What Really Hit The Pentagon?

I remember national news reports, or should I say accounts, of the plane having "bounced" off the lawn in front of the Pentagon before it struck. I remember just nodding my head, it wasn't something to question at the time...

(SALEM) - I had a friend ask the other day if I'd heard about the strange circumstances behind the crash of the Boeing 757 jet into the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. What he told me sent a chill down my spine, I almost wish I could have gone longer without knowing it.

I had not paid attention to that particular aspect of September 11th in detail, it was a tragedy among other national tragedies that day. I just remember being so overwhelmed and shocked that it wasn't only New York, that other locations in the U.S. had also been struck.

In response to my friend's inquiry, we began looking into it. Considering that our nation and our people are at war in another land, and that their sacrifices are connected to September 11th, it is only fair that Americans have a full and complete disclosure of what happened that day.

The idea of a Boeing 757, literally a monster of an aircraft, striking the building at over 500 MPH only two feet above the ground, and only boring a hole into the building is, at best, a bitter pill to swallow. I remember national news reports, or should I say accounts, of the plane having "bounced" off the lawn in front of the Pentagon before it struck. I remember just nodding my head, it wasn't something to question at the time.

The thing is, and it's a simple question, why isn't there any wreckage? Whatever it was that struck the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on September 11th made only a small entry in and through the Pentagon's fortified walls. A 757 is longer than a football field, what happened to it?

Many witnesses in the area reported hearing something that sounded more like a missile. The only camera footage publicly released by the government shows only a flash of an object, and it is only a fraction of the length of a Boeing 757.

According to reports, a rooftop camera that was mounted on the nearby Sheraton Inn was seized along with all recorded footage and that footage has never been released. Why?

I suppose the reason that this whole explanation sits so poorly with me, is that for many years I have been an aircraft crash site researcher. I have climbed many mountains to see, photograph and document the wreckage of aircraft, both military and civilian. One of those research projects was a PBS documentary on a WWII bomber that crashed in Oregon in 1943.

Even relatively small planes like jet fighters leave behind huge amounts of wreckage. A 757 is just too big to disappear. At 500+ MPH, wreckage might have scattered for a mile or more. Another point is that a flying object that is nearly level to the ground at striking point is still going 500 MPH when it initially contacts the ground. It slows down rapidly, but nothing slows from that speed too rapidly.

But when we began searching around the Internet and seeing that others are asking the same question, we felt obligated to ask you to do the same thing. As Americans, we all have an obligation to ask questions.

Below is the site and report that caused me to take the idea seriously.
freedomunderground.org (Note that the link is now dead, I wonder why...?)

With almost 25 years of experience on the west coast and worldwide as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor, Tim King is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide.

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Comments

Comments are Closed on this story.

The Skeptical Cynic March 14, 2010 1:32 pm (Pacific time)

I recall seeing pictures "People" carrying what was purported to be a piece of the fuselage of the "plane" that hit the the Pentagon, It was obviously a piece from a plane in use by the same carrier as that that supposedly crashed into the Pentagon.However, based on the painting identifying logo on this piece debris, it is impossible to have been debris of a 757 or 767 but I believe it compared to a piece of a fuselage of a 737.
I only saw that picture once in the comparison and then it mysteriously disappeared like a "troublemaker" in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship.
My eyes were glued to the TV for three days straight -- I read every account, read flight manifests as placed in newspapers, watched how names and number continued to change.
From the outset, I knew that the number of cell phone calls allegedly could not be made at the speed and altitude at which the plane were flying at the time of the phone calls.

1 second before the plane hit the Pentagon is was some 244 yds, from impact.

Put someone on the witness stand and have them testify under oath that they could positively identity whatever hit the Pentagon as a airplane flying ground at about 2 feet off the ground at approximately 733 feet/second.

More than forty years of examining and cross examining witnesses under oath,I can assure this is no question I would ask my witness who would then be subject to cross examination
Todd TDY, I think you're troll. A monomaniacal troll with delusions of adequacy.

What you attribute to cognition is merely a reaction to a stimulus of your limbic system, (the reptilian brain)the most advanced stage of neurological development.

Regardless of how many mishaps you have investigated, unless you have painstakingly done a hands on OBJECTIVE investigation into every aspect of the "Incident at the Pentagon" on 9/11/2001 nothing you have said or even implies that you have any deeper knowledge of what happened at the Pentagon (and I would suggest suggest considerably less) than any other person making a comments
at this site.

You remind of a harbor tug boat, they also toot the loudest when in the deepest fog

I was on a plane that caught fire just outside of Andrews AFB. We managed to make to the runway where we scrambled and ran for our lives. At the initial investigation I specifically asked the Crah Crew OIC how long before the plane would have blown. 90 seconds at most. But certainly does not make me an authority on other air plane mishaps
I further suggest that you go back to your "Game Boy" and leave the the discussion to those capable of synapsing cerebral neurons

Tim King: Thanks for visiting, thanks for your comment.

Toddtdy May 25, 2006 3:42 pm (Pacific time)

Mr. King, From my perspective your opposition to the war is based on prudent logic. Many reasonable people think the Iraq portion of the war on terror was a con-job. While I do not agree, as I believe winning in Iraq will help our national security strategy and objectives, you have at least expressed well thought out reasonable beliefs. These thoughts greatly contrast your opinions and thoughts about the pentagon attack. I think they are borderline psychotic and are delusional. (I do not say this to offend you, rather just to be honest. Please receive my words as such.) I apologize. I didn`t take you seriously at first. I thought you were just trying to capitalize on some conspiracy story to further your web site. I see now you actually believe this faulty logic and for that you have my sympathies. I hope someday you will have a more reasonable belief system as it is impossible for us to have a discussion on this subject as your current thought process will not allow you to receive logical conclusions. As to my background and qualifications, we need not discuss them. I am not representing anyone but my own beliefs and opinions after years of directly working mishap sites. I am open to all sides. That`s why I took the time to read your website. I also do not spend too much time allowing FOXNEWS, CNN, or any other station to dictate what I think. The days of real news are long passed as most stations have an agenda and are biased one way or another. For that we all lose. To you, I apologize for being testy and shrewd. I honestly believed you were capitalizing on the sufferings of the pentagon families, (some of whom I know), instead of being overwhelmed in thought by this flawed conspiracy theory. Good luck in your research efforts. I wish you clarity. Toddtdy

Tim King May 19, 2006 3:56 pm (Pacific time)

Maybe teddy was a cheap shot, but the cheap shot seems to be your style, and if you knew so much about the military then you would know Marines go TAD, for Temporary Assigned Duty, not TDY. But then you didn't take that route obviously, Air Force I presume, six weeks of basic training is it? You threw out a bunch of insulting stuff and that is why I came back to you that way. I think the Air Force hacking thing could have been fairly innocent, hard to say, but it is the Air Force! You search Tinker AFB and you will find out that a lot of people associate the place with clandestine activity. Spying would probably be the first word that comes up there. So if you were in my shoes, and your team caught a government agency red-handed trying to crawl through your company`s back door, you would just blow it off and figure it was nothing? That is not how I take care of my business. This is not about making things up, the only conspiracy theory I see is the one the government issued after the attacks. We know Iraq had nothing to do with it whatever happened that day, it was a tool for our warmongering president and his friends who I'm sure you believe are all a bunch of great leaders, to send a bunch of Americans off to a war nobody had any business starting with people who did nothing against us. You are factually off track big time, and it takes no courage to stand there and say, �It`s all true, the government says so.â€? Quit listening to FOX national News. It is a joke. They edit what they want you to know, but it goes over the heads of far too many. Don`t start talking smack there either, I worked for the Vegas FOX when they launched news and I worked with the network on multiple occasions. It also takes no guts to try to make others accept your POV because you yell when you write. Typically, you dance around all of the evidence. There are plenty of people who say otherwise about what hit the Pentagon. They just omit those sound bites because the national media is as sold out as anybody. As far as blowing smoke goes, I doubt if you have a fraction of the experience I do in terms of crash site research. Mine began when I was a Marine; in fact on my first day stationed at El Toro we had an F-4 go in. That was a hell of a welcoming. Since then I have been to sites literally all over the west coast. You`re just a government antagonist and you guys are running out of BS now. Our forefathers wanted us to question every aspect of government and that is my job as a reporter. You can slam my work and be insulting, but that isn`t reflected in the big row of broadcast journalism awards on my wall. And keep the language reasonable, you have already crossed the line. You can slam me all you want but keep the profanity out of it.

Todd tdy May 19, 2006 2:18 pm (Pacific time)

You didn't catch the Air Force trying to hack your sight... you caught a stupid individual airman playing around during a midnight shiftâ€¦ way to embellish the facts to look important and worthy of getting hacked. It is so like your entire �newsâ€? reporting. Ha! Grow up and report truth. You were a marine and do not know what TDY means. Please... Try to blow smoke up someone else`s ass. I see right through you. Todd TDY (Not Teddy) TDY=Tempoary dutyâ€¦ like deployed. The day I wrote you I was at a Canadian crash site. Just because you can write an interesting bit of fiction doesn`t mean you know crap about aircraft mishaps.

Tim King May 6, 2006 4:49 pm (Pacific time)

The first logical reaction to Todd TDY (Teddy?) isâ€¦ which government agency do you work for? I know one federal agency called Popular Mechanics has been writing a lot of good fiction lately, do you hail from their ranks? The second question would beâ€¦ how do you sleep at night? How dare you bring up the best interest of the families when it is the families and the firefighters who have joined in this quest for truth about what really happened that day? This is a sad point in American history, we have been given the shaft and lots and lots of people have died under this new highly questionable regime. It isn`t my job as a journalist to ignore obvious facts about such a significant event. I don`t believe you have ever been to a crash site, because nothing you write reflects that experience. My life immediately after high school was spent in the Marine Corp`s 3rd Air Wing, working on the flight line with all types of aircraft. As a reporter, I have been to many sites, military and civilian; I`ve produced numerous TV news reports about crash sites, and a PBS documentary about a B-17 crash in 1943.. Just yesterday, a friend e-mailed a load of pictures of an F102A crash site here in Oregon that I first visited in the early 90`s. This plane went in under power in a dive; do you know what that means Teddy? It was probably going faster than the alleged 757 that left behind no wreckage and supposedly turned into �something more like liquid.â€? This plane like all plane crashes, left huge pieces behind. They are still there after 40 years. Your highly insulting comments, which we went ahead and posted, are baseless and just reinforce the point I make. If you had offered anything substantial, then we would all be glad, because nobody wants to look down the road this whole thing leads, nobody. Teddy talks about a lot of plausible explanations, but offers not a single one. Then he goes on to talk about whale blubber. This is a similar ploy to other government tactics that attempt in a futile way, to insult anyone who dares to raise a question. Thanks Teddy, I`m now preparing my fourth article on this subject; it is a review of a new documentary available free to anyone over the Web called �911 Loose Change.â€? It places the entire unexplainable 911 episode squarely on the Bush administration. Anyone with half a brain will be blown away. Real, truly patriotic Americans believe that we have to get to the bottom of it. Hunter Thompson was on it, and he died after telling people he believed his life was in danger over the story. Hunter, a skinny guy who stood up to Hells Angels over one of them beating his girlfriend and was nearly beaten to within an inch of his life, was not the type to take his own. We caught the U.S. Air Force trying to hack into Salem-News.com and we are pretty sure our phone is tapped, the distinct `clicks` started right after our Webmaster trapped them trying to come in the back door. We have the USAF IP address and all of the information on them, would you like me to publish that? I`m a news guy, not very technical with the Web, but my team sure is, and we stopped a U.S. federal agency that was trying to infiltrate our site, our business, that is offensive. Feel free to blow some more smoke Teddy, I think your mean spirit and that of others like you actually helps convince people that there are far too many things about September 11th 2001 that need further investigation.

Todd TDY May 6, 2006 12:55 pm (Pacific time)

I have been to multiple aircraft mishaps and nothing about this crash surprises me but the gall of techno gifted - anti gov`t conspirators. There are a lot of plausible explanations for what COULD have happened. Prove a UFO didn`t crash. Prove a big pelican didn`t drop a 40 ton whale. Both are as silly as this assumption lacking any credible fact. Yes, it is impossible to prove something didn`t happen without key pieces of evidence from what really did happen. I agree, it would be easier to show exactly what happened if the gov`t was more forthcoming... However, there are a few facts no one can dispute, unless they are absurd... a 757 was flying near the Pentagon and disappeared. The 757 had terrorist on it who wanted to crash into an important building. There is a huge hole in the Pentagon, a missing plane, terrorists, passengers, and there is no other reported crash site. Please. Stop hurting the families of those on board, on the ground, and in the Pentagon. If you want to write absurd hypothesizes, keep them to yourself, unless you have more than a suspicious mind. By the whale... the hole would be about the size of a whale traveling at 500 mph and the oil in the blubber would likely burn all evidence too. I heard reports some folks actually saw the pelican fly away after doing the dastardly deed. I`m sure the reputable Salem-News can pick up on the story and run with it. I`ll keep reading right after I put down the National Enquirer. Sorry N.E.... I didn`t mean to put you in the same category as this dribble.

Nadine April 19, 2006 7:18 pm (Pacific time)

Thanks for an insightful article. I wonder when it will be allowed to Question the government again??

Larry Simons April 13, 2006 10:22 am (Pacific time)

dont think your own government would do a thing like this? just read about Operation Northwoods. Google it, its declassified.

Tim King March 22, 2006 11:37 am (Pacific time)

One first time visitor to Salem-News.com blasted the article and the site, writing, �This is not what actually passes as news? No facts, no interviews with credible sources, no real story.â€? Salem-News.com is an extremely credible news organization and we have the track record to demonstrate it, but we do not hail from the stamp and go world of large corporate media. I lived in that world for years, and often had to work the hardest to sell the producers on what would go on to be the best stories, and one particular story that I was the solo believer in won an award from the Associated Press that I am very proud of. That story was part of a series on aviation history. This story is not being written by somebody who just took a sudden interest in airplanes.

William Duncan March 20, 2006 9:22 pm (Pacific time)

This is my first time viewing the site. This is not what actually passes as news? No facts, no interviews with credible sources, no real story.

Joe Wright March 17, 2006 1:10 pm (Pacific time)

Thinking your government wouldn't do anything like this is, at best, naive. The dumbing down of America has been so effective that the population as a whole no longer questions what the government says and blind patriotism rules. I love my country just as much as the next person but having been in the military, I know better than to believe all the stories and "explanations" they give. I'm not saying our own government killed our own people but I am saying it isn't impossible that they did. I just have too many questions they refuse to answer or give answers that aren't logical or possible.

Tim King March 16, 2006 11:34 pm (Pacific time)

"Pod people ?" I hate to say it, but it is just what I expect, the author uses old tactics; name calling, labeling, calling people liars. Conspiracy theory is another insult. I know Alex means well, but that article is really bad. The author suggests things nobody is talking about to deflect from the point. The photos also show nothing but debris from the building.

Alex March 16, 2006 11:17 pm (Pacific time)

I was pretty skeptical about what really hit the pentagon too. But I've done my own research and at this point I'm pretty convinced it really was a plane. Tim King doesn't mention that witnesses saw a plane, that pieces of the plan were found inside and outside the pentagon, and that there wasn't just one tiny little hole. One of the things a lot of the conspiracy theories fail to take into account is how unusual the crash was compared to 'normal' crashes, and how that explains a lot about why the crash site seems so different. What was different? Well, aside from hitting a building, the plane was also flying practically parallel to the ground at nearly zero altitude, and at higher speed than many crashes. So if you want to get a perspective different from Tim's, try this site: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ppfinal.html Note: I don't agree with the site about WHY there are conspiracy theories about the crash, but I do think the site is a good source of information about the crash itself. There are several other sites that have similar information which aren't too hard to find either. I hope Salem News is willing to provide its readers with more than one perspective about this sad and important event in our nation's history.

Kenneth Kerry March 16, 2006 11:11 pm (Pacific time)

What if we knew a highjacked jetliner was going to hit the Pentagon. Is it out of the question we might try to shoot it down with a jet fighter or a missle? If a jet fighter or missle did so, then hit the Pentagon by accident, what would our government admit or own up to? I think they would deny it and say the jetliner hit the building. Sound familiar???

Tim King March 16, 2006 5:57 pm (Pacific time)

I've sent a letter to the Purdue professor quoted in the Popular Mechanics article. If he responds, I have a few questions for him. I do find it interesting that a professor of structural engineering is giving testimony about aircraft crash physics in the first place. I will post his response if he writes back.

Tim King March 16, 2006 4:42 pm (Pacific time)

I appreciate that Popular Mechanics strikes us as a credible source, but the joke among my friends is, "It was printed, it has to be true." With respect to Michael's point, I read the article and it reads like a partisan piece, designed to lend credibility to the administration`s version of what happened September 11th. I actually have a PM issue from several years ago that addresses the Roswell incident in 1947. I need to find it before I start quoting from my memory, but the claims are outright amazing, and I knew then that Popular Mechanics may not be a straight voice box for the government, but they are in obvious good standing. The PM author is a name caller, branding any question of the government`s version of what happened as the �most persistent conspiracy theories.â€? Sound familiar? Here is a quote from the article, by Mete Sozen, a professor of structural engineering at Purdue University, �What was left of the plane flowed into the structure in a state closer to a liquid than a solid mass." I have been to numerous crash sites in Oregon, California, Arizona, Washington and Nevada. My stories on plane crash sites have aired on NBC, ABC and FOX stations, I have been published in Lost Birds Magazine, several Oregon newspapers, and OPB. My friend Doug Scroggins in Las Vegas dedicates his entire life to crash site research. His Web site is www.lostbirds.org. I am stating from experience, that airplanes to not turn into liquid on impact. That is 100% untrue. Yes, fire can be highly consuming, and then you have puddles of aluminum all over the place in the wreckage field. The government has several believable points, that is, until they are consolidated. Put their explanations into a report and it gets an `F` by failing to stand up at all. I think we are entering a time when believing that the government could be lying through their teeth is at hand. The article mentioned, which I hope everyone looks at, shows a small piece of wreckage and then uses the caption to totally dispel the whole problem. The plane in question is the size of a football field. I appreciate your point Michael, but I have spent almost twenty years shooting TV news and I know and interpret images of this particular nature in great detail. I would like to be convinced, but the PM article is too smug, too darned hard to believe. That professor from Purdue, well, I`ll hold my tongue until I look into that more.

Michael Heggen March 16, 2006 1:38 pm (Pacific time)

While I am suspicious of pretty much anything the Federal gubmint has to say these days, I would encourage anyone who has doubts about whether an airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11 to read this article in Popular Mechanics ( http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=6

Jess Anderson March 16, 2006 9:35 am (Pacific time)

Wow, this is just like so many other lines of bullshit that the government has "explained" situations. I just don't understand WHY it has to be a secret, cause an attack is an attack, no matter what they use to carry it out. This is as bad as the Area 51 stories!

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