Follow-Up On The Pentagon Generator Story

In my previous post, I described damage to the large electrical generator that was parked in front of the Pentagon.

The damage pattern is strange (of course), but I may have figured out one or two things.

First, a 757 engine and wing track fairing could have produced the damage on the generator IF the starboard wing was tilted down to the starboard side, rather than level or tilted up.

I also said "If the engine was pushing the generator away as it was impacting, wouldn't the gouge be crooked instead of a straight line?" The picture I looked at showed a fairly straight gouge. However this picture shows a crooked gouge consistent with the wing track fairing making a gouge as the engine was pushing the trailer away (look at the lower right hand corner of the magnified view).

So, what this may mean is that the plane was coming in initially at a banked angle, where the starboard wing was banked down, but then when the starboard engine hit the generator, it actually pushed the plane up so that the starboard wing was banked up-- which is the way in which a 757 is thought to have come in. This would actually comport with eye-witnesses who claimed that one wing hit the ground before the plane crashed. But what they were actually seeing was the starboard wing hit the generator.

However, this still doesn't explain the very strange hole in the fence at ground level. Unless the starboard engine actually hit the fence and generator just inches off the ground and smashed the very end of the generator completely. This would make some sense since in this picture (the #5 item), the generator is right next to the corner of the fence. As you can see, right after the Pentagon strike, there is no part of the trailer in that corner of the fence. This would mean the engine took out a huge chunk of the generator trailer (which is possible). The problem then, if this is the case, what made the large dent in the generator and made the gouge mark? Also, at this angle, it seems as though the rest of the wing would have impacted the top of the trailer-- unless the plane was perfectly tilted to avoid this. So even this explanation doesn't completely work.

One minor point is that an A-3 Skywarrior, proposed by Karl Schwarz as the Pentagon attack plane, does not have large wing track fairings that could make this gouge. This doesn't rule out the A-3, but it makes it even harder to explain the generator damage. The A-3 is the one military plane that could pass for a 757.

The last point I'd like to make here is that if you look at this picture that shows all the obstacles in front of the Pentagon shortly before it was hit, one has to wonder why any pilot intent on hitting the building would come in so low when there were so many obstacles in the way! And this picture doesn't even show the large cable spools that were in front of the impact area. I have to think a pilot talented enough to navigate to Washington DC, find the Pentagon, and then make a fast and tight circular descent to impact the Pentagon, would be able to come in with an approach path that would avoid all the obstacles in front of the Pentagon.