The pilot of United Airlines Flight 23 has claimed his aircraft was intended to be used as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in the 9/11 attacks, but a terrorist’s mistake saved the lives of everyone on board.
Tom Mannello was moments away from taking off on 11 September 2001 when he heard the ‘strangest radio call’ ‘of his career’ ordering all flights to be evacuated and shutting down JFK airport.
Twenty four years on from the horrific attacks, where 2,977 people lost their lives in attacks using four hijacked planes, the pilot and a group of flight attendants onboard Flight 23 have revealed why they’re convinced their plane was intended to be part of the plot.
Speaking in a Channel 5 documentary, which airs tonight, the captain said: ‘I now believe that it is more likely than not that we were the fifth airplane. There’s a good chance that somebody was planning to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.’
United 23 was on the tarmac at New York’s JFK airport on the morning of 9/11, lined up to take off at 9am – but the aircraft was called back to the gate after the second tower of the World Trade Center was hit at 9:03am.
After collating evidence with fellow staff members onboard Flight 23, Mannello now believes the plane he was captaining that day in 2001 was intended to be used as part of terrorist operation of attack – but that a small error saved their lives.
Following the deadly crashes of 11 September, Mannello learned that box cutters – the weapons used by hijackers to gain control of the other flights – had been discovered on an aircraft that had been parked directly next to his on the morning of the attacks.
The neighbouring aircraft, which was not due to depart that morning, had a ‘nose number’ or unique identification code that was just one digit different from that of Mannello’s.
Tom Mannello (pictured) was moments away from taking off on 11 September 2001 when heard the ‘strangest radio call I’ve heard in my career’ ordering all flights to be evacuated and shutting down JFK airport
‘The chief pilot reported to me that they had found two box cutters in the seat pockets in first class in the plane next to it, which had a tail number one digit off,’ Mannello told the documentary.
Connecting the dots, the captain now believes the box cutters placed inside the seats on the neighbouring aircraft had been intended for his flight, which would have departed JFK at a similar time to the other deadly vessels.
‘I think it’s a reasonable assumption to think that those box cutters were meant for my airplane, not the one next to me,’ he said.
He believes the only reason he and his fellow aircraft staff survived is because the box cutters were mistakenly placed on the wrong plane.
‘If somebody was on the ground cooperating with them, they just simply made a mistake and put the box cutters on the wrong airplane.
‘You have people who clean the airplane, people who load food on the airplane, who have access to the airplane.
‘It’s the one thing that makes me think that there’s a good chance that somebody was plotting to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.’
Smoke billows from the Pentagon after one of the four planes crashed into it on September 11
People run away as the North Tower of World Trade Center collapses on 9/11
Flight attendants onboard the plane were convinced that four passengers in first class, where the box cutters were placed on the neighbouring plane, were behaving suspiciously before departure.
Flight attendant Barbara Brockie-Smaldino recalled one individual dressed in a burka with a niqab, who she was convinced was ‘really a man’.
Another host, Sandy Thorngren, said: ‘It was a man, and you could tell by the size of his hands. He had hair on his hands. There was definitely a male underneath that burka.’
Before takeoff, one man even asked if he could take his son into the cockpit to look around, something which is strictly forbidden.
One man in a yellow t-shirt who was ‘sweating profusely’ despite it being only 8:30am also aroused suspicion.
Alarm bells also began to ring when flight attendants were trying to serve first-class passengers their food, but all onboard were insistent that they didn’t want to eat.
‘People in first class wanted to take off and not eat,’ one recalled.
Flight 23 took off. Shortly before it was due to take off, Mannello was given the order to turn back around, a move he now thinks saved his life.
Sandy Thorngren, a flight attendant on the plane, said she was convinced the plane was intended to be hijacked on 9/11
Firefighters and emergency workers investigate the crash site of United Flight 93 after the jet was hijacked during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and passengers brought it down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania
The events of 11 September 2001 followed one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history, with a devastating 2,977 people killed in four separate massacres.
On the morning of 9/11, four planes were intentionally crashed into various New York landmarks, including the World Trade Centre and Twin Towers.
American Airlines Flight 11 took off from Boston bound for LA, and crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46am.
Shortly after, United Airlines Flight 175 also took off from Boston, 15 minutes after the AA flight, heading for LA. It crashed into the WTC’s South Tower at 9:03am.
It was at this point that United 23 was on the tarmac with staff onboard preparing for take off, but was shortly after instructed to return to the gate.
Then at 9:37am, American Airlines Flight 77, which had taken off from Washington DC, crashed into the Pentagon. Finally, at 10:02am, United Flight 93, which had taken off from Newark bound for San Francisco, was downed in a field in Pennsylvania. Analysts now believe the hijackers were aiming for the White House or Capitol.
United 23 did not feature in the official report of the 9/11 Commission, and there were never any confirmed arrests of those on board. U.S. officials have not commented on the years of speculation about the flight being a possible fifth plane planned for attack.
A total of 19 terrorists were involved and subsequently killed in the terror in the terror attacks on 11 September 2001.
Within two months of the attacks, law enforcement authorities had detained, at least for questioning, more than 1,200 people.
The Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba was turned into a prison to house those arrested on what became George W. Bush’s ‘War on Terror’: at its peak, the camp held 780 men, but now has only 32.
They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, whose trial has been scheduled to start for decades.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said he was behind the attacks, and on May 2, 2011, under orders from Barack Obama, a special operations unit raided the Pakistan compound where he was living and killed him.
The attacks led to George W. Bush bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, where the Taliban regime was supportive of al-Qaeda.
The Taliban was toppled in a month, and bin Laden fled.
Bush then sent U.S. troops to Iraq in March 2003, purportedly to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein.
There was little if any sign of a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq, and no WMD were ever found.
