Hijackers Conned Their Way Into Cockpit

by Darrell Giles
The Herald Sun (Melbourne)
September 25, 2001

 

Law enforcement officials now believe up to a dozen other hijackers dressed in pilots' uniforms were in the cockpits of passenger planes which never took off on September 11.

Fox News, quoting an FBI source, said today they had been invited into the cockpit area because they said they were from a foreign airline.

This is standard practice on US domestic and international flights. Guest pilots are given a spare position in the cockpit, known as the jump seat, for the flight.

Fox News reported that investigators had determined from the cockpit voice recorder from United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, that one of the four hijackers had been invited into the cockpit area before the flight took off from Newark, New Jersey.

Subsequent investigations had found that up to 12 other Middle Eastern men posing as pilots were on other flights destined to take off on the morning of September 11.

There was no detail of what airports or airlines were involved.

The source said in some cases those planes were taxiing on the runway when they were called back by supervisors because of the suicide hijackings of the four planes.

Others were grounded before they left the terminal.

The 12 suspects left the planes soon after and have not been seen since.

They were top of the FBI wanted list of 300 or more suspects sought in connection with the terrorist operation.

Authorities believe American Airline uniforms and pilot ID badges stolen from Rome airport a month before the hijackings in America may have been used by the terrorists on September 11.

An Arab man arrested in Toronto on September 11, who was trying to make his way to Chicago, was found to have several Lufthansa uniforms in his luggage.

FBI agents have found spare pilot uniforms left behind in the hotel and apartment rooms where the 19 hijackers who died used to live.

Other suspects brought in for questioning since the attack have also had similar outfits among their possessions.

Hijack leader Mohamed Atta was given a guided tour of Boston's Logan Airport the week before the mission because he turned up in a pilot uniform saying he was with Saudi Airlines.

Atta's five-strong team, and another group of five hijackers, left from Logan Airport on September 11 and crashed their planes into the World Trade Centre in New York.

This latest information backs up comments by Vice President Dick Cheney who said last week that it was almost certain two more planes were almost hijacked on that fateful morning and crashed.

Law enforcement sources, speaking after Mr Cheney's comments, said evidence pointed to four or five more planes that did not go down. One of those never left the ground because of a mechanical fault.

Fox News also reported that the investigators believe the terrorists will strike again, but not in commercial jets.

They now fear suicide bombers -- persons with explosives attached to their body -- or car bombs.

 

© Copyright 2001 Nationwide News Pty Limited

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.