Human remains, aircraft debris recovered from 9/11 crash sites

Terrorists hijacked four U.S. flights on Sept. 11, 2001, piloting two of the planes into the World Trade Center towers and a third into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed into an empty Pennsylvania field after its passengers fought back. 

A recent Instagram post suggests the attacks were an inside job, one of several conspiracy theories about that day. 

"Why was no aircraft wreckage or human remains found at the Pentagon or in the field in Pennsylvania?" the July 18 post asks.

But that's wrong. This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Not only is there footage from Pentagon security cameras showing American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the building, but the FBI also released images of aircraft debris. We’ve previously fact-checked a claim that no plane debris was found there, and we rated it Pants on Fire.

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Among the nearly 3,000 people who died as a result of the 9/11 attacks, 184 people were killed as a result of the Pentagon crash. News outlets started reporting on the recovery of bodies there soon after the attack. On Sept. 13, 2001, for example, Wired reported that 190 bodies had so far been found and about 70 had been "removed from the buckled section of the Pentagon as search and rescue workers toiled around the clock with little hope of finding more survivors."

Aircraft debris from United Airlines Flight 93 was likewise found in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Wallace Miller, the former coroner for Somerset County, where Shanksville is located, has said that only 8% of the human remains were ever recovered because the plane exploded when it crashed at 570 miles per hour. 

"Everything vaporized on impact," Miller said.

FBI photos of the crash site include airplane debris recovered from the scene.

We rate claims that no human remains or aircraft debris were found at the Pentagon or in Pennsylvania after the 9/11 attacks Pants on Fire!