On Thursday, I watched a program called Grounded on 9/11 on The History Channel. The show details the FAA's response to the attacks on September 11, 2001 to order all planes out of the air.
Almost as an aside, the show's narrator mentions United 23 — a 767 headed for Los Angeles that morning. Apparently it was going to be another hijacked airliner. I did some searching on the web and the amount of info is limited and I had to do quite a bit of surfing to find much at all.
I did find a site about a book called Stand Down by Will Thomas. Here is a copy/paste from that linked site:
UNITED 23 TO LA THWARTEDThe incident is mentioned on the site of U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois...only it says the flight was going to depart from Newark to Los Angeles.
United Flight 23, prevented from pushback by Norman Mineta’s emergency grounding orders. Onboard the fuel-heavy airliner three angry Arabian passengers loudly demanded that the flight proceed to Los Angeles. Kicked off the plane, the would-be hijackers vanished before police showed up.
It is also mentioned on a site called Cooperative Research.
I can't find it now, but somewhere along the way of researching this I read that it was mentioned in the movie United 93 which I didn't see.
United.com now shows United 23 departs JFK to Los Angeles. They may have changed it but I doubt it. This is the second airport this story now involves as the point of departure.
Is this an urban legend?
Is this unsubstantiated conspiracy theory?
Why is this the first time I've heard of it?
Have any of you, my gentle readers, ever heard of this???
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3 comments:
I saw the same program you did and was shocked to hear this new revalation in regards to Flight 23. I have studied everything I can possibly find on 9/11, read most of the pertinent books, yet had NEVER heard this until the TV show you mention. Funny that there is not more "chest thumping" by the government that they actually "stopped" a possible hijack/terror attack if this is indeed true...
There is film footage of this story in the documentary "Between The Lies"
I saw the same program and had your same reaction. I mentioned this info to my co-workers on Saturday and one lady said she had read about United 23 in the newspapers the day after the attack and also mentioned by same paper the day after. It was never mentioned again after that. She believes that the FBI was in active search for the "middle-eastern" men that left the passenger group when they came back into the terminal. Their abandoned baggage held Al Qaeda info sheets, box cutters and such. So I Googled United 23 and got YOU. The Will Thomas quote that the "men" argued with the crew that the flight should continue and that's why they returned to the gate is new to me.
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