Pentagon releases 9/11 security video (AP) Updated: 2006-05-17 07:06 The Pentagon on Tuesday
released the first video images of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the
military headquarters building and killing 189 people in the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks.
A video image made available by the Pentagon,
Tuesday, May 16, 2006, shows an explosion after American Airlines Flight
77 crashed into the Pentagon in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
[AP/Pentagon]
| The images, recorded by
Pentagon security cameras outside the building, were made public in response to
a December 2004 Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch, a public
interest group. Some still images from the video had previously been leaked and
publicly circulated, but this was the first official release.
The airplane is a thin white blur on the video as it slams into the Pentagon
at ground level. Almost instantly a white flash and a huge orange fireball
appear on the video, followed by a tower of gray-black smoke. One of the videos
shows a Pentagon police car driving in the direction of the impact point shortly
after the plane hit.
Traveling at an estimated 350 mph, the hijacked American Airlines plane
plowed into the southwest side of the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. EDT, shortly after
two other hijacked airlines were flown into the twin towers at the World Trade
Center in New York. The attack set off fires in a portion of the Pentagon and
killed 125 people inside, in addition to the 59 passengers and crew and the five
men who hijacked the plane at Dulles International Airport.
The Pentagon had previously refused to release the videos, saying they had
been provided to the Justice Department as evidence in any criminal proceedings.
"We fought hard to obtain this video because we felt that it was very
important to complete the public record with respect to the terrorist attacks of
September 11," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said families of the victims of the
Pentagon attack were not consulted before the videos were released on the
Pentagon's Web site.
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