THE PENTAGON IN FLAMES: A BLOW TO THE HEART OF THE U.S. MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT

September 10, 2001Sep 10, 2001, 11:00 PM GMT+1

Less than an hour after Manhattan was rocked by the massive double attack on the World Trade Center, terrorists struck at the heart of the US military establishment, crashing another hijacked passenger jet into the Pentagon in Washington DC. The plane, believed to have been a United Airlines Boeing 767 with 65 people on board, ploughed into a helicopter landing pad.

“We were sitting there and watching this thing in New York, and I said ‘you know, the next best target would be us’,” said Tom Seibert, a network engineer at the Pentagon. “And five minutes later, boom.”

“It was a huge fireball, a huge orange fireball,” said Democrat consultant Paul Begala. Another eye-witness, Associated Press reporter Dave Winslow, said he saw “the tail of a large airliner. It ploughed right into the Pentagon.”

Part of the five-sided building collapsed as fire spread, and a thick pall of smoke billowed from the wreckage. Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said that there were “extensive casualties and an unknown number of fatalities.” Up to 20,000 people are believed to work in the building.

The attack triggered the evacuation of other government buildings including the Capitol Building, the White House and State Department.

Terrorists struck at the heart of the US military establishment, crashing another hijacked passenger jet into the Pentagon in Washington

One side of the building collapsed after the plane hit it

Up to 20,000 people are believed to work in the building

The attack came less than an hour after Manhattan was rocked by the massive double blow on the World Trade Center

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