# Pentagon/WTC: You just can't win

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 15, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899 "2001-09-15T23:47:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899/1 "2001-09-15T23:47:29Z")

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From CNN:

“In Washington, the Pentagon announced that the estimated number of people presumed dead has been lowered from 189 to 188… A civilian employee who had been reported as unaccounted for turned out to have been aboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.”

Had he been at work he would have died at in the Pentagon attack. Instead he happened to be to be on a plane that hit the WTC and died there.

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**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899/2 "2001-09-16T00:34:18Z")

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That’s assuming that he was assigned to work in the same part of the Pentagon that the plane struck.

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899/3 "2001-09-16T07:44:15Z")

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There was another employee on the plane that did hit the Pentagon.

But here is the strangest I’ve heard yet. This man (Irish in appearance) was on the floor just below where the 1st plane hit and he and a woman he didn’t know escaped, although she was badly burned (another story).

His sister lived in Boston and decided to accompany her best friend to Los Angeles. They took different planes because the friend already had her ticket, and the sister had frequent flier miles with another airline. Long story made short: the friend was on the plane that crashed into the building that the brother was in and the sister was on the plane that crashed into the other building.

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**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899/4 "2001-09-16T17:45:41Z")

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kniz,  
You left out that the man’s niece was traveling with his sister. She had been promised a trip to Disneyland.

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-wtc-you-just-cant-win/81899/5 "2001-09-20T03:56:20Z")

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It was his [sister and his neice](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/northern_ireland/newsid_1540000/1540529.stm).