"It was like a cruise missile with wings, went right there and slammed into the Pentagon."
–Mike Walter

"...approaching from the west about 20 feet off the ground... (with) the high-pitched squeal of a fighter jet."
–Steve Patterson

"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."
–Lon Rains, editor for Space.com

Air Traffic Controller Testimony

"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. You don't fly a 757 in that manner. It's unsafe."
—Danielle O'Brien

Norman Mineta's Testimony

"During the time that the airplane was coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President...the plane is 50 miles out...the plane is 30 miles out....and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also said to the vice president "do the orders still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said "Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!??"
—Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, on 9-11

Donald Rumsfeld —Freudian slip?

"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."
—Donald Rumsfeld

These hitherto unkonwn capabilities of the Boeing 757 should make it an excellent weapon for attacking those hardened nuclear bunkers in Iran!

Somehow, the inexperienced hijacker pilot managed to steer the huge jet into a dive, then flatten out at near grasstop level and bullseye the target, leaving almost no identifiable wreckage—it was completely vaporized by the fire!

The eyewitness reports are contradictory: some describing it as a jetliner, others as a "missile with wings," some even claiming that the plane "cartwheeled" into the Pentagon. These discrepancies could be resolved by the footage from multiple, closed-circuit surveillance cameras that recorded the impact, which the Pentagon has refused to release, with one inconclusive exception (see below). Additionally, security video tapes from a nearby Citgo gas station and Sheraton hotel were reportedly seized by the FBI and also sequestered.

Most incriminating, however, is the fact that hijacked Flight 77 had been tracked for close to an hour, flying almost 300 miles when the nation on high alert after the strikes on the Twin Towers, and yet managed to penetrate the most secure air space on Earth without hindrance, while Air Force jets had been scrambled 67 times from Jan. 1 — Sept. 10 to intercept aircraft that had lost transponder signals or veered off-course—SOP. According to Norman Mineta's testimonys (see sidebar), Cheney apparently ordered a standown while in the PEOC (Presidential Emergency Operations Center).

Alternative Theories
Any one theory, including the official one, is difficult to reconcile with all the evidence. The Pentagon strike remains the most mysterious of all the anomalous events on 9/11.See this page for various alternative theories about the Pentagon Strike.