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From 911Encyclopedia:
Danielle O'Brien, air traffic controller in Dulles. September 11th, 2001 ~8:18 AM: Airport air traffic controller Danielle O'Brien (Dulles) handled the routine, on-time departure of American Flight 77:
I slid over to the controller on my left, Tom Howell, and I asked him, 'Do you see an unidentified plane near southwest of Dulles? she remembered. "And his response was, 'Yes. Oh, my gosh, yes, look how fast he is.'" In the room, it was almost a sense of relief," O'Brien said. "This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president." O'Brien had already handed Flight 77 off to a different air traffic control center. "And we waited. And we waited," O'Brien recalled. "And your heart is just beating out of your chest. And then the Washington National Airport controllers came over our speakers in our room and said, 'Dulles, hold all of our inbound traffic. The Pentagon's been hit. 9:06 AM: NY Police broadcast: " 'This was a terrorist attack. Notify the Pentagon.'" ('Daily News' (New York) 12 September 2001 ). The Pentagon didn't react. O'Brien explained, that the craft that hit the Pentagon had the speed and maneuverability of a "military plane".
Her account was published on the ABCnews site and used on the National Air Traffic Controllers Association site: «
I noticed the aircraft. It was an unidentified plane to the southwest of Dulles, moving at a very high rate of speed . I had literally a blip and nothing more. » « And it went 'six, five, four', And I had it in my mouth to say, three, and all of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room, it was almost a sense of relief. This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president, and we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second », says O'Brien.
See Pentagon-Attack)