Flight 77

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A still frame from the Pentagon security camera of the Flight 77 impact.

American Airlines Flight 77 was a Boeing 757-223 that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It had on board 58 passengers and a flight crew of 6. According to official reports, Flight 77 took off at 8:20 A.M. EST from Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. and was destined for San Fransisco. At about 8:46 A.M., Flight 77 began to veer dramatically off course. At 8:56 A.M. its transponder was shut off and, supposedly, all trace of the plane was lost until it struck the Pentagon at 9:38 A.M. Several oddities about Flight 77 have made it the most discussed and studied plane of the four that were used in the September 11 attacks. Flight 77 was hijacked by 5 Islamic terrorists about half an hour after the flight took off. Unknown by the hijackers, people in the rear of the plane, where they had been forced to go, were able to use their cell phones and make phone calls. The plane crashed into the Pentagon and all the passengers, including the terrorists were killed. Over 100 people in the building were murdered as well. There were dozens of eye witnesses to the crash. The resulting fire in the building took several days to put out. The Pentagon damage was repaired and was reopened in August of 2002. There is a memorial near the site now, that remembers the people that were murdered by terrorists that day. The park has 184 benches, one representing each of the victims of that attack.

Contents 1 Timeline from trouble to crash 2 The Hijacking 2.1 First signs of distress 2.2 Turnaround 2.3 Scene in the skies of D.C. 2.4 Impact 3 Problems with official account: Conspiracy Theories 3.1 Time and response lag 3.2 Barbara Olson 3.3 Skilled Pilot 3.4 No Arabic remains were recovered from the wreckage 3.5 Flight 77 was actually a cruise missile that struck the Pentagon 3.6 Flight 77 Exceeded its Software Limits 3.7 Holographic Plane Theory 4 See also 5 External links 6 Related discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com

Timeline from trouble to crash

Flight 77 took off from Dulles Airport at 8:20 A.M., about 10 minutes late. The alleged hijackers had boarded, despite problems and being held in the checkpoints beforehand. The flight took off without incident. Several of the terrorists set off the metal detectors at the security checkpoints. Some were even taken aside and searched with hand wands. However at the time of the attacks, it was legal to board an airplane in the United States with a box cutter knife in your carry on. Presumably some of the hijackers were carrying these on their persons. The hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77 were led by Hani Hanjour, who piloted the aircraft into the Pentagon. The plane was scheduled to land at Los Angeles International Airport. Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 AM, Eastern Time.

The Hijacking

Flight 77 was hijacked somewhere around 8:50 to 8:55 AM. The terrorists, acting in unison, rushed the cockpit armed with knives and box cutters. They forced the passengers into the rear of the aircraft, and then Hani Hanjour took over piloting the 757. This occurred just a few minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the World Trade Center. The last radio contact the plane had with the crown was at just about 8:52 AM. At 8:54 AM the plane began to turn towards the south, where the terrorists activated the aircrafts auto-pilot. By the time it was 8:56 AM, Flight 77 was heading south and its transpondefr had been shut off.

By this point the FAA had determined that there was an emergency happening with Flight 77. Flight 11 had already crashed, and United Airlines Flight 175 was known to have been hijacked. After determining these facts, American Airlines Executive Vice President Gerard Arpey oredered a nation wide grounding of all airplanes. Air Traffic Control was in the meantime trying to contact the plane unsuccessfully. Also the plane was not on the radar at this time, which caused the powers that be to announce at 9:09 AM to say that they felt that perhaps the plane had crashed.

During the hijacking two passengers were able to make phone calls using their cellphones. Flight attendant Renee May called her mother. She told her that the plane had been hijacked by six murderers, and that all of the passengers and flight crew had been forced to the rear of the plane. She also asked that her husband contact American Airlines and report the hijacking. But American was already aware of the events. Around the same time passenger Barbara Olsen called her husband United States Solicitor General Ted Olson. She reported that there were hijackers on board, and that they had knives and box cutters. She also said that the passengers had been moved to the rear of the plane, and that the hijackers were unaware of her phone call. She spoke for about a minute and the call was cut off. She called again a short time later, and asked for advice about how to proceed. They spoke again for some moments and then the call was cut off again for good.

A plane was again picked up by radar from Dulles. At first the plane was mis-identified as a fighter plane because it was descending so rapidly. A C-130 was contacted and asked to paint the craft with some eyeballs, to get an id. Soon after the C-130 reported the 757 crashed.

First signs of distress

Flight 77 first began to show signs of trouble at about 8:46 A.M., which was the exact time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north Tower of the World Trade Center. It veered 90 degrees off course from its intended flight path, a sure red flag for flight controllers and the FAA. However, no alarms were sounded even though it had been 20 minutes since Flight 11 had been hijack-confirmed and about the same exact time United Airlines Flight 175 had just been hijacked. Nothing was done even though FAA regulations state that turning so much as 2 degrees, or 15 miles off of an approved flight path, is grounds to call an emergency. At 8:56 A.M. Flight 77 turned off its transponder. The FAA claimed that at this point the plane was totally lost from tracking, even though radar could still pick it up.

The 911 Commission estimated that Flight 77 was hijacked between 8:51 AM and 8:54 AM. The last normal radio communications from the aircraft to air traffic control occurred at 08:50:51 AM.

Turnaround

Because of a lack of public information about Flight 77, we are given the approximate time of 9:10 A.M. for the point when it made a 180 degree turn and headed back towards the capital. According to the FAA, they had lost contact with the plane, yet at this time they had still not scrambled any Air Force jets to find the rogue plane, despite the fact that, at the very least, it was an air safety hazard. This is contrary to all FAA protocol regarding off-track planes, which would have had Air Force fighters in the air by now.

Scene in the skies of D.C.

Flight 77 allegedly reappeared on radars at about 9:30 and was seen flying over the Capitol Beltway at about 9:33. The plane was traveling at over 400 mph and was flying too high at about 7,000 feet as it flew towards the Pentagon. It suddenly made an extremely tight turn, doing a descending spiral and dropping almost 7,000 feet in 2 1/2 minutes, a feat that a trained military pilot would have had difficulty performing. At about 9:37 a nearby C-130 that had just taken off from Andrews Air Force Base was asked to identify the jet.

Impact

According to the Pentagon, at 9:38 A.M. Flight 77 slammed into the western face of the Pentagon. Only one video is known to exist of the crash. This in itself is strange, as the Pentagon is surrounded by security cameras and there are usually other cameras in different areas of Washington D.C.

Problems with official account: Conspiracy Theories

Main article: Problems with official account of September 11 2001

Out of all four hijacked flights on 9/11, Flight 77 is the most peculiar as numerous things do not appear to add up. This is perhaps why it is could very well be the most debated and discussed flight in history.

Time and response lag

Flight 77 aftermath

Flight 77 took off at 8:20 A.M. A few minutes later on Flight 11, the flight attendants were phoning in reports of a hijacking taking place. A few minutes later air traffic controllers heard a voice in the cockpit claiming, "We have some planes." It was turning dramatically off course, a red flag for any air traffic controller. At this point, the Air Force should have been scrambled after Flight 11. However, according to NORAD, they were not notified until 8:37 A.M.

At 8:46 A.M., Flight 11 hit the WTC. At the same time, Flight 77 began to make a 90 degree turn which, by FAA protocol, should have initiated a jet fighter pursuit, especially with one hijack confirmation crashing and another taking place near New York. After flight 175 hit the second tower, there was no question in anyone's mind that a terrorist attack was underway. A few minutes later, Flight 77's transponder signal was turned off. At this point there should have been swarms of fighter jets in the air over Washington D.C., as would be the standard practice, especially since Flight 77, taking off from Dulles, could very well be on its way back to Washington D.C. Yet Flight 77, hijack-suspected for an almost an hour and hijack-confirmed more than 30 minutes before it hit--and after two planes hit the World Trade Center--was not pursued or even investigated on the ground. No jets were scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, the nearest air base and the home of Air Force One, and when jets were scrambled, it was done from Langley Virginia, 170 miles to the south and only 5 minutes before Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

Barbara Olson

Flight 77 had a curious dearth of phone calls. The only exception here was Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Theodore Olson. She made her two phone calls somewhere between 9:12 A.M. and 9:26 A.M. However, the only evidence we have of these calls is from Ted Olson. No known recordings of her calls exist. She also claimed to use the air phone instead of her cell phone because her purse was in the back of the plane and she could not get to it. How she activated the phone without a credit card is subject to debate. One of the most important facors in the war on terror was the assertion that the hijackers were Arabic. Barbara Olsons phone call said that the plane had been taken over by Arabic hijackers. She told her husband that the terrorists, armed with knives and box cutters, had herded all of the passengers and flight crew to the rear of the plane, and had taken over the cockpit.

This is very puzzling though. The FBI says that Ted Olson didn't recieve any phone calls. (5) Also, it should be noted that Barbara Olson was said to have used the planes seat phone as she reportedly called her husband collect. This would make sense as you need to use a credit card to use these phones. Also, there are some questions as to whether or not a cell phone would even function at a high altitude at the time of 9/11. However there are also some questions as to whether or not that 757 even had the passenger - seat telephones. One nagging question remains, although not directly related to Barbara Olson's phone calls. How were 5 men able to take over the plane from nearly 60 people armed with only knives and box cutters. This question though will never be answered, as that truth died with the people of Flight 77 that day.

Skilled Pilot

The alleged lead hijacker and pilot for Flight 77, Hani Hanjour, was by all accounts, a total failure at his flight training school. His instructors at Sorbi's Flying Club described him as "clueless" and said they were quite sure he would never make it as a pilot. This was training in small, light planes. Hanjour had never been in the cockpit of a commercial jet. Yet according to the official accounts, it was he who performed the amazing acrobatics in the Boeing 757 over the skies of D.C., feats of flying even military fighter pilots would be hard-pressed to perform--feats of flying that are believed to have pushed the plane past its software limits.

No Arabic remains were recovered from the wreckage

The remains of the victims of Flight 77 are the most puzzling. The remains of bodies found were shipped to Dover Air Force Base for identification. According to official reports, 184 of 189 Victims in the Pentagon had been identified, and all but one individual on Flight 77 had been identified. Yet many questions remained, including claims that no Arabic or Middle Eastern remains were found. However this claim is quite contentious and has basically been debunked. There are several theories that are offered to try and explain why the hijackers were not initially identified. The hijackers were at the front of the plane when it crashed (presumably), and therefore their remains would likely have been even more incinerated. Also, at the time of the autopsies, there were no DNA samples from relatives of the hijackers to use for comparison. In truth both theories are a bit of a stretch. (1)

It has also been proposed that the reason the hijackers names did not appear on passenger lists is because it would be too hard on the victims families to see the name of the murderers next to them. However this also seems unlikely. Another point is that you cannot determine race from DNA. But this may only be true for races not of Native American origin. Although it does seem clear that the terrorists were deliberately left off of lists after 9/11. This site lists 59 victims on the plane, as well as the 125 victims in the building. (2)

Flight 77 was actually a cruise missile that struck the Pentagon

Some have supposed a lack of crash debris, building damage, and lawn damage resulting from the Pentagon attack. Due to this, an entire school of conspiracy thought claims that a plane was not used at all in the Pentagon attack, but instead a cruise missile dressed up to look like a plane. In this view, eyewitness accounts and other evidence are dismissed. Instead conspiracy theorists point to damage to the Pentagon that is presumed to be consistent with a missile strike. They suggest that no damage occurred to the lawn near the building and that photos show an absence of debris where the plane supposedly bumped the lawn before it crashed. This has caused a lot of division in skeptics of the 9/11 official account. Skeptics contend that a missile did not strike the Pentagon, and pose the question, among others: "If a missile struck the Pentagon on 9/11, what happened to Flight 77?"

Flight 77 Exceeded its Software Limits

There was quite a bit of speculation around the time of 9-11 about what the actual target of Flight 77 was. Some government officials felt that the plane was actually aiming for the Capitol building or the White House. The plane hit the Pentagon, and did some pretty amazing manuevers to do so. The plane was flying about 460 mph when it hit the Pentagon. According to reports, it was skimming above the ground and did not hit the pavement before striking the building. Radar shows Flight 77 did a downward spiral, turning almost a complete circle and dropping the last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes. The steep turn was so smooth, the sources say, it's clear there was no fight for control going on. And the complex maneuver suggests the hijackers had better flying skills than many investigators first believed. The jetliner disappeared from radar at 9:37 and less than a minute later it clipped the tops of street lights and plowed into the Pentagon at 460 mph. The problem with this scenario is that the plane, allegedly, is prevented by its controls from performing a turn greater than 1.5 g's. This is to prevent a pilot error from injuring passengers on the plane.

However, it is argued that there is no such technology, and that such software limits do not exist. Skeptics say that the pilot is absolutely able to fly the plane any way they like, and that even if the plane is being controlld by auto--pilot, it can be over ridden. For example if an engine fails, the pilot will need to make corrections to fly the plane. Alot of information on the 757's flight controls can be found on Boeing's web site. 1

Holographic Plane Theory

There is also a theory that what struck the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 was actually a holograph. On the surface, this theory seems ridiculous to most people. In fact, theories like this probably hurt conspiracy minded people more than it helps. Editors Note((However the theory is professed by some, so it is right that it is included in this article.))

See also

• Flight 93
• September 11 2001
• 7 World Trade Center
• Osama bin Laden
• Problems with official account of September 11 2001

External links

• Flight 77 Timeline
  
• 9-11 Research: Flight 77
• Flight 77 Info
• 911 Case Study: Pentagon Flight 77
• Remains of the hijackers held
• Pentagon plants trees to honor 9-11 victims
• Ted Olson's Report of Phone Calls from Barbara Olson on 9/11: Three Official Denials

Related discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com

• Planes exceeded software limits
  
• A Boeing 757 Struck the Pentagon
  
• No Arabs on Flight 77
  
• A Boeing 757 Did Not Hit Pentagon
• Holographs used to replace Pentagon plane