# How does a plane fly into the Pentagon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2001, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983 "2001-09-12T01:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/1 "2001-09-12T01:58:32Z")
Forgive me…I have been at work most of the day…I haven’t been able to monitor the news all day. The Pentagon gets “attacked” a full one hour after the WTC get attacked? Should they not be on alert? How on earth can a commercial airliner crash into it? It is the PENTAGON for goodness sakes!!! .I realize it took off from Dulles airport which is probably less than 30 miles away. Were the other alternatives worse? Has anyone asked this question? News reports seem to concentrated on NYC and not on the Pentagon or the crash site in PA. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/2 "2001-09-12T02:26:32Z")
The Pentagon is alarmingly close to the runways at Washington National. I’ve flown over it many times, coming in for a landing there. In fact, I often wondered why it had not been hit on accident before, because the planes fly _directly_ over it, every few minutes or so. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/3 "2001-09-12T02:37:02Z")
The Pentagon, an unarmed office building, sits beside the final approach (or, if the wind blows the other way, initial climb-out) path for busy Reagan (neé National) Airport. Nothing unusual about airplanes circling around low. They must have been on alert, but at Pentagon level, that means “no dinner tonight”, not that you should don your helmet and flak jacket. The best they _could_ have done was evacuate preventively, but that would look SO lame – they’re the military HQ, and they were the first ones to run? At the time, it was thought this was an attack on New York, not a nationwide attack. No fighters had scrambled from bases around DC. This being America, we do not put SAM emplacements on our government buildings nor do we have fighters on CAP 24/7 above our cities. Stories on some media outlets indicate that this plane, unlike the other 3, promptly broke flight plan after take-off and headed straight for DC, and that Dulles was able to notify the FAA that they had an aircraft heading for the no-fly zone in downtown DC. But time was too short to really do anything. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/4 "2001-09-12T02:58:43Z")
**notfrommensa** , the Pentagon is an office building. It may be the world’s largest, but it is _not_ a military installation. No fighters are based there, to my knowledge, nor are any armed soldiers there in any great force. As was stated above, a high state of alert at the Pentagon does not entail mobilizing anti-aircraft batteries or moving tanks out of storage. [The Pentagon isn’t even very well-maintained (or, well, wasn’t).](http://www.dtic.mil/ref/html/Welcome/renovations.html) So get out of your head notions of the Pentagon as a fortress. It isn’t, it never has been, and it was never meant to be. It’s just an administrative center. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/5 "2001-09-12T06:58:59Z")
When I first moved to DC (I actually lived in Maryland by the VA and DC and MD border by Reagan Airport I was shocked at how I considered how easy it would be to get to them. But everyone I askd assured me that all of DC was so strictly controlled by air regulations that wasn’t a worry. I guess the Pentagon is outside that area. Or then again if someone is gonna suicide bomb you I guess there ain’t much you can do. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/6 "2001-09-12T11:27:21Z")
And it’s my guess that most of the truly important stuff is below ground. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/7 "2001-09-12T11:40:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > The best they _could_ have done was evacuate preventatively, but that would look SO lame – they’re the military HQ, and they were the first ones to run? I assume you’re not seriously suggesting that the pentagon bosses would rather sacrifice hundreds of lives than appear _lame_ given an imminent attack? ---
**Author:** ![Chaosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Chaosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chaosopher)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/8 "2001-09-12T11:52:35Z")
Some of you don’t appreciate how fast airliners move. It’s routine to travel at around 600MPH. Assuming you are going to ‘ask’ a jet to alter course before blowing it out of the sky, you have about 15 seconds to react. The pentagon (and the rest of us) were hard up for information. I mean, they were wtill digesting what happened in NYC and it seemed isolated at that time. The pentagon does have a contingency where they can put people on the roof with stinger missles, but that’s a thretcon delta situation, which they didn’t reach until AFTER they were hit. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/9 "2001-09-12T13:11:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chaosopher \* > \*\*The pentagon does have a contingency where they can put people on the roof with stinger missles, but that’s a thretcon delta situation, which they didn’t reach until AFTER they were hit. \*\* A Stinger missile would not have a very good chance of stopping a big honkin’ jetliner that was already preparing to crash onto the building, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/10 "2001-09-12T13:22:08Z")
I believe in _Debt of Honor_ they used Stingers against the 747 that was aiming for the Capitol, and all they did was take out the engines. Momentum carried the plane right into the target anyways, which is what would likely happen IRL. ---
**Author:** ![Tabeitha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b3f665/32.png) [@Tabeitha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabeitha)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/11 "2001-09-12T14:01:45Z")
As someone who works in Crystal City about two blocks from the Pentagon, I can tell you it is a very common sight to see commercial planes flying over the Pentagon. I happened to be on 395N at the Pentagon exit when the plane hit. I saw the plane coming across the sky, my first thought was man that plane is low he better pull up or he will miss the runway. Almost instantly it hit the Pentagon. The ground shook. No one could have seen this comming. Planes fly that area all day and night. Even if they were looking for this sort of thing to happen, they would not have assumed this plane was a threat. This plane was close to a flight path that would have landed it at National. I watch these planes land and take off everyday. The only thing that struck me about this plane was, it was to low. I stood out on the highway for hours and watched as the Pentagon burned. I do not think we could have prevented this no matter how tight security could have been. My 2 cents. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/12 "2001-09-12T14:15:14Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Andy \* \*\* > [@](#): > > I assume you’re not seriously suggesting that the pentagon bosses would rather sacrifice hundreds of lives than appear _lame_ given an imminent attack? \*\* “Imminent”? _They did not know that!_ At the time they only knew that two planes had rammed buildings in _New York_ within the past hour. In that kind of situation, where there may be a _potential_ attack, the military command’s place is _at their stations_. So, an emergency happens 200 miles away, and you empty your Defense HQ? If there’s a fire 5 blocks away, do you evacuate your house before you know if the fire’s moving your way? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/13 "2001-09-12T17:02:48Z")
USA Today has [animated graphics](http://www.usatoday.com) of the crashes at both locations. I just need to point out that the graphic is flipped left-to-right. The Heli-pad is actually on the _west_ side of the building. I don’t know if this link is going to work for y’all but I zoomed in on the aerial image of the pentagon for a photographic view. In this photo you can clearly see the small square helicopter pad on the west side of the building. Just our of view (further west) is Arlington Cemetery: [http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/ia\_find?link=btwn/twn-map\_results&zoom\_level=10&uid=uce75ecbnep8g5ud:tn16zsqua&aphoto=1&SNVData=3mad3-h.fy(ayg0ur\_)zt2d4r%3Bpq|s9z,p7%3B8aq.hqu%3B(\_P7gpk16vx1(ER%3A(E%3Abg5f82%3D%3Dtauaza%3D0,rb%3B7%3Bb5m-r2qfj5m%3Be10h(4,3bj|n&pcat=&zlgif.x=1](http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/ia_find?link=btwn/twn-map_results&zoom_level=10&uid=uce75ecbnep8g5ud:tn16zsqua&aphoto=1&SNVData=3mad3-h.fy%28ayg0ur_%29zt2d4r%3bpq%7cs9z,p7%3b8aq.hqu%3b%28_P7gpk16vx1%28ER%3a%28%11E%3abg5f82%3d%3dtauaza%3d0,rb%3b7%3bb5m-r2qfj5m%3be10h%284,3bj%7cn&pcat=&zlgif.x=1) Sometimes the links works for me, other times I just get a blank “mapquest” page. Either way it’s easy enough to go to mapquest & zoom in on the area, then click on “aerial photo”. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/14 "2001-09-12T22:24:47Z")
It flys real low, clipping telephone poles, etc on the way to the Pentagon. I don’t know why there are so many questions on the board since there are about 20 tv channels going 24/7 about this thing. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-plane-fly-into-the-pentagon/80983/15 "2001-09-13T06:35:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > The best they _could_ have done was evacuate preventively, but that would look SO lame – they’re the military HQ, and they were the first ones to run? So what you actually meant to write was “The best they _could_ have done was evacuate preventively, but that would have been unwise as it would’ve left the military with less than optimum operational capability” Is that right? Or did you mean “Look lame”? Read it again and I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s a hell of a difference.