I've been sifting through some of this posted info and links watching some of the video trying to keep an open mind. I must admit the visual evidence shown surrounding some of the reporting of flight 77 leaves one to doubt what really happened in Washington that Day. I remembered that I bought and stored away all the newstand info available for about 2-3 weeks after the 9-11 incident. My curiosity got the best of me today and I just took them out and reviewed the reporting for Newsweek and Time issues. I thought I would post some of how they read;
Time wrote
"David Marra, 23 an information-technology specialist, had turned his BMW off an I-395 exit to the highway just west of the Pentagon when he saw an American Airlines jet swooping in, its wings wobbly, looking like it was going to slam right into the Pentagon: "It was 50 ft off the deck when he came in. It sounded like the pilot had the throttle completely floored. The plane rolled left and then right. Then he caught an edge of his wing on the ground." There is a helicopter pad right in front of the side of the Pentagon. The wing touch there, then the plane cart-wheeled into the building.
Newsweek (Extra Edition) reported
9:38 AM: American Airlines flight 77, hijacked from Dulles International Airport slams into the (northwest) side of the Pentagon, creating a fire that burns until the next morning.
.....About 200 miles to the south, outside Washington DC., air traffic controllers had watched with mounting dread as the blip of a third plane, American Flight 77, veered off it's flight plan to the west coast and headed straight at the White House. The Secret Service was warned and the White House staffers were sent running out to Pennsylvania Ave. But at the last minute the plane made a sharp turn and headed for the Pentagon across the river. Banking onto it's side, the 757 with 64 people onboard sliced into the (southwest) face of the Pentagon and detonated into a fireball......the exploding airliner smashed through half the 60 year old building (some of it recently reinforced against explosions).......
Newsweek (commemorative issue) reported
As Arlington Va., police officer Barry Foust sat in his cruiser at a traffic light at about 9:40 that morning, he noticed the plane. Flying nose down, it banked sharply and came hard toward the Pentagon at an odd angle. "I knew there was no way it could pull out." Foust says, " I rolled my windows down and listened for the impact."
At that moment Alan Wallace, 55 one of three firefighters from Ft Meyers, Va., assigned to the Pentagon's heliport, looked up: a 757, 25 feet off the ground and only 200 yards away was shearing off the tops of light poles and closing in like steel lightening.
The reporting is somewhat inconsistant, at least to me. I also thought it very strange that a two page photo of the damaged side of the Pentagon from across the street showed no signs of broken light poles or the frame work for one of those large overhead highway signs and absolutely no debris on the lawns, then again the photos were in a magazine dated 9/24 but there were lots of military rescue units parked in front but many cranes as well so.....who knows at any rate there sure seems room for lots of controversy.....
I hope I haven't upset anyone reliving this tragic event.....God Bless those lost and injured souls.
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Aloha HADave