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NARANYAN : No, it didn't clip any lightpoles or anything like that ... it didn't clip any lightpoles, just the exit sign.
Boston Globe
By Robert Schlesinger and Wayne Washington, Globe Staff, 9/12/2001
archive.boston.com...
Rodney Washington, a systems engineer for a Pentagon contractor, was stuck in stand-still traffic a few hundred yards from the Pentagon when the American Airlines jet roared overhead from the southwest.
''It was extremely loud, as you can imagine, a plane that size, it was deafening,'' Washington said.
The plane was flying low and rapidly descended, Washington said, knocking over light poles before hitting the ground on a helicopter pad just in front of the Pentagon and essentially bouncing into it.
This is false.
No witnesses saw the lightpoles being downed by the plane.
Light Pole Witnesses
aneta.org...
D. S. Khavkin, from the eighth floor of a high-rise building:
"... knocked down a number of street lamp poles"
news.bbc.co.uk...
Kirk Milburn, a construction supervisor for Atlantis Co. was on the exit of Interstate 395.
"... saw debris flying. I guess it was hitting light poles."
a188.g.akamaitech.net...
Afework Hagos, 26, of Arlington, stuck in a traffic jam on Columbia Pike,
"It was tilting its wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lamp posts .."
www.guardian.co.uk...
Kat Gaines, a Fairfax County Fire & Rescue technician was heading south on Route 110, by the parking lots to the south when she saw a "low-flying jetliner strike the top of nearby telephone poles." She "then heard the plane power up" and plunge into the Pentagon.
www.fccc.org...
Vin Narayanan, a reporter for USA TODAY was driving near the Pentagon
www.usatoday.com...
"The tail of the plane clipped the overhanging exit sign above me"
www.usatoday.com...
Rodney Washington, a systems engineer for a Pentagon contractor, was stuck in the traffic a few hundred yards away:
"... knocking over light poles "
www.boston.com...
Steve Riskus took pictures less then 1 minute after the impact
www.criticalthrash.com...
"It knocked over a few light poles on its way..."
www.humanunderground.com...
Father Stephen McGraw was waiting on the northbound side of Washington Boulevard. driving to a graveside service at Arlington
"The plane clipped the top of a light pole just before it got to us, injuring a taxi driver, whose taxi was just a few feet away from my car.
www.dcmilitary.com...
www.mdw.army.mil...
Jim R. Cissell, a former photojournalist, drives past the Pentagon every day on his way to work at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.
enquirer.com...
.".. taking out telephone and power lines on its way in, hit the building."
www.cincypost.com...
Noel Sepulveda, a Master Sgt. was walking back to his motorcycle in the Pentagon South Car Park
It "The plane’s right wheel struck a light pole, causing it to fly at a 45-degree angle.".", he said.
The plane tried to recover, but hit a second light pole and continued flying at an angle. "You could hear the engines being revved up even higher,"
www.af.mil...
Colonel Bruce Elliott, a World War II and Korean War Chemical Mortar Battalion veteran and a former commander of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant wasalso in the Parking Lot
"... the craft clipped a utility pole guide wire, which may have slowed it down a bit"
www.thehawkeye.com...
Air Force Honor Guard members were at the end of the cemetery directly across the highway from the Pentagon.
" They had heard, some had seen a plane coming in skimming trees and light poles."
www.bgcworld.org...
Mark Bright, 32, a traffic patrol officer was the first to arrive at the scene after seeing the plane from his guard booth by the Mall Entrance.
"-- at the height of the street lights. It knocked a couple down."
He also said he heard the plane "power-up"
www.dcmilitary.com...
206.181.245.163...
Wanda Ramey, a DPS master patrol office watched from the Mall plaza booth.
"I saw the wing of the plane clip the light post, and it made the plane slant. Then the engine revved up."
www.mdw.army.mil...
Michael Anthony K (aka 'Mimi Angelica') a 42-year-old firefighter-paramedic saw
"...poles lying on the ground that had apparently been knocked over by the plane as it headed for the building."
www.angelfire.com...
Mike Walter, 46, a USA Today reporter, said
"...It turned and then it went around ..it clipped one of these light poles."
Recorded interview - quick load Recorded interview - best quality
Richard Benedetto, another USA TODAY reporter said,
The only thing we saw on the ground outside there was a piece of a ... the tail of a lamp post.
Recorded interview - quick load / May 2002. Recorded interview - best quality / May 2002.
A Pentagon Navy Admiral said,
"It was a good size jet aircraft. I saw it clip a light pole but keep coming ..."
Houston Chronicle, 9/11/01 - Michael Hedges
(mirror) www2.hawaii.edu...
Don Fortunato, a plainclothes detective with the Arlington (Va.) Police Department, was walking into his office when he heard a muffled explosion. He dashed to the scene.
“Traffic was at a standstill, so I parked on the shoulder, not far from the scene and ran to the site. Next to me was a cab from D.C., its windshield smashed out by pieces of lampposts. There were pieces of the plane all over the highway, pieces of wing, I think.”
LaVern L Schueller, a Military Chaplain surveyed the scene after the event.
"The top of a light pole was knocked off on an overpass. The FBI had marked it as evidence. The top of a light pole had been knocked off on the street that goes by the Pentagon. It too was marked as evidence. And finally, it took out the entire light pole near the sidewalk.
www.aapc.org...
www.nwfdailynews.com...
Frank Probst, dove to the ground to avoid a passing jet engine.
"On either side of him, three streetlights had been sheared in half by the airliner's wings at 12 to 15 feet above the ground. An engine had clipped the antenna off a Jeep Grand Cherokee stalled in traffic not far away."
www.militarycity.com...
The Pentagon Attack: Problems with Theories Alternative to Large Plane Impact
First Published January, 2011. Version 3, April 2016.
www.scientistsfor911truth.com...
Category 3: The CIT group of witnesses (about 12) is those whose testimony appears to suggest a plane flight path north of the CITGO station. Such a path, if impact were to follow, could not reasonably create the observed damage trail and could not avoid creating damage inside the Pentagon in its direction of travel. Consequently, the proponents of this theory claim the plane flew over the Pentagon. Drawbacks to this theory include: (a) There is thus far only one questionable witness to a plane flying away. (b) The CIT witnesses appear in some instances to have been led by their interviewer (for example, the interview23 of Albert Hemphill by Craig Ranke). (c) Many CIT witnesses also testify to plane impact24. The theory also suffers from the difficulty in assessing the position of the plane by witnesses not immediately underneath, for example those at the cemetery, and the fact that flyover is inferred rather than observed. Legge and Chandler have further pointed out that the proposed deviation from the established approach path would require a strikingly large plane bank angle, which no witness reported.23
Category 4: CIT claims that one witness saw a plane fly low over, or away from, the Pentagon. This witness is Roosevelt Roberts. His testimony has been subject to extensive discussion25. His testimony is confusing and some describe it as open to interpretation. Careful study26 however shows he is not a witness to “flyover” and not a witness to “fly away”. The only option remaining is “impact.” The plane he reports over the South parking lot, and over the light poles, he describes as traveling east, hence toward the Pentagon. He makes it clear that he saw two planes, apparently the one officially described as AA Flight 77 and the other a C-130. Roberts' CIT questioners jump from one plane to the other in a way that puzzles him so he seeks clarification and obtains it. Referring then to the second plane he describes it as doing a U-turn and heading south west. We know he cannot be referring to the first plane as it would be impossible for it to turn in the space available, so it must be the C-130. Later he says that both planes came from the same direction, thus confirming again that he saw the approach of the plane which hit the Pentagon. According to the radar evidence the C-130 came in from the west, did a U-turn to the left, about 2 minutes after the impact, and headed back west, not south west. The discrepancybetweenwestandsouthwestisnodoubtjustasmallorientati.TheC-13027 wasnever lower than 2000 ft, far too high to be mistaken for the plane over the light poles.
Also the testimony of JOEL SUCHERMAN, who was on the bridge and should have seen the poles knocked down if the plane had flown across it - but he ABSOLUTELY DENIED SEEING THIS.
frustratingfraud.blogspot.com...
Their confirmation had Joel taking up the rear of the parade, having just emerged from the I395 underpass well south of the official flight path. How they placed him here seems a bit arbitrary really. Surprised? As far as I can tell all the evidence for this is in their interview as in the video, recorded on their November 2006 Arlington foray where they talked to all the PentaCon witnesses. The part they seemed to use is
“I had come out from underneath the underpass and as soon as you come out from under there, you start to rise up to a hill and that’s where you get the view of the Pentagon off to the east, off to your right.”
Then the interview cuts to talking about his view of Flight 77 passing left-to-right ahead of him. It’s not made clear whether he saw this at the instant he emerged or at some point shortly after but they seem to have latched onto the ‘had come out’ and set it as ‘had just come out.’ To place him more precisely we could use his description of the flight path he saw the plane on, relative to his view:
“I saw it coming across my windshield but then [certainly?] the passenger side of the vehicle I had had a clear view of the pentagon. I would say The Pentagon is at 2 o’clock from me, in my car. So I’m seeing it come across the windshield and then I’m looking out the passenger side window and that’s where I see the collision with the pentagon. There were no trees at that point in the way at all. I did see it impact.”
3. Eighty-Seven Eyewitness Accounts
Before and After American Airlines Flight 77
Crashing Into The Pentagon
ratical.org...
Sucherman, Joel
USAToday.com Multimedia Editor, saw it all: an American Airlines jetliner fly left to right across his field of vision as he commuted to work Tuesday morning.
It was highly unusual. The large plane was 20 feet off the ground and a mere 50 to 75 yards from his windshield. . . .
"My first thought was he's not going to make it across the river to [Reagan] National Airport. But whoever was flying the plane made no attempt to change direction," Sucherman said. "It was coming in at a high rate of speed, but not at a steep angle -- almost like a heat-seeking missile was locked onto its target and staying dead on course."
"Journalist Witnesses Pentagon Crash," by John Dodge, eweek.com, 9/13/01
. . . There was a sonic boom and looking straight ahead there was a jet, what looked to be an American Airlines jet, probably a 757. And it came screaming across the highway, it was Route 110, on the west side of the Pentagon. The plane went west to east, hit the west side of the Pentagon. Immediately flames were strewing up into the air. There was white smoke. And then within seconds, thick black smoke. Everybody got out of their cars. People were shocked.
Then there was another plane that was off to the southwest and that made a beeline straight up into the sky and then angled off and we weren't sure if that was going to come around and make another hit or if it was just trying to get out of the way. That disappeared and we didn't see it again.
Interviewer: Describe the first plane again. You say it was a commercial jet. Do you know how many engines?
I did not see the engines. I saw the body and the tail. And it was a silver jet with the markings along the windows that spoke to me as an American Airlines jet. This was not a commercial, a, excuse me, a business jet, right. It was not a Lear jet, a Gulfstream, something like that. It was a bigger plane than that.
Real Player (Video): "Joel Sucherman, Assistant Managing Editor of USATODAY.com," 2001
This is Joel Sucherman, USAToday.com. On my way to work directly across from the Pentagon, about 100 yards away I saw an American Airlines jet screaming low. I heard a sonic boom. And then the impact, the explosion. There were flames that shot up, white smoke followed by black smoke.
It did not appear to do a substantial amount of damage to the area. There was debris scattered about. There were light poles down. There was what appeared to be the outside covering of the American Airlines silver jet strewn about.
Fire trucks and police cars responded immediately. Within about two minutes there were fire trucks on the scene.
Traffic stopped. People got out of their cars, started parking wherever they could. It was a shocking site. People started streaming out of the Pentagon. Within minutes there were thousands of people on the hill next to the small highway that runs directly to the side of the Pentagon.
The impact hit on the west front side of the Pentagon. The plane came heading east. Again, it screamed low. You couldn't even see the plane before it was about, oh 20 feet or so off the ground, screamed across the highway and slammed into the side of the Pentagon.
It was clear that the plane made no attempt to slow down or land; made no emergency movements at all.
Within a minute another plane started veering up and to the side. At that point it wasn't clear whether that plane was trying to maneuver out of the way and out of the air space or if that plane was coming around for another hit as well. That plane ended up disappearing into the sky.
Minutes later, helicopters started circling the Pentagon. And it was unclear at that point whether or not those helicopters were federal helicopters and traffic helicopters, part of the media trying to survey the scene, or whether or not they would be the next wave. There was no next wave. It was just the one single jet.
Real Player (Audio): "Joel Sucherman," USAToday.com
Both of the above linked to at: "Plane crashes in Pa.; unclear if related," USAToday.com, 9/12/01
JIM CISSELL was incensed at lies told by the journalist. DID NOT SEE PLANE HIT POLES. DID SEE PLANE CROSS ROUTE 27 PERPENDICULAR TO WEST WAL
aneta.org...
Jim R. Cissell, a former photojournalist, drives past the Pentagon every day on his way to work at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.
enquirer.com...
.".. taking out telephone and power lines on its way in, hit the building."
www.cincypost.com...
911research.wtc7.net...
As former Cincinnatian James R. Cissell sat in traffic on a Virginia interstate by the Pentagon Tuesday morning, he saw the blur of a commercial jet and wondered why it was flying so low. ''Right about the time it was crossing over the highway, it kind of dawned on me what was happening,'' said Cissell, son of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Jim Cissell. In the next blink of an eye, he realized he had a front-row seat to history, as the plane plowed into the Pentagon, sending a fireball exploding into the air and scattering debris - including a tire rim suspected of belonging to the airplane - past his car. (...) In the next seconds dozens of things flashed through his mind. ''I thought, 'This isn't really happening. That is a big plane.' Then I saw the faces of some of the passengers on board,'' Cissell said. While he remembers seeing the crash, Cissell remembers none of the sounds. ''It came in in a perfectly straight line,'' he said. ''It didn't slow down. I want to say it accelerated. It just shot straight in.''
www.cincypost.com...