I saw this AP story, and I must say I’m impressed. Four of the five hijackers who boarded American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles airport were pulled aside for additional scrutiny by airport screeners. All but one triggered metal detectors, and the article discusses newly released videotape of the highjackers being searched. The fifth highjacker is believed to have been the pilot, and it’s not difficulty for me to believe that he would be deliberately “clean” because only his “muscle” highjeckers needed weapons. If the pilot hijacker didn’t make it aboard, the rest might have aborted the mission. But they probably wouldn’t have hesitated if one of the “muscle” couldn’t get aboard.
It’s really too bad that box cutters and utility knives weren’t on the list of prohibited items. I doesn;t say whether any box cutters are visible on the tape, but I would think if that were the case it would be mentioned in the story.