Pentagon Plane Crash Photos


Picture one shows cars on Route 27 that were damaged by light pole debris. The poles were clipped by the aircraft as it passed overhead of Route 27 on its way to strike the Pentagon. The pole to the left is one of several that were clipped by the aircraft. The pole is also not complete, you can see it was sheered at the top. Look through the windshield of the white compact and you will see the damaged windshield of the cab in shot 1-1.
Picture 1-1 is a close-up of the cab's damage.
The second shot was taken before the first and from the area of the Navy Annex (the plane come over the top of the Annex on its way across Route 27 and into the Pentagon). You can see the Pentagon on fire from the initial strike and the building is still standing. The small white car is the same from picture one. Some of the fires in this picture are vehicles that were parked by the helo pad that are on fire.
The third picture is when the first fire truck (from National Airport) arrived and started its initial suppression efforts. To the right you can see the diesel generator trailer (used to power the control tower at the helo pad) on fire and the darker smoke as the diesel fuel tank exploded and is fueling fires in that area. Above the trailer you can see a white area of fire suppression foam on the building right where the 4th corridor exits. You also notice that the building is severely damaged as you can see the shift in the granite facing, this is one of the hinge areas many see in later photos posted elsewhere. Note that the grass and grounds of the area are not gouged or disturbed. Recall that in the Khobar Towers bombing, where a 20,000lb truck bomb took the face off of the dormitory and killed 19 US Airmen, it truck bomb left a crater over 85 feet wide and some 25 feet deep. There is no such crater present. Also note at the bottom of the picture, the concrete "jersey" barrier behind the red car. Looking to the front of the jersey you see the grey top of the guard rail that surrounds the Pentagon on Route 27, it too has not been breached, meaning no truck rammed through it to drive up to the building to detonate a vehicle or truck borne explosive.
Picture 4 is a closer view of the hinge area of corridor 4 mentioned previously. You can clearly see the fire suppression foam's loosing battle against the aviation fuel. You also see the support columns still holding the building together. The windows above are intact because they're special blast proof windows designed to defeat a large explosive - they worked well. The special windows were installed during the renovation of the 4th corridor wedge by strapping them directly into the original structure. You'll see these windows in many of the published pictures. You are primarily focused on the second floor of the building in this shot, the first floor is obstructed by the stream of foam.
Picture 5 shows a view from the intact Route 27 guardrail. The fire truck has run out of suppression foam and water. You see some of the secondary fires are out (like the vehicles to the truck's left, but the fires still rage inside the building still. You can see the hinge area to the right and the sagging support columns along the base of the building (REMEMBER: The building is five stories, but on the outside E-Ring, the 5th floor does not have windows). You can also see the pressure on the building by looking at the difference in roof heights from the left side to the right. The remaining columns are holding an immense amount of weight while at the same time being weakened by the 1600+ degree fires. You can see the difference in the size of the hinge area to the right from previous photos. Just above the man's head and to the right you can see the plane's impact hole that continues from the fire burning on the second floor and extends to the left through the smoke and haze.
Picture 6 is a different angle of shot 5. Note there are no truck marks on the grass area, nor any crater that would have been caused by a truck bomb. The responding "crash" fire truck didn't make any marks on the grass because it uses a much wider and lower pressure tire than a regular truck. That allows the vehicle's weight to be spread over a wider area so the truck can go into many more areas than a normal truck. This contrasts with a rigid and thin truck tire that would tear grass upon turning, or make depressions due to lack of asphalt support. You can see wire bundles and other items in the picture left over from the wedge renovations. The diesel trailer is to the right of the rightmost firefighter. The top left of the photo shows how much buckling is taking place from the right side hinge area to the left joint where the building is about to fall. The fire above the wire bundles is the opening the aircraft made upon impact.
Picture 7 shows the E-ring building supports have failed and the E-Ring in that area has collapsed. The backmost fires you see raging are the fires from the collapsed roof that has failed and folded back upon itself. Fires still rage in the rest of the structure as well as inside the roofing. Look very closely at the left wall sheer point (in the area where it is still standing), you can clearly see where the second floor rear area of the E-Ring is gone. That's the angle the plane took and the resulting damage. Below that point and to the left is where the left engine and wing area impacted and caused damage. That area also clearly shows support columns' missing from where the aircraft engine's impact sheered them away. Look at the green blast windows in the collapsed area. They are those special windows that survived, and those happen to be from the 3rd floor. Notice even in facility failure, the windows are holding the face of the building and it's cross columns together.
Picture 8 is similar but again showing the intact guardrail and undisturbed grass. You can see the diesel trailer is still on fire. Witnesses believed it was clipped and damaged by the right wing of the aircraft.
Picture 9 was taken after the fires on the E-ring had been extinguished, but you can still see the smoke from the fires in the roofing from the interior rings. You can see the amount of water still present, as well as the heavy equipment starting to roll in and bring shoring supplies so the threatened corner by the sheered area can be propped up. You can also clearly see equipment in areas where, if there were a truck bomb, there would be a huge crater. You also see the tire marks the trucks are making in the grass. The saturation of the grassy area by all the leaking and poured water started to soften the area to the point where vehicles could have become stuck and hampered the rescue efforts. There was a forecast of rain for attack +2 that necessitated the building of sand and gravel roads so all aspects of the rescue and recovery operations could proceed. Anything less would have been unacceptable to the families of the missing. Many believe the building of the roadways was a cover-up for a crater or other reasons. If you look to the left of the sheered area, you'll see (again) the missing support columns where the plane impacted. Some of the hole is covered by the boom of a light tower that is in the lowered position.
Picture 10 shows another angle of the same shot. You can see the sheered area which is the left most entry hole the aircraft. Again, no blast crater is present indicating a vehicle borne explosive.
Picture 11 shows the helo pad to the left of the other shots. You can see the plane's entry hole to the far right of the picture. You can also see the severely burned fire truck (on the blast side) but intact otherwise. The two firefighters had just finished waxing the truck when they heard, then saw, the plane. They ran to the left of this picture and were shielded from death by their very own fire truck, which performed its last mission at that point by absorbing the blast. This picture also starts to show the level of small debris fragments that were the plane, and that cannot be seen in other photos because of the depth of field of the pictures. I speculate these parts were probably the remains of its left side wing assemblies. There are similar amounts of small parts and debris present throughout the entirety of the grass/helo pad area.
Picture 12 is a closer shot of the level of debris by the 5th corridor side of the building.
Picture 13 shows more of the debris field, including a twisted piece of the American Airliner in front of the helo pad.
Picture 16 (and 17) are overhead shots of the building that shows the impact area of the aircraft as well as the exit hole it made in the C-Ring coming to rest in A&E Drive. The impact hole at the top middle of the picture is clear. The exit hole is a bit trickier to locate. Start at the bottom right corner of the picture. Looking at the row of windows from the corner, move left until you come to the "trough" running between the rings. Go back to the right four rows of windows and follow that down to the bottom floor (5, 4, 3, 2, then 1). You'll see a circular hole, that's the exit hole the cockpit and front tire assembly made through the Navy Operations Center. You'll note that the same areas to the right show no damage on that ground floor. The open area to the right of the trough and on the 1st floor is an area that was demolished to open another avenue into the C ring, note that the hole is squared off to match the exact size of the area between the support columns.



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