How do they know the hijackers had box cutters? There’s obviously no physical evidence, and as far as I know, no phone calls from the plane remarked specifically that the hijackers had box cutters. Yet, the U.S. government stated soon after the attacks that the terrorists were armed with box cutters. How does they know this? And moreover, is it possible, could the statement be a possible coverup for major failings in airport security (i.e. the terrorists actually got more serious weapons into the plane)?
I believe on one of the cell phone conversations one o the people said they had box cutters IIRC.
From CNN:
No, I believe that statement is misleading. Cell phone calls-- perhaps only one of them, actually-- mentioned unspecified weapons, but I do not believe anyone said “box cutters” or “knives” or whatever. Can anyone confirm this?
The recent Congressional report is of no great help: the only reference to box cutters in its 858 page bulk is this:
“According to Director Mueller, the hijackers “apparently using commonly available box cutters” seized the aircraft…” [p. 141]
So I guess we’ll have to track down FBI chief Mueller and ask him. 
Link to the report:
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 12, 2001:
“Stabbed” with a box cutter?
Hm. Yeah, I was thinking of the other kind, but still… this kind is only sharp on one edge-- and it’s not the edge you’d stab someone with. It seems like it would be sort of hard to make a deep wound with this, especially without breaking it.
I might just be putting together pieces in my head, but I thought that investigators had found that at least some of the terrorists had bought the boxcutters just hours or days ahead of the attacks.
Got $10, buy one of those box cutters and a rump roast, see for yourself how easy it is to make a ‘deep wound’
Last I heard, it was illegal in NYC for anyone under the age of 18 to buy a box cutter. Seems they’re the favored method of settling schoolyard “debates.”
Plus that’s the little pansy-man box-cutter. There are box cutters with wider blades that aren’t scored to break.
Perhaps one or more was found in Pennsylvania or at the Petagon crash sites.
Am I right in saying that a box cutter is simialr to what they call a “stanley knife” in the UK? In Scotland criminals, apparently, use stanley knives with two blades a coupel of millimetres apart which leaves a gash that really doesn’t heal that well.
Were those allowed on airlines before 9/11?
Well, I would sometimes carry a 3-inch pocketknife on the plane before 9/11 with no trouble, so a box cutter might have passed inspection.
Seriously, threads like this worry me, especially when the word and item “box cutter” has taken on a whole new significance in American society as a result. I mean, the fact that no one can readily point to clear, unambiguous proof that there was even a box cutter on the planes. 
It’s not hard to get ahold of a free box cutter. Box cutters were standard issue at the Kroger grocery stores I worked in Atlanta and Columbus, Oh – for free – plus they were always left laying around unattended in the receiving area or while the stockers were putting up groceries.
This is the kind I used to use and the kind I envisioned when I heard they were used in the 9/11 hijackings.
I think a fatal wound made with a box cutter is more akin to a slashing cut rather than a blunt stab, like the shivs and razor blade weapons in prison. (Yes, I watched a lot of ‘OZ’.)
Flight 77 (crashed into Pentagon): Passenger Barbara Olson, in telephone call to husband, said that the flight had been hijacked with men carrying knives and box cutters.
Flight 11 (crashed into World Trade Center): Flight attendants Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney, made cell phone calls to Americal Airlines ground controllers. Ong, who was in the first class compartment, reported that she had seen four hijackers come from first-class seats, kill a passenger seated behind them, and use a chemical weapon which she described as “some sort of spray” that made her eyes burn and made it difficult for her to breathe. Sweeney, the flight attendant in the rear compartment, said that the pilots, another flight attendant and a passenger had been stabbed or killed.
Flight 93 (crashed into field in Pennsylvania): Passenger Tom Burnett told his wife over a cell phone that he had heard that a pilot had been “knifed.” The Illinois State Police received a call from a passenger saying that three hijackers were on board with knives, making a bomb threat.
Maybe modified box-cutter handles, with true dagger blades inside?