Washington - The hijackers who crashed an American Airlines aircraft into the Pentagon yesterday, brandished knives and cardboard cutters to take over the aircraft.
The information was revealed during two telephone calls that Mrs Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Mr Edward Olson, made from aboard the aircraft before the crash. Apparently the hijackers were not carrying firearms.
Mrs Olson, who was also a commentator for CNN, was one of the 64 people who died in the crash of what is believed to be a Boeing 757.
A total of 266 people were reported to have died in four coordinated air crashes across north-east America.
Mrs Olson made two calls to inform her husband that the airplane, believed to be flying to Los Angeles, had been hijacked.
She told him that the hijackers, armed with knives and cardboard cutters, herded the passengers and crew, including the pilot, toward the back of the plane.
Mr Olson was said by CNN to have called the Justice Department to inform them of the hijacking. The Department, unaware of the developments, told him they would investigate.
One passenger on the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania, locked himself in one of the plane's bathrooms and called 911 from his cell phone to report the hijacking.