Wasn't the theory presented on the Pentagon was that they didn't think it was the target that the White Hours or Capital was and it was missed? The Pentagon was some type of back up target, impossible to miss because of it's size?

There were also stories that the people had all purchased the same model of GPS's before the event from a couple of shops in Flordia.

The weather was crystal clear that day.

The diagrams shown on the news in the days after (which were presumably constructed from ATC info) showed that the planes appeared to make a clear line right down the Hudson. Not sure about the DC and PA planes, but visual navigation definitely appeared to be the method for the two WTC planes.

The DC flight also followed a path. According to the Washington Post they followed I-95/395 straight up from north of Richmond. They apparently never veered or turned around. They believe the original intent was always the Pentagon, it was large and an easy route without having to turn around to find the White House.

chowda's got it right, or at least consistent with what the media reports eventually settled on. There were early reports/rumors that the Pentagon plane circled the Capitol/aimed at the White House/etc., but they apparently weren't true. As someone who works one block from the White House, I can assure you that I followed these reports.

And 9/11 was an absolutely clear day in DC.

chodaw,

If the Pentagon was always their primary target, why do you suppose they would have crashed into the side away from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, into an area that was being reinforced?

Since this information was publicly available, and since they otherwise appeared to plan fairly meticulously, it strikes me as an unexplainable oversight.

Kind of on the topic of things that one doesn't quite understand from that day...has anyone been able to think of a 'logical' purpose for taking cash out of an ATM in an airport just prior to boarding with the intent of crashing the plane?

You probably remember the still images of the ATM withdrawals I'm referring to.

It just doesn't make sense to me...then again very little does about that day.

I saw a long interview w/ the ATC who had that flight and it definitely overshot, turned around and came back - according to her..

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 of Dulles, moving at a very high rate of speed � I had literally a blip and nothing more."

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 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.

"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."

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.

"We lost radar contact with that aircraft. And we waited. And we waited. 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.'"

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/...c_feature.html