: Flight 77 departed from Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m.. Roughly 30 minutes into the flight, five hijackers took control of the cockpit and turned the plane back toward Washington, D.C..
: Just 5 miles from the target, the plane executed a 330-degree descending spiral turn. It flew so low that it clipped five streetlights and a portable generator before slamming into the Pentagon's first floor.
In the immediate aftermath, the Department of Defense launched the , an aggressive effort to rebuild the damaged 400,000 square feet of office space.
: On impact, the aircraft's 7,256 gallons of fuel ignited into a fireball that rose 200 feet.
: The Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) took command of the scene within ten minutes, leading a massive multi-agency effort. Most successful rescues of survivors occurred within the first 30 minutes following the crash. The Phoenix Project: Rebuilding from Ash
: The strike destroyed the load capacity of roughly 30 first-floor columns and severely impaired 20 others.
