American Airlines Flight 77 Evidence

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 The following blog contains a straight forward, easy to follow and to the point list of evidence to show that American Airlines Flight 77, and only American Airlines Flight 77, hit the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.


For my similar blog displaying evidence for United 93, Click Here.

Table of Contents

• Video Evidence
  - Original Footage (Higher quality and clearer)

• Eye Witnesses
  - Summary of 136 eye witnesses

• Damage
  - Aircraft damage to the Pentagon structure and surroundings, including damage from the Tail, and impact holes from both engines.

• Flight 77's RADAR information
  - Final Radar Track with ATC Audio

• Audio Records
  - Air Traffic Control recordings and others

• The Black Box; AAL77's Flight Data Recorder
  - The "Manoeuvre"; AAL77's final turn and dive

• Durability of Airliners to handle High Loads & Over-speed
  - Real world examples of airliners surviving near crash situations at high speed

• Passenger DNA Recovered Inside the Pentagon
  - Remains of September 11 Hijackers Held

• Bodies Recovered Inside the Pentagon

• The Pilot Hijacker; Hani Hanjour
  - Commercial Pilot Licence certificate and Flight Experience

• Aircraft Debris
  - Engine, Landing Gear and other recognisable aircraft remains

• AAL77's Time Line

• Military Response to American 77

• The Myths
  - Refuting of several common conspiracy theories surrounding the crash

• Flight Reconstruction of American Airlines 77

• Summary

Video evidence:

Section Summary: Compiled below is the available video evidence of AAL77's impact with the Pentagon. Although many videos from the surrounding area are available, such as the Citgo Gas Station footage, not many of them show anything of interest. Included below are only those which show either the impact or post-crash fire, the clearest of which comes from 1 of 2 gate cameras at the Pentagon. Due to the speed of AAL77, and the distance from the cameras, there will never be high quality footage of the impact. Nevertheless, certain distinguishing marks are visible in the available footage, and combined with the evidence provided in this blog, shows AAL77 hit the Pentagon on September 11.

Original Recording - Higher Quality & Clearer

 Gate Camera 1;

3D Reconstruction:

Still Frames from Camera 1:

Gate Camera 2:

 Still Frames from Camera 2:

Zoomed In:

Sharpened and contrast boosted:

What it would look like if the video was clear;

What of the "85" other videos?

Check my Youtube channel for all released footage:
https://www.youtube.com/user/cjnewson88

The simple truth is, the FBI did a very wide search of their evidence databases in response to a FOIA request, and found 85 tapes that "might" be applicable. 

They then went through those and found 56 didn't even come from Washington DC.

A further 16 tapes, that were taken from Washington DC, didn't show the Pentagon.

Of the 85 '9/11' tapes found in the FBI database, only 13 showed the Pentagon crash site.

12 of those showed the crash site after impact.

Only 1 videotape, taken from 2 cameras at the Pentagon entrance, showed the impact of Flight 77.

 It should also be noted that the highway traffic cameras which conspiracy theorists claim would have a "clear shot" of AAL77 hitting the Pentagon were not installed until early 2003. Summary provided below.

 

FOIA releases and summary of 85 Pentagon videos - link

Eye Witnesses to Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon:

Section Summary: A full summary of all witness names and testimony is linked at the bottom of this section. The list was compiled by 9/11 researcher Mark Roberts, and lists well over 100 witnesses to this incident. The witnesses provided below form part of that list. Although some descriptions vary from "corporate jet" to more specific "American Airlines Boeing 757", the statements do not conflict. It just so happens some know more about aircraft than others. Some got a better view than others. One thing they all have in common is that they all saw a large aircraft hit the Pentagon. Not one saw a missile. Not one saw a drone. Not one saw anything other than an aircraft hit the Pentagon.

Note: The prop plane Rick refers to was a military C-130 "Gofer 06" airborne from Andrews Air Force Base. Gofer 06 was vectored by ATC to follow Flight 77. ATC recording below:

Summary of the 136 eye witnesses to AAL77;

Pentagon Attack & Flight 77 Evidence Summary & Links (Link)

Damage to the Pentagon

Section Summary: It is a common misunderstanding that AAL77 left only a "small hole" in the Pentagon facade, that it punched through 6 reinforced walls, and left a slightly smaller hole in the C-Ring wall. This is a totally false assertion. For a complete composite of the facade damage, click and enlarge the first two images below. There and in the following section you will find extensive wide spread damage from the fuselage, engines, wings, even the vertical stabilizer.

Further down take note of the construction of the Pentagon. Only the outer wall was constructed with reinforcing. The C-Ring "punch out" wall was plain brick and nothing more. Also note that the area AAL77 impacted; the bottom and second floors, is open space the entire distance between the outer E-Ring and the inner C-Ring with no dividing walls lower than the third floor. It can therefore clearly be seen that AAL77 did not penetrate 6 reinforced walls, but only 1; the outer most wall.

Damage to the Pentagon Façade:

Impact holes from both engines:

Vertical Stabilizer damage from Flight 77:

Internal Damage:

C-ring Exit Hole

Total Damage to Pentagon Interior:

Damage to surroundings;

Section Summary: Many do not realise the surrounding damage that occurred at the Pentagon crash site. Below shows the result of the final seconds of AAL77's approach, where it hit a number of ground objects, including trees, motorway signs, 5 hollow street-light poles, an industrial generator, and more. This damage is only consistent with a large, and wide object, of the dimensions of a Boeing 757. Those who acknowledge this damage but still favor conspiracy theories baselessly claim this wide spread damage was "staged" or "planted" post-crash. Needless to say, no evidence has ever been provided to support this claim, nor to explain how this staging managed to avoid the gaze of hundreds of flocking onlookers who were filling the areas around the Pentagon.

On a final note for the damage to the surroundings, it is often said among conspiracy theorists that had an aircraft hit these light poles, it should have ripped the aircraft's wings off and/or sufficiently upset the aircraft trajectory. It should be noted that light poles on roads are designed with breakaway bases so that in the case of an accident the pole imparts little force back on the vehicle, reducing the damage to the vehicle and reducing harm to the passengers. The following video demonstrates just how easily these poles break away, and provides an example of why AAL77 hitting these light poles would not result in any significant damage to the airliners wings, or deviation from its flight path.

  

Flight 77's RADAR Information:

Section Summary: Below lists 3 primary radar sources which shows the final few minutes of AAL77's track. Included in the first two are Air Traffic Control recordings with the reaction of controllers and pilots who spotted AAL77 and the resulting impact into the Pentagon. Finally this section finishes with the radar reconstruction of AAL77 from the moment it was hijacked. It must be noted that AAL77 was tracked by multiple radar sites for the entirety of its flight. The "disappearance" of AAL77 to Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center is explained by Tom Lusch's presentation below; a much suggested read.

Final Radar Track

(American 77's red primary target enters from bottom left of all RADAR reconstructions)
(Best watched in Full Screen on Highest Quality)

Washington Dulles International Airport with ATC Audio

Ronald Reagan National Airport with ATC Audio

Baltimore–Washington International Airport

Last Contact:

Primary Radar Reconstruction;

Understanding why AAL77 "disappeared" from Air Traffic Control RADAR at Indianapolis Center:

Radar Sort Boxes in the area of American Airlines Flight 77’s Turnaround/Disappearance

by Thomas G. Lusch, July 16, 2013 (Update 11 August 2013 v4.0)

More information on Tom Lusch's website:
http://tomlusch.com/tomlusch/tomlusch/AAL77.html

Flight 77 Air Traffic Control recording:

Section Summary: The section below provides just the immediate recordings for AAL77. This constitutes a relatively small amount of the massive number of air traffic recordings from that day. For a full compiling of these recordings and others, view by AAL77 Flight Reconstruction at the bottom of this blog, as well as reconstructions for all 3 other flights on my youtube page.

Arlington County Police Dispatch call:

Flight 77 NTSB Flight Data Recorder Analysis:

Section Summary: Note that the NTSB reconstruction below is missing the final 4 seconds of Flight Data information. This is due to technical reasons outlined in the document listed below. The same document also decodes this final 4 seconds, and supports AAL77's crash into the Pentagon. 

It is often claimed by conspiracy theorists that the Flight Data Recorder information somehow proves AAL77 did not crash into the Pentagon. Though when pointed out to them that the FDR was recovered inside the Pentagon, conspiracy theorists then claim it was "planted". Why the perpetrators would plant evidence that doesn't support their cover-up is a question that none of them have yet been able to answer.

(note: FDR recovered from inside the Pentagon)

Final 4 seconds of FDR data decoded - Proves AAL77 impacted the Pentagon;

Flight AAL77 on 9/11: New FDR Analysis Supports the Official Flight Path Leading to Impact with the Pentagon - .pdf
Frank Legge, (B.Sc.(Hons.), Ph.D.) and Warren Stutt, ( B.Sc.(Hons.) Comp. Sci.)
January 2011

The "Manoeuvre" - AAL77's Final Turn and Dive:

Section Summary: It is a very common misconception that AAL77 performed some professional rated aerobatic stunt moments before impact. They claim AAL77's hijacker pilot performed a 360 degree spiral "cork-screw" turn at over 500 mph, levelling out to the ground just in time to hit the Pentagon. This is far from the truth. In reality the turn itself was closer to 300 degrees over about a 5 mile radius, with the speed fluctuating between 260 and 300 knots and the throttles at near idle. The total time of the turn took over 3 minutes, making it even less than the very gentle "rate-1-turn" (360 degrees in 2 minutes). The turn was very sloppy with the angle of bank fluctuating between 15 and 42 degrees. The pitch angle was even worse, with some parts of his "dive" gaining altitude. AAL77 finished its descending turn 6 miles from the Pentagon, at an altitude of 2,500ft. It is in this 6 mile leg that the pilot advanced the throttles to full, accelerating and diving the aircraft to over 500mph and aiming it as his 900ft wide target; the Pentagon wall.

The final part of this section has a Dutch conspiracy show which takes a novice pilot, with similar experience to the pilot hijacker, and shows him using a full motion flight simulator to impact the Pentagon wall, 3 out of 3 times.

A private pilot licence and a Boeing full motion simulator:

High Speed - Low Altitude performance of airliners:

Section Summary: Carrying on from the above section, it is claimed that a Boeing 757 could not handle the stresses of flying that Manoeuvre, that low, that fast. Again this assertion is totally false. The following two sections provides tests which show just how strong and resilient airliners are, as well as real life examples of 757's and other airliners which have survived high speed, high stress flight, and some even continue to operate today. Finally at the end of this section I provide an example of an airliner which did not survive its Manoeuvres, however for the in flight disintegration to occur the airliner was subjected to forces massively in excess of its design limitations and well beyond what any of the 4 airliners endured during the 9/11 attacks. 

Durability of Airliners to handle high loads & over speed;

Boeing 777 Wing Stress Test

China Airlines Flight 006

China Airlines Flight 006 (callsign "Dynasty 006") was a daily non-stop flight departing from Taipei at 16:15 and scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 07:00 local time. On February 19, 1985, it was involved in an aircraft upset accident after the No. 4 engine flamed out. The plane rolled over and plunged 30,000 ft (9,100 m), experiencing high speeds and g-forces (approaching 5g) before the captain was finally able to recover from the rapid dive, and then to divert to San Francisco International Airport. - Source.

During the incident, the plane entered a steep dive at a high bank angle. Altitude decreased 10,000 ft (3,000 m) within only 20 seconds, a vertical descent averaging 30,000 feet per minute (150 m/s). The aircraft was significantly damaged by the aerodynamic forces. The wings were permanently bent upwards by 2 inches (50 mm), the inboard main landing gear lost two actuator doors, and the two inboard main gear struts were left dangling. Most affected was the tail, where large outer parts of both horizontal stabilizers had been ripped off. The entire left outboard elevator had been lost along with its actuator, which had been powered by the hydraulic system that ruptured and drained. After repairs were made to correct the significant damage to the plane, it returned to service on April 25, 1985, and continued to operate through various operators for another 20 years.

Hijacking of Federal Express Flight 705 - (1994)

"Auburn Calloway, a FedEx employee facing possible dismissal for lying about his previous flying experience, boarded the scheduled flight as a deadheading passenger with a guitar case carrying several hammers and a speargun. He intended to disable the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder before take-off and, once airborne, kill the crew using the blunt force of the hammers so their injuries would appear consistent with an accident rather than a hijacking."

"The flight crew eventually succeeded in restraining Calloway, though only after moments of inverted and near-transonic flight beyond the designed capabilities of a DC-10. Heavily loaded with fuel and cargo, the plane was approaching too fast and too high to land on the scheduled runway 9. Sanders requested by radio to land on the longer runway 36. Ignoring warning messages from the onboard computer and using a series of sharp turns that tested the DC-10's safety limits, Sanders landed the jet safely on the runway at well over its maximum designed landing weight"

"As of January 2011, the aircraft involved still flies for FedEx as a converted MD-10-30F and is registered as N306FE" - Source

EasyJet 737

In January 2009 an EasyJet 737-700, G-EZJK, was on a test flight over the UK. During one of the tests the aircraft had its hydraulic flight controls turned off and instantly began a descent despite the crews control inputs. During the descent the aircraft accelerated to over 510mph in a dive at a rate of 20,000 feet per minute. Through actions of the crew, the aircraft recovered just below 6,000 feet altitude after pulling 1.7G's at over 480mph. 

According to the report, the aircraft landed undamaged and contiues to fly in brazil for GOL Airlines as PR-VBI.

Click here to read the report.

2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident

On August 10, 2018, a Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 was stolen from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The perpetrator was a Horizon Air ground service agent with no piloting experience. He performed an unauthorized takeoff and two F-15 Eagle fighters were subsequently scrambled to intercept the aircraft. Air traffic control made radio contact with the aircraft's sole occupant, who was ultimately killed when he deliberately crashed the aircraft on the lightly populated Ketron Island in Puget Sound. Even though the aircraft wasn't designed to deal with high g-force loads or aerobatic maneuvers, near the end of the flight the aircraft was filmed doing loops and barrel rolls over Puget Sound. A veteran pilot said the maneuvers "seemed pretty well executed, without either stalling or pulling the wings off." It is evident from the video that the aircraft endured speeds and g-forces far in excess of the aircraft design limitations, and will post the specifics of these here when the contents of the flight data recorder are released to the public. - Source

Boeing 737-400 mid-air disintegration

Adam Air Flight 574 was a Boeing 737-400 which suffered a massive dive and subsequent mid-air disintegration. In order for this break up to occur, the aircraft had to dive to over 560 mph and induce a G-force change of over 6 G's, suddenly and rapidly reversing the G loading from positive 3.5g to negative 2.8g; well above it's designed limitations. It should be noted that the max designed structural  dive speed limit for a Boeing 737-400 is 460 mph. Which means this aircraft had to exceed its limitation by over 100 mph and pull excessive G-forces before it suffered structural failure. - Source

To compare, AAL77 reached 520 mph only just prior to impact, and was pushing slightly negative g-forces. This example and those above show that Airliners can endure far above their design limitations, and that any claim that the airliners on 9/11 should have broken up mid flight, become uncontrollable, or just for what ever reason cannot fly that low, that fast, is simply wrong. More information on Flight 574 below:

Understanding the Speeds Involved:

Section Summary: Both the examples below show impacts of over 500mph. Remember that AAL77 was moving over 500mph when it impacted the concrete reinforced wall of the Pentagon. Once you have an understanding of the massive forces involved with a collision at this speed, you may find it easy to understand why only smaller parts of debris were mostly recovered from all 4 crash sites on 9/11.

550 Mile Per Hour Snowplow vs Car & Concrete Wall

500 Mile Per Hour Jet vs Concrete Wall;

Passenger DNA from victims on Flight 77 found inside the Pentagon:

"Nuclear DNA testing (along with dental records and fingerprints) of the remains from the victims aboard American Airline (AA) Flight 77 and within the Pentagon was useful for identifying 178 of the 183 victims. Five missing individuals (four within the Pentagon and one aboard the airplane) could not be identified due to lack of biological material from the crash. Five remaining nuclear STR profiles were obtained from the crash site that did not match any references for the victims. These profiles were thought to represent the terrorists aboard the flight. The 40 victims aboard the United Airline (UA) Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, PA, were also identified by nuclear DNA testing, dental records, and fingerprinting. Four nonmatching nuclear DNA profiles were also obtained from the crash site and again tentatively ascribed to the terrorists." Source (Page 83)

"What some experts have called "the most comprehensive forensic investigation in U.S. history" ended Nov. 16 with the identification of 184 of the 189 who died in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. 

A multidisciplinary team of more than 50 forensic specialists, scientists, and support personnel from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, with headquarters at Walter Reed, played a major role in Operation Noble Eagle investigations, officials said. 

 Many of the casualties were badly burned and difficult to identify, an official said. Of the 189 killed, 125 worked at the Pentagon and 64 were passengers on American Airlines Flight 77." Source.

Remains Of 9 Sept. 11 Hijackers Held (Link)

Bodies Recovered Inside the Pentagon

Warning - Graphic Content!

I will not link the images directly due to their disturbing content. If you wish to see images of human remains recovered from inside the Pentagon - follow this link and search for exhibit items P200042, P200045, P200047, & P200048.

If the link above stops working, search for "United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui" Prosecution Exhibits 

The pilot hijacker; Hani Hanjour

Section Summary: It is often asserted that even if AAL77 hit the Pentagon, there is no way Hani Hanjour could have been the pilot hijacker to due his "poor flying skill" and inexperience. Yet again this is a portion of facts conspiracy theorists are ignorant to. Hani Hanjour was the most experience of the 4 lead hijackers. He first attained a pilot licence in 1997. He later attained a Commercial Pilot Licence, Multi-Engine instrument endorsement, as well as a number of hours experience on Boeing simulators. From the information provided when Hani applied at Pan Am International Flight Academy for training on the Boeing 737 simulator in February 2001, he had;

- 250 Hours Total Flight Time
- 75 Hours Instrument Flight Time
- 29 Hours Multi Engine Flight Time

This information, as well as Hani's activity and Jet Tech summary can be view below;

(US Visa)

Hani Hanjour's Commerical Pilot Licence

(note Multi-Engine Instrument Endorsement on reverse side).

Hani Hanjour's Boeing 737 Simulator Training;

FBI Summary of American 77 Hijacker Hani Hanjour (Link)

Hani Hanjour Jet Tech File (Link)

9/11 Commission Report Excerpt re. Hani Hanjour

Hani Hanjour Boarding American Airlines 77 - Dulles Security Recording

American Airlines Flight 77 Flight Manifest;

Section Summary: Yet another conspiracy theory is that none of the hijackers names appear on AAL77's flight manifest. This is taken from a misinterpretation of victims names and seat positions which came out soon after the attacks. The hijackers names did not appear because the hijackers are not victims, they are murderers. On the original manifests provided below, all hijacker names are present.

Debris of American Airlines Flight 77;

Section Summary: Contrary to conspiracy theory belief, there was an abundance of identifiable wreckage recovered from the Pentagon. Engines, landing gear, wheels, fuselage debris, and more, provided in this section.

Flight 77 photographed debris from the Pentagon crash site:

Engine Debris;

Landing Gear Debris;

Other recognisable American Airlines debris;

(take note of debris confetti in the background of some of the images)

(Flight 77's Cockpit Voice Recorder remains)

Miscellaneous debris and debris "confetti";

Section Summary: Adding to the recognisable debris itemised above, the front of the Pentagon was littered with thousands of small, shattered pieces of aircraft, which had exploded out by the resulting impact, and spread some distance from the impact hole.

Excerpt from the 9/11 Commission Report re. Flight 77:

Military Response to American 77:

Section Summary: A final piece of the conspiracy argument, depending on what camp you belong to, is that if AAL77 was hijacked by 5 hijackers, flown by Hani Hanjour, and impacted the Pentagon, then it must have been allowed to happen otherwise fighter jets would have shot it down miles away from DC. This tends to stem from an over-dramatisation of the US Air Force ability, as well as a total ignorance of procedures and protocols, on top of total disregard of the confusion, poor communication and 'fog-of-war' which engulfed the military defenders that morning. The total subject is very in depth and takes some understanding. Below is just a brief summary. I would strongly recommend listening to the NEADS tapes of that morning, as well as the air traffic recordings. The easiest way to do this is to watch my 4 flight reconstructions on my youtube channel - Click Here.

NORAD Chronology of the hijacking and military response to American Airlines 77 - link

NEADS scrambles three F-16's (QUIT 25,26,27) from Langley ANGB - 0924am

84th Radar Evaluation Squad reconstruction with NEADS MCC audio:

Download and listen to all the NEADS tapes - Click Here.

The Myths;

$2.3T Missing on 9/10?

Norman Mineta witnessed a Stand Down for AAL77?

Click Here for full explanation of Mineta's account. - link

Cheney "In Charge" of NORAD?

NORAD Stand Down?

Video "released" showing a cruise missile hitting the Pentagon?

"Doomsday plane" spotted overhead the White House before AAL77 impacted?

No. It was an E4B scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base at 0945 - After the Pentagon was hit. Audio recording and RADAR provided below:

Finally, A reconstruction of the Flight of American Airlines 77 with ATC and NORAD recordings:

In Summary:

Provided is a combination of security camera footage, eye witness accounts, RADAR data, Air Traffic Control recordings, NTSB Flight Data Recorder data, damage to the Pentagon, damage to the surroundings, over 60 images of American Airlines and Boeing debris, full explanation and time line excerpt, DNA results, hijacker profile, and all round overwhelming evidence that American Airlines 77, and only American Airlines 77, impacted the Pentagon on 9/11.

Final points:

No, the Pentagon does NOT have surface to air missile emplacements surroundings it. Airliners from Regan National Airport (less than 2 miles away) overfly the Pentagon dozens of times an hour. It should also be point out that not one witness reported seeing a missile hit the Pentagon. Not one saw a 'fly over' plane. If, after viewing this entire page, you still support the Pentagon no planer theory, then there is truly nothing more I can do to change that.

Reports of Interest;

The Pentagon Building Performance Report - American Society of Civil Engineers (Link) 

Pentagon/Twin Towers Bombing Investigation (PENTTBOM) - Federal Bureau of Investigation (Link)


Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States - National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Link)

Documentaries of Interest;

The Secret History of 911

9/11 Inside The Hamburg Cell

9/11 The Lost Tapes

Aviation Officials Remember September 11, 2001 - C-Span