The location of the Pentagon cable spools

By Sami Yli-Karjanmaa · First posted 09/05/04, last updated 04/13/07.

This analysis is part of a larger article The ASCE's Pentagon Building Performance Report: Arrogant Deception - Or an Attempt to Expose a Cover-up? on the www.11syyskuu.org website.


Figure 0. Shown on the right is the location of what seem to be the ends of two ventilation pipes, some 160 ft (almost 50 m) from the building. The location has been used as a fixed point in the analysis. The end of the green line is estimated to be about 7 ft from the corner of the fence. The corner is seen in the middle of the fence section left of the hole. Large photo: Steve Riskus; inset: GeoEye Gallery

Figure 1. This photograph shows all the spools that were left upright (additionally, there was one fallen spool to the left). The axis of the spool closest to the building, #4, is pointing roughly to spool #3. A line connecting spools #2 and #3 would hit the facade approximately at column line 17. The purple line goes via spool #3 to between column lines 17 and 18 and the aquamarine underneath spool #2 to line 18. Column line numbers are marked on the wall. The picture has not been taken perpendicularly; spool #1 is located at approximately column line 18.

Figure 2. This photograph by Daryl Donley has been taken very soon after the crash from a point clearly to the right from where Fig. 1 was taken. That is why most of the lines now escape steeply to the left edge of the picture. The locations of the spools in relation to one another seem to be the same as in Fig. 1; #4 is roughly facing #3.

A line connecting spools #2 and #4 would hit the facade approximately midway between column lines 14 and 15.

The orange line is relevant for the location of spool #4 (cf. Figure 5. The corner of the fence can be seen near the right edge.

Note the object resembling an upturned "Y" at column line 14.

Figure 3. The yellow line connects the corner of the fence with column line 4 and the green line with column line 11. Spool #2 is exactly on the yellow line and #3 is slightly to the right of the green one. (Photo: US Military, link no longer functional.)

Figure 4. This picture confirms that the angle in the silhouette of the roof visible in Fig. 3 is at column line 4. (The column lines are located every 10 ft between the windows.) A line connecting the midpoint of spool #1 and the edge of spool #4 would hit the facade between column lines 15 and 16.

Figure 5. The inset in the upper left corner (A) shows the original picture, and the yellow square within A shows the area of the large picture. At least three of the spools can be seen through the portal road sign. The orange line in inset B starts at the midpoint of column lines 13 and 14 and goes through the corner of the fence and a bush in front of spool #4 (and clearly visible in the original satellite image taken on Sept. 7, 2001) and ends near the lamp post visible in the pictures. The column lines can be identified based on the upturned-"Y"-shaped object (cf. Figure 2).

Figure 6. The resulting locations of the spools together with the position of the aircraft with the only possible (for a B-757, see the main article) approach angle 31º. The following statements hold both in the pictures above and in this one (left and right as seen from the direction of the approaching aircraft):

Spool #1: (a) the red line passes underneath towards column line 17; (b) the yellow line passes the spool on the right side and joins column line 4.
Spool #2: (a) the yellow line passes directly underneath and (b) the red one on the right side; (c) the aquamarine line goes underneath spool #2 to line 18.(d) the white line connecting spools #2 and #3 hits the facade approximately at column line 17; (e) the brown line connecting spools #2 and #4 hits the facade approximately midway between column lines 14 and 15.
Spool #3: (a) both the red and the green (joining column line 11) line pass the spool on its left and back side; (b) the axis of spool #4 points towards the spool; (c) the purple line goes via spool #3 to between column lines 17 and 18.
Spool #4: (a) the blue line goes under the spool and joins column line 15; (b) the orange line starts at the midpoint of column lines 13 and 14 and passes through the corner of the fence.

The distance of the closest spool from the building is ca. 35 ft as measured along the 31º trajectory and ca. 28 ft if measured perpendicularly.

Establishing the Location of the Pentagon Cable Spools