Pentagon Crash - Why not crash into the roof? Surely this would of been easier?

Imagine you are flying a passenger jet towards the Pentagon at 500mph. Your aim is to crash into the building and strike a deadly blow to your enemy. You have been given some lessons in how to fly a plane but are by no means fully proficient, do you;

a) Give yourself a high chance of success by ploughing into the roof (there's acres of it to choose from)?

b) Give youself a much lower chance of success by coming in low and crashing into the side just feet above the ground?

I can't get my head around why the hijackers chose option (b).

Why do such a risky maneouver?

Can anyone enlighten me?



[edit on 9-3-2008 by ShadesofGrey]

Originally posted by ShadesofGrey
Imagine you are flying a passenger jet towards the Pentagon at 500mph. Your aim is to crash into the building and strike a deadly blow to your enemy. You have been given some lessons in how to fly a plane but are by no means fully proficient, do you;

a) Give yourself a high chance of success by ploughing into the roof (there's acres of it to choose from)?

b) Give youself a much lower chance of success by coming in low and crashing into the side just feet above the ground?

I can't get my head around why the hijackers chose option (b).

Why do such a risky maneouver?

Can anyone enlighten me?

How do we know that he wanted to hit the side?

Maybe he WAS trying to hit the building on the roof, but all the quotes about how crummy a pilot he was are accurate and barely managed to get the job done.

Possible?

reply to post by Whodunnit


And maybe there was no plane at all.

watchZEITGEISTnow

If you had been ridiculed for being a sub par pilot during your training, wouldn't you want to show the world that you weren't so bad after all? What better way to thumb your nose at your old instructors then pulling off what some call an impossible maneuver with a 737? Who got the last laugh now?

reply to post by watchZEITGEISTnow


thats my bet there was no plane

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow

And maybe there was no plane at all.

Sorry, but I don't buy into those theories.

Not to say that you shouldn't.