Viennent alors les récits des témoins visuels du crash d'un avion (Mike Walter - USA Today, Joel Sucherman - USA Today, Dave Winslow - AP radio reporter).
Pourtant, il reste difficile de se convaincre qu'un Boeing 757 est la cause des dégâts sur l'aile ouest du Pentagone lorsque l'on examine les images de la scène.
(Voir aussi: "Les mystères de l'attentat contre le Pentagone")
Steve Riskus - jpeg 2048*1536 (686048 octets)
Steve Riskus - jpeg 2048*1536 (708941 octets)
Steve Riskus - jpeg 2048*1536 (722321 octets)
Will Morris, AP - jpeg 333*240 (25347 octets)
AP - jpeg 505*334 (30956 octets)
AP ? - jpeg 500*470 (121636 octets)
"Q [journalist question]: Mr. Secretary, you said you could not be specific about casualties. Can you give us some characterization, whether it's dozens, hundreds in the building?
Rumsfeld: Well, we know there were large numbers, many dozens, in the aircraft that flew at full power, steering directly into the -- between, I think, the first and second floor of the -- opposite the helipad. You've seen it. There cannot be any survivors; it just would be beyond comprehension." (Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, in a DoD News Briefing on Pentagon Attack, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 - 6:42 p.m. EDT)
"The Boeing 757 crashed into the outer edge of the building between the first and second floors, 'at full power,' Mr. Rumsfeld said. It penetrated three of the five concentric rings of the building." (New York Times, 12 Sept. 2001)
"The Boeing 757 struck Wedge 1 on the Heliport side of the Pentagon very low to the ground and entered Wedge 1 just to the north of Corridor 4 on the first and second floors. The plane traveled through the Pentagon at a roughly 45-degree angle to the face of the building. It went through Wedge 1 and into the un-renovated Wedge 2 before exiting the C-ring, the third ring of offices, and into a roadway (A/E Drive) that circles the perimeter of the Pentagon between the B and C-rings." (The renovation of the Pentagon, 1 March 2001 (?), PDF document)
Daryl Donley, SIPA Press - jpeg 766*500 (81873 octets)
Selon la légende de SIPA Press: "A ball of flame erupts as a commercial airliner crashes into the Pentagon September 11, 2001."
Ce n'est pas l'impact initial sur la façade du Pentagone que nous montre cette photographie. On peut voir en effet que l'incendie s'est déjà bien étendu: des voluptes de fumée blanche/grise s'échappent du bâtiment à gauche de la boule de feu, et une épaisse fumée noire (hydrocarbures) s'élève au-dessus de l'enclos de camions. Quelle est donc l'origine de cette boule de feu ?
- Une gerbe de flammes sortant du trou creusé par l'impact d'un avion ?
- Une seconde explosion dont plusieurs témoins ont entendu la déflagration ?
Jason Ingersoll, U.S. Marine Corps - jpeg 3008*1960 (1181424 octets)
Jason Ingersoll, U.S. Marine Corps - jpeg 2000*1312 (520944 octets)
Geoff Metcalf - jpeg 1250*814 (189969 octets)
Rich Lipski, The Washington Post - jpeg 400*258 (40956 octets)
"AP reporter Dave Winslow also saw the crash. He said, 'I saw the tail of a large airliner ... It ploughed right into the Pentagon.'" (The Guardian)
"I was sitting in the northbound on 27 and the traffic was, you know, typical rush-hour -- it had ground to a standstill. I looked out my window and I saw this plane, this jet, an American Airlines jet, coming. And I thought, 'This doesn't add up, it's really low.'
And I saw it. I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings. It went right there and slammed right into the Pentagon." (Mike Walter, on CNN)
? (What hit the Pentagon ?) - png 333*190 (17962 octets)
Simon Lang - jpeg 640*480 (51716 octets)
"'Je me suis d'abord dit: je n'en ai jamais vu voler si bas', a raconté le capitaine Lincoln Liebner, qui était en train de garer sa voiture sur un parking au moment de l'attaque. 'Juste avant l'impact je me suis rendu compte de ce qui était en train de se passer'. Le jet a également percuté un hélicoptère et enflammé un camion de pompiers, a précisé le capitaine Liebner. 'Nous avons réussi à sortir un type du camion', a-t-il dit, tandis qu'on entendait des gens crier à l'intérieur du véhicule en feu." (Cyberpresse)
"'I was going up Interstate 395, up Washington Boulevard, listening to the radio, to the news, to WTOP, and from my left side, I don't know whether I saw or heard it first -- this silver plane; I immediately recognized it as an American Airlines jet,' said the 25-year-old [John] O'Keefe, managing editor of Influence, an American Lawyer Media publication about lobbying. 'It came swooping in over the highway, over my left shoulder, straight across where my car was heading." (New York Law Journal)
Flight 77 3D Sim Test - gif 333*202 (201948 octets)
"'I was in the left hand lane with my windows closed. I did not hear anything at all until the plane was just right above our cars.' [Father Stephen] McGraw estimates that the plane passed about 20 feet over his car, as he waited in the left hand lane of the road, on the side closest to the Pentagon.
'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.'
'I saw it crash into the building,' he said. 'My only memories really were that it looked like a plane coming in for a landing. I mean in the sense that it was controlled and sort of straight. That was my impression,' he said." (Paul Haring, MDW News Service)
Gary Coppage, USAF - jpeg 1200*900 (951770 octets)
Suivant la démonstration de Ron Harvey, cinq lampadaires ont été arrachés sur la trajectoire de "l'engin" qui a percuté le Pentagone.
Spot the Lamp Poles - png 333*263 (44538 octets)
? - png 333*216 (39372 octets)
"'I was right underneath the plane,' said Kirk Milburn, a construction supervisor for Atlantis Co., who was on the Arlington National Cemetery exit of Interstate 395 when he said he saw the plane heading for the Pentagon. 'I heard a plane. I saw it. I saw debris flying. I guess it was hitting light poles,' said Milburn. 'It was like a WHOOOSH whoosh, then there was fire and smoke, then I heard a second explosion.'" (Washington Post)
Légende originale pour la photographie ci-dessus:
"This Picture shows two vehicles on Route 27 that were damaged by light pole debris, clipped by the aircraft as it passed overhead and across Route 27, then plowed into the Pentagon. The pole to the left is one of several that were clipped by the aircraft. The pole is also not complete, you can see it was sheered at the top."
Légende originale pour la photographie ci-contre, à droite:
"Damage to the cab on Route 27 when a piece of a clipped light pole struck his windshield."
? - png 333*217 (44288 octets)
Mark Faram, Navy Times, AP - jpeg 350*275 (33048 octets)
"A piece of aircraft wreckage lies on the heliport on the west side of the Pentagon after a terrorist attack Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001 in Arlington, Va. Wreckage from the aircraft was strewn accross the highway and military medical crews were mobilizing to help the wounded."
[update] Une autre photographie du même débris: jpeg 656*1000 (130560 octets)
Selon la légende:
"disloqué mais parfaitement identifiable, un pneu du train d'atterrissage a également été retrouvé."
Malheureusement, Paris Match ne cite pas ses sources et ne crédite pas l'auteur de la photo.
Paris Match - jpeg 333*235 (40855 octets)
Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA - jpeg 1226*1824 (2391395 octets)
Légende FEMA:
"The main entrance to the search and rescue operations at the Pentagon following Tuesday's attack."
Photo by Jocelyn Augustino/ FEMA News Photo
Disaster Type: Terrorist Attack
Event: Pentagon Explosion
Declaration Number: 1392
Photo Date: 2001-09-13 17:22:06
Photograph ID: 4414
D'autres photographies de débris... (Isopodia)
Légende originale pour la photographie ci-dessous (à gauche):
"A firefighter makes his way toward the devastation in the northwest section of the Pentagon between rings 'B' and 'C'."
Département de la Défense - jpeg 500*313 (44003 octets)
Geoff Metcalf - jpeg 1728*1152 (250785 octets)
Légende originale pour la photographie ci-dessous (à droite):
"A Military District Washington engineer firefighter stands in front of the exit hole where American Airlines Flight 77 finally stopped after penetrating the Pentagon."
Département de la Défense - jpeg 500*773 (103303 octets)
"The Pentagon was built in 1941 out of reinforced concrete. It is laid out in five concentric pentagonal 'rings', the 'E' being the outermost and 'A' the innermost. The jet cut the building like a knife. It did not penetrate all the way into the center courtyard, but did reach the 'B' ring." (DefenseLINK News)
"The five-story Pentagon is divided into five wedges, and its offices are arranged in five concentric rings connected by a series of corridors. In the crash area, the buildings outermost E-ring collapsed completely, and the worst damage extended into the first and second floors of the B-ring." (Architectural Record)
"On the inside wall of the second ring of the Pentagon, a nearly circular hole, about 12-feet wide, allows light to pour into the building from an internal service alley. An aircraft engine punched the hole out on its last flight after being broken loose from its moorings on the plane. The result became a huge vent for the subsequent explosion and fire. Signs of fire and black smoke now ring the outside of the jagged-edged hole." (Military District of Washington - News, 26 Sept. 2001)
png 235*148 (1710 octets)
Voir également:
ArchitectureWeek - Pentagon Battered but Firm
Washington Post - Rebuilding the Pentagon
Pentagon Renovation Program (15/9/2001, PDF, 2807 Ko)
Département de la Défense - jpeg 959*719 (166791 octets)
? - jpeg 470*353 (22917 octets)
Après avoir fait demi-tour au-dessus d'une ville dont le nom n'est pas précisé (apparement en Ohio), le tracé du vol 77 en retour vers Washington est dessiné en pointillés.
Serait-ce l'estimation du vol dont les contrôleurs radar ont perdu la trace pendant plus de 30 minutes ? Le tracé est-il hypothétique pour d'autres raisons ?
L'infographie est présentée sur le site web de la RTBF --> Terrorisme: La riposte --> Images 11/09 --> Le plan infernal.
"Q [journalist question]: Can you give us any sense of the area that was destroyed, how wide it is? How many feet? And did it break through to all five rings of the Pentagon?
Plaugher: It did not break through to all five rings, and I do not know the measurements.
Q: Is there anything left of the aircraft at all?
Plaugher: First all, the question about the aircraft, there are some small pieces of aircraft visible from the interior during this fire-fighting operation I'm talking about, but not large sections. In other words, there's no fuselage sections and that sort of thing.
[...]
Q: Chief, there are small pieces of the plane virtually all over, out over the highway, tiny pieces. Would you say the plane exploded, virtually exploded on impact due to the fuel or --
Plaugher: You know, I'd rather not comment on that.
We have a lot of eyewitnesses that can give you better information about what actually happened with the aircraft as it approached. So we don't know. I don't know.
[...]
Q: Where is the jet fuel? Just --
Plaugher: We have what we believe is a puddle right there that the -- what we believe is to be the nose of the aircraft. So --
Q: Where is that? What ring is that, or corridor --
- "
(Ed Plaugher, fire chief of Arlington County, in a News Briefing directed by Victoria Clarke, ASD PA, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 - 10:16 a.m.)
"Ed Plaugher affirme en riant presque : « je peux vous assurer qu'il y avait un avion ». Prolixe, le chef des pompiers d'Arlington énumère une liste exhaustive des débris qu'il dit avoir vu dans le foyer de l'impact : « des ailes, le fuselage, les sièges, les moteurs, les trains et la boîte noire »." (Valérie Labrousse, Digipresse, mercredi 22 mai 2002)
"Steve Patterson, 43, said he was watching television reports of the World Trade Center being hit when he saw a silver commuter jet fly past the window of his 14th-floor apartment in Pentagon City. The plane was about 150 yards away, approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground, Patterson said.
He said the plane, which sounded like the high-pitched squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he thought it was going to land on I-395. He said it was flying so fast that he couldn't read any writing on the side.
The plane, which appeared to hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon but was flying as if coming in for a landing on a nonexistent runway, Patterson said." (Washington Post, 11 septembre 2001)
"Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed an explosion near the Pentagon.
'It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball', Begala said in an interview on his cell phone.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded." (AP, Washington, 9/12/2001 11:45:33 PM)
"At that moment I heard a very loud, quick whooshing sound that began behind me and stopped suddenly in front of me and to my left. In fractions of a second I heard the impact and an explosion. The next thing I saw was the fireball.
I was convinced it was a missile. It came in so fast it sounded nothing like an airplane." (L. Rains, Space News)
"The crew of a military cargo plane watched helplessly on Sept. 11 as a hijacked airliner plunged into the Pentagon, a defense official confirmed Tuesday. The report confirms the eyewitness account of two Hampton Roads residents who were near the Pentagon that day and said they saw a second plane flying near the doomed passenger jet.
A C-130 cargo plane had departed Andrews Air Force Base en route to Minnesota that morning and reported seeing an airliner heading into Washington 'at an unusual angle,' said Lt. Col. Kenneth McClellan, a Pentagon spokesman.
Air-traffic control officials instructed the propeller-powered cargo plane 'to let us know where it's going,' McClellan said. But, he said, there was no attempt to intercept the hijacked airliner. 'A C-130 obviously goes slower than a jet,' McClellan said. 'There was no way he was going to intercept anything.' The C-130 pilot 'followed the aircraft and reported it was heading into the Pentagon,' he said. 'He saw it crash into the building. He saw the fireball.'
In the days immediately following the Sept. 11 hijackings, the Pentagon had no knowledge of the C-130's encounter, because all reports were classified by the Air National Guard, the Pentagon spokesman said. 'It was very hard to get any information out,' McClellan said." ("C-130 crew saw Pentagon strike, official confirms", Terry Scanlon et David Lerman, Daily Press, 17 octobre 2001)
"'The safety and security systems did what they were supposed to do', says Cecil G. Doyle, president and CEO of Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern Inc., the Roanoke, Va.-based architect-engineer for the Wedge One project. The blast-resistant windows, which are framed in steel and bolted to the steel structure behind the exterior wall, helped save lives, officials say. Despite the huge impact of the crash, the newly installed windows on Wedge One's third and fourth floors were intact, but the old windows in the not-yet-renovated adjacent section blew out. The new windows 'weren't designed to stop a 757, but they did provide some protection and we strongly believe some lives were saved because of the steel reinforcement around each of the windows', says Tom Fontana, the Pentagon Renovation Office spokesman." (S. Winston, Engineering News-Record, 14 sept. 2001)
Voir aussi:
Retrofitting the Pentagon for Blast Resistance (document PDF, Juillet/août 2001);
Pentagon Battered but Firm,ArchitectureWeek 69, 3 October 2001
"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.'" (CBS, 21 sept. 2001)
"Now word has reached us that federal investigators may have video footage of the deadly terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
A security camera atop a hotel close to the Pentagon may have captured dramatic footage of the hijacked Boeing 757 airliner as it slammed into the western wall of the Pentagon. Hotel employees sat watching the film in shock and horror several times before the FBI confiscated the video as part of its investigation.
It may be the only available video of the attack. The Pentagon has told broadcast news reporters that its security cameras did not capture the crash. The attack occurred close to the Pentagon's heliport, an area that normally would be under 24-hour security surveillance, including video monitoring." (B. Gertz, The Gertz File, 21 sept. 2001)
Voir aussi: Images show September 11 Pentagon crash (CNN, 8 mars 2002).
"The 9:45 a.m. attack on the Pentagon appeared to take place on the Army side of the building, said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO.
'We've known for some time that some group has been planning' such an assault, he told CNN, adding that 'obviously, we didn't do enough' to prepare for one." (CNN)
Philippe Lamair, journaliste à la RTBF, a soumis l'enquête du Réseau Voltaire à l'ambassade américaine en Belgique. La réponse de l'ambassade:
"C'est une construction intellectuelle; c'est impossible [qu'un avion ne se soit pas écrasé sur le Pentagone]."
Philippe Lamair: "Pourquoi ne réagissez-vous pas ?"
L'ambassade: "Nous ne pouvons pas réagir dans la mesure où c'est une affaire criminelle; c'est traité par le FBI et donc il y a le secret de l'instruction."
Colette Obertin-Frère, correspondante RTBF à Washington a également soumis l'enquête du Réseau Voltaire à deux experts: messieurs Joe Jones et Eric Rigler. Selon ces experts: "Il s'agit absolument d'un attentat perpétré par un avion: il y a les témoins occulaires, il y a les radars, et un avion a quand même disparu."
"Pourquoi y a-t-il si peu de dégâts ?"
"Un avion est fait essentiellement de matériaux friables, à l'exception bien sûr du moteur et du train d'atterrissage. Les matériaux sont en fait l'aluminium et le magnésium. Et lorsque l'avion s'est encastré dans le Pentagone, il est parfaitement possible qu'il se soit tout simplement compressé, qu'il se soit en quelque sorte désintégré. Les ailes de l'avion peuvent parfaitement s'être repliées le long du corps, ce qui a limité le point d'impact."
"Où sont passés les débris d'avion ?"
"Encore une fois, c'est une règle générale, lorsqu'un incendie violent suit une catastrophe aérienne, on ne retrouve en général pratiquement rien des débris qui disparaissent en fait dans l'incendie. C'est vrai que nous avons tous encore à l'esprit la magnifique reconstitution qui a suivi le drame du vol 800 de la TWA. Mais il faut se souvenir que dans ce cas, les débris sont tombés dans l'eau; ce qui a éteint l'incendie et ce qui a permis de reconstituer l'avion. Mais la règle générale est que lorsqu'il y a un incendie, on ne retrouve pas les débris"
("Qu'en dites-vous?", RTBF, 10 mars 2002. Contact: mediation@rtbf.be.)
"The FBI finally turned over the area to Maj. Gen. James T. Jackson, Commander, U.S. Army Military District of Washington, in a special ceremony Sept. 26 in front of the point of damage. Officially, the area is no longer a working FBI crime scene." (Sgt. Nate Orme, Commentary: Remembering the honored dead at Pentagon crash site, 26 Sept. 2001)
"L'ambassade [américaine à Paris], qui a reçu le livre ['L'Effroyable Imposture' - Thierry Meyssan] avant sa sortie vers le 4 mars, se refuse à toute réaction sur consigne du Pentagone vers lequel elle nous renvoie.
Au service de presse du Pentagone, M. Glen Flood déclare : 'Nous sommes au courant de l'existence de ce livre. C'est pour nous une gifle en pleine figure et il s'agit d'une véritable offense faite à tout le peuple américain et spécialement à la mémoire des victimes des attentats'. M. Flood précise également ne pas avoir lu le livre et se refuse à le faire. Il indique alors avoir été lui-même témoin lors de l'attentat en précisant qu'il n'a pas vu l'avion s'écraser mais qu'il a constaté plus tard la présence au sol de débris de l'appareil." (P. Blanchard et V. Labrousse, Digipresse, 18 mars 2002, 12h58)
"They [find a lot] and any number of terrorist efforts have been dissuaded, deterred or stopped by good intelligence gathering and good preventive work. It is a truth that a terrorist can attack any time, any place, using any technique and it's physically impossible to defend at every time and every place against every conceivable technique. Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center. The only way to deal with this problem is by taking the battle to the terrorists, wherever they are, and dealing with them." (Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with Parade Magazine, Friday, Oct. 12, 2001)
"It is easy to imagine an infinite number of situations ... where government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give false information out." - Theodore Olson, Procureur Général, 18 mars 2002. ("This president thinks our ignorance is bliss", Richard Reeves, 22 mars 2002)
"Le but des sites français qui ont ainsi créé ce 'mystère de l'avion du Pentagone' n'est pas clair. Il relève soit de la psychiatrie, soit du marketing." (P. Riché, Libération, 16 mars 2002)
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (Theodore Roosevelt)