What was the flight path of the plane that hit the Pentagon? It was airborn for over an hour. It doesn’t take that long to get from Dulles to the Pentagon, even by car.
The flight paths of the other three planes is commonly shown by all the news organization. For example, the first plane made a sharp left turn at Albany and flew down the Hudson River. Is the flight path of the Pentagon plane being kept hush-hush for some reason?
More specifically, where was it in the five minutes immediately before the crash? Did it approach from the northwest. I heard (?) one source as saying it came over DC and hit the Pentagon AFTER flying over the White House.
This page from The Washington Post shows that the plane went as far as Kentucky before turning around for DC.
It was airborn for 90 minutes, and apparently it swung back over the Capitol building, and near the White House (I heard it was Lafayette Park, just north of the White House) before heading to the Pentagon.
Here is a graphic of the impact. However, for some reason, the Pentagon itself is misaligned in that graphic. The side that was hit was more or less the west side of the building.
If you go to http://www.mapquest.com , plug in Arlington, VA, and then zoom in on the Pentagon right by the river, you can select a tab for an aerial photograph which shows what I mean. You can see the helipad almost directly to the west.
Here is the overall flight path. From that perspective, it looks to have come in from the west over Fairfax County and Arlington after taking a U-turn where OH, WV, and KY meet.
I heard reports that the plane made a hard right just before it went in. Part of the reason for that might be because the Arlington Heights, just to the north of the Pentagon, rises a couple of hundred feet (tops) above the high tide line, with the faux-city of Rosslyn going up from the river to the Arlington County Courthouse. A direct low-altitude line to the White House is more or less prevented by that ridge–you can’t see much of DC from behind it, and you might be too high once you clear it. Plus, it cuts straight through the flight path for National, right over the Potomac river. Until Tuesday, there was another plane in the immediate airspace every minute and a half or so, which means they would have had to cut the jetwash to get over the river to DC.
In short, I think the bastards had to swerve to miss my home. Serves 'em right.
American Airlines Flight 77 took off from Dulles International, which is only about 20 miles from the Pentagon. The Boeing 757 initially headed west, but turned back on its flight path, doubling back almost exactly along the same path.
By this time, the attacks in Manhattan were 30 minutes old. Two F16s were scrambled out of Langley AFB (about 130 miles away) but were too far away to be of any help. By the way, Andrews AFB is only 15 miles away. I can’t find any of the interactive graphics online any more, but memory seems to recall that the flight had almost reached Kentucky when it doubled back.
On this page of the Los Angeles Times there is a graphic, “the Pentagon attack,” which purportedly describes the events leading up to the final kamikaze run.
First, the graphic is wrong. It shows the perspective more or less properly, but it shows the plane hitting the left corner of the southwest wall, when in actuality the plane hit the right corner of the west wall.
But, it does say, “Dulles controllers notice a fast-moving [plane] in their airspace east-southeast of the airport and heading directly toward the White House.”
Dulles is 20 miles west by northwest of the White house. Plane is east by southeast of the airport, heading for the airport. So that means it’s already past the airport and headed more or less due east, or from the west, riiiiight?
And then, “plane begins turning to the right, away from the White House.” Mmmkay. Then…
“The plane circles 270 degrees to the right and approaches the Pentagon from the southwest.”
“270 degrees to the right” is what I know as a “New York left,” no offense intended. 270 degrees to the right on a west-to-east bearing has the plane pointed due north, 90 degrees off from where it actually struck.
This is the most informative account of the flight which I can find, and it is whacked. However, if any part of this account is actually based on fact, it looks as if Montfort is a lot more correct than I am.
I consider this question still unanswered. If anyone can help with this, I’d appreciate it.
You were presumed dead, Sofa King. Your name did not appear in any “check in” lists. I’m glad you’re ok. It’s a comforting thought though, isn’t it, that if you had been killed your body could probably have been identified by about 16,321 people.
I just have some more anecdotal “evidence”. I believe I heard about people outside my office building that saw the plane fly over Lafayette Park. It was pretty low and probably scared the hell out of the bystanders.
My office is on K Street, between 16th and 17th, so if I was outside at the time, I would’ve seen the plane over the Park. My office faces to the north, however, so I didn’t see anything.
As for how the plane flew, I’m still mystified why it missed the White House to begin with, and then chose to hit the Pentagon rather than swing back again and aim for the south lawn of the White House via the Mall.