# Possible fifth set of hijackers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-fifth-set-of-hijackers/128360 "2002-09-13T22:20:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-fifth-set-of-hijackers/128360/1 "2002-09-13T22:20:24Z")
Shortly after September 11 last year, news reports came out about a group of Middle Eastern men on board a plane waiting to depart JFK right around the time of the attacks. The men became very agitated when told their flight (and all others) were canceled, and refused to disembark/insisted the plane had to depart. When the flight crew called police, though, the men fled the airplane and couldn’t be found. Because the flight (United flight 23) was bound for L.A., and given these guys’ behavior, speculation was, last September, that they might have been an intended fifth group of hijackers. The best contemporaneous account I could find still online is in the last few paragraphs of this story: [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main311250.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main311250.shtml) As with a lot of fishy incidents in the past year, though, I could never find out what was ultimately determined (if anything) about these guys’ intentions, whether the authorities actually even found the passengers, whether there turned out to be any evidence of additional intended hijackings, etc. Anyone have any additional information? ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-fifth-set-of-hijackers/128360/2 "2002-09-13T22:41:29Z")
My guess is just that it never happened. Certainly the men would’ve been arrested by now, had it. It reminds me of the 9/11 rumor that the State Department had been car bombed, which eventually disappeared through the course of the afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-fifth-set-of-hijackers/128360/3 "2002-09-13T22:52:08Z")
An assortment of hits. Apparently it really happened, although it seems to be a favorite of conspiracy theorists. 😃 I think this, from the Globe and Mail article (below), pretty much sums up what you’re looking for. > [@](#): > > In the weeks after Sept. 11, several other flights were investigated as possible targets for terrorism, but despite the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history, no one has ever been charged in connection with another potential suicide highjacking. Fox News, basically the same story as CBS. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34250,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34250,00.html) > [@](#): > > Friday, September 14, 2001 > > The Tuesday incident occurred about 9 a.m. – the same time two hijacked jet airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers, toppling the two 110-story buildings. The source said the FBI is investigating whether the incident may have been an aborted hijacking attempt. > > After the plane was boarded, United Airlines officials told passengers that United Airlines Flight 23, bound for Los Angeles, had been cancelled. Three males traveling refused to disembark. The argument with a member of the flight crew became so heated that the crew member called airport security. But before security arrived, the men had vanished, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A Conspiracy Theory website, buried amongst charges that the Jews working in the WTC all had two hours advance warning on 9/11. :rolleyes: [http://www.thelawparty.org/911Conspiracy/Timeline%20Surrounding%20911%20Pg3.htm](http://www.thelawparty.org/911Conspiracy/Timeline%20Surrounding%20911%20Pg3.htm) > [@](#): > > 1. September 11, 2001 - United Air Lines flight 23, scheduled to fly from New York City to LA was delayed after four Muslim passengers began demanding that the plane take off immediately. This happened apparently after the first plane had hit the WTC. The passengers were thrown off the flight. [The Globe and Mail, June 13, 2002] The Globe and Mail article. [http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/printarticle/gam/20020613/UNORAM](http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/printarticle/gam/20020613/UNORAM) > [@](#): > > General suspects Sept. 11 plot was wider > > By TU THANH HA > > Thursday, June 13, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A1 > > MONTREAL – A Canadian general who is deputy commander of NORAD has revived the spectre of more than just four commercial airliners targeted for hijacking on Sept. 11. > > “We suspect there might have been more than just the four aircraft involved,” Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, the Canadian second-in-command of the North American Aerospace Defence Command, said yesterday. He said the information stemmed from the fact that suspicious passengers left a grounded plane on Sept. 11, somewhere in North America. > > The general would not give more details, saying it was classified information from another source. “When someone classifies something, someone else can’t declassify it,” he said. Yeah, pretty standard conspiracy theory stuff. “I could tell you–but then I’d have to kill you…” > [@](#): > > Gen. Pennie apparently was alluding to a Los Angeles-bound flight grounded at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport on Sept. 11, on which three Middle-Eastern passengers angrily demanded that the flight proceed and then were kicked off the plane, vanishing before police showed up. > United Airlines Flight 23 was bound for the West Coast and full of fuel. So. It looks to me like there really was an incident of some sort on United Airlines Flight 23 at 9 a.m. on 9/11, but that it all came to nothing, just some guys who were P.O.ed about their flight being cancelled and had to be thrown off the plane. Used to happen all the time, nobody really thought anything of it, and up until that Tuesday morning, nobody ever would have. And I notice that the Fox and CBS stories don’t specify “Muslim” or “Middle Eastern”, just “males”. It’s the Globe and Mail who has it as “Middle Eastern”.