Fifth hijacking foiled as mechanical failure cancels flight ?

Fifth hijack team foiled by cancelled flight, says FBI
By Ben Fenton in Washington
(Filed: 19/09/2001)
THE FBI believes that a fifth hijack team could have been aboard an
American Airlines jet that failed to take off from Boston on Sept 11
because of mechanical problems, it emerged yesterday.
Meanwhile, evidence came to light that the FBI should have known that
there was a possible threat to airlines at least three weeks before the
attacks.
The flight under investigation now, AA43 from Boston to Los Angeles, was
almost identical to another, Flight AA11, which took off from Boston to
the same destination at 7.59am, 11 minutes earlier than the scheduled
departure time of the aircraft that was cancelled.
At 8.48am, AA11 was the first jet to crash into the World Trade Centre
after it was seized by hijackers believed to belong to the al-Qa'eda
network headed by Osama bin Laden. A third flight from Boston to Los
Angeles, United Airlines 175, crashed into the second tower at 9.02am.
The cancellation of AA43, for undisclosed mechanical reasons, may have
prevented another hijack atrocity, the FBI believes, although it does not
know the intended target.
Sources close to the investigation said the FBI had been unable to trace
several of the passengers on the flight manifest, who are believed to have
Arabic names. None of those now being sought by the bureau turned up for
the rescheduled flight when air travel resumed on Friday.







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