Original subtitles

FATHER MCGRAW: There was a sense of something

coming over the tops of our cars.

NARRATOR: A commercial jet screams low over the DC area.

FATHER MCGRAW: And the fireballs just billowed out of the Pentagon.

GEN. SHELTON: We have watched the tragedy

of an outrageous act of barbaric terrorism.

JOHN PERREN: I want passenger manifests,

surveillance video, the works.

NARRATOR: The attack on the Pentagon mobilizes

hundreds of FBI agents and NTSB investigators.

MALE: Left.

JOHN PERREN: You had the largest investigation

in American history going on.

NARRATOR: They uncover a mountain of evidence.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: What are you guys doing?

NARRATOR: Shocking details about the terrorist hijacking

of American Airlines flight 77.

HIJACKER: Stay where you are now or die!

BRIAN JENKINS: Their strategy was audacious

but not complicated. And it worked.

MAN: Mayday, mayday.

♪

NARRATOR: It's nearly 8 am at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C.

American Airlines flight 77 will soon be heading to Los Angeles.

Thirty-nine-year-old David Charlebois is the First Officer.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Any plans for the big day?

CAPTAIN BURLINGAME: Gonna take in the ballgame at Angels Stadium.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Oh yeah? That'll be great.

NARRATOR: The Captain, Charles Burlingame, turns 52 tomorrow.

JEFF PRICE: Captain Burlingame was a former Navy pilot.

He was a graduate of the Fighter Weapons School,

otherwise and more commonly known as Top Gun.

A very experienced airline pilot,

a lot of years in service, very professional.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Can I help you with that?

NARRATOR: The Boeing 757 is less than half full this morning.

There are only 58 passengers on board.

BARBARA OLSON: No. I'm booked all day that day.

What about next week?

NARRATOR: Barbara Olson is on her way to LA

to appear on a TV talk show.

BARBARA OLSON: Bye.

JEFF PRICE: Barbara Olson was a high profile lawyer in Washington, D.C.

Very active in the political circles out there.

She was also the wife of

the U.S. Solicitor General at the time, Ted Olson.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Departure frequency will be 125.05.

Runway 3-0. Cleared for takeoff.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Cleared for takeoff off 3-0, American 77.

CAPTAIN BURLINGAME: On the roll.

NARRATOR: At 8:20 am, American Airlines flight 77 gets underway.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: V-1. Rotate.

JEFF PRICE: It was just a beautiful day.

The skies were clear throughout most of the country in fact

and it was just a really, really gorgeous day for flying.

NARRATOR: It takes roughly five hours

to make the two thousand, three hundred mile trip

from Washington to Los Angeles.

At 8:46, flight 77 reaches cruising altitude,

thirty-five thousand feet.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Looks like we're gonna have clear skies all the way.

CAPTAIN BURLINGAME: That's what we like to hear.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77, turn right ten degrees.

Vectors for traffic.

NARRATOR: On the ground, air traffic controllers guide the 757.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Turn right American 77.

STEVE BAIRD: I've always equated it

to like a three-dimensional chess game, if you will.

NARRATOR: Steve Baird was an air traffic controller

for more than 20 years.

STEVE BAIRD: We work a lot of airplanes,

twelve to seventeen airplanes at a time

and they're moving along pretty fast

and so things are happening pretty quickly.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American Airlines 77,

clear direct Falmouth.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Clear direct Falmouth,

American 77. Thanks.

NARRATOR: Falmouth, Kentucky, is the next waypoint

on flight 77's route west to Los Angeles.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: All right. Time for a bit more coffee.

JEFF PRICE: There's not a lot of passengers onboard for the crew.

They don't have as many people to take care of.

There's not as much food service to worry about.

BARBARA OLSON: I'll have some water please.

JEFF PRICE: So it's typically a more relaxed flight

when the plane's not full.

♪

NARRATOR: Thirty-four minutes into the flight,

controllers notice something odd.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: What are you guys doing?

NARRATOR: Flight 77 is veering off course.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77, Center.

STEVE BAIRD: At the point where the controller noticed

the aircraft take a turn that he did not instruct him to do,

that's when he would become concerned.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 7-7, radio check.

NARRATOR: Two minutes later, their concern turns to alarm.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 7-7, radio check.

NARRATOR: Flight 77 has vanished from their radar.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Center calling American 7-7.

American 7-7.

STEVE BAIRD: Well that's extremely rare

that a plane would ever go missing, right?

They just don't disappear.

NARRATOR: Controllers usually track flights

using a signal from a transponder

onboard the aircraft.

The transponder gives them the flight number,

the speed and altitude.

The controller switches his screen

to search for a more basic signal, primary radar.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Supervisor.

NARRATOR: But there's still no sign of the plane.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77, radio check.

How do you read?

NARRATOR: Their concern grows with each second of silence.

STEVE BAIRD: If I can't see him on the secondary

or the primary radar and I can't speak with him,

I would assume that he has gone down somewhere and crashed.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Center.

NARRATOR: Then, just after 9 am,

a call comes in from American Airlines

that's almost impossible for controllers to digest.

It is Tuesday, September the 11th, 2001.

Thousands of people are feared dead.

Lower Manhattan is in chaos.

JEFF PRICE: Almost everybody that saw what happened,

saw it on TV, saw it live, said this is not an accident.

There's no way two planes,

two commercial aircraft accidentally hit both towers

of the World Trade Center.

TOM HAUETER: No one knew what was going on

except for the country was under attack

and so I think it was very difficult.

Where are these airplanes?

Are there any other airplanes out there

that have gone missing?

NARRATOR: The fate of the missing 757 is now much more worrying.

What if it hasn't crashed somewhere in the Midwest?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: We need to find that plane.

JEFF PRICE: With two aircraft already in the World Trade Center towers,

another aircraft missing,

air traffic controllers were most likely just going nuts

trying to figure out what's happening.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Supervisor.

I've got a target tracking eastbound

at a high rate of speed.

NARRATOR: At 9:32, more than half an hour

after losing contact with the plane,

controllers spot a mysterious radar return.

TOM HAUETER: Primary radar, that doesn't give you altitude

or any real information.

NARRATOR: If it is flight 77,

it means the plane has turned around back towards Washington.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: We gotta warn D.C.

NARRATOR: America's capital could be the next target.

STEVE BAIRD: At this point, since he was aware of

the attacks on the country, I'm sure he already thought

that was one of the hijacked aircraft.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Gopher 0-6,

do you have a commercial aircraft in sight?

NARRATOR: Controllers recruit another pilot to try to learn more.

They radio the only other plane in the immediate air space,

a C-130 cargo plane from nearby Andrews Air Force Base.

C-130 Pilot: It looks like an American Airlines 757.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: It's gotta be our plane.

Center calling American 7-7. American 7-7.

NARRATOR: But the 757 is ignoring all radio calls.

And it's heading straight for Washington.

It's 9:35 am, and traffic into Washington is getting congested.

FATHER MCGRAW: I was on my way from my parish

to the Arlington National Cemetery

for a graveside service.

NARRATOR: Father Stephen McGraw is stuck on a freeway

right beside the Pentagon.

FATHER MCGRAW: I took that exit actually because

I knew that the Pentagon was near Arlington National Cemetery

and I couldn't remember how to get to Arlington National

so I thought it can't be that far off. I'll take this exit.

But in front of the building

there ended up being standstill traffic.

And then without warning there was a rush,

feeling the vibrations or the sound

and just in other words

there was an overwhelming sense of something

coming over the tops of our cars.

The plane clipped a light pole as it went over the highway

and I turned instinctively to my right

and to see just in time the plane coming in

and just crashing into the building

right in front of my eyes.

There were these two huge billows of fire

that came out of the two top windows of the Pentagon

and the fireballs just kind of billowed out.

NARRATOR: The symbol of U.S. military might is now in flames.

Smoke pours from a gaping 90-foot wide hole

in the Pentagon's west wall.

One entire section of the building has collapsed.

FATHER MCGRAW: I had not heard anything about

the World Trade Center crashes.

I didn't have my radio on, hadn't heard anything

and so I just assumed that this was an accident.

NARRATOR: There's no chance that

any of the 64 people aboard the plane have survived the impact.

And there are sure to be many more dead among Pentagon staff.

JEFF PRICE: On average any given day,

23,000 some odd people work in the building.

It's five rings, five floors and five levels of military space.

NARRATOR: With news of a third airliner attack,

the FAA issues an unprecedented order.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Attention all pilots.

We have a national emergency.

We need to get everyone on the ground.

NARRATOR: Every commercial flight in the country must land.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Vector 10 degrees right. Begin descent.

TOM HAUETER: This is the first time in U.S. history

they grounded the whole fleet.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Be advised we are clearing the airspace.

JEFF PRICE: Controllers are trying to figure out a situation

they've never prepared for

and trying to figure out how to get all the airplanes on the ground

and accounted for before more loss of life.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Attention all pilots.

NARRATOR: Attorney Richard Nummi was on one of those diverted flights.

RICHARD NUMMI: The captain comes over the intercom system and said,

we've just been notified

that all air traffic in the United States

has been required to land.

It was a little bit startling.

It was a little bit looking out the window going:

What's going on?

NARRATOR: Nummi's flight lands in Wichita, Kansas.

He'll soon learn how lucky he is to be alive.

RICHARD NUMMI: I was scheduled to speak at a conference.

They booked me a ticket on

American Airlines flight 77 out of Dulles to the west coast.

NARRATOR: At the last moment, he switched his ticket

to a more convenient flight.

RICHARD NUMMI: I had left the original flight itinerary on the refrigerator,

drove to the airport, changed the ticket,

got on the airplane --

was very, very concerned that my wife was thinking

that I was still on that plane.

It was one of those things where, you know,

God was smiling on me that day.

NARRATOR: At the Pentagon, Father McGraw rushes towards the devastation.

He wants to help anyone he can.

FATHER MCGRAW: I remember coming to one man in particular.

He said, what is your name?

FATHER MCGRAW: I'm Father McGraw. I'll stay with you.

FATHER MCGRAW (voiceover): And he said, I'm Catholic.

And so I actually gave him in those moments, the sacraments,

and anointed him on his forehead with the blessed oil,

the oil of the sick.

And when I did that I remember saying to him...

FATHER MCGRAW: Jesus is with you.

...I tell you Jesus is with you now.

OFFICER 1: You can't go back in there!

OFFICER 2: You gotta maintain 500 yards.

NARRATOR: Thousands of military staff evacuate the burning Pentagon.

The United States is under siege.

Just across the Potomac River,

the hunt for those responsible is already underway.

JOHN PERREN: I want passenger manifests,

witnesses, surveillance video, the works.

JOHN PERREN: We were setting up

and actually getting our crew ready

to respond to New York at the time

and then obviously we were hit then at the Pentagon

so we changed our plans.

NARRATOR: FBI supervisor John Perren sets up

the agency's Washington command post.

JOHN PERREN: You realize that we're under attack is what we are.

Then you realize that this is,

this is something that's never happened before.

This is war.

NARRATOR: But before anyone can grasp the full magnitude

of what has happened, another threat appears.

The FAA has reports of a fourth hijacking.

JOHN PERREN: We were told that there was another aircraft

heading towards Washington, D.C.,

and the last timeline we were given

was it was about eight minutes out.

So what we did was

we sent snipers up on the roof with binoculars

to look out for this aircraft.

NARRATOR: Across the US, thousands of flights are now grounded.

RICHARD NUMMI: There's just airliner after airliner after airliner

parked on the tarmac.

NARRATOR: Then, at 10:15 am,

a blackened crater in rural Pennsylvania

reveals what's left of the fourth hijacked plane.

JEFF PRICE: What was unique about that flight

is the passengers tried to retake the flight.

They were unsuccessful to the extent

that the plane still crashed.

But they were successful that it did not crash

into whatever its intended target was gonna be.

NARRATOR: Four passenger jets have been hijacked

and turned into flying bombs.

Nearly three thousand people have been killed.

GEN. SHELTON: We have watched the tragedy

of an outrageous act of barbaric terrorism

carried out by fanatics

against both civilians and military people.

JOHN PERREN: You never in your wildest dreams would think

that they would take aircrafts full of people

and turn it into literally a missile.

RICHARD NUMMI: Americans aren't used to being sucker punched.

We're pretty much convinced that there's a Pacific Ocean

and there's an Atlantic Ocean and this doesn't happen here.

And I think on that day the reality

that this is a new world happened.

NARRATOR: The Pentagon is now a federal crime scene.

The FBI is in charge of the investigation.

JOHN PERREN: I'd seen my share of deceased,

but to see that much

in that certain amount of time in that area,

I don't care how adjusted you are to it, you feel it.

NARRATOR: The FBI faces intense pressure to figure out

who committed this terrible crime and how.

Because the crime scene is also an aviation crash site,

experts from the National Transportation Safety Board join the investigation.

TOM HAUETER: The FBI's experts on crimes and criminal investigations

and that covers many areas.

They aren't necessarily airplane experts,

and that's where the NTSB can come in.

NARRATOR: Tom Haueter was one of the first NTSB investigators at the scene.

TOM HAUETER: This airplane was hitting a very heavy structure,

so most of the aircraft was reduced down to small pieces.

NARRATOR: Investigators need to find the black boxes

and any other evidence that could identify the hijackers.

It won't be easy.

The massive impact has left a confusing mixture of debris.

TOM HAUETER: We provided five, six people at different times

who assisted on going through the wreckage,

going through the building trying to find,

identify aircraft parts for them.

JOHN PERREN: Anything that we took out of the site

we had them look at it,

and they would identify it to us

as either being an aircraft or a file cabinet.

It was very apparent

that we needed that type of expertise on the scene.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of searchers and investigators

work around the clock.

Deep inside the badly damaged structure,

the risk of building collapse is a constant danger.

JOHN PERREN: The engineers, they had a technique to see

if the building was starting to shift

and if they noticed shifting

or heard creaking everybody would rush out.

ENGINEER: Everybody out!

JOHN PERREN: That happened at least a half a dozen times.

NARRATOR: The number of people killed

inside this legendary building reaches 125.

It would have been even higher,

but some offices on the west side of the Pentagon were empty.

JEFF PRICE: The area where American Airlines 77 hit

had been undergoing some reconstruction, some remodeling.

So there were not as many people at work

as there normally would be.

It probably saved hundreds of lives.

NARRATOR: As the nation tries to cope

with the enormity of the devastation,

FBI agents are already gaining valuable information

about how the flights were turned into weapons of terror.

Some passengers managed to make phone calls

from the air describing their ordeal.

HIJACKER: Everyone to the back of the plane! Now!

NARRATOR: One of those calls was from Barbara Olson.

JEFF PRICE: Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson,

the U.S. Solicitor General at the time,

tells him that the plane has been hijacked,

that the hijackers have box cutters and knives

and they've moved people to the back of the plane.

NARRATOR: She reveals that the hijackers

then forced the pilots to leave the cockpit.

BARBARA OLSON: You need to do something.

JEFF PRICE: Barbara Olson was incredibly brave.

If she's caught she calls attention to herself,

which may draw immediate violence to her.

BARBARA OLSON: We'll make it out of here. It's fine. I love you.

JEFF PRICE: Not much more information

is shared at that point before the phone is cut off.

INVESTIGATOR: The pilots probably thought

that by cooperating everyone would get home safe.

TOM HAUETER: Prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks,

all flight crews were told to cooperate with the hijackers,

do what they want and bide for time.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Please stay calm.

Everybody move to the back.

JEFF PRICE: Traditionally it had been the aircraft was hijacked.

The plane landed. The FBI would come on scene.

There'd be hours of negotiation

and eventually the hijacking somehow ends.

It really just wasn't in the imagination

that they were gonna crash these into buildings.

NARRATOR: It's now clear how the hijackers

took control of Flight 77.

But who were they?

And how were they able to carry out their lethal attack?

At Dulles Airport,

the search for evidence takes a major step forward.

Airport security flags a suspicious car

abandoned in one of the parking lots.

What investigators find in the car is astounding.

JOHN PERREN: That was a treasure trove of investigative leads.

NARRATOR: The items include a box cutter,

diagrams of cockpit instruments

and documents bearing Middle Eastern names.

They scan flight 77's passenger manifest,

checking to see if any of the suspicious names are listed.

JEFF PRICE: It didn't take too long to figure out

who the hijackers were.

NARRATOR: The trail leads to five attackers.

Three were in First Class.

Two more were seated in Economy.

The Pentagon attackers are quickly linked to 14 suspects

on the three other hijacked planes.

JEFF PRICE: They found some commonalities right away.

One, that 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

And the other notable is that most of them

had been in the United States for quite some time.

NARRATOR: Identifying the hijackers is key.

But important questions remain.

How did terrorists get weapons past security

at a modern airport?

And how were they able to fly

a sophisticated commercial airliner

straight into the Pentagon?

The FBI needs to uncover all it can

about the Pentagon attackers,

including their movements in the days and weeks before 9/11.

They scour government records,

credit card transactions, travel itineraries and more.

JOHN PERREN: All those pieces of paper

and all those documentation, they were generating leads

because you probably had the largest investigation

in American history going on.

NARRATOR: At the Pentagon,

the exhaustive search effort is paying off.

Agents recover the plane's two black boxes --

the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

TOM HAUETER: When the boxes were found,

the FBI investigators brought them to the NTSB laboratory.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77 radio check.

NARRATOR: The recorders could help fill in key gaps in the timeline

if their data can be successfully downloaded.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Center calling American 7-7. American 7-7.

NARRATOR: The most critical question --

what was happening in the cockpit

when controllers lost contact with the doomed plane?

While they wait for word on the recorders,

investigators scrutinize Pentagon security video.

They soon discover that the deadly impact

was caught on tape --

a direct, high-speed hit on the southwest wall of the Pentagon.

It's now clear why the plane virtually disappeared.

JEFF PRICE: When you have an airplane hitting

pretty much solid brick,

it just vaporizes. There's not a lot left.

NARRATOR: But the question remains:

How did the hijackers evade security and board the plane?

Potentially dangerous passengers are supposed to be identified

before they even get to the airport.

The airlines rely on a computerized screening system

known as CAPPS.

JEFF PRICE: One of the things that CAPPS does is --

the Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System --

is it flags you if you have certain suspicious indicators.

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder:

Did that pre-screening system somehow fail?

When they study the records for flight 77,

they make a startling discovery.

CAPPS did not fail.

It actually flagged three of the five hijackers.

A special code was printed on their boarding passes

selecting them for extra security screening.

Yet they still got through.

How could this happen?

BRIAN JENKINS: There's no question that security was inadequate.

NARRATOR: Brian Jenkins is an aviation security expert.

BRIAN JENKINS: The CAPPS selectee process

really didn't mean that much anymore

and that was critical on the morning of 9/11.

NARRATOR: Investigators learn that

the extra security screening is minimal.

Passengers flagged by CAPPS are not searched.

The airline merely keeps their checked bags off the plane

until after they've boarded.

JEFF PRICE: Once they were certain you boarded the flight,

your bags were loaded onto the plane.

BRIAN JENKINS: Presumption was that the major threat

was from a bomb in the hold of the aircraft

and a presumption that the terrorist would not be suicidal.

NARRATOR: After years without a major incident,

it seems the airlines may have become complacent.

JEFF PRICE: The focus on customer service,

passenger efficiency,

moving people through the airport

was the top priority, not security.

NARRATOR: But Washington Dulles, like all major airports,

has more than one layer of security.

How did armed hijackers get past metal detectors?

Did they have some elaborate scheme to conceal their weapons?

Investigators hope airport security video

from the morning of September the 11th

can shed light on the mystery.

TOM HAUETER: There was a level of security in play,

certainly looking for bombs on the person,

bombs in the luggage, you know, guns,

you know, the typical type of thing.

NARRATOR: The first two hijackers reached the security checkpoint

at around 7:20 am.

One calmly proceeds through the metal detector

without raising an alarm.

But the second suspect does set it off.

He's carrying something made of metal.

INVESTIGATOR: The metal detector caught the weapon.

NARRATOR: Then the security process breaks down.

An officer scans the suspect with a handheld detector.

The wand turns up nothing.

BRIAN JENKINS: They've done this thousands of times.

Okay the alarm went off.

Okay now I'm supposed to wand the guy.

Okay, good enough.

NARRATOR: Instead of searching the suspect further,

security lets him through.

BRIAN JENKINS: Well they've got a line of passengers back there.

Move on.

JEFF PRICE: At the time the bar was set very low

for individuals coming through the checkpoint

and resolution of alarms.

NARRATOR: None of the hijackers gets a rigorous inspection,

even though one of them is clearly carrying

what looks like a tool or a knife.

JEFF PRICE: There was something clipped to his back pocket,

which in the video shows that the screener

never really resolved what that was and that's a failure.

But the FAA policy at the time was

knives of no greater than four inches in blade length.

So even if they had found box cutters and knives on them,

those items were allowed onboard at the time under FAA policy.

NARRATOR: Investigators come to a shattering conclusion.

The 9/11 attackers didn't have an elaborate plan

to foil airport security because they didn't need one.

JEFF PRICE: The scary part of their hijack

is that it is so simple.

It's like having a security alarm system

for your entire house

and forgetting to secure the dog door

and "Oh, that's how they came in."

BRIAN JENKINS: Their strategy was audacious

but not complicated, and it worked.

The five of them got through security

and got onboard an airplane.

NARRATOR: But getting onboard with weapons was only the first step.

HIJACKER: Everyone to the back of the plane! Now!

NARRATOR: The big mystery to solve now

is how the hijackers were able to carry out

the rest of their murderous mission.

FBI agents dig through financial documents

connected to the Pentagon attackers.

They uncover a crucial lead --

a check made out to a flight school in Arizona.

Records show that Saudi national Hani Hanjour

spent several years

trying to become a commercial airline pilot.

JEFF PRICE: He'd applied to schools in Saudi Arabia to fly

and was rejected,

eventually ended up doing flight training in Arizona

and was kind of unusual in his flight training

because he flunked a lot of checks along the way.

NARRATOR: Two months before the attacks,

Hanjour rented several private planes,

including one he flew to a small airport near Washington, D.C.

JEFF PRICE: For the pilot perspective,

it's one thing to fly a flight simulator.

It's a completely different thing to be up in the air

to see what the real world looks like from the air.

NARRATOR: Airport flight records reveal more chilling details

about Hanjour's preparations for 9/11.

Just weeks before the attacks,

he and one of his co-conspirators

booked a commercial flight out of Washington's Dulles airport.

They bought seats in first class aboard a Boeing 757.

TOM HAUETER: I think they used the surveillance flights

to try to understand how they could take over the aircraft

and get into the cockpit.

JEFF PRICE: To learn things like wow,

about thirty minutes after takeoff

once we were at cruise,

they opened the door to give the pilots coffee.

So all of that is valuable intelligence

and insight for the hijackers.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Turn right American 77.

NARRATOR: But flying a sophisticated airliner

is very different from piloting a small private plane.

How did the hijackers steer a 757

towards a target 35,000 feet below?

Investigators hope the plane's flight data

will provide some answers.

TOM HAUETER: Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder was too damaged

and no information could be recovered from it.

But we were able to read out the flight data recorder.

NARRATOR: They study the flight data

to reproduce the exact movements

of the plane throughout the flight.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Power is increasing.

Vertical speed is good.

NARRATOR: Takeoff and climb look completely normal.

TOM HAUETER: And obviously you look at the data. You speculate.

When did the hijackers take over the airplane?

When did the terrorists, you know, start doing what they did?

That we don't know with any precision.

Clearly it's some time before the airplane turned back.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Banking left nice and smooth.

It must be the autopilot.

NARRATOR: The data reveals how the hijackers

managed to turn the 757 around.

HIJACKER: This I think should take us back to D.C.

NARRATOR: They relied on the plane's automation.

TOM HAUETER: You don't need to be a pilot at all when the autopilot's on.

He can put a heading into the autopilot.

He can put airspeeds into the autopilot.

Everything can be done for him very smoothly.

And he doesn't have to do a lot of control inputs.

FIRST OFFICER CHARLEBOIS: Why are we turning?

HIJACKER: Keep quiet!

NARRATOR: But as the plane nears the Pentagon,

the autopilot disengages and the flying begins to change.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Left. Right. This guy is really struggling.

HIJACKER: Whoa!

TOM HAUETER: The altitude is, is jumpy. It moves up and down.

It's a little bit erratic.

It's quite clear looking at the data

this is somebody who has never handled a big airplane before.

HIJACKER: We should stay on autopilot until we're closer.

NARRATOR: The hijacker quickly re-engages the autopilot

to help take the 757 to a lower altitude.

HIJACKER: Descending now.

TOM HAUETER: He's probably never flown an airplane this high.

Having to come down from, you know,

30,000 feet down to ground level

that's a whole different maneuver

than he's used to in a small airplane.

NARRATOR: But the autopilot isn't preprogrammed

to fly to the precise location of the Pentagon.

HIJACKER: It's just ahead. Autopilot off.

NARRATOR: Eight minutes from impact,

the hijacker must once again fly the aircraft by hand.

HIJACKER: Keep it steady.

NARRATOR: Only four miles from the Pentagon

they're still flying higher than 6,000 feet.

HIJACKER: We're way too high! We're never gonna hit it!

NARRATOR: To shed altitude,

they make a sharp diving turn to the right.

TOM HAUETER: He misjudged his speed and altitude

and had to do a three-hundred and sixty degree turn.

JEFF PRICE: The aircraft can only come out of the sky so fast without breaking up.

So he makes a circle to get the aircraft lower

and get it into position to hit the Pentagon.

TOM HAUETER: He had a lot of luck going for him.

He had a very clear day.

So getting back, he probably could see the Pentagon

from quite a distance out.

NARRATOR: In the final seconds, they accelerate to top speed,

almost to the point of breakup.

Automation: Terrain. Terrain.

TOM HAUETER: The airplane's overspeed warnings

are probably going off, he doesn't care.

TOM HAUETER: The terrorist probably could not have

successfully landed that airplane.

Crashing is a lot easier than landing it,

and they proved that.

NARRATOR: Investigators now understand

the deadly flight path of American 77.

The flight data solves one more mystery as well --

why controllers lost radar contact

with the 757 when the crisis began.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Center calling American 7-7.

American 7-7.

NTSB INVESTIGATOR: It looks like somebody

deliberately switched off the transponder here.

NARRATOR: The hijackers turned off the signal used to track the plane.

TOM HAUETER: The transponder controls

are on the central console between the two pilots.

So you can turn it off right there.

It's very easy to do.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77, radio check.

How do you read?

NARRATOR: With the transponder off --

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Supervisor.

NARRATOR: -- controllers could no longer see the flight

on their secondary radar.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77.

TOM HAUETER: So turning off the transponder

if you're a criminal makes sense

because you don't want people to track you.

NARRATOR: At the moment controllers switched to primary radar

to search for the missing plane,

flight 77 just happened to be passing through

an area of poor primary coverage.

JEFF PRICE: For American Airlines 77 to drop off radar

in an area of limited radar coverage --

one, that's incredibly lucky for the hijackers

but also not totally unexpected

because not every square mile in the United States

is covered by radar.

NARRATOR: Luck may have helped the hijackers hit their target,

but the FBI now has no doubt the attack

was planned down to the last detail.

INVESTIGATOR: They chose their seats carefully.

BRIAN JENKINS: They wanted to be closer to the cockpit

so they could observe when would be the appropriate moment

to make their rush at the cockpit.

NARRATOR: The crew has no reason to suspect a thing.

The attack is underway

before passengers have any hint of danger.

The fate of flight 77 is now sealed.

JEFF PRICE: Hani Hanjour, he's the pilot.

In all likelihood he's not going to get involved at all

in the initial stages of the hijacking.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Please don't hurt me.

JEFF PRICE: Because if he's hurt or killed

then the mission's unsuccessful at that point.

HIJACKER: Open the door or we'll cut your throat.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Okay. Okay.

JEFF PRICE: The flight attendants carry keys to the cockpit door.

So an option is to overtake a flight attendant,

take their key and then just unlock the door.

♪

HIJACKER: Out of the cockpit! Now!

NARRATOR: The pilots have no warning

and no time to alert authorities.

TOM HAUETER: There is a hijacking short code

that the pilots can put into the transponder,

but apparently that didn't happen.

CAPTAIN BURLINGAME: Stay calm. Stay calm. Don't hurt anybody.

JEFF PRICE: That's the flight attendant

they've been flying with probably for years.

One of your best friends is on the other side of that door

with a knife to their throat that's a different scenario

than somebody you don't even know.

HIJACKER: Everyone to the back of the plane. Now!

NARRATOR: The hijackers begin their descent.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: American 77 radio check. How do you read?

BARBARA OLSON: I love you. I'll see you soon.

BRIAN JENKINS: It is unlikely that crew or passengers

would have thought that the plane

is going to be turned into a missile.

HIJACKER: Whoa.

NARRATOR: The erratic flying almost certainly

gets the attention of the captain.

But there's nothing he can do.

CAPTAIN BURLINGAME: You have to let me back in the cockpit.

HIJACKER: Stay where you are now or die!

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I've got a target tracking eastbound

at a high rate of speed.

NARRATOR: By the time controllers spot flight 77's

primary radar return,

the plane is only five minutes from D.C.

TOM HAUETER: There was nothing the controllers could have done.

NARRATOR: The 112 ton jet screams lower and lower.

Steel light poles snap like twigs.

Automation: Terrain. Terrain. Pull up.

HIJACKER: Allahu Akbar!

JEFF PRICE: 9/11 shook us to our core.

Anybody that was of age during that time

it's like the Kennedy assassination.

Where were you on 9/11?

And everybody has their story.

It has marked our generation.

JOHN PERREN: It was a win for the bad guys.

And we can't let that happen again.

Narartor: The 9/11 attacks bring immediate and profound change

to commercial aviation both in the U.S. and around the world.

TOM HAUETER: The situation for airport security,

airplane security was a lot different

prior to 9/11 than it is today.

NARRATOR: Just two months after the attacks,

the U.S. government creates

the Transportation Security Administration or TSA.

BRIAN JENKINS: The federal government took direct responsibility

for aviation security,

and the screeners are now federal employees.

The training certainly has improved.

NARRATOR: The TSA brings in strict new rules

on what travelers can carry on planes.

Airports start screening passengers

with full body scanning machines.

There are also major changes to onboard security.

TOM HAUETER: The cockpit doors. I mean it's not just the door.

The whole bulkhead on the aircraft

has been made darn near impregnable.

It's bullet proof. You can't get through the locks.

NARRATOR: But perhaps the most important change to security

has come not from new rules or better technology,

but from the permanently altered attitudes

of airline passengers everywhere.

BRIAN JENKINS: Today the assumption by passengers

if they feel threatened with a hijacking

is not one of compliance.

RICHARD NUMMI: If you saw somebody in the back of the plane

get up and say, you know, start screaming things,

running to the front of the plane,

you have a choice of sitting in your seat

and minding your own business,

or you have the option of standing up, saying, uh-uh.

I guarantee you you're gonna stand up.

The paradigm has changed.

BRIAN JENKINS: Until we invent the silver bullet

or the x-ray for a man's soul,

there are going to be performance problems.

But it is much better than it was.