American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was a morning flight that routinely flew from Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington DC, to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California (IAD-LAX). On September 11, 2001, the Boeing 757-223, N644AA, was hijacked as part of the 9/11 attacks. The hijackers were reported to have been Khalid al-Mihdhar, Majed Moqued, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Salem al-Hazmi, and the suicide pilot Hani Hanjour.The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:10, but actually departed at 8:20. It was recently confirmed that three of the hijackers had been stopped before boarding the flight because they failed the metal detector test, but were nonetheless allowed to enter the plane.
By 8:54, the flight had been hijacked.They used knives and box-cutters to gain entrance to the cockpit. By 8:56, the flight had radically changed course, and the transponder was turned off. The FAA was aware at this point that there was an emergency situation aboard the plane. (By this time, American Airlines Flight 11 had already crashed into the World Trade Center, and United Airlines flight 175 was known to have been hijacked as well.)
Barbara K. Olson, who was on board this flight, had called her husband, United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson at the Justice Department twice to tell him about the hijacking and to report that the passengers and pilots were held in the back of the plane. After the call was cut off, Theodore Olson tried unsuccessfully to contact Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The plane crashed into the western side of The Pentagon in Washington, DC at 9:37 AM EDT, killing all of its 58 passengers (including the hijackers) and 6 crew. The section of the Pentagon hit consisted mainly of new, unoccupied offices and was damaged by the crash and the ensuing violent fire. The outermost part of the building was largely destroyed. 125 people in the Pentagon died from the attack.
After the crash, the flight route designation, for future flights on the same route, was renumbered Flight 149.