00:00:14
[Music]
00:00:15
I definitely
00:00:17
think flight 23 was the fifth plane.
00:00:23
Four commercial airliners hijacked on
00:00:26
911. Nearly 3,000 people perished. But
00:00:29
that's not the end of the story. The
00:00:31
crew aboard another plane, United Flight
00:00:34
23, believes they were also targeted.
00:00:40
There's a good chance that somebody was
00:00:42
plotting to try to use our
00:00:46
airplane as a weapon of mass
00:00:49
destruction.
00:00:50
Flight 23 was called back from the
00:00:52
runway at JFK. The plane was fully
00:00:55
evacuated and locked. People on the
00:00:58
ground saw people running in the
00:01:00
aircraft. The FBI told the crew that
00:01:03
night. Authorities made a shocking
00:01:06
discovery.
00:01:09
The first thing they asked me was why
00:01:11
the floor hatches were open on the
00:01:13
airplane. They had to be opened after
00:01:15
everyone had gone off the aircraft.
00:01:18
Something was going on there that should
00:01:20
not have been going on. The FBI was
00:01:23
concerned enough to take the crew to a
00:01:25
lineup. The FBI asked us if we could
00:01:28
identify any of the people that were
00:01:30
behind the window. There's very little
00:01:33
doubt in my mind that United
00:01:37
23 was the fifth airplane.
00:01:45
[Music]
00:01:52
I had one
00:02:15
[Music]
00:02:19
It's 8:52 here in New York. I'm Bryant
00:02:21
Gumble. We understand that a plane has
00:02:24
crashed into the World Trade Center. We
00:02:26
have no idea how many were on board or
00:02:28
what the extent of the injuries.
00:02:42
Oh my goodness. Oh god, there's another
00:02:45
one. The second plane just crashed into
00:02:47
the World Trade Center. Horrific. Not
00:02:49
just damage but surely loss of
00:02:52
[Music]
00:03:00
life. Something hit the Pentagon on the
00:03:03
outside of the fifth corridor. The
00:03:05
dimensions of this catastrophe are
00:03:08
growing. We are told now a plane has
00:03:10
crashed into the Pentagon.
00:03:14
[Music]
00:03:20
West Morland 911 dispatch had received a
00:03:23
cell phone call who called out, "We are
00:03:25
being hijacked. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh."
00:03:27
And then there was an explosion and dead
00:03:29
air. A hijacked plane crashed in
00:03:31
Pennsylvania. This is one of the four
00:03:33
planes hijacked during this morning's
00:03:35
attack.
00:03:37
I definitely think that flight 23 from
00:03:41
JFK to LAX was the fifth
00:03:47
plane. And that's what scares haunts me
00:03:51
to this day.
00:03:54
In my mind, there was no doubt
00:03:58
that that we were a target
00:04:03
of a plan that would have taken us
00:04:13
um to our end.
00:04:17
[Music]
00:04:28
My name is uh Captain Tom Manelo. I was
00:04:31
flying a 767 on September 11th uh 2001
00:04:36
for United Airlines. The flight was
00:04:38
originating at Kennedy Airport in New
00:04:40
York and destination was Los Angeles.
00:04:43
The takeoff time was
00:04:46
[Music]
00:04:57
9:00. It was a beautiful day, a blue
00:04:59
sky. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
00:05:01
Thought it's going to be a nice day.
00:05:03
When I got to operations, I met my
00:05:05
co-pilot, Carol. We got on our crew bus,
00:05:08
uh, went to the airport. Everything
00:05:10
seemed perfectly normal.
00:05:14
We got on our
00:05:15
[Music]
00:05:19
airplane. I have to brief the uh cabin
00:05:22
crew, which I did. Everybody was in a
00:05:24
good mood. Everybody was happy. It was
00:05:26
going to be a fun
00:05:30
[Music]
00:05:34
day. My name is Barbara Brocky Smaldino.
00:05:38
I was a flight attendant on flight
00:05:42
23 on September 11th, 2001. My
00:05:46
position that day was to be working in
00:05:50
economy setting up the
00:05:54
galley. It was a beautiful day in New
00:05:58
York. Our crew was all ready to go.
00:06:00
There were seven of
00:06:02
us. We did our normal safety checks. And
00:06:06
when I did my checks, I realized that
00:06:09
the printout that we had for our special
00:06:12
meals was incorrect. I had to go up to
00:06:16
first class several times to meet with
00:06:19
the dining service rep so we could solve
00:06:22
this problem. The first flight attendant
00:06:24
or the purser also had some meal issues
00:06:27
to discuss with him.
00:06:30
[Music]
00:06:36
My name is Deborah and I was a purser on
00:06:40
flight
00:06:41
23 September 11th 2001.
00:06:48
[Music]
00:06:58
I had four people board the aircraft in
00:07:02
first
00:07:06
class. I knew that the people did not
00:07:09
eat meat. So I spent a great deal of
00:07:12
time trying to get these four people
00:07:15
fruit plates.
00:07:19
The plane was not full. Relatively few
00:07:22
people in business and economy and only
00:07:24
four people in first.
00:07:30
It was a
00:07:31
taller, well-built gentleman in a tan
00:07:34
suit, a young boy about 6 to 7 years
00:07:38
old, a woman in a nijab, and a gentleman
00:07:43
that appeared to be a type of bodyguard.
00:07:54
My name is Sandy Thornrren. I was a
00:07:56
flight attendant on flight 23 on
00:07:58
September 11th, 2001. I was working in
00:08:02
the business galley.
00:08:04
[Music]
00:08:07
I had gotten out, walked down the
00:08:10
aisleway going up to first class and I
00:08:13
noticed there were uh four people in
00:08:16
first class. What struck me at that time
00:08:19
was there was a woman wearing a
00:08:25
burka. I figured it was a woman cuz
00:08:28
that's who wears that.
00:08:32
The opening of the headdress was very
00:08:35
tight and you could barely see his eyes.
00:08:37
I did explain to our purser that I
00:08:40
thought that that wasn't a woman. It was
00:08:43
actually a man. I was absolutely
00:08:45
convinced it was a man.
00:08:49
Absolutely. There was no doubt in my
00:08:51
mind it was a man. And I could tell by
00:08:54
the size of his hands.
00:08:57
[Music]
00:08:58
He had hair on his hands.
00:09:02
It was definitely a male underneath that
00:09:11
burka. I went back through the uh
00:09:15
business section and I looked around and
00:09:18
I saw a gentleman
00:09:21
sitting just sweating profusely. Had a
00:09:25
yellow t-shirt on.
00:09:28
It was odd because it was 8:00 in the
00:09:30
morning and airplanes are cold anyway,
00:09:33
but it was it was a cool morning. He
00:09:35
wasn't jittery or anything, but I could
00:09:38
see his face sweating, his body, his
00:09:42
t-shirt was wet under his
00:09:44
arms. This was all happening sometime
00:09:47
after 8:30 a.m. before the first plane
00:09:50
hit the World Trade Center. The flight
00:09:53
attendants on United 23 saw things that
00:09:56
seemed innocent enough then, but may
00:09:58
have been anything but. The gentleman in
00:10:02
the tan suit, he asked the purser that
00:10:06
he show his young son the cockpit and
00:10:12
passengers were just not allowed in the
00:10:15
cockpit anymore.
00:10:21
I walked up to first class again and
00:10:23
there was a child with one of the men
00:10:27
and they were just looking into the
00:10:37
[Music]
00:10:41
cockpit. In first class we have a choice
00:10:45
of meals but usually only two food
00:10:47
plates. So, I was trying to get catering
00:10:50
to bring more fruit plates. Trying to do
00:10:53
that while people are boarding and
00:10:55
getting settled was just a
00:10:59
mess. As the purser was trying to
00:11:03
discuss this with the gentleman in the
00:11:05
tan suit, he finally said, "It doesn't
00:11:07
really matter."
00:11:09
The people that were in first class,
00:11:12
they wanted to take off. They didn't
00:11:13
want to
00:11:16
eat. Our purser was determined that they
00:11:20
get food because we had an extra long
00:11:22
flight and nothing on our menu in first
00:11:24
class was going to let them eat because
00:11:27
she said everything has meat on
00:11:30
it. They were arguing with her that they
00:11:32
didn't want to eat. They wanted to take
00:11:34
off. They didn't want to eat. And I
00:11:36
could hear them say, "We do not want to
00:11:38
eat. We don't need food. We want to take
00:11:41
off. We don't need food. We just want to
00:11:43
go.
00:11:59
[Music]
00:12:11
The first inkling I had of anything
00:12:14
being
00:12:16
different was the tug driver or the
00:12:20
gentleman who's going to push the
00:12:21
airplane back said, "Hey, did you guys
00:12:23
hear anything about a fire in the World
00:12:25
Trade Center?" And I said, "No, we have
00:12:28
no way of hearing anything about it."
00:12:30
And uh we started our
00:12:37
[Music]
00:12:39
flight. We taxied out about a quarter of
00:12:42
the way around the airport and that was
00:12:44
the second unusual thing I saw at that
00:12:49
time. 9:00 in the morning was a very
00:12:52
very quiet time. So, as I taxied around
00:12:56
the corner and noticed almost like 10 or
00:12:58
11 airplanes in front of me, which I
00:13:00
thought was highly unusual. I'd never
00:13:02
seen it. I'd flown that flight a number
00:13:04
of times and never seen more than two
00:13:05
airplanes in front of me. So, had there
00:13:07
only been a few planes waiting for
00:13:09
takeoff, Flight 23 may well have been
00:13:12
airborne and
00:13:18
[Applause]
00:13:24
quickly. And then we heard over the
00:13:26
radio, hey, an airplane had flown into
00:13:29
World Trade Centers. As a pilot, the
00:13:33
assumption was this has got to be
00:13:34
something somebody in a small airplane
00:13:36
fooling around trying to do something
00:13:38
stupid like maybe fly between them or
00:13:40
something and and he hit one.
00:13:43
[Music]
00:13:46
Then a few minutes later, we heard again
00:13:50
somebody made a radio call saying no,
00:13:52
there was actually an airliner that flew
00:13:54
into one of the World Trade
00:13:58
Centers. That was staggering.
00:14:00
[Music]
00:14:04
I made another uh PA announcement to the
00:14:07
passengers uh that there would be an
00:14:10
extensive delay and I'd keep them
00:14:11
posted. Even before the first plane hit
00:14:14
the tower, people in charge of
00:14:16
monitoring aircraft at United and
00:14:18
American knew there were hijackings. As
00:14:22
United 23 moved toward the
00:14:25
runway, United Dispatch sounded the
00:14:27
alarm. The next thing that happened was
00:14:30
probably the important thing for the
00:14:32
day. I got a message from our dispatch
00:14:35
controllers
00:14:37
that kind kind of shook us up a
00:14:43
[Music]
00:14:44
bit. My name's Edward Ballinger. I'm an
00:14:48
aircraft flight dispatcher for United
00:14:50
Airlines. So, my job was to get the
00:14:53
airplanes for my company safely to their
00:14:57
destination.
00:15:01
[Music]
00:15:03
I sent a group message to all my flights
00:15:06
in the air. Beware, cockpit intrusion.
00:15:10
And every airplane got that message.
00:15:12
Carol and I looked at each other and
00:15:14
that's when we started getting a sense
00:15:16
that something was seriously wrong and
00:15:18
that somebody might be making a threat
00:15:20
against the airplane.
00:15:24
We used our suitcases and wedged them
00:15:27
between the uh door into the cockpit in
00:15:29
a bulkhead so that basically the only
00:15:31
way anybody can get in the cockpit from
00:15:33
that point out would be literally to
00:15:34
break the door down. We have a couple
00:15:37
items in the cockpit that we could use
00:15:39
as
00:15:40
[Music]
00:15:42
weapons. One is a fire extinguisher
00:15:44
which I gave to Carol and I said if
00:15:46
somebody does break through that door,
00:15:48
hit him in the face with
00:15:50
it. We also have a crash axe for ripping
00:15:53
out panels in case of a fire. And I was
00:15:57
going to take care of anybody that made
00:15:58
it through the door.
00:16:04
The next thing I remember was my first
00:16:07
flight attendant call me, you know, on
00:16:09
our intercom and say, "I don't know
00:16:12
what's going on, but I just want to let
00:16:13
you know we have four guys sitting in
00:16:16
first class, and it just seems a little
00:16:18
strange."
00:16:22
By this time, passengers and crew were
00:16:25
frantically dialing family members,
00:16:27
telling them they were okay and
00:16:29
desperately seeking information. I got
00:16:32
my phone and I spoke to my husband and
00:16:34
he said that was one of you guys. That
00:16:37
was a commercial airplane that has just
00:16:39
crashed into the building. And I spoke
00:16:42
to the captain and he said, "Everyone
00:16:45
get in your seats. Make sure this
00:16:47
cockpit, no one comes near it. It's got
00:16:50
to be secure.
00:16:57
[Music]
00:17:15
And then a couple minutes later, I
00:17:17
described to people what I thought was
00:17:19
the most unusual radio call I heard in
00:17:21
my career, which was the Kennedy ground
00:17:24
controllers. So you followed their
00:17:25
instruction. Kennedy ground control came
00:17:28
on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the
00:17:31
airport is officially closed and we've
00:17:33
been ordered to evacuate this facility.
00:17:36
You are on your own." The captain
00:17:39
announced that they were closing the
00:17:41
airport. There seemed to have been
00:17:43
another airplane that had hit another
00:17:46
building in New York. Carol and I looked
00:17:48
at each other and shook our heads as I
00:17:51
guess we're going back to our terminal.
00:17:53
And um it was
00:18:01
disbelief. It was
00:18:04
a organized
00:18:06
pandemonium. We eventually got back to
00:18:09
the gate and we told the passengers that
00:18:13
the airport was being evacuated. They
00:18:15
were to get their belongings and leave
00:18:18
immediately. And of course, they didn't
00:18:20
need any encouragement. They open the
00:18:22
door to let everybody out. And as I'm
00:18:25
handing out jackets to passengers in the
00:18:29
business class, one passenger asked me,
00:18:31
"Did they get the White House?" I said,
00:18:32
"I would have no
00:18:36
idea." We moved the bags out of the way
00:18:39
and there was a little peepphole. Uh I
00:18:41
looked through and the airplane was
00:18:42
completely empty.
00:18:49
All I saw was a United mechanic waiting
00:18:51
for me. And when I opened the door, he
00:18:53
says, "All right, guys. You'll have to
00:18:55
get off the airplane. Um, I've been
00:18:57
ordered to lock up the airplane." So, we
00:19:00
did just
00:19:00
[Music]
00:19:05
that. As we depained, we made
00:19:10
sure lavatories were clear, every row is
00:19:14
clear. There was not a person left on
00:19:16
that plane.
00:19:22
[Music]
00:19:24
So the plane was empty and locked. The
00:19:27
airport was being evacuated. No one knew
00:19:30
if Kennedy Airport itself would become a
00:19:32
target. So people were scrambling. And
00:19:35
that's what made an observation from
00:19:37
below extremely suspicious. people on
00:19:41
the ground, baggage people or somebody
00:19:43
that worked on on the ground there saw
00:19:46
people running in the
00:19:48
[Music]
00:19:56
aircraft. By this time, the United 23
00:19:59
crew was connecting dots. The person in
00:20:01
first class disguised as a woman. The
00:20:04
passengers who argued with the flight
00:20:05
attendant about taking off quickly
00:20:07
without food. The person profusely
00:20:10
persspiring in business. The request to
00:20:13
enter the cockpit. The reference to
00:20:16
terrorists hitting the White House. The
00:20:18
two mysterious people who were seen in
00:20:20
the cabin after the plane was fully
00:20:23
empty and the door
00:20:25
locked. There were a lot of dots. So, I
00:20:28
marched off in into our chief pilot's
00:20:30
office and I described what had happened
00:20:33
with the four people that had had gotten
00:20:35
off the airplane. And I think shortly
00:20:37
after I left, um, he called the FBI. The
00:20:41
flight crew was shuttled to a nearby
00:20:42
hotel where they spent the night shaken
00:20:45
by the terrorist attack and what could
00:20:47
have happened had United 23 taken off.
00:20:50
The day after, we were all called by FBI
00:20:53
telling us that they needed to interview
00:20:55
us regarding the incidents of what had
00:20:58
happened on the airplane.
00:21:00
[Music]
00:21:06
We ended up getting interviewed by the
00:21:08
FBI and they came to our hotel rooms and
00:21:10
individually talked to us. I did tell
00:21:14
them that I felt there were some
00:21:16
suspicious people on the airplane. And I
00:21:20
pointed out exactly the four people in
00:21:24
first class and two gentlemen in
00:21:27
business, but the one that had the
00:21:29
t-shirt on that had uncontrollable
00:21:35
perspiration. I did tell them that
00:21:40
the first thing they asked me was why
00:21:42
the floor hatches were open on the
00:21:44
airplane. I know there was a hatch in
00:21:47
the floor forward of my seat at door one
00:21:51
left. I know that hatch led down to the
00:21:56
electronics for the cockpit. And the
00:22:00
hatch is big enough for a large person
00:22:02
to work down in there. About 20 minutes
00:22:05
after we left, the agents saw something
00:22:07
funny going on on the inside of the
00:22:09
aircraft. And they'd had somebody board
00:22:11
the aircraft and they found the hatches
00:22:13
open in the floors. If the hatches were
00:22:15
open, the people could not have gotten
00:22:18
off the aircraft because the hatches
00:22:19
were just too big to get around. They
00:22:22
had to be opened after everyone had gone
00:22:25
off the
00:22:27
aircraft. They'd asked questions like if
00:22:30
I noticed the rug had been turned up
00:22:33
around the the hatch by the cockpit.
00:22:36
When the SWAT team had come and opened
00:22:39
the door, they found that the hatch that
00:22:42
goes down into the area where all the
00:22:45
equipment is, the electronics and all
00:22:48
that, the hatch had been open.
00:22:52
When I was talking to the FBI and they
00:22:54
told me those floor hatches were open, I
00:22:56
couldn't breathe. I tried to figure out
00:22:59
how those hatches could be opened unless
00:23:01
there was somebody down in the
00:23:03
electronics area and they opened it
00:23:06
after we left the aircraft.
00:23:10
Maybe somebody was trying to get on the
00:23:12
airplane without being noticed. And it
00:23:15
could possibly be that there was
00:23:17
evidence on the airplane they wanted to
00:23:19
get rid of. Whether it be box cutters in
00:23:21
the seats or knives or weapons, I I have
00:23:24
no idea. But somebody could have entered
00:23:27
the airplane uh through the electronics
00:23:29
bay up into the cabin and removed
00:23:32
whatever evidence they wanted to and
00:23:34
then simply left the
00:23:40
airplane. My name is Steve Jordano. I'm
00:23:43
a pilot for the Nomadic Aviation Group.
00:23:46
We do aircraft flight test and
00:23:47
repositioning. Uh this is a Boeing 767
00:23:50
aircraft, the same aircraft as United
00:23:52
Flight 23. We're in the front of the
00:23:54
aircraft here in the 767. Um, and this
00:23:57
is the uh access to the E and E
00:23:59
compartment. The E and E compartment is
00:24:01
accessible really easily from the ramp.
00:24:04
It's as simple as pulling down the
00:24:06
handle and then retracting the door
00:24:09
here and then basically just hoist
00:24:13
yourself up into the airplane like so.
00:24:15
So now I'm in the uh electronics
00:24:18
compartment here, the E& compartment
00:24:20
which is forward to the cargo pit. This
00:24:22
is where all the aircraft radios and
00:24:24
electrical equipment is located. And
00:24:26
then right here is the hatch that gets
00:24:28
us right onto the main deck of the
00:24:29
aircraft. This is normally covered, but
00:24:31
if there's a carpet, the carpet is
00:24:32
always movable here because this is the
00:24:34
way that we get in and out of an
00:24:35
aircraft if we don't have ground support
00:24:37
equipment with
00:24:39
stairs. So, it's a it's a pretty easy
00:24:42
process. Really simple. There's actually
00:24:44
a ladder and uh makes it real easy. You
00:24:46
just climb right up
00:24:48
inside. And uh now we're here in the uh
00:24:52
main cabin. Here's the main entry door
00:24:54
of the aircraft. And the first class
00:24:56
cabin's right here. So it's real easy to
00:24:58
just have full access to the aircraft
00:25:00
right from the E and E compartment. So
00:25:02
from the first class cabinet, you just
00:25:03
walk right through the uh entry here and
00:25:06
get back onto the ladder and uh right
00:25:09
back into the E& compartment. And from
00:25:11
the electronics compartment here again,
00:25:12
it's just as simple as going back to the
00:25:15
hatch in order to get out. Just like
00:25:18
that. Then I'm back right onto the
00:25:19
tarmac and I can walk away and blend in
00:25:21
with the crowd.
00:25:25
The airplane was locked and sealed uh
00:25:28
when I left the airplane. So something
00:25:30
else was going on that that I cannot
00:25:35
explain. Something was going on there
00:25:38
that should not have been going on. You
00:25:40
raise a theory that there may have been
00:25:43
people in uniform of some sort,
00:25:45
catering, baggage, whatever. who came up
00:25:48
through that hatch into the cabin
00:25:51
possibly to remove weapons or box
00:25:54
cutters, whatever. Can you think of
00:25:57
another rational theory
00:26:06
possibility? Honestly, no. I I I uh I I
00:26:10
can't think of another reason why
00:26:13
somebody would do that.
00:26:21
The FBI wanted to take us to show us a
00:26:24
lineup of people at the uh Port
00:26:29
[Music]
00:26:32
Authority. They got us all in a van,
00:26:35
windowless van. I felt like we were
00:26:38
getting snuck into this van and driven
00:26:41
over to the Port Authority offices where
00:26:44
everyone I mean gates were locked and
00:26:48
guarded with armored military that had
00:26:53
machine guns or whatever rifles they
00:26:55
were using. We were escorted into one
00:26:57
room where there were those double um
00:27:00
windows that you could see in but not
00:27:02
out and asked us if we could identify
00:27:04
any of the people that were behind the
00:27:07
window. I could not identify any one.
00:27:15
After Kennedy Airport was shut down,
00:27:17
authorities searched various airplanes,
00:27:20
including the one parked next to United
00:27:22
23, another 767 that was not scheduled
00:27:25
to take off during that critical time
00:27:27
period. The chief pilot reported to me
00:27:30
that they had found box cutters on on
00:27:32
the airplane and it was coincidentally
00:27:34
just one number off mine. He asked me
00:27:36
the the uh tail number of the airplane I
00:27:38
was flying, the nose number we call. I
00:27:40
gave it to him and he said, "Well, I
00:27:42
just want to let you know that we found
00:27:44
two box cutters in the in the seat
00:27:47
pockets in first class on the airplane
00:27:50
next, which was the tail number was one
00:27:52
digit off." If somebody was on the
00:27:54
ground cooperating with them, they just
00:27:56
simply made a mistake and put the box
00:27:58
cutters on the wrong airplane.
00:28:01
My name is Lynn Spencer. I'm a former
00:28:03
airline pilot and a flight instructor
00:28:05
and an aviation safety investigator. am
00:28:07
an author of a book about the air events
00:28:09
of September 11th. During my research,
00:28:13
it was made very evident to me from the
00:28:15
highest levels of our government,
00:28:18
members of the FBI, senior federal
00:28:20
aviation officials, that there were more
00:28:23
than just the four planes. They also
00:28:26
shared with me some of the items that
00:28:28
were found on other airplanes that
00:28:29
didn't get off the ground on that day.
00:28:31
The items that I was told had been found
00:28:33
on planes were box cutters. Um,
00:28:36
specifically,
00:28:40
I believe that it's a reasonable
00:28:42
assumption to think that those box
00:28:43
cutters were meant for my airplane, not
00:28:45
the one next to me. You have people that
00:28:48
clean the airplane, uh, people that load
00:28:51
food on the airplane that have access to
00:28:53
the airplane. If somebody was in
00:28:55
cooperation with the group, uh, they
00:28:56
could have been put there. There are a
00:28:58
host of people that have access to the
00:29:00
airplane. It wouldn't be uh the hardest
00:29:02
thing in the world to get on an airplane
00:29:04
like that. It's the one thing
00:29:08
that makes me think that there's a ch a
00:29:12
good chance that uh somebody was
00:29:15
plotting to try to use our airplane as a
00:29:18
weapon of mass destruction. The
00:29:20
United would have become airborne right
00:29:23
about the time of the other hijacked
00:29:26
aircraft on September 11th. And there's
00:29:28
very little doubt in my mind that United
00:29:31
23 was the fifth airplane.
00:29:34
[Music]
00:29:38
So where did the United 23 passengers
00:29:41
go? The ones who aroused suspicion on
00:29:43
the part of the flight
00:29:46
crew. The FBI told the pilot there were
00:29:49
seven passengers on its radar. The only
00:29:52
thing they really said to me was uh the
00:29:55
fact there were seven people on the
00:29:57
airplane. Um and then wanted to know
00:30:01
everything I did, everything I said
00:30:03
everywhere I went. There were the things
00:30:04
I related to them, the gentleman, his
00:30:07
wife, and and a a small baby. The FBI
00:30:11
didn't go into any length about the four
00:30:14
gentlemen on the flight. They simply
00:30:17
were described as Arabs. Uh, and I I'm
00:30:20
assuming he was he meant Saudis, but I
00:30:22
think he indicated they were going to be
00:30:24
questioned.
00:30:26
As for whether they were questioned, we
00:30:28
don't know. The pilot doesn't know. The
00:30:31
crew doesn't know. The FBI wasn't
00:30:34
telling them, and they certainly weren't
00:30:36
telling us. We have requested
00:30:39
information about Flight 23. We even
00:30:41
filed a Freedom of Information
00:30:44
request. We did not get a reply.
00:30:47
Nobody is forthcoming with what I think
00:30:49
is a simple statement. No, these these
00:30:52
were innocent people on the flight.
00:30:53
Forget about it. I don't I don't know
00:30:55
why that information can't be
00:30:57
released. Uh if they were involved, then
00:31:00
I could understand why that information
00:31:02
isn't being released. Did the 9/11
00:31:04
commission ever contact you? No. No one
00:31:07
in the government uh has contacted me
00:31:10
about the event outside of that one
00:31:12
interview from the FBI. The 9/11
00:31:15
Commission was unprecedented in scope
00:31:17
and resources, taking nearly 3 years to
00:31:20
write a report that was nearly 600 pages
00:31:23
long. The staff poured through a half
00:31:26
million pages of documents and
00:31:28
interviewed 1,200 people in 10
00:31:31
countries. Yet, United 23 was never
00:31:34
mentioned, not even once in the official
00:31:37
report. I really can't speak to why the
00:31:40
911 commission didn't pursue information
00:31:43
on uh Flight 23. When I looked at what
00:31:46
they covered and what they didn't cover,
00:31:48
it seemed to me as if when they had
00:31:50
something they really couldn't
00:31:52
explain. They didn't dig deeper. They
00:31:55
just kind of left it alone. I'm Bob
00:31:57
Kerry, former senator from Nebraska and
00:32:00
former member of the 911 commission. We
00:32:02
didn't identify the possibility of a
00:32:04
fifth plane as your documentary
00:32:06
suggests, but we identified a number of
00:32:08
other things that uh were worthy of
00:32:10
investigation. We thought that we just
00:32:12
simply didn't have time to get it done.
00:32:14
We just didn't have the time, for
00:32:15
example, to find out precisely the
00:32:18
involvement of the Saudis or precisely
00:32:20
the involvements of Iranian. And most of
00:32:22
those things were identified in the
00:32:24
report itself as things that Congress
00:32:26
should follow up on. My name is Carolyn
00:32:28
Maloney. I'm a former member of
00:32:30
Congress. I represented mainly the east
00:32:33
side of Manhattan between uh 1993 to
00:32:36
2023. I'm deeply concerned that there
00:32:39
could be the fifth plane. I would say
00:32:41
that the intelligence
00:32:44
committee in uh Congress should look at
00:32:48
the intelligence reports that came out
00:32:52
from this investigation that took place.
00:32:56
As for United, well, as pilots say,
00:33:00
radio silence.
00:33:02
[Music]
00:33:04
The only communication I have from
00:33:06
United, official communication were from
00:33:08
the flight manager and the chief pilot.
00:33:10
There's been nothing that United
00:33:12
Airlines has said to me. I understand
00:33:15
that there are significant forces uh
00:33:19
going on with the government of our
00:33:21
government, foreign governments, the
00:33:23
Saudis that might make it better for
00:33:26
them not to release any information.
00:33:30
We also asked United for comment about
00:33:33
the seven passengers the FBI honed in
00:33:35
on, about the hatch being opened, all of
00:33:39
it. United had no comment. I now believe
00:33:45
that it is more likely than
00:33:47
not that we were the fifth airplane. The
00:33:51
individuals on this plane were obviously
00:33:54
terribly traumatized by it. They thought
00:33:56
they were uh going to be the fifth
00:33:58
plane. Whether they were not, I I I
00:34:00
simply don't know.
00:34:06
United wasn't going to let us fly home
00:34:08
just to fly home. United wanted us to
00:34:12
work the flight and if we were good
00:34:15
enough to fly on their airplane, we were
00:34:17
good enough to work their airplane. And
00:34:20
I told them I was in no
00:34:23
condition physically or mentally to be
00:34:27
able to be a flight attendant.
00:34:32
Most of the flight attendants suffered
00:34:34
deep emotional scars and couldn't do
00:34:37
their jobs. They filed for disability
00:34:40
and say the airline fought them tooth
00:34:42
and nail. They sent us to numerous
00:34:45
doctors diagnosed with PTSD. They still
00:34:49
fought. Doctors looked in my eye and
00:34:52
told me I was not telling the truth. I
00:34:54
was lying.
00:34:56
That this wasn't that big of a deal. We
00:34:59
had to get lawyers to get any
00:35:02
compensation if we wanted to stay off on
00:35:05
a sick leave. I felt
00:35:08
um that nobody had my back.
00:35:16
I am Bruce Gelber and I represented a
00:35:20
number of the flight attendants on
00:35:23
flight 23 on 911. United took the
00:35:27
position that their stress was no
00:35:29
different than everybody's. So that if
00:35:32
everybody in the world who watched what
00:35:34
happened that day was allowed to file a
00:35:37
claim against their employer for
00:35:39
workers's comp that it would break the
00:35:42
system and I had to proceed under the
00:35:45
theory that their stress was unique
00:35:48
different than the general public and I
00:35:52
prevailed on that and so after a number
00:35:54
of years of litigation adversary medical
00:35:57
examinations and the like uh we
00:36:00
prevailed
00:36:01
obtaining permanent disability awards
00:36:06
and in signing the paperwork for the
00:36:08
$4,000 settlement for my medical bills.
00:36:12
I could no longer work for United or its
00:36:14
subsidiaries again. I was basically
00:36:17
fired. I had flown for them for 31 years
00:36:22
and I probably would have stayed with
00:36:24
them longer. I loved my job, but I
00:36:28
wasn't given the choice.
00:36:32
It's been 21 years, and it still stays
00:36:35
with me. The
00:36:36
terrifying, horrific events and the way
00:36:39
I was treated by a company that I was
00:36:42
loyal to for 30
00:36:44
years. And I decided I just said
00:36:48
couldn't do anymore. And I had retired
00:36:50
in 2003. the uh indifference and the way
00:36:54
that we were treated was
00:37:00
abominable. So, it was time
00:37:03
to leave that job that I worked so hard
00:37:07
for. I think it's the trauma that you've
00:37:10
done a very good job of showing that
00:37:12
continues. People have not gotten over
00:37:14
this who were here e either on that day
00:37:16
or in a plane or somehow directly
00:37:18
associated with lost a loved one. it
00:37:21
doesn't really matter. Uh there's a wide
00:37:23
amount of trauma that still exists uh in
00:37:26
the United States as a consequence of
00:37:27
these attacks.
00:37:29
[Music]
00:37:33
I want you all to know this nation
00:37:36
stands with the good people of New York
00:37:39
City and New Jersey and
00:37:41
Connecticut as we mourn the loss of
00:37:45
thousands of our citizens.
00:37:49
I can hear you.
00:37:56
And the people who knocked these
00:37:58
buildings down will hear all of us soon.
00:38:11
Tonight we are a country awakened to
00:38:14
danger and called to defend freedom. Our
00:38:18
grief has turned to anger and anger to
00:38:20
resolution. As a symbol of America's
00:38:23
resolve, we will rebuild New York City.
00:38:28
[Music]
00:38:31
[Applause]
00:38:36
[Music]
00:39:00
[Music]
