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<<At the Dulles tower, O'Brien saw the TV pictures from New York and headed back to her post to help other planes quickly land. "We started moving the planes as quickly as we could," she says. "Then I noticed the aircraft. It was an unidentified plane to the southwest (EXACTLY AS I POSTULATED) of Dulles, moving at a very high rate of speed … I had literally a blip and nothing more." IF THE PLANE CONTINUED ON THIS PATH IT WOULD HAVE FLOWN OVER THE EXACT PLACES WHERE VISUAL SIGHTINGS OCCURRED AS IT HIT THE PETNAGON
O'Brien asked the controller sitting next to her, Tom Howell, if he saw it too.
"I said, 'Oh my God, it looks like he's headed to the White House,'" recalls Howell. "I was yelling … 'We've got a target headed right for the White House!'" (AT THAT POINT THE WHITE HOUSE, THE PENTAGON, AND THE CAPITOL WERE ALL ON THE SAME FLIGHT PATH)
At a speed of about 500 miles an hour, the plane was headed straight for what is known as P-56, protected air space 56, which covers the White House and the Capitol. (AND THE PENTAGON)
"The speed, the maneuverability, the way that he turned, we all thought in the radar room, all of us experienced air traffic controllers, that that was a military plane," says O'Brien. "You don't fly a 757 in that manner. It's unsafe."
The plane was between 12 and 14 miles away, says O'Brien, "and it was just a countdown. Ten miles west. Nine miles west … Our supervisor picked up our line to the White House and started relaying to them the information, [that] we have an unidentified very fast-moving aircraft inbound toward your vicinity, 8 miles west." AS I SAID THE PLANE CAME FROM THE SOUTHWEST
Vice President Cheney was rushed to a special basement bunker. White House staff members were told to run away from the building.
"And it went six, five, four. And I had it in my mouth to say, three, and all of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room, it was almost a sense of relief. This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president, and we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second," says O'Brien.
But the plane continued to turn right until it had made a 360-degree maneuver. (IF THIS WAS ACTUALLY TRACKED THEN WHY DID THE PLANE NOT HIT THE CAPITOL SINCE IT HAD TO FLY RIGHT OVER IT)
"We lost radar contact with that aircraft. And we waited. And we waited. (HOW LONG, AND WHEN AFTER THEY LOST IT DID IT ACTUALLY MAKE CONTACT WITH THE PENTAGON OR WAS IT AT THE SAME TIME AS THEY LOST IT) And your heart is just beating out of your chest waiting to hear what's happened," says O'Brien. "And then the Washington National [Airport] controllers came over our speakers in our room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic. The Pentagon's been hit.'" SO THEY LOST CONTACT AND NO ONE EVER SAW THE PLANE FROM REAGAN NATIONAL OR ANYWHERE ELSE UNTIL IT HIT THE PENTAGON. THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. AND THE 360 IS IT MERE SPECUALTION OR FACT, SINCE THERE ARE NO TRACKS OR VISUALS
O'Brien went to the Pentagon to see what happened for herself, making her ever more certain that the Pentagon was a secondary target, and that the hijackers overshot or missed the White House.
"I've been down to the Pentagon and stood on the hillside and imagined where, according to what I saw on the radar, that flight would have come from," she says. "And I think that they came eastbound and because sun was in their eyes that morning, and because the White House was beyond a grove of trees, I think they couldn't see it. It was too fast. They came over that Pentagon or saw it just in front of them. You can't miss the Pentagon. It's so telltale by its shape and its size, and they said, 'Look, there it is. Take that. Get that.' They certainly could have had the White House if they had seen it.">> (THIS LAST PARAGRAPH IS SO BIZARRE IT MAKES NO SENSE, THE PLANE FLEW INTO THE PENAGON FROM THE WEST SOUTHWEST, THERE IS NO WAY ANYONE COULD EVER SEE THE WHITE HOUSE FROM ENTRY UNLESS IT WAS ALREADY PAST THE PENTAGON) abcnews.go.com |