9/11 terrorists foiled in plot to blow up fifth United Airlines jet

The 9/11 terrorists whose evil machinations left thousands dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania targeted a fifth jet but were foiled, a new report reveals.

And the captain of United Airlines Flight 23 has broken his long silence.

Capt. Tom Mannello was at the controls at the Big Apple’s JFK Airport around 9 a.m. when air traffic control ordered all planes back to their gates.

“There is a good chance that somebody was plotting to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction,” he told TMZ Investigates: 9/11: The Fifth Plane, airing Monday at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Mannello later discovered that box cutters were found on a jet at a nearby gate. He thinks ground crew members assisting the terrorists got the wrong aircraft.

Since that terrible day, there has been widespread speculation that al-Qaida hijackers wanted many more dead. Yet the official 9/11 Commission report makes no mention of a fifth plane — and government officials have also been tight-lipped.

Mannello was in the cockpit when the second plane slammed into the Twin Towers. He was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles that morning.

Flight attendant Sandy Thorngren, who was on United 23, said there was no doubt in her mind the jet was targeted.

“I definitely think Flight 23 was the fifth plane,” she told the documentary, adding that after passengers disembarked, the crew was quizzed by the FBI.

“They wanted to take us to show us a lineup of people at the Port Authority,” she added.

“They got us all in a van, a windowless van. I felt like we were getting snuck into this van. And driven over to the Port Authority offices where everyone — I mean, gates were locked and guarded with armoured military that had machine guns, or whatever rifles they were using.

“We were escorted to this one room with those double windows where you could see in but not out. And they asked us if we could identify any of the people that were behind that window.”

According to the documentary, there were four passengers travelling first class who were behaving oddly. None were ever arrested.

Mannello said it was only later he learned about the box cutters found on the plane adjacent to his.

“The chief pilot reported to me that they had found two box cutters in the seat pockets in first class in the plane next to it, which had a tail number one digit off,” Mannello told the documentary.

“If somebody was on the ground cooperating with them, they just simply made a mistake and put the box cutters on the wrong airplane.

“You have people who clean the airplane, people that load food on the airplane, that have access to the airplane.

“If somebody was in cooperation with the group, they could have been put there. It wouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world to get on an airplane like that.”

He added: “It’s the one thing that makes me think that there’s a good chance that somebody was plotting to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.”

Nineteen hijackers were on the four planes and all died in the attacks.

Source: toronto sun