The Internet and the media are rife with conspiracy theories on what really happened during the September 11 terrorist attacks. Among the more popular bodies of evidence being bandied about by the conspiracy theorists pointing to a possible cover-up or engineering by the US government has something to do with the amount of damage sustained by the Pentagon during the 9/11 attacks. We will all remember that one of the four planes hijacked by the 19 terrorists supposedly deployed by Al-Qaeda, the American Airlines Flight 77, collided against a face of the Pentagon. It has been the subject of the popular Internet meme called Hunt the Boeing Test. Would you care to know the true answers to the questions in this meme?

1. Question: Can you explain how a Boeing 757-200, weighing nearly 100 tons and traveling at a minimum speed of 250 miles an hour only damaged the outside of the Pentagon?

Answer: The initial photographs and images taken right after the collision are misleading, because they do not show the actual extent of the damage to the Pentagon. While these photographs only depict a damaged outside wall with the roof intact, the aircraft was able to penetrate through the wall of the third ring’s ground floor.

2. Question: Can you explain how a Boeing 14.9 yards high and 51.7 yards long, with a wingspan of 41.6 yards and a cockpit 3.8 yards high could crash just into the ground floor of this building?

Answer: The airplane dived so low that the energy needed to create a more extensive damage to the Pentagon has already dissipated upon collision. The point of collision was actually a spot between the first and second floors of the building.

3. Question: You’ll remember that the aircraft only hit the ground floor of the Pentagon’s first ring. Can you find debris of a Boeing 757-200 in this photograph?

Again, the photograph attached is misleading. It had not taken into account the fact that the plane tore through the third ring of the Pentagon at high speed between the first and second floors. There was a huge explosion that happened right after the collision, which melted whatever debris and scrap left from the aircraft.

4. Question: Can you explain why the Defense Secretary deemed it necessary to sand over the lawn, which was otherwise undamaged after the attack?

Answer: This is actually to prevent the trucks hauling the debris away from the damage site from slipping across the grassy lawn of the Pentagon.

5. Question: Can you explained what happened to the wings of the aircraft and why they caused no damage?

Answer: The most plausible explanation is that the wings snapped upon hitting the building’s walls and the debris burned in the following explosion.

6. Question: Can you explain why the County Fire Chief could not tell the reporters where the aircraft was?

Answer: Actually, he did answer the question. The actual question was: “Is there anything left of the aircraft at all,” to which the he replied that the debris were smashed upon impact and burned away at the explosion.

7. Question: Can you find the aircraft’s point of impact?

Answer: The impact point was permanently obscured by the collapsing portions of the Pentagon right after the explosion happened.