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Fl 77 Pentagon
Original FAA/NORAD Time Line
8:20 AM Takeoff from Dulles Airport, D.C.
8:25 FAA notified all Regional FAA offices of Flight 11 hijacking
8:25 bridge call between FAA, NMCC, DOT, DOD, etc. started by NMCC as significant incident conference when Fl 11 hijacking reported and later upgraded to air threat conference dealing with all “planes of interest”
8:42 FAA confirmed radio and transponder off on Flight 175
8:43 FAA notifies NORAD that a second plane appears to be hijacked and has turned towards N Y
8:46 NEADS(NORAD) scrambles 2 jets from Otis AFB to N Y
8:46 FAA notes FL 77 significantly off course; this is supported by USA Today published flight course time line
8:47 WTC1 hit by airplane;
8:50 bridge call between FAA, DOD, DOT, NORAD, NMCC re: “all planes of interest”
8:56 transponder off on Fl 77 and plane turned around over NE Kentucky
8:57 report by FAA that Fl 77 crashed or landed near Kentucky/Ohio border/ lost on radar
9:03 a plane hits WTC2; notification sent out by FAA
9:24 FAA contacts NORAD and says Fl 77 heading towards D.C.
9:25 NORAD scrambles jets from Langley AFB heading to D.C.
9:30 jets in the air heading to D.C. (130 mile trip, 5 minute trip at 30 miles per minute)
9:38 something hits the Pentagon, jets reported to be off course and still 105 miles away
Note: General Richard Myers, commander of U.S. Forces, and the NORAD spokesman Mike Snyder both originally reported that no jets were scrambled by the military until after the Pentagon was hit. After considerable criticism of an apparent military stand down, the new report was issued indicating that FAA notified NORAD at 9:24 and planes were scrambled but got lost and arrived too late.
After more criticism of both earlier scenarios as implying a military stand down, the 9/11 Commission revised the time line and official scenario again in 2004, stating that the Pentagon was unaware that there was a plane heading towards D.C. until it was hit. And that the earlier report that planes had been scrambled to intercept Flight 77 were in error.
New Revised 9/11 Commission Time Line(2004)
8:20 Flight 77 takeoff from Dulles Airport
8::38 FAA contacts NORAD that Fl 11 hijacked, NORAD spends 8 minutes on calls up chain of command
8:46 jets scrambled from Otis AFB to New York
8:47 WTC1 hit, notice goes out to FAA offices
8:52 2 jets from Otis AFB are in air to N Y
8:54 Flight 77 significantly off course
8:56 transponder signal and radar track lost, assumed to have crashed or landed
9:00 FAA head Jane Garvey notifies the White House that a plane has crashed in Kentucky
9:03 a plane hits WTC2 South Tower, military was never notified by FAA
9: 21 FAA reported to NORAD that Flight 11 did not hit WTC1 and is headed towards D.C.
9:24 NORAD scrambles 3 jets form Langley AFB to Washington to intercept Fl 11 but does not know where target is; pilots make a mistake and fly out to sea far away from D.C.
9:25 FAA controller tells FAA HQ they think Flight 77 may have been hijacked
9:36 FAA Boston notifies NORAD of plane heading towards DC
9:38 plane hits Pentagon; NORAD never notified that plane was headed to D.C., Pentagon notified only 2 minutes before building was hit
The new revised 9/11 Comm. Scenario for Fl 77 said that the previous report of course changes and turning around(as also reported by news reports) were wrong and that the FAA was not aware that the plane had turned around and was heading towards D.C. So the plane flew undetected towards Washington for 36 minutes. The Comm. Report states that the military was never notified that the plane was headed towards D.C. and was never aware that the plane was hijacked. The Commission said that earlier reports and statements that NORAD was notified about the Fl 175 and Fl 77 hijackings were in error. The Comm. Said that the real reason that the Langley jets were scrambled to D.C. was that the FAA had reported at 9:21 that Flight 11 that had earlier been reported to have hit WTC1 was actually still in the air and heading towards D.C. They were aware of this new report for the first time in 2004 and used it to correct the time line. The Comm. said however that it was unable to identify the source of the report or who took the report. The Comm. Said that at 9:36 when the jet pilots were contacted to intercept Flight 11 which was thought to be headed towards D.C., the planes were still 105 miles away because the pilots had misunderstood their instructions and headed east out to sea.
There is considerable evidence contradicting the 9/11 Comm. Revised time line and scenario.
1. Journalist Tom Flocco reported in 2003 that Laura Brown of FAA said that a phone bridge between the FAA and Charles Leidig of NMCC had begun between 8:20 and 8:25 after Fl 11 was known to be hijacked. This conference call was begun as a significant incident call after Fl 11 was hijacked but was upgraded later to an air threat call dealing with all “planes of interest”. A source at the Dept. of Transportation confirmed the 8:25 time period for the bridge call between NORAD, Secret Service, DOD, and DOT.
Tom Flocco stated his opinion that after talking to several parties, he is convinced the call started at the earlier time]
2. Laura Brown(senior FAA official at Boston Logan) (memo of May 23, 2003) The FAA and military and NORAD had been in constant communication from just after the first WTC crash and prior to the WTC2 crash(since approx. 8:50) Many sources confirm this call and that they were talking about “all flights of interest”.
3. Matthew Wald, NY Times published story supports the Laura Brown version of the call. It reported that according to his sources: “During the hour that the Fl 77 was under the control of the hijackers, up to the moment it struck the west side of the Pentagon, military officials in a command center on the East Side of the Pentagon were urgently talking to law enforcement and air traffic control officials about what to do” (the command center is the NMCC and air traffic control is FAA)
4. Statement by Captain M. Jellinik, NORAD command director on 9/11, According to news reports quoting him, a bridge call between NMCC, NORAD, and FAA began just after the first strike on the WTC, consistent with the time of the original Laura Brown memo.
5. According to a report by Richard Clark, National Security Coordinator: He reported that the deputy director of the White House Situation Room told him at 9:15 that they had been on the air threat call with NORAD and FAA. This call had been going on a considerable time as it had begun as a significant event call and had been upgraded to an air threat call, and there had been many exchanges of information. According to Clarke, the FAA head Jane Garvey was at the White House teleconference answering questions about the hijackings before 9:20 am. The Commission report said that it could not determine who from DOD participated in the teleconference with Clark and the FAA; however Richard Clarke had testified that Gen Myers and Donald Rumsfeld and Jane Garvey were on the call. Others confirm this.
6. Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, said he met with Richard Clark who was on a conference call before going to the White House PEOC room to meet with V.P. Cheney at 9:20. So Clark was on the conference call by 9:15.
7. Norman Mineta, Sec. of Transportation, testimony before 9/11 Comm.: on a meeting he was at with V.P. Cheney at the White House PEOC that he arrived at about 9:20:
“During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the vice president, “The plane is 50 miles out”; “The plane is 30 miles out” ; And when it got down to “the plane is 10 miles out” the young man said to the vice president, “Do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said “Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?”
Discrepancies in General Myers and Donald Rumsfeld’s statements
The 9/11 Commission Report apparently tries to deflect the criticism that Gen Myers complicit in the stand down by stating that Gen Myers was on Capital Hill meeting with Senator Cleland from 8:45 to 9:45 am about personnel matters during the period prior to the time that WTC and the Pentagon buildings were attacked. Thus he never took part in dealing with 9/11 events.
Also this statement is contradicted by the report and testimony of Richard Clarke, the National Security Director. He said that Myers, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Muller, and Garvey were on a teleconference call about the attacks and that he had a discussion with Gen Myers about getting fighters up over Washington. He said Myers gave a report that we have 3 F 16s from Langley up over the Pentagon and Andrews is launching fighters from the DC air national guard(DCANG). This also contradicts Gen Myers statements to the effect that Andrews AFB had no planes on alert to defend the D.C. area. One of these men clearly isn’t telling the truth, and given the number of people on the teleconference call it is easy to confirm who it is.
Shortly after 9/11, Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a statement carried by news reports and on the DOD web site about his actions on 9/11. Apparently he was also anxious to imply that he had not been aware of the 9/11 events before the buildings were hit. He said that he heard something happened and went downstairs to see what happened and was told a plane had hit the Pentagon (he was in the East wing, plane hit the west wing which is a considerable distance away). He said he went to the crash site and helped with putting people on stretchers for loading in ambulances and returned to his office at about 10:20. In testimony to the 9/11 Comm., he gave a slightly different story. He said that when the plane hit the Pentagon shook and he went out to see what had happened. He said he wasn’t there long and returned to his office at about 10:00. Note that actions and times are important due to other events.
The 9/11 Comm. agreed with the first report regarding actions and with the 2nd statement regarding the time of return to the office. But note the time that the plane hit and the fact that it is about a 10 minute walk from Rumsfeld’s office in the East wing to the west wing parking lot. Also there is contradictory testimony to any of these statements.
All of these statements are in conflict with Richard Clarke’s report, which is easily verifiable. Clarke said that Myers and Rumsfeld were on the teleconference call with him and others about the hijackings from about 9:15 until the plane hit the Pentagon. When the plane hit, Rumsfeld said that smoke was getting into the secure conference room so he moved to another studio at the Pentagon. This contradicts Rumsfeld’s statements on where he was and what he was doing. It also contradicts Myers and Rumsfeld’s statements that they were unaware of the status of Fl 77 before it hit the Pentagon.
The Comm. Report appears to be an obvious attempt to cover up these discrepancies by not looking at or reporting information from testimony that was not consistence with the statements of Cheney, Myers, Rumsfeld, and other top DOD and military leaders. The testimony of Transportation Secretary who was in charge of all response to the non military response to the hijackings , and the testimony of National Security Coordinator Richard Clarke, that of many FBI agents such as Sibel Edmunds and Crowley and of other officials was not included or mentioned in the Comm. Report. The FBI agents testified that they were aware of prior warnings of the plans for the attacks and that they and others had warned the administration and pentagon officials, and also that their efforts prior to 9/11 to prevent the attacks were stifled by FBI top level officials. Although the Commission Report says that the Pentagon only became aware of the plane heading to the Pentagon at 9:36 which was 2 minutes before the building was hit, it is clear this was not the case. Note another suspicious event that is contradictory to this statement besides the previous reports and testimony. The Comm. Report says that the Pentagon became aware of an unarmed military C 130H cargo plane in the Washington area and ordered it to find the plane and identify it. The C 130H pilot said that he spotted the plane, identified it as a Boeing 757, attempted to follow its path, and reported that it crashes into the Pentagon. Rather a lot of action in an extremely short time period when talking to a C130 pilot would not be high on official’s agenda. This is the primary source identifying that the plane that hit the Pentagon was a Boeing 757. Besides the obvious time complications, this story does not seem to be compatible with another story in the Commission Report about the plane that hit the Pentagon’s approach and actions. And another strange story of this C 130H being involved in Pennsylvania with the Flight 93 crash incident also have very confusing statements.
This information come from Chap 14 of the book of Dr. D.R. Griffin, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions; the book has references for the sources of information quoted.
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