On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 taking off from Washington Dulles International Airport and bound for Los Angeles was hijacked with 59 passengers on board and flown into the western side of the Pentagon. The resulting crash killed all 59 aboard, as well as 125 individuals inside the building.

On September 11, 2008, a memorial to the victims of the Pentagon attack was dedicated in a park adjacent to the crash site. The site contains 184 benches, one for each individual who perished that day. Fifty-nine of the benches are dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 77. Each of these 59 benches faces the direction of the sky from which the plane came.