5th hijacking - United Flight 23?

[RKOwens4]

The History Channel show "Grounded on 9/11" mentions a United Flight 23 returning to the gate after the FAA began grounding planes and several Middle-Eastern men running off with al-qaeda papers in their bags and fake IDs. I've only seen it mentioned on the show and it seems a lot like a 9/11 urban legend, but does anyone know if there's any truth to it? If so, it's just one more thing conspiracy theorists would have to try to explain away in order to support their "no hijackers" and "remote controlled planes" theories.

[Gravy]

That's news to me. They presented it as fact? If there was something to it, I expect we would have heard about it in the press and from the 9/11 commission.

ETA: here's what cooperative research has:

Shortly after 9:00 a.m., United Airlines Flight 23 receives a warning message from flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger. Flight 23 is still on a runway at JFK airport in New York, about to take off for Los Angeles. Apparently in response to Ballinger’s message, the crew tells the passengers there has been a mechanical problem and returns to the departure gate. A number of Middle Eastern men (one account says three, others say six) argue with the flight crew and refuse to get off the plane. Security is called, but they flee before it arrives. [CBS News, 9/14/2001 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main311250.shtml); Chicago Daily Herald, 4/14/2004 (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/il10_kirk/news040414_flight.html)] Later, authorities check their luggage and find copies of the Koran and al-Qaeda instruction sheets. Ballinger suspects they got away. “When all we have is a photo from a fake ID, the chances of finding [someone] in Afghanistan or Pakistan are rather slim.” [Chicago Daily Herald, 4/14/2004 (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/il10_kirk/news040414_flight.html)] A NORAD deputy commander later says, “From our perception, we think our reaction on that day was sufficiently quick that we may well have precluded at least one other hijacking. We may not have. We don’t know for sure.” [Globe and Mail, 6/13/2002 (http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/printarticle/gam/20020613/UNORAM)]Nothing there but a hearsay account from one ATC.

[Brainache]

I have a vague recollection of this story being reported at the time just after 9/11. I never heard if it was confirmed or if it was just another "fog of war" confused report. Was it somewhere on the West Coast?

[Hokulele]

I primarily fly United for work, and there is a flight 23 from New York to LAX that departs at 8:38am, so at least the carrier and flight number are plausible.

[OldTigerCub]

I have a vague recollection of this story being reported at the time just after 9/11. I never heard if it was confirmed or if it was just another "fog of war" confused report. Was it somewhere on the West Coast?

I have the same vague recollection. It seems that I stumbled across that story last summer when I was researching Flight 93, but since it didn't cover the information I was looking for, I didn't give it much attention.:mgduh
It makes me wish I had done a bit more "bookmarking" of peripheral info to come back to later...though, at the time, I didn't realize debunking woo could be so much fun...:p

[Corsair 115]

There were similar stories in the newspapers here about an Air Canada flight out of Toronto that was supposed to fly to New York on 9/11. The flight was delayed and never took off before flights were grounded and that supposedly boxcutters and other suspicious material was found on the aircraft.

I don't think that story was ever confirmed later on either.

[LashL]

I recall reading/hearing some news reports immediately after 9/11/01 to the effect that the FBI were looking into whether Flight 23 may have been a thwarted additional hijack, but I didn't read or hear anything further after that.

[Brainster]

Discussion of this movie and the Flight 23 claim here (http://www.airdisaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78736).

CBS News covers the story here (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main311250.shtml):

After the plane was boarded, United Airlines officials told passengers that United Airlines Flight 23, bound for Los Angeles, had been cancelled.

Three males traveling refused to disembark. The argument with a member of the flight crew became so heated that the crew member called airport security.

But before security arrived, the men had vanished, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Note that the claim of the Koran and Al Qaeda instruction sheets doesn't appear there. Sounds like that "detail" was added later.

[Kestrel]

Discussion of this movie and the Flight 23 claim here (http://www.airdisaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78736).

CBS News covers the story here (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/14/national/main311250.shtml):

Note that the claim of the Koran and Al Qaeda instruction sheets doesn't appear there. Sounds like that "detail" was added later.

The CBS story also doesn't mention "middle eastern" or fake ID's.

[Magenta]

Looks like it's mentioned in a book due to be published later this year:

United Flight 23 Captain Tom Mannello was ready to take off from New
York's JFK airport in his B-767 when an alert message arrived on the
flight deck. "Secure the cockpit! Beware cockpit intrusion!" As his
First Officer barricades the cockpit door, the lead flight attendant calls
on the interphone. "I think it's strange, so I thought you ought to know.
We have four Arab men in first class this morning."



Lynn Spencer, Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that
Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 (http://cleartheskies.com/pilotpage.html)

[beachnut]

What if some of the muscle (kids with box cutters) on the hijacked planes did not know the true mission of hitting buildings on 9/11? What would you do if your terrorist hijacking mission became a one way mission and you found out for the first time when your flight was delayed? What would you do if you wanted to live, and you heard about your future suicide mission? Convert? Run and hide? Why would the guys in back (GIB) have to know about the mission? If I was in UBL's group I would ask him to demonstrate the mission first! I will follow later! Yep...

[gumboot]

There's quite a few examples of these sorts of false alarms - the most visible example being Delta 1989 which was confused with United 93.

Most cases seem to be an example of a sort of "Chinese Whispers" - there's a brief false alarm or communication error which is resolved, but meanwhile varying accounts of the incident are created in which authors embellish their own little details that make the whole thing sound much more ominous than it actually was.

No evidence has ever been uncovered that any flights other than AA11, AA77, UA175 and UA93 were intended to be hijacked on 9/11.

-Gumboot