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NEW: Wayne Coste’s analysis of the security camera videos extends what is shown on the rest of this page. The blink comparator images below establish that a large plane approached the Pentagon. Wayne’s analysis supports the authenticity of the videos and provides an independent assessment of the speed of the plane based on the security camera footage. This is part of a larger collection of analyses that will soon be released.
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The video frames seen here were released in 2006 in response to a FOIA request for surveillance camera videos at or near the Pentagon on 9/11. We obtained these images from the 911datasets.com project through the 911encyclopedia.com website, which also documents the source FOIA.
Many people viewing these as still frames over the years (ourselves included) failed to see the plane. Initially only the video frames taken by the camera behind the foreground obstruction were released. People found it hard to believe that a small foreground obstruction could hide a Boeing 757. The lack of a visual image of the plane led to speculation that there was instead a small plane or a missile, and opened the door to speculation that there was no plane at all. The second video without the foreground obstruction was released much later, and by then no-plane speculation was well established in the 9/11 Truth movement.
To blink the pairs of images (showing video frames just before and just after the plane enters the view) move the mouse cursor onto and off of the image area without clicking. This works with both the full and magnified images. These png images are the ones provided directly in the FOIA release and have better color resolution than the earlier animated gif images that were made from them. There has been no image enhancement from what was received in the FOIA request, only magnification for the zoomed image pair.
This is the critical pair of frames from what we shall call Camera 1, a zoomed-in detail from the first video frames released.
The view from Camera 2, the second video released, shows the plane a fraction of a second earlier. Since the plane is approaching us as it moves to the left, and since the plane is captured farther out on an image taken with fisheye lens, the image of the plane is smaller than the Camera 1 image.
This view does a blink comparison between the frames from Camera 1 and Camera 2. The motion of the plane between these two views is apparent, and the motion toward the cameras is apparent in the changing size of the plane.
This view blinks the critical frames from Camera 1.
This view blinks the critical frames from Camera 2.
The image of the plane is somewhat visible even in individual still frames even without the blink, but except for the white smoke trail, the plane is not seen clearly in a still image due primarily to three factors:
1 – The low contrast between the backlit plane and the background.
2 – The extreme wide angle lens and low resolution of the video camera/recorder.
3 – Some blurring due to the motion of the fast moving plane.
These image pairs are displayed as HTML/JavaScript image rollovers to simulate a blink comparator. A blink comparator is commonly used to detect subtle differences in astronomical photographs to be able to find variable stars, movements of asteroids, etc. Blinking the frames like this allows the plane to contrast with the background and therefore become more visible.