At 8:20 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, a decade-old Boeing 757, had taken off from Dulles International Airport, outside Washington, D.C., en route to Los Angeles. It carried six crew and 58 passengers, just a third of its capacity. The last routine communication from the plane came at 8:51 a.m., and by 8:54 it had deviated from its intended course, turned south, and then headed back toward Washington.
