At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into Wedge 1, the western side of the Pentagon, at 530 miles per hour, skimming so low over the nearby highways that it knocked down five streetlights. The force of the impact sent the plane through the first three of the Pentagon’s five rings of corridors, penetrating the building the length of more than a full football field. Instantly, 400,000 square feet of the Pentagon erupted in flames.
