AMERICAN FLIGHT 77 AND THE PENTAGON 9/11
The Pentagon Attack and American Airlines Flight 77,
by John Judge, 2/21/04
researcher and founder for 9/11 CitizensWatch 21 February 2004
THE PENTAGON ATTACK
On the morning of September 11, 20011 was at home in Washington,
DC, about half a mile from the Pentagon, in Anacostia. I had been
called by a friend to inform me of the first plane hitting the
WTC tower in New York City. He sits on a transportation board for
the county in Fairfax, Virginia, which includes Dulles Airport.
He was immediately alarmed because he knew that no commercial
flights come close to those buildings on their normal routes, and
he suspected this was a terrorist attack. As we spoke, the second
plane hit the second WTC tower at approximately 9:05 am, and at
that point people across the United States were forced to agree
with his thesis, since neither accident nor coincidence would
have explained two such tragedies happening nearly
simultaneously.
At that point, other planes that had gone off course and turned
off communications with their control towers were still in the
air. All four planes involved in the attacks had been identified
as emergencies and potential hijackings by the FAA. NORAD, the
National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, the Secret
Service and other agencies linked into a phone bridge that was in
place by at least 8:24 am, sharing critical information with the
air traffic controllers and eventually with military pilots. By
8:18 am, according to published reports, they were aware of four
commercial passenger planes off course and not responding
normally, two from United and two from American Airlines.
American Airlines (AA) Flight 77 left Dulles airport that morning
on its regular route to LAX airport in Los Angeles. For a few
minutes it was lost to radar tracking when it turned off course
and headed back to the east. But in a short time radar contact
was renewed and its course was visible. It was coming towards
Washington, DC. Much of the city is under P-56, one of the most
secure airspaces in the world, protected under federal
regulations from any over-flight by unauthorized planes, private
or commercial, and guarded by fighter jets from Andrews Air Force
Base (AFB) and Anacostia Naval Air Station, where the Air
National Guard is located.
Not only did authorities know it was headed to DC, it was
announced publicly on local TV and radio stations, and evacuation
was ordered at the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and
other federal buildings. This notice was given well in advance of
the plane's arrival in DC airspace. I stood watching television
news reports that morning, anticipating its arrival. A large
explosion at approximately 9:43 am shook my windows, though it
was not visible to me.
When newscasters announced the identity of the plane involved,
American Airlines Flight 77 and its Dulles/LAX route, my heart
sank. A dear friend and fellow researcher had been working as a
flight attendant for American for many years, and that was her
regular route, several times a week. I feared she had been
trapped on the plane and died in the crash. Attempts to reach her
by phone that day got her answering machine, nothing more.
Local reporters continued to cover the event on radio and TV.
There was footage of the rescue and fire crews at the Pentagon
site, and the smoke plume was visible across the city. Hundreds
of witnesses had been stuck in traffic during the attack along
major highway routes into the city that border the Pentagon, and
had seen and heard the event close-up, as well as office workers
in nearby buildings, others along the route who were outside and
ducked because the plane was flying so low, and workers at the
Pentagon site, both at the heliport and in the construction crews
who had been reinforcing the building walls for several years.
Many of these people were interviewed by local and national media
and the press.
(AH, DID YOU CATCH IT! Workers had been "reinforcing" the
building walls for several years! The conspiracy guys question
and give as proof that it was not a 757 plane because it did not
leave a larger hole in the destruction it caused, when compared
to a 757 hitting an Apartment building in Europe - Keith Hunt)
"Continuity of government" was declared bypassing Constitutional
governing structures in favor of a small number of executive and
legislative leaders working together with FEMA. the National
Security Council and the Pentagon from a secure bunker in
Bluemont, VA to function in the emergency. Metro, AMTRAK trains,
and commercial flights were cancelled and government employees
were excused from work and told to go home. Local highways became
one-way routes out of town. Park Police could be seen on the
streets with machine guns at ready.
DC became very close to martial law. And all day long, local
witnesses to the event at the Pentagon were interviewed,
describing the plane and its collision with the Pentagon and the
explosion that resulted. Later, survivors from inside the
building were interviewed, along with rescue crew. A massive
rescue and clean-up operation began once the fire was contained.
As it turned out, my friend had not been on Flight 77, having
taken the day off work to care for her sick father, and to my
relief she had survived. She had lost her entire regular crew,
both pilots and all the attendants, including her best friend at
work. She was immediately invited in to a series of briefings and
grief counselling sessions by both the airline and the Pentagon.
These briefings continue to this day. She also attended a long
series of memorial events at the gravesites of her co-workers and
friends following the event. Her own father died shortly after
that in November. I attended his funeral service at National
Cemetery and got to meet some of her American Airline co-workers.
When questions arose about Flight 77, I contacted her to raise
the issues that concerned me and the speculations of others who
denied the plane hit the Pentagon. She was adamant in saying it
had, and told me she had been to the crash site and had seen
parts of the plane. I asked her about the speculation that the
plane would have made a larger hole due to the wingspan. She
informed me that the fuel was stored in the wings and that they
would have exploded and broken off, as the fuselage slammed
through the building walls.
I have spoken to dozens of other witnesses to the event, and to
others who know the reports. Wayne Madsen, a respected local
journalist, spoke to a camera person at WJLA-TV 7 who had been
driving to the Pentagon on instructions from his office,
expecting a public statement from authorities there in response
to the events in New York City. Shortly after the crash he saw a
woman standing by the road at the edge of the Pentagon, next to
her car, and apparently in shock. He stopped to help her and
found she could not speak. But she pointed him to the far side of
her car. The passenger side had been sheared off in part and
sections of the landing gear from the plane were on the ground
nearby. Others I have spoken to, including pilots, either saw the
crash happen and identified the plane, or saw parts of the plane
in the wreckage days afterwards.
At the funeral service on September 20th in Annapolis for Charles
Burlingame, the pilot of AA Flight 77, my friend was approached
by another flight attendant to assist in support work for the
rescue crews at the site. This work was being organized by the
Salvation Army. The Pentagon was seeking people with security
clearances that they could trust to be near the site and all the
airline attendants qualified for that level of clearance. The
shifts ran from 10 am to 10 pin, and then for the next twelve
hours. She and her mother signed up for an overnight shift on
Friday, September 21st.
She and her mother spent the entire night continuously providing
drinks to rescuers from North Carolina. Burger King, McDonald's,
Pepsi and Outback Steak House were the selected food and drink
providers. She and her mother were given a special T-shirt to
wear for the night, with red lettering for "Operation Noble
Eagle". They did not wear the traditional Salvation Army outfits.
No break came until early morning, the crews were large and
worked continuously. The work was tedious and slow. She was in
the second of five groups that were sent in that week. Rescue and
clean-up work continued for months.
At the end of her shift on Saturday morning, September 22nd, she
was approached along with other attendants to visit the crash
site. One declined, but she and two others took a van driven by
the Salvation Army to the area. They were forced to wait almost
45 minutes at a safety fence around the area before being
admitted into the area of destruction. As they waited, members of
a psychological support group talked to them about their
feelings. She will never forget what she saw there.
The area was covered with rescue equipment, fire trucks, small
carts, and ambulances. They were still hoping to find survivors.
Small jeeps with wagons attached were being used to transport
workers and others at the site. One flight attendant was driving
one of these around the site. Once inside the fence, she was
unable to clearly discern where the original wall had been. There
was just a gaping hole. She got off the van and walked inside the
crash site. The other attendants broke down crying once they were
inside. But my friend went in further than the others and kept
her emotions in check as she has been trained to do and usually
does in emergency situations.
She saw parts of the fuselage of an American Airlines plane, a
Boeing 757 plane. She identified the charred wreckage in several
ways. She recognized the polished aluminum outer shell, an
unpainted silver color that is unique to American Airline planes,
and the red and blue trim that is used to decorate the fuselage.
She saw parts of the inside of the plane, which she easily
identified since she flew and worked in them for years.
Upholstery, drapes and carpeting she could identify by both color
and design. The soft carpeting and padding of the inner walls had
a cloud design and color she recognized from American Airline
planes, though it has since been replaced. The blue coloring of
drapes and carpet were also specific to the 757 or 767 larger
planes, and were not used on the smaller planes. Seating
upholstery also matched the AA 757 planes, including the blue
color, tan squares and hints of white.
She saw other parts of the plane and engine parts at a distance
but they were familiar to her. She did not see any galley
supplies, which she would have recognized as well, nor any jump
seats. All the parts were charred but colors were still visible.
She also saw charred human bones but not any flesh or full body
parts.
One area of fuselage had remaining window sections and the shape
of the windows, curved squares not ovals, was also distinct to
the 757's she had flown. She also saw parts with the A/A logo,
including parts of the tail of the plane. Smaller A/A logos and
"American" logos are also on the planes and she saw parts of
those. One website shows pictures of wreckage inside the
building, including sections of the fuselage with bright lime and
yellow coloring, which is distinctive to Boeing parts. My friend
confirmed this, having visited a Boeing plant where she saw the
bright colors on the production line marking the inside of
fuselage parts. She did not notice this coloring at the site, but
the photos show it in some pieces of the plane.
She spent approximately 15 minutes in the crash area looking at
parts of the wreckage, all of which she recognized as coming from
a Boeing 757 American Airline plane, the same planes she flew
regularly. She did not see any rubber, only metal pieces of
fuselage, engine parts and sections of the inside of the plane.
She went to briefings by Pentagon people at the Sheraton for 3
months afterwards, and the clean-up lasted for a long period. She
is a union representative for attendants as well, and briefings
continue. Families and attendants were at the briefings, along
with Pentagon and airline people. Hundreds of people saw the
plane from windows of nearby buildings, from cars along the
nearby highways, and some ducked because it flew over so low.
Pentagon employees and construction workers at the site saw the
events unfold before their eyes. Hundreds more took part in the
cleanup operation and saw the wreckage. It is not difficult to
find eyewitnesses to the event in DC.
The crew of Flight 77 who died in the crash included her personal
friend Renee May. She had spoken to Renee's mother after the
crash, and Renee had used a cell phone to call her mother during
the hijacking. Her mother noted specific phone numbers to call
American Airlines operations to report a hijacking. "There are
six of them," Renee had told her, one more than in the official
version. Her mother also heard the voices of other attendants
calling out contact numbers for American Airlines during the
call. At the time attendants had been trained to cooperate during
a hijacking event, and it seems a group of them were at the back
of the plane together as it approached DC. She was told at a
briefing that pilot Charles Burlingame's throat was slit, but had
no way to confirm it. She believes the co-pilot may have been
forced to the rear with the attendants. She does not know exactly
what happened to her friend Renee.
Cell phone calls made from the planes that day have become an
area of contention as well. However, my friend told me that
attendants regularly hear cell phones ringing during flights,
despite the prohibition. In fact, the airlines are now ending the
restriction while on the ground, having discovered that these
devices do not actually interfere with communications or
functions aboard the plane before take off. Some cell phones do
not work as well as others at high altitudes and speeds, but
major carriers have multiple towers and the calls do not even
roam in connection. Other people I know have tested Verizon and
other cell phones crossing the country and found them to work
normally. In addition, many of the calls made that day were to
family members who clearly recognized their relatives' voices.
Other American ground crew workers saw some of the suspects board
American Airline Flight 77 and recognized them from the published
photos. While questions remain about the identities of the
hijackers, it is not the case that none of them were on the
planes. The airlines have yet to release full passenger
manifests, and those they have released are short of the total
count, and do not contain the suspects' names. Rather than
speculate that none were aboard, the more interesting question is
why the names have not been released if they indeed match the
official story.
My friend is therefore a credible and very knowledgeable
eyewitness to the fact that American Airlines Flight 77 crashed
into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. She has been vilified by
those who refuse to believe the obvious, as have the many
witnesses to the event. We lack clear footage of the event, some
of which was confiscated by the FBI, or pictures showing all the
wreckage and plane parts. Working from a few un-timed
photographs, others have speculated that not only did AA77 not
hit the Pentagon, but that a cruise missile or smaller plane did.
My friend is herself a researcher for many years into government
misdeeds and cover-ups. If she did not see the parts, she would
say so. She has no reason to lie about it. Nor is she confused
about what she saw. She is a professional and is used to looking
at evidence. Families of victims and others who work at the
airlines, as well as many witnesses I have spoken to, are
offended and shocked by these unfounded speculations. Those
willing to do a modicum of investigative work here in DC will be
quickly disabused of this disinformation. For a more thorough
presentation of the range of witness testimonies, and linking
sites, see "the work on Flight 77 and the Pentagon attack" by
Penny Schoner at www.ratical.org
My attendant friend knows and has put me in touch with other
American Airline employees and pilots who were at the site and
took photographs. We are busy locating these, as well as another
attendant who was at the site with her that day. 9/11
CitizenWatch has also been pushing for public release of all
photographic evidence relating to the Pentagon attack from
federal agencies and other sources and plans to file a Freedom of
Information request to get records from all federal agencies that
might hold them.
There are many legitimate unanswered questions about the events
of September 11, 2001, its sponsorship, and the official version
of events. We benefit from serious research and the issues raised
by victim's families seeking accountability. Not the least of
these is the apparent lack of standard FAA/NORAD response to
these emergency events. Rather than use our time proving and
belaboring the obvious, or focusing on areas of total speculation
that can only hurt our public credibility, I encourage serious
researchers to focus on the historical context of the event, the
alleged conspirators, the funding, and the government response or
lack of it.
American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, killing passengers
and crew, along with construction workers and a small number of
Pentagon employees. It made an amazing spiraling descent, curving
270-degrees around the open area, and then flew dangerously close
to the ground, skidding into the ground floor of the Pentagon. A
huge fireball could be seen outside the building as it hit.
Employees inside the building were also burned by jet fuel, which
covered the lawn and front of the building. One employee saw the
nose of the plane crash through her office wall. Pilots have
disagreed about the piloting skills necessary to carry out this
manoeuvre in a large commercial plane. Questions about the actual
events remain but I hope that credible witnesses and the existing
evidence will at least put to rest the wild speculation that have
replaced Flight 77 with flights of fancy.
.......................
This was written in February 2004. Just about all questions have
been answered since then, as we will see in the next two studies.
If this was a conspiracy as some like to claim, or a much smaller
plane, or a some kind of missile. Then names of people supposedly
killed, had to be made up, their friends and loved ones also. All
kinds of people had to be "paid off" or "bought off" that would
be willing to produce the personality stories of those supposedly
killed. Probably some conspiracy buffs will tell you this John
Judge who wrote the above article, does not exist either and his
writing is a conspiracy to conspire the conspiracy. They will try
to tell you all the people that were eye-witnesses to this
disaster, are all wrong, or they also were "bought off" by the
Government. They will try to tell you all the workers that
cleaned up the disaster site, were also "paid off" to keep quiet
or tell lies about it being a Boeing 757 when it was not.
Probably the safest for conspiracy geeks is to admit it was the
Boeing 757 that Boeing did send up on that day (otherwise you
have to "buy off" the Airport and Boeing company - certainly the
airport workers that all had to say it was a regular flight of
the Boeing airplane and a known crew on board and regular
passengers), but the hijackers were paid off to kill themselves
and all who died.
Then of course some conspiracy fellows will say, the USA
Government just ALLOWED it all to happen (as they knew it was to
happen), so they could declare war on Iraq and fanatical Islam
leaders. Even that conspiracy then would allow for it being
indeed the regular Boeing plane and flight of 77. Hence with that
conspiracy idea, there would be no arguing from them that it was
not a plane but a missile, or some other different plane with
different people, with maybe just a few on board willing to die
(their loved ones getting the "pay off" dollars).
The whole thing goes in circles, every "conspiracy idea" having
its own little life and world, that everything must kinda fit
into. So if I wanted it to be a conspiracy by the USA Government,
then the last one I just mentioned would be the simplest to pick
- everything was (including the cell phoning from the plane) as
it was - the regular Boeing plane flight 77, hijacked by
religious fanatics, but allowed to happen, so the USA could go to
war, to make sure "oil" flowed from the Middle East to feed its
oil gulping industries and people. From what I remember in 2001
the USA was not having any problems getting enough oil. Certainly
Iraq and Afghanistan were not trying to stop oil reaching the
shores of the USA. Iraq had been slapped to the ground 10 years
or so before by the USA, and Sadam (the Iraq leader and dictator)
was certainly not burning Kuwait oil-wells as he did in 1991 when
the USA first went to war with him over him invading Kuwait.
So the issue the USA and Britain had in 2001 was certainly NOT
over "oil" getting to their lands because some fanatical Islam
guys were preventing it from coming, and so they needed to dream
up some complicated conspiracy to "go to war" against them, so
complicated that they were willing to kill not only their own
people, but many others from many different countries (in the
Twin Towers of New York many were killed from many different
countries).
The so-called "conspiracy" is really a conspiracy by the
conspiracy geeks, who have a conspiracy to make you into one of
them.
Oh, I've got more to come on this Pentagon conspiracy stuff.
Keith Hunt
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