If this was the case there would have been zero passengers or cargo, and a minimal fuel load, making decellerating even easier. Also, in normal situations, 'approved' runways are provided a wide cushion of safety margin in regards to length, which can be discounted in such a scenario.
Yes, interesting.
But is the report not anachronous?
Is this the passage to which you refer?
Arlington County After Action Report
page 28
"Meanwhile, at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Fire Department at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Captain Michael Defina was investigating an incident at Terminal B when he heard the impact and saw the smoke rising in the distance. He called Fire Communications and was advised of a report of a Boeing 757 crash off the end of Runway 1-19. That was quickly amended, identifying the Pentagon as the crash site."
Seems that the incident at Terminal B was being investigated prior to the explosion occuring at the Pentagon.
In that case, the plane landing at Reagan National is not ruled out, but it would have been the subject of a different comment.
Something that has puzzled me for years, is the fact that another aircraft entirely played such an integral part in the proceedings at the Pentagon on 9/11, yet it has never previously been identified.
Several eyewitnesses referred to it, and it was even the subject of an official interview, but the information was corrupted and suppressed.
DARYL DONLEY, who captured the opportune photograph of the secondary explosion about 4 - 5 minutes post impact, stated that this aircraft was the first thing he saw.
"SKARLET", the enigmatic anonymous blogger who could not convince herself that the plane did not swoop up at the last second to fly over the building, also stated that she saw this aircraft first - in fact, she saw more than one of them.
Various others made references to this aircraft having been what in fact exploded on the helipad, or crashed into the flying plane, or some curious permutation which implies that many people did see something real, which they could only describe in terms that seemed so unreal as to discredit their testimony.
Inexplicably, the reports of this aircraft were never followed through to a satisfactory conclusion (although several questioned it, such as Shoestring), when in fact it is the unsolved mystery of that day. Knowing what this aircraft was, and what it is capable of, and untangling the many references to it, makes sense of many cryptic eyewitness testimonies and events.
Numerous videos taken that morning show this aircraft. It was hidden in plain sight, something that every regular commuter would expect to see as he was driving along Washington Boulevard beside the Pentagon Helipad. Because it was decked out in military livery, it was deemed to be not merely harmless, but protective.
That was not the case.
ERICA LUSK was a photography student east of the Potomac that morning, whose class was interrupted by the news of the explosion at the Pentagon. The students were encouraged to head out and start recording their own historical images.
Within a few minutes, Lusk had taken this photograph.
Some time later, BOB PUGH took this photograph which may or may not be the identical craft, but it is at least the same model.
The Sikorsky Superstallion CH-53 helicopter is the second-most expensive helicopter in the world. The US Marines has long maintained a fleet of hundreds of them, their predecessors and descendants. It is the largest and heaviest helicopter in the US military, with current models boasting a payload of over 15 tons within and without its cavernous cabin.
An eyewitness quote which sticks in my memory but cannot now be found, was
"The helicopter looked important enough".
Although eyewitness reports of this helicopter were sanitised and conflated with the dinky little blue and white Park Police Huey rescue helicopters which appeared to ferry victims to hospiptals within about 15 minutes of impact, there is no similarity between them. The Sikorsky Superstallion is a supremely powerful, highly technologically advanced, heavily armed helicopter, capable of facilitating whatever was done in many of the anomalous eyewitness testimonies. Lateral thinking here suggests many possibilities that have never been proposed in the 19 years of research and investigation. Riddles can be solved by factoring in the characteristics of this mighty vehicle.
