Photo screenshot: TMZ YOUTUBE/Exposing The 9/11 Cover-Up | TMZ Investigates: The Fifth Plane
United Flight 23 was scheduled to fly from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001. It never left the ground.
More than two decades later, the flight has become the focus of a theory that it may have been considered as another target that morning. The idea received renewed attention through TMZ Investigates: 9/11: The Fifth Plane, a documentary featuring interviews with members of the flight crew.
However, the claim remains unproven. The official 9/11 Commission record identifies four hijacked aircraft and does not establish United Flight 23 as a fifth hijacked plane.
The flight was preparing to leave JFK
Flight 23 was a Boeing 767 scheduled for Los Angeles. According to accounts presented by TMZ, the aircraft was preparing for departure when the situation changed rapidly after the attacks began.
The crew had already noticed several passengers they considered unusual. Their concerns became more serious as news of the attacks reached the airport.
TMZ’s reporting says the crew later described a group of passengers who drew their attention. The documentary also includes the account of Captain Tom Mannello, who came to believe years later that his aircraft may have been targeted.
Those accounts are important to the story. They are not, however, proof of an attempted hijacking.
What happened after the aircraft returned
The most unusual part of the story involves what allegedly happened after Flight 23 was evacuated.
TMZ reported that people on the ground saw two uniformed individuals moving through the aircraft after it had been secured. Authorities later found an open hatch connecting the aircraft’s lower section with the cabin, according to the documentary’s account.
The FBI subsequently interviewed members of the crew. TMZ also reported that investigators showed crew members photographs or conducted identification procedures involving passengers.
Another detail involved box cutters reportedly found on a nearby aircraft. Because box cutters had been used by the 9/11 hijackers, the discovery added to the crew’s concerns. Yet that detail does not establish a connection between the nearby aircraft and the attacks.
What the official record says
The distinction between suspicion and established history matters here.
The 9/11 Commission’s official report describes four hijacked flights. They were American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93.
The Commission’s report also details how the hijackers selected and boarded those four aircraft. Its records do not establish United Flight 23 as another aircraft selected for the operation.
That leaves Flight 23 in a complicated position. Crew members described events that they considered unusual. A documentary has presented those accounts years later. The official record, however, does not confirm that the flight was part of the plot.
Why the Flight 23 story continues
The mystery has lasted because the available accounts leave room for questions.
For the crew members interviewed by TMZ, the events surrounding Flight 23 remain difficult to dismiss. For historians and readers looking at the official record, the absence of documented proof makes the fifth plane theory impossible to present as established fact.
That distinction is especially important when discussing an event as extensively investigated as Sept. 11.
United Flight 23 was real. The unusual events described by its crew are part of the documentary record. The claim that it was intended to become a fifth hijacked aircraft remains a theory.
Twenty-five years later, that is where the evidence still stands.
Story credit: TMZ
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