[ladyjane]

The person I know was in her house very near the State Department talking by phone to her husband at the Pentagon. The 'explosion' or something shook the house. Whatever it was, it was in the area of the State Department, not the Pentagon. Maybe it was a plane breaking the sound barrier. Also that morning there was a freeper who reported seeing a fire or smoke by the mall. It was a first hand report, he was looking out his office window. IIRC it was about 10:00 to 10:30am when he posted it.

[angkor]

When the explosion occurred approximately 10:05AM, I intitially thought it came from office buildings 100 yards away, it sounded that close. As I said, it shook the plate glass windows of the CVS store 15 feet in front of me. Many of the employees in this strip mall came running out of their stores into the parking lot.

Again, there were few media reports of this incident (although I've seen one or two), and my only explanation comes from an experienced EMT, whose emergency services buddies said an LP tank at the Pentagon exploded at that time (BTW, they also said the airplane hit the ground before hitting the Pentagon).

I was 3.5 miles from the Pentagon at the time, your friend in Foggy Bottom was 2 miles away. So there's no doubt that if I heard it from 3.5 miles, that she also would have heard it from 2 miles.

And I don't at all dispute that her house shook, because I could actually "feel" the explosion as much as hear it. Again, the windows visibly shook.

BTW, I reported seeing smoke on FR that morning, and I initially couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. It's very possible I posted just before leaving the house right around 10AM, and it's also possible I would have said the smoke was in the direction of the Mall. So your source may have been me!