Never-before-seen FBI photos are a haunting reminder of the Sept. 11 Pentagon attack

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Earlier this year, the FBI released 27 never-before-seen photos of the moments and days after American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

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The newly released images in the so-called vault on the Bureau’s website show firefighters and first responders working at the scene, surrounded by destruction and rubble from the building and twisted debris from the plane in the aftermath of the attack. The faces of firefighters and hazmat suit-clad FBI investigators combing the site are blacked out.

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On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the Los Angeles-bound Boeing 757 and crashed it into the western side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., killing a total of 189 people, including all 64 aboard the plane. A 95-ft. section of the building collapsed and fires spread through all five floors of the building on that side. It took firefighters more than 24 hours to get the flames under control.

The damaged section of the building was repaired and reoccupied by August 2002. The victims were memorialized in a 2-acre park adjacent to the crash site on Pentagon grounds. In June, architects were selected to build a visitors’ education center to accompany the existing memorial, which will be funded entirely with donations. Four former U.S. Defense Secretaries — Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld — pledged their support for the center Sept. 8, three days ahead of the 16th anniversary of the attacks.

 

Flames rise from the west face of the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Firefighters spent more than a day subduing the jet-fuel induced flames. Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Workers spent weeks sifting through the precarious rubble. Faces of the agents, first responders and others in the recently released photos have been blacked out for anonymity.  Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The 757 left a gaping hole in the side of the building, which was enlarged by even more of the structure collapsing due to the difficult-to-control fire. Photo by Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The intensity of the fire easily melted office equipment, rendering conference rooms and offices in the Pentagon unrecognizable. Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Protective equipment, including a respirator, was required for those working the scene the to protect Faces of the agents, first responders and others in the recently released photos have been blacked out for anonymity. Photo by Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A post-incident aerial photo shows that while fire damage was far-reaching, the itself plane only penetrated the outermost of the Pentagon’s five-ring structure. Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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