Thursday, September 21, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
Modeling the Pentagon Security Camera Video Capture of the "Plane"
In the 2nd Pentagon security camera videos that were released in May 2006 (after the conclusion of the Mousaaoui trial), one frame had the putative plane.
Here is the "before" shot:
Here is the frame with the putative plane:
Here are close-ups of the region of interest.
The "before" frame:
The "plane" frame:
I've liberally outlined an area corresponding to the "plane":
It is unknown what the white stuff below the "plane" is, though officially people assume it is smoke coming from a damaged engine.
The question then becomes, WHAT DOES A 757 APPROACHING THE PENTAGON AT THIS ANGLE LOOK LIKE?
So I tried to model this using Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has quite sophisticated scenery and plane graphics and is useful for analyzing angles and perspective.
Here's a top view of the plane near the Pentagon (for this shot I moved the plane close here so the Pentagon could be seen better):
Here's the best that I could model the security camera view. It's not bad (the plane is there but hard to see). Note, the date and time in Flight Simulator were set to 9/11/01 9:40am. Thus the sun should be in the proper position in this modeling:
Here is a zoom-in on the plane (a Boeing jet with American Airlines livery):
Here is the plane in an analogous close-up to what I did with the official security camera video frame:
The Boeing modeled in FS doesn't look much like the purple thing seen in the Pentagon video, though there is a very vague resemblance if you use your imagination. The most noticable thing is the lack of a large light-colored tail in the Pentagon video frame. The "fuselage" and "engine" seem much thinner than the model, and the low resolution seen in the video would normally exaggerate size. There is some strong reflection seen on the top of the object that is not seen with the FS AA jet. Finally the white smoke is coming out at a very odd angle, definitely detached from where the engine would be.
So, not exactly conclusively NOT a 757 in the Pentagon security camera frame, but certainly the object captured isn't not clearly an AA757 either.
Side note-- look how CLOSE the Reagan airport is to the Pentagon and how a plane flying over the Pentagon could easily land at the airport:
Here is the "before" shot:
Here is the frame with the putative plane:
Here are close-ups of the region of interest.
The "before" frame:
The "plane" frame:
I've liberally outlined an area corresponding to the "plane":
It is unknown what the white stuff below the "plane" is, though officially people assume it is smoke coming from a damaged engine.
The question then becomes, WHAT DOES A 757 APPROACHING THE PENTAGON AT THIS ANGLE LOOK LIKE?
So I tried to model this using Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has quite sophisticated scenery and plane graphics and is useful for analyzing angles and perspective.
Here's a top view of the plane near the Pentagon (for this shot I moved the plane close here so the Pentagon could be seen better):
Here's the best that I could model the security camera view. It's not bad (the plane is there but hard to see). Note, the date and time in Flight Simulator were set to 9/11/01 9:40am. Thus the sun should be in the proper position in this modeling:
Here is a zoom-in on the plane (a Boeing jet with American Airlines livery):
Here is the plane in an analogous close-up to what I did with the official security camera video frame:
The Boeing modeled in FS doesn't look much like the purple thing seen in the Pentagon video, though there is a very vague resemblance if you use your imagination. The most noticable thing is the lack of a large light-colored tail in the Pentagon video frame. The "fuselage" and "engine" seem much thinner than the model, and the low resolution seen in the video would normally exaggerate size. There is some strong reflection seen on the top of the object that is not seen with the FS AA jet. Finally the white smoke is coming out at a very odd angle, definitely detached from where the engine would be.
So, not exactly conclusively NOT a 757 in the Pentagon security camera frame, but certainly the object captured isn't not clearly an AA757 either.
Side note-- look how CLOSE the Reagan airport is to the Pentagon and how a plane flying over the Pentagon could easily land at the airport:
Loopy Plane Paths at the Pentagon
Here's the original path "flight 77" was supposed to have taken as it neared the Pentagon:
The plane flew down from the north, passing over the National Mall and the Pentagon than, looping around and descending to hit the Pentagon on its northwest side.
This is the final loop taken by "flight 77" before it approached the Pentagon, according to the flight data recorder data documented by the NTSB:
It's just a LITTLE bit different. So, what the fuck? Why the huge difference?
This new path is totally bizarre. Although I'm sure people who cling to the official story would say the NTSB is the true path and that Hani Hanjour was just lost.
Riiiight.
If we assume this new NTSB path is real, if ANYTHING, it looks like the pilot is wasting time before getting to the Pentagon. Which would actually make sense if this plane was a diversion and was supposed to fly OVER the Pentagon at the same time the pre-planted bombs went off.
Regardless of why the loop was made, there is no good explanation for why the original "flight 77" path is so different from the NTSB path!
NOTE: Many news sources described the original flight 77 path shown on top. Here:
Interestingly this source has a description that fits the NTSB path better, but note the time of the attack (much too early!):
The plane flew down from the north, passing over the National Mall and the Pentagon than, looping around and descending to hit the Pentagon on its northwest side.
This is the final loop taken by "flight 77" before it approached the Pentagon, according to the flight data recorder data documented by the NTSB:
It's just a LITTLE bit different. So, what the fuck? Why the huge difference?
This new path is totally bizarre. Although I'm sure people who cling to the official story would say the NTSB is the true path and that Hani Hanjour was just lost.
Riiiight.
If we assume this new NTSB path is real, if ANYTHING, it looks like the pilot is wasting time before getting to the Pentagon. Which would actually make sense if this plane was a diversion and was supposed to fly OVER the Pentagon at the same time the pre-planted bombs went off.
Regardless of why the loop was made, there is no good explanation for why the original "flight 77" path is so different from the NTSB path!
NOTE: Many news sources described the original flight 77 path shown on top. Here:
Radar data shows Flight 77 crossing the Capitol Beltway and headed toward the Pentagon. However, the plane, flying more than 400 mph, is too high when it nears the Pentagon at 9:35 a.m., crossing the Pentagon at about 7,000 feet up.
Interestingly this source has a description that fits the NTSB path better, but note the time of the attack (much too early!):
The sources said Dulles controllers noticed a fast-moving primary target in their airspace east-southeast of the airport, where it shouldn't be, headed directly toward the restricted airspace around the White House.
But as they watched, the plane began turning to the right away from the White House, circling a full 270 degrees to the right and approaching the Pentagon from the southwest. It then dropped below radar level, disappearing from the controllers' screens, shortly before hitting the Pentagon about 9:30 am...