DESCRIPTION: The last little plane is where Flight 77 turned off its transponder. This is the last time the aircraft could be positively identified. At 9:10 AM Washington control noticed an incoming plane on radar with no radio contact and no transponder. They had no way of knowing if it was Flight 77 or not. It was an assumption. This is where the theories of a replacement plane originate. With the aircraft last known positively in an area around Ohio with poor radar coverage, anything could have happened. Also take note of the geographical area and the opportunity for intercept.

The following statement was sent to me by a pilot who has chosen anonymity.

According to the official version of the attack on the Pentagon, the man flying the 757 when it impacted the Pentagon was Hani Hanjour who had failed a qualification ride in a Cessna 172 and who was denied the rental of that airplane.

"However, when Baxter (Sheri Baxter, flight instructor) and fellow instructor Ben Conner took the slender, soft-spoken Hanjour on three test runs during the second week of August, they found he had trouble controlling and landing the single-engine Cessna 172. Even though Hanjour showed a federal pilot's license and a log book cataloging 600 hours of flying experience, chief flight instructor Marcel Bernard declined to rent him a plane without more lessons." (Newsday - article since removed).

I am a Certificated Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII). I have a little over 392 hours total time - 86.5 hours of which is dual instruction given. Even with my limited experience as compared to an experienced airlines pilot, I feel qualified to arrive at certain conclusions concerning the capabilities of the pilot based upon the above statement. I refer you to the photo of the cockpit of a Boeing 757 located on the "The Attack Path" page of this web site. Even for a pilot with my experience, it would be a totally intimidating place to be. The array of dials, switches, knobs, and flight instruments is simply overwhelming. Simply locating an instrument such as the transponder - which was switched off during the flight - and manipulating it while scanning the flight instruments (if you could locate them) to keep the aircraft right side up would be an enormous task for a non-instrument rated pilot. Airlines pilots spend dozens of hours in flight simulators just to hone the skills necessary to accomplish these tasks. I must come to the conclusion that a pilot who cannot fly a Cessna 172 cannot possibly have any knowledge of Flight Directors, GPS, or even basic VOR navigation. The only other alternative is navigation by pilotage - that is, by reference to objects on the ground.

As a Flight Instructor, I am willing to make the following statement: For an inexperienced pilot to take over a Boeing 757 in flight, place himself in an unfamiliar cockpit of the complexity of a 757, fly the aircraft on a moderately straight course at a given altitude only with reference to objects on the ground (terrain over which he has never before flown) from the Ohio/Kentucky border to Washington, DC, visually locate the Pentagon, execute a smooth 270 degree turn while descending from 7,000 feet to an altitude where the engines were only 4 to 5 feet off of the ground, and fly it into the first floor of the Pentagon (or any other building) is absolutely unachievable.