EXCERPTS

	U.S. Department of Defense
	Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
	News Transcript
	On the Web: 
	http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1636
	Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132

	Public contact:
	http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html
	or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1
	
	Presenter: Mr. Lee Evey, Pentagon Renovation Manager
	September 15, 2001 11:00 AM EDT

	DoD News Briefing on Pentagon Renovation

	Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 11:00 a.m. EDT
	
	(Also participating were Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, deputy
	assistant secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Mr.
	Terry Mitchell, chief, Audiovisual Division, OASD (PA). Video
	shown in this briefing is available on the Web at
	http://www.defenselink.mil/afis/clips/Sep2001/20010915.ram.
	Slides used in this briefing are available on the Web at
	http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/g010915-D-6570C.html.)



	Mitchell: It's more to the right of where we were at. This
	is the -- this is in a renovated section on the opposite side,
	if you were facing the opposite side. This is a hole in --
	there was a punch-out. They suspect that this was where a
	part of the aircraft came through this hole, although I didn't
	see any evidence of the aircraft down there.

	Q: Which area is that?

	Mitchell: This is right inside the E Ring.

	Q: Did you see any evidence of the aircraft anywhere?

	Mitchell: Yes, I did. You could see just small pieces of it.

	Q: Well, how far in? Again, we're trying to figure out how
	it came into the building.

	Q: Can we finish the video first and then we'll go back?

	Mitchell: You can see someone from the Montgomery County unit
	here.

	This pile here is all Pentagon metal. None of that is
	aircraft whatsoever. As you can see, they've punched a hole
	in here. This was punched by the rescue workers to clean it
	out. You can see this is the -- some of the unrenovated areas
	where the windows have blown out...



	The nose of the plane just barely broke through the inside of
	the C ring, so it was extending into A-E Drive a little bit.Ê
	So that's the extent of penetration of the aircraft.

	Q: It broke through which one?

	Evey: The rings are E, D, C, B and A. Between B and C is a
	driveway that goes around the Pentagon. It's called A-E
	Drive. The airplane traveled in a path about like this, and
	the nose of the aircraft broke through this innermost wall of
	C ring into A-E Drive.

	Q: One thing that's confusing -- if it came in the way you
	described, at an angle, why then are not the wings outside? I
	mean, the wings would have shorn off. The tail would have
	shorn off. And yet there's apparently no evidence of the
	aircraft outside the E ring.

	Evey: Actually, there's considerable evidence of the aircraft
	outside the E ring. It's just not very visible. When you get
	up close -- actually, one of my people happened to be walking
	on this sidewalk and was right about here as the aircraft
	approached. It came in. It clipped a couple of light poles
	on the way in. He happened to hear this terrible noise behind
	him, looked back, and he actually -- he's a Vietnam veteran --
	jumped prone onto the ground so the aircraft would not
	actually -- he thinks it (would have) hit him; it was that
	low.

	On its way in, the wing clipped. Our guess is an engine
	clipped a generator. We had an emergency temporary generator
	to provide life-safety emergency electrical power, should the
	power go off in the building. The wing actually clipped that
	generator, and portions of it broke off. There are other
	parts of the plane that are scattered about outside the
	building. None of those parts are very large, however. You
	don't see big pieces of the airplane sitting there extending
	up into the air. But there are many small pieces. And the few
	larger pieces there look like they are veins out of the
	aircraft engine. They're circular.

	Q: Would you say that the plane, since it had a lot of fuel
	on it at the impact, and the fact that there are very small
	pieces, virtually exploded in flames when it tore into the
	building? I mean, since there are not large pieces of the
	wings laying outside, did it virtually explode?

	Evey: I didn't see it. My people who did see it enter the
	building describe it as entering the building and then there
	being flames coming out immediately afterwards. Whether you
	describe it as an explosion or not, people I talk to who were
	there, some called it an explosion. Others called it a large
	fire. I'm not sure. I wasn't there, sir. It's just a guess
	on my part.