Photo
is of workman shoring up a floor. CBS seems to
have an amazing amount of detailed information about the crash, from it's
'sources'. And CBS and Ari Fleischer seem to be at odds over 'facts'
of the flight.
CBS claims to have 'eyewitnesses'
that saw the plane hit the ground before hitting the Pentagon.
Really. Why does CBS want to push this point?
Who were the 300 people 'looking for clues'?
How did Ari Fleischer know the plane was heading for the
Whitehouse? What was his motive?
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From CBS
Report, Sept 21, 2001 Primary Target
"(CBS) New radar evidence obtained by CBS News
strongly suggests that the hijacked jetliner which crashed into the
Pentagon hit its intended target.
Top government officials have suggested that American Airlines Flight 77
was originally headed for the White House and possibly circled the Capitol
building. CBS News Transportation Correspondent Bob Orr reports
that's not what the recorded flight path shows.
Eight minutes before the crash, at 9:30 a.m. EDT, radar tracked the plane
as it closed to within 30 miles of Washington. Sources say the hijacked
jet continued east at a high speed toward the city, but flew several miles
south of the restricted airspace around the White House.
At 9:33 the plane crossed the Capitol Beltway and took aim on its military
target. But the jet, flying at more than 400 mph, was too fast and too
high when it neared the Pentagon at 9:35. The hijacker-pilots were then
forced to execute a difficult high-speed descending turn.
Radar shows Flight 77 did a downward spiral, turning almost a complete
circle and dropping the last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes.
The steep turn was so smooth, the sources say, it's clear there was no
fight for control going on. And the complex maneuver suggests the
hijackers had better flying skills than many investigators first believed.
The jetliner disappeared from radar at 9:37 and less than a minute later
it clipped the tops of street lights and plowed into the Pentagon at 460
mph.
Some eyewitnesses
believe the plane actually hit the ground at the base of the Pentagon
first, and then skidded into the building. Investigators say that's
a possibility, which if true, crash experts say may well have saved some
lives.
At the White House Friday, spokesman Ari Fleischer saw it a different way.
"That is not the radar data that we have seen," Fleischer said,
adding, "The plane was headed toward the White House."
Ten days after the hijacked airliner slammed into the Pentagon, leaving
189 people dead or missing including those on the plane, and gouging a
giant smoky slice out of the world's biggest office building, some 300
people were looking for clues.
Officials said no survivors had been taken out of the building since the
day of the crash and 104 people have been identified.
Rescue crews have turned over the operational control of the crash site to
the FBI. The transfer clears the way for the criminal investigation to
intensify.
Additional human remains are expected to be recovered during the criminal
investigation at the site, which could last for a month.
The fire chief in Arlington County, Va., says all areas of the Pentagon
(with the exception of the fourth- and fifth-floor corridors of the three
outer rings) have been released to the Department of Defense.
The last civilian urban search-and-rescue team was leaving the site
Friday.
Military engineers from the Army's Fort Belvoir completed their work
Friday morning" |