TMZ Investigation: United Flight 23 From JFK to LAX on 9/11 Was Likely To Be Hijacked

Anyone who has studied the attacks of 9/11 knows that hijacker Mohammed Atta was recorded saying they had “some planes.”

But how many planes did they have?

We know about four: American Airlines Flight 11, which  hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, United Flight 175, which hit the South Tower, American Airlines Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon and United Flight 93, thought by some to have been targeting the Capitol, went down in Pennsylvania. The death toll reachednearly 3,000.

A chilling documentary — “TMZ Investigates: 9/11: The Fifth Plane” — that aired on Fox on March 21, produced by TMZ and executive produced by Harvey Levin, suggests that United Flight 23, scheduled to depart from New York’s JFK International Airport bound for LAX, was likely the fifth flight that was to be hijacked.

Tom Manello was the pilot and says he believes it is more likely than not that his aircraft was to be the fifth plane.

Why does he think this?

He was told that on the plane next to his, box cutters were found and that plane’s call sign number was one digit different from his. In addition, it was reported that after the plane was locked and no one was left on board two people were seen running on the plane. He said that during his FBI interview,he was asked about hood latches being open and Manello thinks someone might have wanted to remove weapons or some sort of incriminating evidence from the plane. He sees no other explanation of why the hood latches would have been open after everyone was off the plane. A pilot, Steve Giordano, shows how someone from the ground could enter, open the latch, and exit.

Manello says the FBI told him there were several people of interest who were passengers on the plane. He said he was never interviewed again.

Although the plane never took off that morning — there were about 10 planes in front of it — and the pilot was eventually told to evacuate the aircraft. Manello says after a message about cockpit intrusion, he blocked the door with suitcases and was prepared to “take care” of anyone who might try something with a crash-axe.

Sandy Thorngren and Barbara Brockey Smaldino were both flight attendants on the plane. Thorngren says she is haunted by the experience and believed they were the fifth plane while Smaldino says she had no doubt they were part of a plan “that would have taken us to our end.”

They say that some passengers stood out. One man was profusely sweating. In first class, there were four people, including a person dressed in a burqa, an outer garment worn by some religious Muslim women that covers their body and their face, except for their eyes, only in this case, due to the hand size and hair on the hand, it was believed to be a man. A man in a tan suit said he just wanted to take off and they did not need food, as there was an effort to get them fruit plates because they understood these passengers did not eat meat.

Why this story has only come to light more than two decades after the attacks is unclear. There is no mention of Flight 23 in the 9/11 Commission report. In the documentary, Bob Kerrey, the then-Democratic senator from Nebraska who was a member of the commission, says that at the time, he was not aware there could have been the fifth plane,and now he doesn’t know if there was or wasn’t. He said there was other information not included in the report because they did not have enough time and expected further investigation.

According to the documentary, the FBI and United offered no comment.