Timelines:
Flight 77 Crashes into the Pentagon


Tuesday:
8:10 A.M. - American Airlines Flight 77 departs Washington Dulles Airport bound for Los Angeles.
9:35 A.M. - NORAD scrambles two F-16 fighters from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.
9:40 A.M. - American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the west side of the Pentagon.
@9:55 A.M. - Scrambled fighter jets reach Washington, D.C. area.
10:10 A.M. - A walled section of The Pentagon collapses.
@1:00 P.M. - Rescuers are finally able to enter the impact area.

Wednesday:
3 P.M. - Fires in the building are finally contained.

Friday:
Early morning - Both Black Boxes are recovered and sent to NTSB lab for analysis.

126 killed (another 64 onboard Flight 77)


The plane banked sharply and came in so low that it clipped light poles. It slammed into the side of the Pentagon at an estimated 350 miles per hour after first hitting the helipad. The plane penetrated the outer three rings of the building. The jet fuel exploded, which sent a fireball outward from the impact point. About 30 minutes after the crash, a cross-section of the building collapsed, but only after enough time had elapsed for rescue workers to evacuate all injured employees.

The fire was so hot that firefighters could not approach the impact point itself until approximately 1 P.M. The collapse and roof fires left the inner courtyard visible from outside through a gaping hole. The area hit by the plane was newly renovated and reinforced, while the areas surrounding the impact zone were closed in preparation for renovation, so the death toll could have been much higher if another area had been hit.