|
| 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, |
