American Airlines Flight 77 Crash Evidence
From 911myths
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Witness accounts
What did witnesses see, hear and experience around the Pentagon on 9/11? Here are some reports we've assembled. Please note this is just a first pass at the topic, and should not be considered as comprehensive or complete. Be sure to Google for other witness-related pages to get a rounded picture of events.
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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.James Madison University Alumni, October 1 2001
Like millions of people in this shocked nation, Deb Anlauf spent Tuesday morning staring in disbelief at a TV screen, watching smoke billow from the World Trade Center in New York City.
Then, at about 8:40 a.m. CDT, the largest terrorist action in this country's history hit closer to home for Anlauf and her husband, Jeff. The couple, who moved to Colfax from Australia four months ago, were at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Va., less than two blocks from the Pentagon when Deb Anlauf saw "a sight I never imagined I'd see."
Anlauf was watching TV coverage of the Trade Center burning shortly before 9:30 a.m. when she decided to return to her 14th-floor room from another part of the hotel. Once in her room, she heard a "loud roar" and looked out the window to see what was going on.
"Suddenly I saw this plane right outside my window," Anlauf said during a telephone interview from her hotel room this morning. "You felt like you could touch it; it was that close. It was just incredible.
"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). When it hit, the whole hotel shook."Leader-Telegram, September 12 2001
As an Army officer, Stuart Artman said he's seen the results of terrorist attacks in Somalia, Honduras and Nicaragua. Tuesday, he saw an attack first hand.
Artman, now a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and the engineer for the city of Winter Haven, was in Washington attending a conference.
About 9:45 a.m., as he walked with a friend near the Washington Monument, he saw a plane fly low over the city. That wasn't unusual. Planes fly low over the city so often no one pays any attention to them, said Artman.
But this wasn't just any plane. "I saw the plane that hit the Pentagon," he said. "It went behind some trees." Then he saw the smoke from the Pentagon.
"It was hysteria -- cops, unmarked cars were everywhere," Artman, 44, said. "People were standing around. Nobody knew what was going on. As soon as I saw the Pentagon catch on fire, I thought, 'it's time to go."Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
Inside the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had just raced to his office after hearing of the World Trade Center attack. On a house porch a little more than a mile away, Ralph Banton, 79, was enjoying a crystal-clear morning.
Then Banton heard a jet flying directly overhead, very low.
"It sounded like it was jetting instead of slowing down," he said.
Seconds later, American Flight 77, hijacked while carrying 64 people from Washington to Los Angeles, tore into the side of the Pentagon in a shocking terrorist attack aimed at the building that represents America's military power worldwide.The Topeka-Capital Journal Online, September 11 2001
"Usually, there are a lot of people walking around with a smile on their face," said David Battle, surveying an almost empty Pennsylvania Avenue, just a couple blocks from the White House. "Today, it seems like everyone is in a state of shock."
Earlier Tuesday, Battle, an office worker at the Pentagon, was standing outside the building and just about to enter when the aircraft struck. "It was coming down head first," he said. "And when the impact hit, the cars and everything were just shaking."Scripps Howard News Service
Bauer witnessed the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
“I happened to be driving into Washington, D.C. that morning. I was going to be doing a press conference on Capitol Hill about the issue of Sudan, where there is terrible Christian persecution taking place. In fact, there is a radical Islamic government in power. Millions of people have been killed. A number of groups in town felt that not enough was being done about that, so we were going to hold a press conference, put a little bit of pressure on the administration and on the Congress.
“I was in a massive traffic jam, hadn’t moved more than a hundred yards in twenty minutes. My office called to tell me about the first plane in New York, the reaction was ‘horrible accident.’ And then they called about the second plane, and clearly that meant something much worse was going on. It was only then that I really noticed where I was in that traffic jam. I was going past the Pentagon, really inching a yard or so every couple of minutes. I had just passed the closest place the Pentagon is to the exit on 395 . . . when all of a sudden I heard the roar of a jet engine.
“I looked at the woman sitting in the car next to me. She had this startled look on her face. We were all thinking the same thing. We looked out the front of our windows to try to see the plane, and it wasn’t until a few seconds later that we realized 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. It was an incredible moment.
Massachusetts News, December 2001
WS: On the morning of Sept 11 you were in your car. Did you literally see the plane go into the Pentagon?
GB: Yeah. I was heading into Washington to take part in a press conference on the issue of Sudan, where there is a radical Muslim government, and I was sitting in a traffic jam just outside the Pentagon. The traffic jam hadn't gone 100 yards in 20 minutes when I got the first call about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, which at the time people thought was an accident. Then -- not that long after, which made it clear it wasn't an accident -- another plane hit, and it was at that moment when I realized I was sitting at the closest point on the road that you could get to the Pentagon. I was less than 100 yards away at that particular exit and many of us in the traffic jam had our windows down. We were comparing notes -- what radio stations we were listening to -- when all of a sudden we heard a roar of a jet engine. I looked out of my front window and I saw movement over to the side. I turned and looked and the plane came from behind us and banked to the right and went into the Pentagon. That blast literally moved our cars, so it was a fairly dramatic moment.
I knew what had happened in New York and I had just seen what happened to the Pentagon. On the radio they were reporting there was flames and fire near the White House. There were a lot of false reports on DC radio stations that morning, so it was clear -- in a dramatic way -- that this was the most significant day that I had ever experienced.The Charlotte World
Sergeant Maurice L. Bease had worked around Marine aviation long enough to know what a fly-by was, and it sounded like one as he stood outside his office near the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Turning around expecting to see a fighter jet fly over, he saw only a split-second glimpse of a white commercial airliner streaking low toward the building, and him! He did not even have time to duck before it plowed into the side of the Pentagon around the corner and about 200 yards from where he stood.
Immediately, a ball of flame shot up the side of the building, followed by smoke, lots of it. People began to flood out into the parking lot.Marine Corps Association, 2001
Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed an explosion near the Pentagon. "It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball," he said in an interview on his mobile phone.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded.The Guardian, September 12 2001
Singleton Electric was the Wedge One electrical contractor and had just completed some punch-list work in wedge (one of five) when at 9:45 a.m. (EDT) American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the western wall of Pentagon with 64 passengers and crew aboard. The jet, which had just taken off from Dulles Airport en route to Los Angles, set the world´s largest office building ablaze between the first and second wedges.
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 had just left the trailer when he heard a loud noise. The next thing he recalled was picking himself off the floor, where he had been thrown by the blast.
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. In shock, he got into his truck, which had been parked in the trailer compound, and sped away. He wandered around Arlington in his truck and tried to make wireless phone calls. He ended up back at Singleton´s headquarters in Gaithersburg two hours later, according to President Singleton, not remembering much.
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, but Bell had no idea what had happened.National Electrical Contractors Association, September 13 2001
Richard Benedetto was in his car on his way to work, stuck in traffic just outside the Pentagon. He was listening -- in horror -- to an account of what had just happened at the World Trade Center in New York. "Then the plane flew right over my head. I said to myself, boy, that plane is going awfully fast," Benedetto said. "That plane is going to crash." The jet knocked over several light posts before it smashed into the Pentagon. Other observers said it seemed to come in full throttle with no attempt to slow down. "The noise was like an artillery shell, not an explosion like a bomb," Benedetto said. Then he saw a giant billow of smoke followed by a huge fireball, presumably the exploding fuel from the crashed plane. "You couldn't even see the building because there was so much smoke," said Benedetto.
Hartford Courant, September 12, 2001
Susan Bergen was sitting in a [Ritz Carlton] hotel room near the Pentagon on Tuesday morning, glued to TV news coverage of the World Trade Center attack.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a plane outside the window of her 11th floor room. She turned just in time to see a big jetliner skim the treetops and slam into the side of the Pentagon, less than a half mile from her hotel room. It looked like the plane sped up just before hitting the building, she said.Plastics News, September 17 2001
"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," Air Traffic Controller and Pentagon tower chief Sean Boger said. "It exploded. I fell to the ground and covered my head. I could actually hear the metal going through the building."
The Pentagram, November 16 2001
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. 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.
The Washington Post, September 20 2001
Defense Protective Service officers were the first on the scene of the terrorist attack. One, Mark Bright, actually saw the plane hit the building. He had been manning the guard booth at the Mall Entrance to the building.
"I saw the plane at the Navy Annex area," he said. "I knew it was going to strike the building because it was very, very low -- at the height of the street lights. It knocked a couple down." The plane would have been seconds from impact -- the annex is only a few hundred yards from the Pentagon.
He said he heard the plane "power-up" just before it struck the Pentagon. "As soon as it struck the building I just called in an attack, because I knew it couldn't be accidental," Bright said. He jumped into his police cruiser and headed to the area.American Forces Press Service, September 24 2001
Pam Branstetter, of the Staff Judge Advocate's Office, stops by. Like most MTMC Headquarters employees these days, she has a story to tell.
"My husband actually saw the plane crash into the Pentagon," said the administrative officer. "He works at the Navy Annex, and the plane was flying so low he thought it was going to hit his building.
Her husband of 29 years, Ross Branstetter, watched the next split seconds in horror, she said.
"He said it was like a movie," said Branstetter. "He saw the plane disappear and then there was a fireball. He was pretty shaken."Journal of Military Transportation Management, Sept-Oct 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."The Guardian, September 12 2001
Captain Joseph Candelario, USA a first year student in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program began Tuesday, 11 September like most people. It was a clinical day, which meant getting up early and making the trip in to Ft. McNair to start seeing patients at 0630. He was first alerted that the day was drastically changing when one of the medics told him that a plane hit the World Trade Center. While watching the tower burn, another plane hit the second tower. Thinking that this was a very serious terrorist attack, I went outside to the river to take a break. As I was looking across the river towards the direction of the Pentagon, I noticed a large aircraft flying low towards the White House. This aircraft then made a sharp turn and flew towards the Pentagon and seconds later crashed into it.
Graduate School of Nursing Highlights
I was standing on the platform high above the [Washington Reagan] airport awaiting a Metro subway train to my office in the heart of the district, on Constitution Avenue, admiring the lovely blue skies when I saw the plane hit and the fireball and explosion at the Pentagon.
Jacksonville.com, September 11 2002
We live in Springfield, Virginia, and I was cruising into town and listening to a radio station, and they were getting reports a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. About 9:30, I was in the left-hand lane of the HOV, kind of looking down on the Pentagon. I was looking at the roof, wondering if I would see guys on the roof with binoculars, just looking. I didn't see anybody up there, so I just kept cruising along. The Pentagon was on my left, and I saw this plane. I heard it, and it scared the piss out of me. It was so loud and throttled-up. I saw it come over the road, and it was like parallel. I could see the windows go by. Some of the shades were down, others were open. And it was close enough that it felt like if there were people in there, I would have seen faces, but I couldn't see anything.
You could tell how the pilot, he really kind of maneuvered the plane. The plane kind of banked side to side. He got over the parking lot and he just dipped it down, and you could visibly see the plane dive. It went below the highway and I couldn't see the actual impact, but the explosion was just massive and the fireball just towered over the Pentagon another 100 feet. You could feel the heat from the blast. The smell and the heat just came all over you.
I slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road, and I hopped out and grabbed my cell and called Pickering Chief of Staff Susan Butler. The receptionist said she was sitting there talking to somebody, and I said get her on the phone now. And so Susan picked up, and I said, "A plane just crashed at the Pentagon, get out of the office now." And she hung up and told people to evacuate. I tried to call my wife, who's an elementary counselor with the Fairfax County schools. I got her voice mail and said, "Please be careful today. There are a lot of weird things going on. I'm fine. I'll call you later."
I hung up and looked across at the Pentagon. You could see there was furniture on fire. The smell was very strong. It was noxious, like when you are behind a diesel truck, that kind of acrid smell.The National Journal, August 31 2002
Andrea: Don Chauncey, are you there? Don: Yes I am
Andrea: You witnessed what happened at the Pentagon. What did you see?
Don: From my office I was able to see ah A white jet, like a gulf-stream type commuter jet, I guess, just came at a high rate of speed, uhm, I can see National Airport’s tower from our office, and it just increased its speed as it got closer to the Pentagon, and then I just saw the big yellow ball of fire
Andrea: Don exactly where is your office, from where are you watching this?
Don: …ah, we’re, our, offices are off Brannon (?) and St. Barnabas? at the Beltway, so I overlook the Beltway from my office.
Mike: Could you tell Don, did the plane come out of National?
Don: No. No, absolutely not. There was a, it appeared to be a US Air commuter jet that went over the top of our building, which is a normal flight pattern, I guess for the commuters. And this looked like it was coming, from, I’m guessing, coming down Columbia Pike in Arlington, down that way, and then just picked up a high rate of speed, I mean from my desk right now I can see, the Pentagon, basically where the metro station is, and the buses, I can see that and to the right, but I can’t see the, I guess, the south parking area.
Sitting in his car on Washington Boulevard next to the Pentagon Tuesday morning, Jim R. Cissell saw the plane coming a couple of hundred yards to his left.
The Clifton native watched it cross over the road, then plow into the side of the Pentagon.
Mr. Cissell, son of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Jim C. Cissell, said he doesn't even remember the sound of the explosion.
He remembers, though, muttering “oh my God” as the plane hit, and the fireball was unforgettable. Mr. Cissell said he never thought for a second that the crash was anything but intentional.
“It's as though he picked a spot on the building and that's what he was going straight for,” he said.
Mr. Cissell drives past the Pentagon every day on his way to work at the Newseum in Arlington, Va., where he heads its Web site.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/09/14/loc_tristate_residents.html
"Out of my peripheral vision, I saw this plane coming in and it was low - and getting lower. If you couldn't touch it from standing on the highway, you could by standing on your car. I thought, 'This isn't really happening. That is a big plane. Then I saw the faces of some of the passengers on board," Cissell said. "I remember thinking, The World Trade Center was just the beginning, there's going to be more." He remembers the helipad the plane flew over before smacking into the Pentagon was close enough to him that "I could have thrown a baseball at it and hit it." While he remembers seeing the crash, Cissell remembers none of the sounds. "It came in in a perfectly straight line," he said. "It didn't slow down. I want to say it accelerated. It just shot straight in."
The Cincinatti Post, quoted here
As former Cincinnatian James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon Tuesday morning, he saw the blur of a commercial jet and wondered why it was flying so low. Right about the time it was crossing over the highway, it kind of dawned on me what was happening, said Cissell, son of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Jim Cissell.
In the next blink of an eye, he realized he had a front-row seat to history, as 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.
"I've been in life and death situations before ... You can't count your thoughts. It was very surreal. It wasn't slo-mo. It was surreal. I think I was in kind of a state of shock," Cissell said.
A former photojournalist who, for the last three years, has worked for the Freedom Forum Museum in Arlington, Va., Cissell was listening to his car radio and the news of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center while sitting in traffic.
"I was thinking, 'If anything happens to the Pentagon right now, I don't have my (photo) gear with me," he said today.
He usually cuts through the Pentagon parking lot to get to work, but was stuck on Interstate 110 because of extra security at the Pentagon following the attack on the World Trade Center.
"Out of my peripheral vision," Cissell said, "I saw this plane coming in and it was low - and getting lower."
"If you couldn't touch it from standing on the highway, you could by standing on your car."
In the next seconds dozens of things flashed through his mind.
"I thought, 'This isn't really happening. That is a big plane.' Then I saw the faces of some of the passengers on board," Cissell said.
"I remember thinking, 'The World Trade Center was just the beginning, there's going to be more.' "
He remembers the helipad the plane flew over before smacking into the Pentagon was close enough to him that "I could have thrown a baseball at it and hit it."
Then the plane, which was taking out telephone and power lines on its way in, hit the building.
While he remembers seeing the crash, Cissell remembers none of the sounds.
"It came in in a perfectly straight line," he said.
"It didn't slow down. I want to say it accelerated. It just shot straight in."The Cincinatti Post, Online Edition, September 12 2001
There was a commercial airliner that said American Airliners over the side of it flying at just above treetop height at full speed headed for the Pentagon.
TLC documentary? (Unchecked)
"I was just pulling in on the subway station just at National Airport. I just happened to look over - actually my back was facing in the direction of the Pentagon - I looked to the right of the train as we were coming into the station, and noticed a jet flying in real low, about a mid-sized passenger jet flying in. I know it was silver, that's the only thing I know."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/nation/091101-9v.htm
...I live in Woodbridge VA.(I'm sure you are aware of the geography) I was on my way into work on the 11th. Riding the metro-rail from Springfield VA. to DC.. I had just gotten off the phone with a close friend of mine who let me in on the details of the World Trade Center incidents which had taken place a few moments earlier. I was approaching the national airport stop, when I looked off to the right(I was facing backwards on the train)When I saw a large jet approaching Crystal city.(I was one of very few people that actually saw the Plane at the pentagon prior to its actual impact) I noticed that it's flight pattern was different than others I had come to recognize over riding the rail for many years. I knew that it was not headed for a landing strip. I actually had to look over my shoulder to see if I was mistaken and I unfortunately realized all too soon that I was about to witness one of the most historic moments of our lifetime. I watched as the plane disappeared behind the line of buildings that make up Crystal city and watched as an incredible mushroom cloud appeared on the horizon. I shouted HOLY SHIT!!! as the other passengers looked at me I pointed out the window to let them know what had happened. That is when it all set in and everyone realized what happened.No one else on my Car had seen what I saw. The reason I am telling you this is because the details of this one crash were not accurate from what I witnessed first hand and what I have gathered from others whom I know, saw what I saw. Soon after the crash(Within 30 seconds of the crash) I witnessed a military cargo plane(Possibly a C130) fly over the crash site and circle the mushroom cloud. My brother inlaw also witnessed the same plane following the jet while he was on the HOV lanes in Springfield. He said that he 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. I think this was also a reason for the false threat of another plane about to crash which caused rescuers to have to evacuate for a short time after the initial crash. I have done my research onthis and according to time magazine it took 24 minutes before Norad was supposedly notified about this particuliar jet and fighters were scrambling to intercept at that time.
Isn't it odd how there is Not a single mention of this aircraft in ANY of the articles written about this crash? Also if you had not noticed... There is not a single picture or live footage of the actual jet prior to its crash at the Pentagon.Nor is there any of the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. But if Anyone who rides the metro-rail knows, there are plenty of Video cameras all around National airport at the parking Garages and the high level security buildings found all around Crystal city. (3 of which I have personally found pointed directly towards crystal city which would have given a great line of site shot of that jet prior to the crash as well as any other plane which might have been following it. I personally believe that the government new full well that this was about to happen and they are hiding something a lot bigger than they are willing to let out. I was interviewed at Washingtonpost.com and gave them my full story, but they did not print it as I have told you. I also find it interesting that one of the planes engines in the pennsylvania crash was supposedly found 5 miles prior to the crash site(This information I'm unsure of). The only thing that I'm aware of that might cause that would be a heat seeking missle. A weapon which I am pretty familiar with form Ord.training. I'm not saying that the government new exactly what was about to happen, but I do believe that they are definitely hiding something here. Many of my friends in intelligence have said the same. I work in a Gov. building in DC., but my heart is right there with you and your team.Spooky 8 Reviews
- ListenAttacks Dispatch Transcript
By The Associated Press
Transcript of the Arlington police communications team dispatching units to the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11:
__
Officer Barry Faust: Delta three-fifty-two. Delta three-fifty-two.
Dispatcher Kyra Pulliam: Yes three-fifty-two.
Faust: I think we've just had an airplane crash, east of here, it must be in the District area.
Pulliam: OK.
Officer Richard Cox: Four-ten. It's an American Airlines plane, headed east down over the Pike, possibly toward the Pentagon.
Pulliam: Ten-four. Cruiser 50 direct.
Lt. Robert Medairos: Fifty. Ten-four.
First Unidentified Officer: This is 36. I'm en route. I see the smoke.
Pulliam: Delta 35.
Second Unidentified Officer: Delta 35. I'm en route also.
Pulliam: Any unit responding to check the area of the Pentagon, advise on channel one please, I have Delta 35, Cruiser 34 and Delta 352.
(Several units break in at once).
Pulliam: OK, one unit at a time. Motor 11.
Third Unidentified Officer: I'm direct, and there is visible smoke coming from that area, high visible smoke.
Pulliam: Motor 11 direct. Units once again ...
Pulliam: Keep all traffic on one-Adam, restricted until further notice. Units responding for the report of the plane crash advise on one-Adam one at a time. I have Motor 11, Cruiser 34, Cruiser 49, Delta 10, Delta 453, Delta 35 and Delta 352. Any other units stand by response air, like Cruiser 50, notify each other.
Fourth Unidentified Officer: Delta 23. I'm going to be carrier three-zero-four and I will be standing by for further instructions.
Pulliam: Twenty-three, ten-four, thank you. Cruiser 50?
Medairos: Indirect. In response.
Pulliam: Ten-four. Is that enough units to respond for now or do you request additional?
Medairos: No. Stand by until we see what we've got.
Pulliam: Ten-four.
Fifth Unidentified Officer: Motor 2 responding for traffic.
Pulliam: Who's that responding for traffic?
Fifth Unidentified Officer: Motor 2.
Pulliam: Copy. Motor 2 responding for traffic also.
Third Unidentified Officer: Motor 11.
Pulliam: Motor 11.
Third Unidentified Officer: I'm responding, I'm on 110, and it's a lot, it's bad.
Associated Press, September 18 2001
The final minute of the airliner's flight took it along an east-northeast course above an Arlington County, Virginia, roadway, Columbia Pike. County Police Department Corporal Barry Foust, stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Walter Reed Drive and Columbia Pike less than two miles from the Pentagon, spotted the aircraft flying low, saw a plume of smoke, then radioed, "We just had an airplane crash... must be in the District area." Three blocks further along, at the intersection of Columbia Pike with South Wayne Street, Police Motorcycle Officer Richard Cox observed the airliner flying so close to the ground that the polished underside of its fuselage reflected the images of the buildings it passed on its flight; then he heard an explosion.
Pentagon 9/11
An airplane flying overhead still startles an Ahwatukee Foothills man a year after he witnessed a hijacked American Airlines Boeing 757-200 slam into the Pentagon.
"We were the only people, we think, who saw it live," Dan Creed said.
He and two colleagues from Oracle software were stopped in a car near the Naval Annex, next to the Pentagon, when they saw the plane dive down and level off.
"It was no more than 30 feet off the ground, and it was screaming. It was just screaming. It was nothing more than a guided missile at that point," Creed said.
"I can still see the plane. I can still see it right now. It's just the most frightening thing in the world, going full speed, going full throttle, its wheels up," Creed recalls.
The crash killed 125 people on the ground and another 64 passengers and crew members on the plane. It also caused about $800 million in damage.
"I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that things like it really make you think about the value of life," Creed said.
Once back in his Ahwatukee Foothills home, Creed remembers he had to think hard about traveling.
"I knew I had to sit back and come to terms with traveling again because my livelihood was traveling at that time. I sat down and went through some soul searching about traveling, and I said in my mind something like this could have happened a long time ago and I wasn't going let it affect my life. I was back on an airplane in two weeks," Creed said.
His first trip was back to Washington, D.C.
"I tried to bury my head in a book. I took four books with me on that flight because I was going to read. I didn't listen to the pre-flight instructions or anything, I just sat there reading," Creed said with a laugh.
The effects of Sept. 11 stayed with him, including nightmares. But he has a new appreciation for life.
Counseling helped eliminate the nightmares and Creed has spent more time with his family.
He left California-based Oracle in August, not because of a fear of flying, but because "I was traveling so much I didn't have a life. I was gone all the time."
He now spends more time with his wife, children and grandchild. He also started his own technology consulting firm, Mr. Lucky Consulting Inc.
He's still wonders why he happened to be where he was that day, with a clear view of the plane slamming into the Pentagon.
"Why were we chosen to sit there and watch that day? What am I supposed to do with it?" he still wonders.
Ahwatukee Foothills News
Kim Dent, 33, who works across the street from the Pentagon, said she and some co-workers were looking out the window of their office building. "We saw the shadow of a plane. We heard the engine. We all said, 'That plane is flying kind of close.' "
USA Today, September 11 2001
"It seemed to be almost coming in in slow motion," said Marine Cmdr. Mike Dobbs. "I didn't actually feel it hit, but I saw it and then we all started running. They evacuated everybody around us."
The Washington Times, September 12 2001
Marine Commander 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 two-engine airliner strike.
"It was an American airlines airliner. I was looking out the window and saw it come right over the Navy annex at a slow angle. It looked to me to be on a zero-to-zero course. It seemed to be almost coming in in slow motion. I didn't actually feel it hit, but I saw it and then we all started running. They evacuated everybody around us."Scripps Howard News Service, September 11 2001
"It just was amazingly precise," Daryl Donley, another commuter, said of the plane's impact. "It completely disappeared into the Pentagon."
Gannet News Service, September 12 2001
Every morning for years Bob Dubill drove past the Pentagon on his way to work at USA Today.
He was passing the building the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, 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 and I knew that this plane was not heading for National Airport,” he said. “This plane was going to slam into the Pentagon. I steeled myself for the explosion."The Times Herald, Olean, NY, September 12 2002
Although I live in Houston, Texas, I'm writing this column from an apartment in the Washington, DC area. I was here to attend the American Conservative Union's Policy Boot Camp.
I thought I would leave filled with the excitement of hearing from policy experts on numerous topics ranging from social security and medicare to education and technology. Unfortunately, what I take with me is a permanent image of terror and tragedy which is burned into my mind: an image of a passenger airliner, flying low and fast, and headed straight for the Pentagon.
On Tuesday morning, September 11, I was running late for my morning session. The television was on, and at about 9:00 am, we saw a report that an aircraft had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My initial thought was, "Wow, what a freak accident." With that, my friend with whom I am staying and I were out the door.
We set out in the car and immediately turned on the news radio to follow what was happening in New York City. After fifteen minutes into our trip, a new report came over the radio stating that a second aircraft (another passenger airliner) had struck the World Trade Center. This time, my thoughts shifted immediately from a freak accident to "this is a terrorist attack."
My heart sank as I began to realize what was happening: those killed in the aircraft, those killed in the buildings, and the horror of the realization that this could happen in the first place.
The route from where I'm staying to my conference hotel runs right by the Pentagon. As we slowly crept along in traffic at about 9:30 am, we rounded a bend and had the Pentagon in our sites -- right in front of us. We continued to listen to the radio to take in the latest news on what was happening.
Riding in a convertable with the top down, I then heard a tremendously loud noise from behind me and to my left. I looked back and saw a jet airliner flying very low and very fast. It's amazing what can run through your mind in just a matter of seconds. As a pilot, I can't help but look at an airplane and think about airplane topics. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine as I realized something was not right.
The aircraft was so very low -- as an aircraft would be on its final approach to an airport. However, if you have watched any aircraft come in for a landing, even though the aircraft is descending, it is angled up slightly. This aircraft was angled downward. In addition, landing gear would also be visible on a aircraft so low and so near landing. This aircraft had its landing gear retracted. Finally, an aircraft on final approach is traveling rather slowly. This aircraft sped by very loudly and very quickly.
All of this flashed in my mind as the aircraft passed from behind my left shoulder to in front of me. It was then that the other events of the morning crystallized in the realization that tragedy was about to occur. With all of these images spinning in my head, the only words that came out of my mouth were "Oh no!"
With that, the airliner crashed into the Pentagon and exploded.
I shouted to my friend whose view was partially blocked by a truck in front of us, "Oh my gosh! The jet just hit the Pentagon!"
Much of the traffic stopped immediately, and the stunned looks on people's faces are unforgettable. Many picked up their cell phones, presumably to contact friends and loved ones. I did the same, but I could not get through...GOPUSA.COM, September 12 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. While on the road, he heard radio reports that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. He was quoted in The Baxter Bulletin a few days later: "I thought, this sounds like an Orson Welles kind of deal." 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.
The Baxter Bulletin, quoted here
I had an early appointment on September 11th, so I drove to work later than usual. I work at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation near the White House. I headed north on 1-395 to DC from my home in Springfield, Virginia and I entered the highway a little after 9am so that I could take the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) express lane. As usual, traffic was very heavy and after I exited I-95, I found myself stuck in late morning rush hour traffic -- almost in front of the Pentagon. For most of my drive I had been totally focused on my radio and was extremely aware of the events that were unfolding in New York. Even though the radio reporters were cautious, I was already convinced from the first strike that it was not just an unfortunate pilot error. However, I felt that New York was under attack and I couldn't have imagined what would unfold in front of me.
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 that I never knew was there. My first thought was “Oh My God, this must be World War III!”
In that split second, my brain flooded with adrenaline and I watched everything play out in ultra slow motion, 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. It was far enough in front of me that 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 but at that point it never occurred to me that this might be a plane with passengers.
In my adrenaline-filled state of mind, I was overcome by my visual senses. The day had started out beautiful and sunny and I had driven to work with my car's sunroof open. I believe that I may have also had one or more car windows open because the traffic wasn't moving anyway. At the second that I saw the plane, my visual senses took over completely and I did not hear or feel anything -- not the roar of the plane, or wind force, or impact sounds.
The plane seemed to be floating as if it were a paper glider and 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. I later realized that it was probably the rubble of churning bits of the plane and concrete. The churning smoke ring started at the top of the fuselage and simultaneously wrapped down both the right and left sides of the fuselage to the underside, where the coiling rings crossed over each other and then coiled back up to the top. Then it started over again -- only this next time, I also saw fire, glowing fire in the smoke ring. At that point, the wings disappeared into the Pentagon. And then I saw an explosion and watched the tail of the plane slip into the building. It was here that I closed my eyes for a moment and when I looked back, the entire area was awash in thick black smoke.National Museum of American History
Former ammunition plant official evacuated building moments before suicide airliner collision.Col. Bruce Elliott, former commander of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant who was reassigned to the Pentagon in July, watched in horror Tuesday as a hijacked 757 airliner crashed into the nerve center of the U.S. military command.
Elliott, in a phone interview Wednesday, 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," said Elliott, who watched it for several seconds. "It was banking and garnering speed. I felt it was headed for the Pentagon."
Elliott, whose office is adjacent to the building, had been in the Pentagon on business. Along with hundreds of others, he had just been ordered to evacuate the building after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
"We were aware of what had happened in New York City," Elliott said. "The security here is good, but it was increased."
The colonel, now assigned to an Army inspections office, said that as the plane zeroed in on the building, he began thinking about the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
"It was like a kamikaze pilot. I felt it was going to ram the Pentagon," he said.
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.
"It took out a large section of the west wing of the building," Elliott said...The Hawk Eye Newspaper, September 13-14 2001
We went back to talking, but we were all preoccupied. Then a few seconds later, the building alarm went off, and they started evacuating the annex. I grabbed my backpack, got on the cell phone, and called my editor. I told him, "They're evacuating the annex. The Pentagon has been hit." Chris, my editor, asked, "Do you have your camera with you?"
I had my digital camera, and I started putting it together as I rushed out of the annex, hoping the batteries would last.
As I came out of the annex, there were Marines organizing themselves to watch the sky for more aircraft. A Marine NCO was barking out orders, setting up a watch, telling Marines to keep their eyes peeled for other stuff.
I flew down the stairs and was running down the hill toward the Pentagon. And there was a man standing there in the road that leads down from the annex to the highway next to the Pentagon. He was standing next to his brown pickup truck. His jaw was scraping the pavement. He had this dazed look. I asked him what happened. He said, "I was getting off the highway, and this huge plane came over my head, and I watched it fly into the Pentagon, and there was a fireball. The plane almost hit my truck."
I didn't have a reporter's notebook, just a big yellow legal pad. I was tucking it in the back of my pants after writing things down as I was running.
When you first looked at the Pentagon, because of the amount of smoke and the way the building just seemed to absorb the airplane, it didn't look like there was anything there. Fire trucks were already arriving. They were pouring water into the building. I shot a couple of frames, got around to one side, and I saw a piece of wreckage. You could see the American Airlines colors on it-silver and red and blue. I was trying to get closer, but the security guys were already yelling at me to get out of there.
I left there and came onto the triage area, which was just being set up. The whole area smelled like burning fuel. Part of me started thinking, maybe I needed to help, but there were already so many people responding that I decided I should do what I'm paid to do. And I started shooting pictures.
My first shot was of the triage area, with heavy smoke in the background. It was heavily backlit. It was hard shooting. I saw a priest come off the highway. He knelt down in the middle of the triage area, with the Pentagon burning in the background, and he started to pray. I shot him, too.
At one point, I knelt down to tie my shoe. And all over the highway and ground were these little itty-bitty pieces of green aluminum that make up the internal parts of jet aircraft. It's this light powdery green, very matte, that is a preservative they paint over the aluminum. In the Navy, I was a salvage diver, and I had helped bring up pieces of the Challenger space shuttle, and the Air Florida Flight 90 that crashed into the Potomac. These pieces looked the same. There was no piece of it bigger than a dime. Just little shards.The National Journal, August 31 2002
Kim Flyler, who was six months' pregnant, works for the Department of the Navy in Springfield, Virginia, as a contractor. That morning she was at the Pentagon when it was hit.
'I pulled into the Pentagon parking lot and was trying to sneak into a spot closer to the building because I was pregnant. The security guard saw I was pregnant, so he was being nice and he was chatting with me. At that moment I heard a plane and then a loud cracking noise. We both looked up into the sky and it hit the building at that instant. It was so loud it still echoes in my head when I think about it.
'Right before the plane hit the building, you could see the silhouettes of people in the back two windows. You couldn't see if they were male or female, but you could tell there was a human being in there. That's what shocked me more than anything else. I thought I was going into labour and I was holding my stomach trying to get out of there. I felt guilty because part of me wanted to stay and help, but I couldn't do it being pregnant.'The Guardian, September 8 2002
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.The News Journal Extra, September 11 2001
- ListenAttacks Dispatch Transcript
By The Associated Press
Transcript of the Arlington police communications team dispatching units to the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11:
__
Officer Barry Faust: Delta three-fifty-two. Delta three-fifty-two.
Dispatcher Kyra Pulliam: Yes three-fifty-two.
Faust: I think we've just had an airplane crash, east of here, it must be in the District area.
Pulliam: OK.
Officer Richard Cox: Four-ten. It's an American Airlines plane, headed east down over the Pike, possibly toward the Pentagon.
Pulliam: Ten-four. Cruiser 50 direct.
Lt. Robert Medairos: Fifty. Ten-four.
First Unidentified Officer: This is 36. I'm en route. I see the smoke.
Pulliam: Delta 35.
Second Unidentified Officer: Delta 35. I'm en route also.
Pulliam: Any unit responding to check the area of the Pentagon, advise on channel one please, I have Delta 35, Cruiser 34 and Delta 352.
(Several units break in at once).
Pulliam: OK, one unit at a time. Motor 11.
Third Unidentified Officer: I'm direct, and there is visible smoke coming from that area, high visible smoke.
Pulliam: Motor 11 direct. Units once again ...
Pulliam: Keep all traffic on one-Adam, restricted until further notice. Units responding for the report of the plane crash advise on one-Adam one at a time. I have Motor 11, Cruiser 34, Cruiser 49, Delta 10, Delta 453, Delta 35 and Delta 352. Any other units stand by response air, like Cruiser 50, notify each other.
Fourth Unidentified Officer: Delta 23. I'm going to be carrier three-zero-four and I will be standing by for further instructions.
Pulliam: Twenty-three, ten-four, thank you. Cruiser 50?
Medairos: Indirect. In response.
Pulliam: Ten-four. Is that enough units to respond for now or do you request additional?
Medairos: No. Stand by until we see what we've got.
Pulliam: Ten-four.
Fifth Unidentified Officer: Motor 2 responding for traffic.
Pulliam: Who's that responding for traffic?
Fifth Unidentified Officer: Motor 2.
Pulliam: Copy. Motor 2 responding for traffic also.
Third Unidentified Officer: Motor 11.
Pulliam: Motor 11.
Third Unidentified Officer: I'm responding, I'm on 110, and it's a lot, it's bad.
Associated Press, September 18 2001
The final minute of the airliner's flight took it along an east-northeast course above an Arlington County, Virginia, roadway, Columbia Pike. County Police Department Corporal Barry Foust, stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Walter Reed Drive and Columbia Pike less than two miles from the Pentagon, spotted the aircraft flying low, saw a plume of smoke, then radioed, "We just had an airplane crash... must be in the District area." Three blocks further along, at the intersection of Columbia Pike with South Wayne Street, Police Motorcycle Officer Richard Cox observed the airliner flying so close to the ground that the polished underside of its fuselage reflected the images of the buildings it passed on its flight; then he heard an explosion.
Pentagon 9/11
Technician Kat Gaines
Fairfax County Fire & Rescue
Certificate of Valor
Gaines was on her way to a part-time job at Reagan National Airport the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, after working a 24-hour shift at Fire Station 16 in Clifton.
Her commute to the airport took her south on Route 110, in front of the parking lots of the Pentagon. As she approached the parking lots, she saw a low-flying jetliner strike the top of nearby telephone poles. She then heard the plane power up and plunge into the Pentagon.Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce
"(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."
USA Today, September 12 2001
Steven Gerard, who works in the Justice Department across the Pentagon: "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this plane coming down. I was talking on my cell phone to my wife about how close I was to the airport and then I saw the fireball."
Scripps Howard News Service, September 11 2001
I got on Interstate 395 and saw the plane come in. I didn't see the actual impact, but 395 curves around the Pentagon, and I saw that plane coming in and said to myself, "That plane is too low; it's going to crash."
Los Angeles Times, Quoted here
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."
The Guardian, September 12 2001
The Washington Post, Quoted here
"Go back. It's not safe here!"
Those were the commands of uniformed personnel pushing people back from the Pentagon about 45 minutes after the 9:43 a.m. crash of a commercial airline into the west side of the building, according to Joe Harrington, a construction foreman working on Pentagon renovations of the building.
"Where is safe?" Harrington said.
Harrington was working on the installation of new furniture in Wedge One, when he was called out to the parking lot to talk about security with his customer moments before the crash.
"About two minutes later 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. Thank God all of our crew got out."
Cheryl Hammond was the person who called Harrington and his crew out into the parking lot. "I thought they'd put out an alert or something," Hammond said. "We saw the big American Airlines plane and started running."The Pentagram, September 14 2001
"Go back. It's not safe here!"
Those were the commands of uniformed personnel pushing people back from the Pentagon about 45 minutes after the 9:43 a.m. crash of a commercial airline into the west side of the building, according to Joe Harrington, a construction foreman working on Pentagon renovations of the building.
"Where is safe?" Harrington said.
Harrington was working on the installation of new furniture in Wedge One, when he was called out to the parking lot to talk about security with his customer moments before the crash.
"About two minutes later 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. Thank God all of our crew got out."
Cheryl Hammond was the person who called Harrington and his crew out into the parking lot. "I thought they'd put out an alert or something," Hammond said. "We saw the big American Airlines plane and started running."The Pentagram, September 14 2001
Many of my wifes friends and my relatives asked me: what did you see? what happened? So, I wrote this up to explain it from the view of the Navy Annex....
11 September 2001 - After a quick "jaunt" around the building I worked my way back into the "front office" of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, housed at the "Navy Annex" overlooking the Pentagon. There was a "buzz" in the secure conference room and I could hear "CNN breaking news." My friend Deborah Vinson, here TDY from the Joint National Test Facility to work our reorganization, met me in that passage way and asked, "I had heard?". "Heard what?" I replied. She motioned me to join her in the conference room where CNN was replaying the second aircraft impacting the world trade center in New York. The mood of all was already very somber and there was much talk and banter about the far-reaching implications of such a terrorist attack. Many BMDO people, Mike Cifrino our General Counsel; Rob Snyder the Executive Director; Deborah Vinson, were among several sitting down watching the events unfold. I just stood there in disbelief.
After a few moments, Lt Gen Ron Kadish, Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization entered the Secure Conference Room to pursue the day's activities and do real work. Accordingly, I and the other staff members all quickly exited the room, each commenting on the horrific sights, which had just been displayed in New York. At approximately 9:45am I entered the old office of my friend Gary Ramos', directly adjacent to the executive director. This office, with two nice windows and a great view of the monuments, the Capitol and the Pentagon was "good digs" by any Pentagon standard. This was the office I'd been sharing while working the BMDO reorganization. Being a beautiful sunny September day in Washington, and with a head full of the horror in New York, I walked in the office and stood peering out of the window looking at the Pentagon. I pondered the breaking events of the day, wondering what this world was coming to. As I stood there, I instinctively ducked at the extremely loud roar and whine of a jet engine spooling up. Immediately, the large silver cylinder of an aircraft appeared in my window, coming over my right shoulder as I faced the Westside of the Pentagon directly towards the heliport. The aircraft, looking to be either a 757 or Airbus, seemed to come directly over the annex, as if it had been following Columbia Pike - an Arlington road leading to Pentagon. The aircraft was moving fast, at what I could only be estimate as between 250 to 300 knots. All in all, I probably only had the aircraft in my field of view for approximately 3 seconds.
The aircraft was at a sharp downward angle of attack, on a direct course for the Pentagon. It was "clean", in as much as, there were no flaps applied and no apparent landing gear deployed. He was slightly left wing down as he appeared in my line of sight, as if he'd just "jinked" to avoid something. As he crossed Route 110 he appeared to level his wings, making a slight right wing slow adjustment as he 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. I could feel the concussion and felt the shockwave of the blast impact the window of the Annex, knocking me against the desk.OurNetFamily.com
Simultaneously, Eugenio Hernandez, an AP video journalist, was driving by the Pentagon and saw the plane crashing. He borrowed a tourist's video camera and began shooting.
Broadcasting & Cable, September 17, 2001
The Washingtonian, quoted here
Congressional staff attorney Fred Hey was driving by on Route 50 at that moment. "I can't believe it! This plane is going down into the Pentagon!" he shouted into his cellphone. On the other end of the line was his boss, Rep. Bob Ney (R) of Ohio. Representative Ney immediately phoned the news to House Sergeant-At-Arms Bill Livingood, who ordered an immediate evacuation of the Capitol itself.
Christian Science Monitor, September 17 2001
Joe Hurst, is general manager of the Oval Room restaurant at Lafayette Square, ..." But he doesn't really complain about business. "I saw it go overhead, the plane," says Joe Hurst, describing the American flight that circled the White House.
His assistant saw it dive into the Pentagon as he drove to work.
"Last week, I was having flashbacks," he says.Boston Globe, September 21 2001, quoted here
Michael James, 37, a Navy information technician watched in horror from his car Tuesday as an airplane careened off a helicopter pad and smashed into the side of the Pentagon, where he spends about half of his day. "I was supposed to be in the Pentagon underneath all that rubble," said James, pressed into service directing gawkers away from a road leading to the compound. "If it would have happened 10 minutes later, I would have been down there."
He is often in the lower Corridor 4 offices of the Navy telecommucations center around 6 a.m., but Tuesday he was away taking a physical fitness exam.
After the workout he went home to shower and that's when he saw on TV a hijacked airplane smash into the World Trade Center.
As he rushed to get ready, he and his wife, Isabelle, saw the plane veer toward the Pentagon.
"The plane came over the top of us and brushed the trees, " he said. "Then it looked like it hit the helicopter pad and skipped up and went right into the first and second floors."Rocky Mountain News, September 12 2001
From time spent on military aircraft as part of his job at the Pentagon, Will Jarvis (who graduated with a bachelor of applied science in 1987 while attending New College) 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. Jarvis, who was around the corner from the disaster, tried but failed to see the plane when he left the building. There was just nothing left. It was incinerated. We couldn�t see a tail or a wing or anything, he says. Just a big black hole in the building with smoke pouring out of it.
For someone sitting only 300 metres away from the carnage of American Airlines Flight 77, Jarvis and his officemates were surprisingly well insulated from it. We thought the plane was a dump truck backing into the building, because there was a lot of construction going on, he says. The group noticed that the sky was darker than normal, but still didn't think much of it. Then I saw little bits of silver falling from the sky, says Jarvis.University of Toronto Magazine, Winter 2002
Gertrude Jeffress sits in the kitchen of her house in the George Washington Carver cooperative in Arlington, absent-mindedly crumpling and uncrumpling a paper napkin as she describes the crusade by some members of the historic co-op to sell the property to developers...
And now the board of directors of Jeffress's small complex of pink stucco and cinderblock buildings -- which sits atop a hill overlooking the Pentagon -- also are considering offers to buy the property. The Carver homes sit on a potentially lucrative 3.35 acres of land just three miles from downtown D.C...
There are more recent memories, too. On Sept. 11, 2001, she was outside watering her flowers when American Airlines Flight 77 swooped by, so close that she could see the letters on its tail. She swears it almost nipped the telephone pole in the parking lot as it went by.The Washington Post, May 26 2005
'Today is my worst day yet,' said Megan Johnson of Bristow, Va., yesterday. She was on Interstate 395 when the terrorist plane flew directly in front of her car into the Pentagon. She felt she should go to church to deal with the nightmares that kept her up every night this week.
The Florida Times-Union, September 15 2001
Two civilians who saved several victims of the Sept. 11 Pentagon attacks were honored Monday with the Medal of Valor...
Jones, 25, is a medical student and volunteer firefighter with the Hyattsville unit of the Prince George's County, Md., Fire and EMS Department. He was driving through nearby Arlington, Va., when he saw the plane slam into the Pentagon's northwest outer wall. The impact of the jet cut through three of the five rings of offices that serve as headquarters for the nation's armed services.
After rescuing a firefighter whose protective clothing had caught fire as he battled the blaze from a ladder, Jones returned to assist other victims.Associated Press, July 15, 2002
As I was driving down 95 heading towards the Pentagon, one of my members, teammates, said, 'What is that plane doing?' And by the time I looked up, the plane was moving so fast all I saw was an explosion.
ABC Good Morning America, quoted here
Fire Truck 101 from the Arlington County Fire Department was one of the first on the scene Tuesday morning. The truck was coming back from a training exercise, and one firefighter on board noticed a plane flying too low as they drove past the Pentagon.
"Suddenly, we saw the huge explosion of the crash," said firefighter Andrea Kaiser. "We turned the truck and headed to the building as fast as we could." After fighting rush-hour gridlock, the team arrived and rushed to the building to search for survivors.
"I've been inside - it's terrible," she said, shaking her head and looking at the ground. "I have no idea how many people died. It's impossible to know." She and her team were headed back to the fire station around midnight to rest and return by morning.
"It's a horrible, tangled mess in there," said another distraught Arlington County firefighter, describing the wreckage of the plane and the remnants of smashed offices inside the rubble. "It's awful - like an earthquake hit, or something. It's like nothing you've ever seen."American Red Cross
Witnesses in nearby cars and apartments realized something was wrong when they saw a passenger jet traveling fast below treetop level over Interstate 395 just after 9:30 a.m.
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," said the architect, who had been packing for a move. "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."Washington Post, September 12 2001
One of those who stood was Laurel Ritenbaugh, the church's former youth director who now teaches cosmetology at Plant City High School.
She said her brother, James Keglovich, 38, a carpenter working near the Pentagon, was on break across the street from that structure when the airliner tore into the building. He and his friends witnessed the plane approaching.
He told her they began exclaiming, "Where's he going? What's he doing?" when suddenly they saw the plane clip a taxi cab on the nearby bridge. The crash was exceptionally loud, he said. It shook the building and knocked people down who were closer to the point of impact.Tampa Tribune, September 15 2001
On Sept. 11, I was standing in a break room of an office . . . in downtown D.C., when I looked out the window to see an airplane descend into the side of the Pentagon, where the Navy offices where five friends and colleagues of mine were located. Twenty-four hours earlier, I had been in the Pentagon visiting those friends and others in the building.
As I watched the fireball and during the evacuation of Washington that followed, I can remember being overwhelmed by two things -- what can I do to help, and how never again would I leave a friend or loved one without telling them how much I cared for them. All over Washington, in the days that followed, I saw Americans helping in so many ways, giving testament that we are a great nation consisting of generous, caring individuals. But I truly learned that life can be lost at any moment, and that we must be grateful for every minute we have on this Earth.
-- Lesley Kelly, Cmdr. U.S. Navy (Ret.), GreshamOregonLive.com, September 11 2002
What immediately made me look up was the rumble of an airplane that had just flown over my shoulder, close enough that I could have hit it with a baseball. My friends and I were in the middle of the parking lot, having left our morning class at the Arlington Career Center, as a big passenger jet flew right above the building behind the career center. I am used to hearing planes because I live next to Spout Run, but it was obvious something was wrong. I've seen planes land, and this one was going much, much faster. And we were like, "Oh, man." I said, "Holy shit, that plane's crashing." There was probably three seconds between the plane going under the skyline and then the rumble from when it hit the Pentagon. At first, there was a white, pinkish smoke. I actually had a camera in my car. I took a picture of the smoke, and then after a couple seconds, it started getting darker.
My friends got in their car and I got in mine, and we were visibly shaking. It was weird seeing that plane and looking in the windows and thinking, wow, the last few minutes of someone's life. I wonder now if I had seen anyone, or if maybe they had seen me. I can barely comprehend it. I was scared of the uncertainty; I never thought, "I am in danger." Instead, I was just stunned, shocked. The anxious, shaky feeling brought on immediately would not go away for hours.
In the car, I turned on the radio to see what they were saying. It was really weird to hear them talking about it, because they didn't really know. The guy was just getting the news and could only say that something just happened to the Pentagon. Just to hear him say that, and for me to know that it was a commercial jet. I could make out the AA, American Airlines, on the plane when it went by, easily. It was weird to be in the know more than the news. The event made me aware of how naive the American lifestyle was before. In Israel, stuff like that happens every day. It made me appreciate how safe we are, living here,
and made me appreciate much, much more that this is not a daily occurrence.The National Journal, August 31 2002
D S Khavkin, of Arlington, Virginia, says her home has a panoramic view of the Pentagon and the downtown area of Washington DC.
"We were watching the events unfolding on TV in New York.
"Then, at about 9.40am Eastern Daylight Time, my husband and I heard an aircraft directly overhead.
"At first, we thought it was the jets that sometimes fly overhead. However, it appeared to be a small commercial aircraft. The engine was at full throttle."
She says the plane then headed for the Pentagon.
"It crashed on the lawn near the west side of the Pentagon.
"A huge fireball exploded with thick black smoke.BBC, September 12 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.
'Nobody could believe it'
"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."
Kizildrgli was found wandering in an Arlington neighborhood about five miles from the Pentagon an hour after the crash.USA Today, September 12 2001
Peter Kopf, director of information technology at USA TODAY, was stalled in traffic about 9:30 a.m. when the jet hit the Pentagon, creating a "huge fireball."
"People (on the highway) were freaking out," he said. "People were turning around and driving the opposite way getting out of their cars, talking on cell phones, crying."
When the Pentagon was struck, Kopf was listening on his car radio to reports that a second hijacked jet had been crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.
"We wanted to get the hell out of (the vicinity of the Pentagon)," he said. " We felt a second one was imminent (at the Pentagon)."USA Today, September 12 2001
It was early morning when the teachers at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School heard what they thought was a plane crashing in their South Arlington neighborhood. They felt the impact...
Ann Krug's kindergarten class saw the plane crash outside the classroom's window.
"I actually pointed it out and said: 'Look at this plane; look at how low it's flying,' " Krug recalled. "And then we all saw it come down."Washington Post, November 15 2001, quoted here
"It was close enough that I could see the windows and the blinds had been pulled down. I read American Airlines on it." "I didn't hear anything, but I saw the aircraft above my head about 80 feet above the ground, 400 miles an hour. The reason, I have some experience as a pilot and I looked at the plane. Didn't see any landing gear. Didn't see any flaps down. I realized it wasn't going to land. I realized what it was doing."
ABC News, quoted here
"It's a horrible feeling because you're afraid all the time. You're afraid to go out," said District resident La Verne Le Grand, 60, who was riding in a car on Columbia Pike on the morning of Sept. 11 and saw the plane crash into the Pentagon. Since then, she has been admitted twice to Washington Hospital Center for treatment of severe anxiety.
The Washington Post, October 14 2001
A witness said an American Airlines passenger jet had earlier flown straight into the Pentagon and crashed into the first floor of the building.
"I saw this large American Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low," said Army Captain Lincoln Liebner. "My first thought was I've never seen one that high. Before it hit I realised what was happening."
Sydney Morning Herald
"I saw this large American Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low," said Army Captain Lincoln Liebner.
"My first thought was I've never seen one that high. Before it hit I realised what was happening," he said.
Captain Liebner says the aircraft struck a helicopter on the helipad, setting fire to a fire truck.
"We got one guy out of the [fire truck] cab," he said, adding he could hear people crying inside the wreckage.
Captain Liebner, who had cuts on his hands from the debris, says he has been parking his car in the car park when the crash occurred.
ABC News Online (Australia), September 12 2001
"I heard the plane first," he said. "I thought it was a flyover Arlington cemetery." From his vantage point, Maj. Leibner looked up and saw the plane come in. "I was about 100 yards away," he said. "You could see through the windows of the aircraft. I saw it hit."
US Medicine, quoted here
The OSU Observer, quoted here
"I looked in the rearview mirror to check the traffic and saw only a plane, flying very low. I followed it in my left outside mirror. I braked, looked out my left window and saw a large commercial aircraft aiming for the Pentagon." "The aircraft, so close to the ground, was banked skillfully to the right, leveled off perpendicular to the Pentagon's southwest side, then went full throttle directly toward the building. The plane vanished, absorbed by the building, and there was a slight pause. Then a huge fireball rose into the sky."
The Washington Post, September 20 2001, quoted here
I got home, by police order, by turning around and going the wrong way on Interstate 395.
I was driving northbound to work in the District on I-395 when the Pentagon was hit. I actually saw the plane in front of me, coming in at a very steep angle toward the ground and going fast -- I think I actually heard it accelerate -- and then it disappeared and a cloud of smoke started billowing.
Traffic stopped dead, of course; I was within sight of the first Washington Boulevard exit at that point. We sat there for about 45 minutes, pulling over to the side so emergency vehicles could get through. Most of us got out of our cars, walked around and talked to each other, comparing notes on what we'd heard and trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to reach people on our cellphones.
Police eventually made us get back in our cars and turn around, going back the wrong way down the highway. I got off at the Glebe Road exit (moving down the up ramp)...
The Washington Post, September 16 2001
Earlier, Mary Lyman, 47, of Alexandria, had been driving on the same highway, passing the Pentagon on her way to her job as a lobbyist in Washington. She witnessed the crash.
"I saw a plane coming what I thought was toward National Airport, which is very close. You see that all the time," said Lyman, an Andover native. "But this one looked different. It was at a very steep angle, and going very fast.
"I had been hearing about the World Trade Center before I left, and wondered, is this part of that? Then the plane disappeared, smoke started coming up, and traffic came to a complete stop," Lyman said. "We all got out of our cars. We heard another couple of explosions, and I ran and got back in my car."
"The police came and had us drive back the wrong way on the highway."The Boston Globe, September 12 2001
David Marra, 23, an information-technology specialist, had turned his BMW off an I-395 exit to the highway just west of the Pentagon when he 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 cartwheeled into the building.
TIME', September 12 2001
"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.
Authorities have not described the plane that hit the Pentagon, although eyewitnesses said it was clearly a big commercial jet.Associated Press, September 11 2001
Don Mason, 62, is a communications specialist who retired from the United States Air Force after 25 years of service. He has worked for the Pentagon Renovation Program Office on information management and telecommunications since 1996. At the time of the crash he was stopped in traffic west of the building. The plane approached low, flying directly over him and possibly clipping the antenna of the vehicle immediately behind him, and struck three light poles between him and the building. He saw his colleague Frank Probst directly in the plane’s path, and he witnessed a small explosion as the portable generator was struck by the right wing.The aircraft struck the building between the heliport fire station and the generator, its left wing slightly lower than its right wing. As the plane entered the building, he recalled seeing the tail of the plane. The fireball that erupted upon the plane’s impact rose above the structure. Mason then noticed flames coming from the windows to the left of the point of impact and observed small pieces of the facade falling to the ground. Law enforcement personnel moved Mason’s vehicle and other traffic on, and he did not witness the subsequent partial collapse of the building.
ACSE Building Performance Report
Two other witnesses, Daniel McAdams and his wife, Cynthia, said they were sitting in their kitchen drinking coffee in their third-floor condominium in Arlington, Va., just two miles from the Pentagon when they heard a plane fly directly overhead around 9:45 a.m.
It was unusually loud and low.
Seconds later, they heard a big boom and felt the doors and windows of their three-story building shake.
From their window, they could see a plume of black smoke coming from the Pentagon.The News Journal Extra, September 11 2001
I was heading to the Arlington National Cemetery for a graveside service and I took the wrong exit, the exit for the Pentagon. I had just finished doing a mass, so I hadn't heard any news about the World Trade Center. Traffic was at a complete standstill, and I was right in front of the Pentagon. I was anxious about being late to the service, when all of a sudden I realized a plane was about 20 or 25 feet above our cars. It clipped a light pole on the edge of the highway, which hit a taxi. In a fraction of a second, I saw the plane coming in for what looked like a landing, very controlled and straight, and plow into the Pentagon. I could see fire billowing out of the top windows of the building. I remember hearing a collective gasp, even though I had my window closed.
I immediately thought it was a tragic accident, and I had a strong sense that I was meant to be there. Three weeks earlier, I had an experience where I had failed to make a turn and ended up someplace where I never usually am. There was a serious accident and a man was being placed in an ambulance on a stretcher. In that case I failed to stop, and I remember feeling guilty afterward. I made a resolution that I was going to stop whenever there was a serious accident-of course, I was just thinking auto accidents-and provide spiritual help.
I got my prayer book and blessed oils that we use to anoint those who are sick or dying, and I got out of my car and jumped across the guardrail. Very soon there were a handful of injured people who had somehow made it out onto the lawn. I began to go from one person to another. I kept saying "Jesus is with you." I remember one woman who had been seriously burned. She had no clothes on the back of her; the fire had burned them off. She said, "Tell my mother and father that I love them."
In those first 45 minutes, I was picking up snatches here and there about hijacking and the World Trade Center, and so I picked up that this was not simply an accident. Other chaplains had arrived at the scene, and from then on, we followed the medics, to be ready to console anyone who was injured. There was a rumor that there was another plane. A couple of times someone ordered us to get out, "Get over to the bridge, a plane's coming in!" We stayed at the Pentagon for hours, just waiting for anyone whom we could help, and of course praying for those who might still be in there. Then it became a salvage operation, and we prayed for the dead.
I'd only been a priest for three months at that point. I was working as a lawyer at the Department of Justice for almost six years. I left the department in July 1997 and went to seminary, and I was ordained a priest in June of 2001.
Of all days to have that graveside service nearby and to make a wrong turn onto that exit at that precise moment-I have no doubt that the Lord wanted me to be there-for the help that I was able to give, but also maybe on a symbolic level. My being there was a visible sign that God was there.
The National Journal, August 31 2002
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.
"The traffic was very slow moving, and at one point just about at a standstill," said McGraw, a Catholic priest at St. Anthony Parish in Falls Church.
"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.
"I hadn't heard about the World Trade Center at that point, and so I was thinking this was an accident. I figured it was just an accident.
"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.
"I remember hearing a gasp or scream from one of the other cars near me. Almost a collective gasp it seemed. I just knew right away what I needed to do."
"He literally had the stole in one hand and a prayer book in the other and in one fluid motion crossed the guardrail," said Mark Faram, a reporter from the Navy Times who witnessed McGraw in the first moments after the crash.
Within 45 seconds, McGraw was on the lawn of the Pentagon to provide spiritual comfort to the injured.
"My first memories -- there was of course a lot of confusion and disorientation by a lot of people, I'm sure myself included -- were that in those first moments there were already injured being brought to the far edge of the highway," he said.
McGraw said he saw people coming out of the building who had escaped serious injury and believes that some of these people assisted the gravely wounded in the initial moments before the paramedics arrived by carrying or helping them to the far side of the grass. McGraw said medical personnel were on the scene shortly after he arrived.The Pentagram, September 28 2001
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Judy.
A short -- a while ago I walked right up next to the building, firefighters were still trying to put the blaze. The fire, by the way, is still burning in some parts of the Pentagon. And I took a look at the huge gaping hole that's in the side of the Pentagon in an area of the Pentagon that has been recently renovated, part of a multibillion dollar renovation program here at the Pentagon. I could see parts of the airplane that crashed into the building, very small pieces of the plane on the heliport outside the building. The biggest piece I saw was about three feet long, it was silver and had been painted green and red, but I could not see any identifying markings on the plane. I also saw a large piece of shattered glass. It appeared to be a cockpit