?
"Matt Rosenberg was down on Corridor 8, a medic at the health clinic in
the massive military headquarters, grateful for an uninterrupted hour in
which he could study a new medical emergency disaster plan based on the
unlikely scenario of an airplane crashing into the place.
Into the Pentagon's health clinic rushed a man screaming, "Evacuate now!
Evacuate now!" This was not part of the disaster drill Matt Rosenberg had
studied earlier that morning. He stopped a procedure on a patient in
Minor Surgery Treatment Room 2 and started evacuating patients.
A naval officer rushed in and said a patient was in the courtyard where
some people, confused and scared, had rushed to escape the collapsing
inferno inside Corridor 5. Rosenberg, 26, dashed down a hallway, pushing
through hundreds of people escaping the opposite direction, until he
reached the courtyard, where he saw smoke billowing and people staggering
out from the area that had been hit. He grabbed his radio and called back
to the clinic. "You need to initiate MASCAL right now! We have mass
casualties! I need medical assets to the courtyard!" -Star
Tribune/Washington Post (9/21/01)
Excerpts from an interview with Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg, a medic at
the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"We had virtually completed our MASCAL plan. I was setting up training
for medics, I was in the process of ordering new supplies, and trying to
reinvent what we would do, how we would go about it. We still had the old
MASCAL kits in place, and everything under the old guidance, and we were
trying to take that a step beyond. Believe it or not, the day prior to
the incident, I was just on the phone with the FBI, and we were talking
so who has command should this happen, who has the medical jurisdiction,
who does this, who does that, and we talked about it and talked about
it, and he helped me out a lot. And then the next day, during the
incident, I actually found him. He was out there on the incident that
day, and I made the joke, You know, I used to have questions about all
this, about who would have the command. He would say, You got any more
questions? I went, Nope, not anymore.
When I started seeing patients coming out of the building, I picked up my
radio, and I called in, This is Sergeant Rosenberg. You need to initiate
the MASCAL plan now. We have multiple patients in the center courtyard,
and I need medical assets in the courtyard immediately. - Soldiers to
the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Excerpts from an interview with Staff Sergeant Keith Pernell, who was
NCOIC of Nursing Services at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
Before September 11, we were actually working on the MASCAL. One of our
major functions was to re-evaluate the plan.
On September 11, I was in my office and Sergeant Rosenberg came up and
said, Hey, Sergeant, come take a look at the TV, the World Trade Center,
a plane ran through it. I said, No, no, I'm all right, I need to just
finish this work up.
I couldn't believe that a plane had crashed in there. When you visualize
it, you say, My God, did this really happen? I can't believe it. -
Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Was it just a coincidence that the MASCAL emergency equipment was out of
their storage areas for an "inventory check" before the Pentagon was hit?
Excerpts from an interview with Major Lorie A. Brown, who was Chief Nurse
of DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"We did not feel a plane hit the building. Our lights didnt flicker. We
didnt lose electricity or phones. Nothing. There was no physical impact
for us. Probably the lack of physical impact is because the clinic is
below ground and also built with new construction techniques; this new
construction technique played a role in saving lives at the actual crash
site. But we had no physical impact and it wasnt until someone came
running into the clinic and said, Youve got to get out. Youve got to
get out. Something horrible has happened.
We saw hundreds of people running down the corridor to the exit. Because
the crash site was on the west side of the building the clinic was almost
directly opposite, our corridor was a clear avenue for people to escape.
As soon as I saw that, we initiated the MASCAL, [mass casualty plan]
started galvanizing all of our assets and put our plan in action.
Having practiced over the past year our roles and worked our pieces, we
knew our lanes of responsibility. Im the chairperson for the DiLorenzo
Action Response Team, DART; that is our MASCAL plan. For the past year,
the DART team has been working on developing that plan, really creating a
whole new plan. We sat down and met on numerous occasions with the Air
Force clinic, civilian EMS, [Emergency Medical Services] Pentagon and DoD
hierarchy, DPS and with the other civilian medical agencies. We worked
through issues, what would happen in the event of a MASCAL, what each of
our roles would be. We participated in several large tabletop exercises
with these external bodies, to include FEMA [Federal Emergency Management
Agency] and the others I just mentioned. We even did our own internal
exercise where we made up the scenario of a plane crashing into the
building. Though you can never be prepared for an event like this, I am
sure all our preparations and exercise paid off.
We actually had our MASCAL equipment out of the storage areas because we
were doing an inventory. So there were many pieces that just fell into
place and worked so well on that day. It was just fortuitous. It was just
amazing that way that things kind of happened the way they did. But like
I said our planning truly made such a huge difference on that day. Our
Commander had the foresight to focus on MASCAL prep and gave us the time
and budget to really revamp our old MASCAL plan. I cant say enough about
how critical this was to our success." - Soldiers to the
Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
What does it say when even a Pentagon rescuer says it was "eerie" how the
MASCAL emergency plane crash plan he had been trained on twice before was
"very similar to what actually happened" at the Pentagon on 9/11?
Excerpts from an interview with Lieutenant Colonel John Felicio, who was
Deputy Commander for Administration of the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health
Clinic.
"As I was heading down the main corridor outside my office to the main
lobby, I remember an NCO asking me if I had heard about the private
plane that hit one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. I told him I
hadnt and walked out to the main lobby and that's when I saw it on the
TV. It wasnt a private plane but a jet. At that time, I came back into
my office and I put on my WIN TV on my office computer. As I continued to
work, I saw that a second plane that had flown into the World Trade
Center.
At that time, I got this uneasy feeling and walked over to Major Brown's
office since she had clinical oversight of our Emergency Reaction Teams.
My thought was to see about our preparedness for a MASCAL situation.
I then went out to the front of the clinic, which is basically where we
normally marshal in MASCAL situations.
Meanwhile, I knew because of the two MASCAL exercises we previously did
that Colonel Kaminski, our Chief of Ancillary Services, was responsible
for being our Medical Liaison at the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) and
that he should be en route to that location.
The saving grace to our efforts was the two MASCAL exercises we
previously had conducted with the clinic leadership and staff. You know
it was kind of eerie. The scenario we had for these MASCALS was very
similar to what actually happened. Our scenario for both MASCALS was a
plane flying into the Pentagon courtyard." - Soldiers to the
Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]
Was it just "sheer coincidence" that a large number of fire and medical
service units were dispatched to a high-rise building fire near the
Pentagon one minute before the attack and that the fire was already
reported out by the time the first responder arrived which made most of
the units available to help at the Pentagon?
"Additionally, just 1 minute before the Pentagon crash, in response to a
9-1-1 telephone call at 9:37 a.m., the ECC dispatched several units to an
apartment fire at 1003 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. Because it was
located in a high-rise building, it was a substantial dispatch involving
nine different fire and medical service units. Engine 103 reached the
Rosslyn scene first and radioed that the apartment fire was out. Thus, by
sheer coincidence, there were a significant number of units already on
the road near the Pentagon at the time of the attack.
The ECC redirected units that had been dispatched minutes earlier to a
Rosslyn high-rise fire, now reported under control." -Arlington County
After-Action Report
Starting from: 1003 Wilson Blvd, Rosslyn, VA 22209-2201
Arriving at: US Pentagon Rotary, Arlington, VA
Distance: 2.6 miles Approximate Travel Time: 5 mins - Yahoo
"There were responses to two fires on the morning of September 11, which
the fill-in units readily handled.
On the morning of September 11, the regional response was almost
overwhelming.
Because of a dispatch for an apartment fire in the Rosslyn area minutes
before the plane hit the Pentagon, numerous units were on the air or in
the vicinity, and those units immediately self-dispatched as they
anticipated the ECC's response need." -Fire Engineering Magazine (11/02)
Was it just a coincidence also that Engine 101 was nearby the Pentagon
too at the time of the attack?
"By 8:30 a.m., training classes at the Arlington County Fire Training
Academy were in full swing.
In Arlington County, Captain Steve McCoy and the crew of Engine 101 were
en route to a training session in Crystal City, traveling north on
Interstate 395. Their conversation about the World Trade Center attack
was interrupted by the sight of a commercial airliner in steep descent,
banking sharply to its right before disappearing beyond the horizon. At
9:38 a.m., shortly after American Airlines Flight #77 disappeared from
sight, a tremendous explosion preceded a massive plume of smoke and fire.
Unable to pinpoint the precise location, Captain McCoy immediately
radioed the Arlington County Emergency Communications Center (ECC),
reporting an airplane crash in the vicinity of the 14th Street Bridge or
in Crystal City. Aware of the World Trade Center attack, Captain McCoy
also advised that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should be
notified, since this was a possible terrorist attack." -Arlington County
After-Action Report
Was it just a coincidence that the Pentagon was staffed with extra
emergency communications specialists the day of the attack?
"On the morning of September 11, seven emergency communications
specialists, the minimum required staffing level, were on duty at the
ECC, having commenced their shift at 7:00 a.m...On this particular
morning, six additional staff members happened to be in the conference
room attending a training class." -Arlington County After-Action Report
Was it just a "precautionary step" that the FBI had sent a team over to
an airport near the Pentagon after Flight 77 was reported hijacked out of
Dulles?
"...at the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO), Special Agent-in-Charge
(SAC) Arthur Eberhart was putting in motion the steps necessary to
support New York City.
At about 9:20 a.m., the WFO Command Center was notified that American
Airlines Flight #77 had been hijacked shortly after takeoff from
Washington Dulles International Airport. SAC Eberhart dispatched a team
of 50 agents to investigate the Dulles hijacking and provide additional
security to prevent another. He sent a second team to Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport as a precautionary step." -Arlington County
After-Action Report
How did so many important emergency personnel arrive at the Pentagon so
fast after the crash?
9:38 a.m. American Airlines Flight #77, carrying 58 passengers and a crew
of 6, crashes into the Pentagon
9:40 a.m. Captain Chuck Gibbs [ACFDs Training Officer] arrives at the
Pentagon
9:40 a.m. Captain Mark Penn [Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Services]
arrives at Arlington County EOC
9:41 a.m. Battalion Chief Bob Cornwell arrives at the Pentagon and
assumes Incident Command
9:41 a.m. ACFD Truck 105 arrives at the Pentagon
9:42 a.m. ACFD Captain Edward Blunt arrives at the Pentagon and
establishes EMS Control
9:43 a.m. MWAA [Metropolitan Medical Response System] first responders
arrive at the Pentagon - Arlington County After-Action Report
If the 9/11 attacks were perpetuated by Muslim extremists who are willing
to die for their cause, why did their attacks only come from the air and
not from the ground also?
"There was great concern that additional terrorist sleeper-cells might
become active and perpetrate further attacks." -Arlington County After-
Action Report
What does the Pentagon say about the accusations that Flight 77 didn't
crash there?
"...we spoke with The Pentagon about the conspiracy theory, and they
said, "it's so ridiculous, we don't even address it." -7 News Online
(05/23/05)