All You Need to Know About the Pentagon Attack

...you can find out from the people who saw it. Normally I would not blog something like this but given the amount of idiots out there claiming that a cruise missle or single engine drone or some other such thing hit the Pentagon, I thought it neccessary. Enjoy

		A list of witness at or near to the Pentagon, September 11th, 2001 collated from reports to be found online:
		• Anon, from the Navy Annex. 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. http://www.ournetfamily.com/WarOnTerror/emails/pentagonwitness.html
		• Donald "Tim" Timmerman, a 36 year old resident of Eppington Drive, to the south of the Pentagon across Interstate 395, is a navy pilot and a photographer. "I was looking out the window; I live on the 16th floor, overlooking the Pentagon, in a corner apartment, so I have quite a panorama. And being next to National Airport, I hear jets all the time, but this jet engine was way too loud. I looked out to the southwest, and it came right down 395, right over Colombia Pike, and as it went by the Sheraton Hotel, the pilot added power to the engines. I heard it pull up a little bit more, and then I lost it behind a building. And then it came out and I saw it hit right in front of -- it didn't appear to crash into the building; most of the energy was dissipated in hitting the ground, but I saw the nose break up, I saw the wings fly forward, and then the conflagration engulfed everything in flames. It was horrible. What can you tell us about the plane itself? It was a Boeing 757, American Airlines, no question. You say that it was a Boeing, and you say it was a 757 or 767? 7-5-7. 757, which, of course.. American Airlines. American Airlines, one of the new generation of jets. Right. It was so close to me it was like looking out my window and looking at a helicopter. It was just right there. . . http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.32.html . . A CNN on-the-sight reporter was interviewed by a fellow fromCNN : You got a close-up look at the damage, didn't you? Yes, I was right next to the building. And what did you see? I saw a big, gaping hole and I could see pieces of the plane inside. Earlier, an eye-witness told us the plane didn't crash into the building. Well, I don't know what it looked like from where he was, but I looked right inside the hole and I know it crashed into the building. http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/war/spin.htm
		• Christopher Munsey, Navy Times reporter , was en route to work. ". . I couldn’t believe what I was now seeing to my right: A silver, twin-engine American Airlines jetliner gliding almost noiselessly over the Navy Annex, fast, low and straight toward the Pentagon, just hundreds of yards away. The plane, with red and blue markings, hurtled by and within moments exploded in a ground-shaking “whoomp,” http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-467181.php
		• John O’Keefe, 25-year-old Northern Virginia commuter, managing editor of Influence, an American Lawyer Media publication about lobbying was "not much more than a football field away" on “. saw or heard it first -- this silver plane; I immediately recognized it as an American Airlines jet,” “It came swooping in over the highway, over my left shoulder, straight across where my car was heading. http://www.nylawyer.com/news/01/09/091201l.html
		• Joel Sucherman, USAToday.com Multimedia Editor, saw it all: an American Airlines jetliner fly left to right across his field of vision as he commuted to work Tuesday morning. It was highly unusual. The large plane was 20 feet off the ground and a mere 50 to 75 yards from his windshield. Two seconds later and before he could see if the landing gear was down or any of the horror- struck faces inside, the plane slammed into the west wall of the Pentagon 100 yards away. "My first thought was he's not going to make it across the river to National Airport. But whoever was flying the plane made no attempt to change direction. It was coming in at a high rate of speed, but not at a steep angle--almost like a heat-seeking missile was locked onto its target and staying dead on course." http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D704%2526a%253D15161,00.asp "it came screaming across the highway, route 110" Was it a commercial jet? Do you know how many engines? "I did not see the engines, I saw the body and the tail; it was a silver jet with the markings along the windows that spoke to me as an American Airlines jet, it was not a commercial, excuse me, a business jet, it was not a lear jet, it was a bigger plane than that.".
		• 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.
		A woman driver wanting to exit from Interstate 395 saw "a commercial plane that came in and was coming too fast and too low amnd the next thing we saw was it go down below the side of the road and we just saw the fire.." http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/day.video.09.html
		Brig. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, deputy director of military support to civil authorities. was returning to the Pentagon Sept. 11 returned urgently from a meeting, north along Interstate 395 . While exiting the ramp to the Pentagon he"was scanning the air. There wasn't anything in the air, except for one airplane, and it looked like it was loitering over Georgetown, in a high, left-hand bank," he said. "That may have been the plane. I have never seen one on that (flight) pattern." http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/13/pentagon.terrorism He pulled his car over and sprinted toward the gaping, flaming hole “It took me four to five minutes to get there,” http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0901/091401kp1.htm http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Sep2001/a20010919fireheroes.html
		Mark Bright, was the first security officer to arrive at the scene , having actually seen the plane hit the building while manning the guard booth at the Mall Entrance. "I saw the plane at the Navy Annex area," "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." He said he heard the plane "power-up" just before it struck the Pentagon. http://www.dcmilitary.com/marines/hendersonhall/6_39/local_news/10797-1.html
		Alan Wallace, a 55 year old Fort Myer firefighter was standing with fellow firefighter Mark Skipper, about 200 feet away from the catastrophe, standing outside their fire station. They bith suffered first and second degree burns. http://www.msnbc.com/news/635293.asp Wallace described a white airplane with orange and blue trim, heading almost straight at them. "When I felt the fire, I hit the ground," http://detnews.com/2001/nation/0109/11/nation-291261.htm "I just happened to look up and see the plane. It was about 200 yards away, and was coming in low and fast. I told Mark that we needed to get the hell out of there." Dennis Young, a third fireman at the scene, but inside the fire house, had been one of the first to respond when a Canadian C-130 crashed near Fairbanks, Alaska in 1989. "I knew from past experience that it was a plane crash." www.iaff.org/across/news/archives/102401local.html
		At a media briefing, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark told the story of Capt. Lincoln Liebner, who was outside the Pentagon when the blast took place. He rushed into the building to help. His hands were burned, and after he was taken away to a hospital for treatment, he returned later in the day to do more.
		• Captain Lincoln Liebner, was parking his car at the moment of attack: 'I saw this large American Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low,' said Army Captain Lincoln Liebner. 'We got one guy out of the fire truck cab,' he said, adding he could hear people crying inside the wreckage. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/html/webspecial/WTC/wtcnews15.html "I saw this large American Airlines passenger jet coming in fast and low," "My first thought was I've never seen one that high. Before it hit I realised what was happening, Captain Liebner says the aircraft struck a helicopter on the helipad, setting fire to a fire truck. We got one guy out of the 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."" http://abc.net.au/news/2001/09/item20010911230953_1.htm French version: http://www.cyberpresse.ca/reseau/monde/0109/mon_101090013337.html
		• Alfred S. Regnery, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, Inc., a sister company of Human Events saw ". . a jetliner, apparently at full throttle and not more than a couple of hundred yards above the ground, screamed overhead." http://www.humanevents.org/articles/09-17-01/regnery.html
		• Mike Walter, 46, USA Today reporter, said "I was sitting in the northbound on 27 and the traffic was, you know, typical rush-hour -- it had ground to a standstill. I looked out my window and I saw this plane, this jet, an American Airlines jet, coming. And I thought, 'This doesn't add up, it's really low.' And I saw it. I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings. It went right there and slammed right into the Pentagon." http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/attack.in.their.words
		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. Report by Maj Fred H. Allison, USMCR (Ret): http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/nov01pentagonarch.htm
		• Afework Hagos, 26, of Arlington, is a computer programmer, a consultant for Nextel. On his way to work he was stuck in a traffic jam on Columbia Pike, near the Pentagon when the plane flew over. "There was a huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over. Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on the way in." http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550486,00.html
		. He saw a plane flying very low and close to nearby buildings. "I thought something was coming down on me. I know this plane is going to crash. I've never seen a plane like this so low." He said he looked at it and saw American Airline insignia and when it made impact with the Pentagon initially he saw smoke, then flames. http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/5m/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
		Dave Winslow, AP Radio Reporter lives across the street. He saw."the tail of a large airliner ." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4254882,00.html
		Eugenio Hernandez, an AP video journalist, was driving by the Pentagon and saw the plane crashing. He borrowed a tourist's video camera began shooting. http://www.apbroadcast.com/AP+Broadcast/about+us/miscellaneous/in+the+news.htm
		Christine Peterson, ’73 found herself in the thick of last month’s terrorist tragedy, and submitted this report: ". . I was at a complete stop on the road in front of the helipad at the Pentagon; what I had thought would be a shortcut was as slow as the other routes I had taken that morning. I looked idly out my window to the left -- and saw a plane flying so low I said, “holy cow, that plane is going to hit my car” (not my actual words). The car shook as the plane flew over. It was so close that I could read the numbers under the wing." http://www.naualumni.com/News/News.cfm?ID=613&c=4
		Fred Gaskins, was driving to his job as a national editor at USA TODAY near the Pentagon when the plane passed about 150 feet overhead. "(The plane) was flying fast and low and the Pentagon was the obvious target, It was flying very smoothly and calmly, without any hint that anything was wrong." • Aydan Kizildrgli, an English language student who is a native of Turkey, saw the jetliner bank slightly. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/11/attack-usat.htm
		• Kirk Milburn, a construction supervisor for Atlantis Co. was on the Arlington National Cemetery exit of Interstate 395. "I was right underneath the plane. I heard a plane. I saw it. I saw debris flying. I guess it was hitting light poles. It was like a WHOOOSH whoosh, then there was fire and smoke, then I heard a second explosion." Steve Patterson, is a graphics artist who works at home.in a 14th-floor apartment in Pentagon City. While watching events unfold on TV he saw a silver commuter jet fly past his window about 150 yards away, approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground, He said it appeared to him that a commuter jet which appeared to hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon but was flying as if coming in for a landing on a nonexistent runway. The plane, which sounded like the high-pitched squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he thought it was going to land on I-395. "at a frightening rate .‚.‚. just slicing into that building." He saw bright orange flames shoot out the back of the building. John Damoose, a Travis City, Mich. native who was in a meeting said "everybody got nervous. .‚.‚. We didn't know whether to stay inside or go outside. The thing with terrorist attacks is that you don't know what is the next thing that will happen." He said the worst part was leaving the Pentagon and walking along Fort Meyer Drive, a bike trail, "you could see pieces of the plane." http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/5m/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html
		Father Stephen McGraw was driving to a graveside service at Arlington national Cemetery. McGraw estimates that the plane passed about 20 feet over his car, as he waited on the northbound side of Washington Boulevard. "I was in the left hand lane with my windows closed. I did not hear anything at all until the plane was just right above our cars." "The plane clipped the top of a light pole just before it got to us, injuring a taxi driver, whose taxi was just a few feet away from my car. http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/pentagram/6_39/local_news/10772-1.html http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Pentagon_crash_eyewitness_comforted_victims.html
		Allen Cleveland of Woodbridge Virginia looked out from a Metro train going to National Airport, to see a jet heading down toward the Pentagon. "I thought, 'There's no landing strip on that side of the subway tracks,' " Before he could process that thought, he saw "a huge mushroom cloud. A lady staThe lady next to me was in absolute hysterics." " . . a silver pasenger jet, mid sized" http://mfile.akamai.com/920/rm/thepost.download.akamai.com/920/nation/091101-5s.ram http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170005.html
		Meseidy Rodriguez confirms "it was a mid size plane".
		Oscar Martinez ``.. saw a big jet flying close to the building coming at full speed. There was a big noise when it hit the building,'' said , who witnessed the attack. http://www.firehouse.com/terrorist/11_APdc.html
		Ron Turner, the Navy’s deputy chief information officer, was standing at a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery: “There was a huge fireball, followed by the [usual] black cloud of a fuel burn.” “It reminded me of being back in Vietnam, watching Tan Son Nhut Air Base burn.” http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0901/091301j3.htm
		ARFF fire Crews reported 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. http://www.nfpa.org/NFPAJournal/OnlineExclusive/Exclusive_11_01_01/exclusive_11.01.01.asp
		Ken Ford, a State Department employee, 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. Daniel and Cynthia McAdams 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 over head around 9:45 a.m. It was unusually loud and low. http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2001/09/pdf/09112001EXTRA2.pdf http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0912/wor5.htm
		Steve Riskus, steveriskus@aol.com wrote: I took these pictures less then 1 minutes after I watched the american airlines 757 airplane crash into the pentagon on september 11 2001. I left shortly after the picture were taken in fear of further attacks. Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions about my pictures. I did acctually see the plane impact the building. http://www.criticalthrash.com/terror/crashthumbnails.html
		Mickey Bell, an electrical contractor's foreman was working to renovate the second and third floors. Outside, and less than 100 feet from the initial impact of the plane, he was very nearly struck by one of the wings as they sped by him. He had just left the project trailer (that exploded) 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. He got into his truck, parked in the trailer compound, and sped away. Plastic and rivets from an airplane were later found imbedded in its sheet metal http://www.necanet.org/whats_new/report.cfm?ID=1003: http://www.ecmag.com/industrynews/index.cfm?fuseaction=view&art_id=1115 "We went out to look at his truck and the truckbed was filled with all kinds of debris that must have come from the blast. He's one really lucky guy,"
		Wayne T. Day, President of ' Kirlin', Rockville MD, says "We had one guy who was standing, looking out the window and saw the plane when it was coming in. He was in front of one of the blast- resistant windows," http://www.designbuildmag.com/oct2001/pentagon1001.asp
		Steve Snaman, manager of the datacom division for Walker Seals, watched from Fort McNair (across the river) as the jetliner came in low at full throttle, banked left and smashed into the wall of the Pentagon. http://www.ecmag.com/industrynews/index.cfm?fuseaction=view&art_id=1117
		Compiled impartially, ( with compliments especially to Steve Riskus ) by UK resident Ron Harvey, last updated March 2002,