The FBI won’t divulge if suicidal al-Qaida terrorists intended to hijack a fifth jet on 9/11.
In response to a public records request from the Herald, the agency said, “The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure … (and) release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
What “proceedings?” The agency does not say.
Sources and previous reporting suggest hijackers were thwarted — turned away or failed somehow — at JFK Airport in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
A military tribunal is dragging on at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where this case could be linked to the five terrorists charged with plotting the 9/11 attacks — including the mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. No trail date has been set as plea deals are discussed.
Twenty-two years ago today 19 al-Qaeda hijackers — 15 of them Saudi nationals — hijacked and crashed four jets, killing nearly 3,000 people in one day at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
Two of those jets — American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 — took off from Logan International Airport in Boston. The others left from Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.
“Why are we hiding this if there was a fifth plane?” asked Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad died when the Twin Towers collapsed. “We still don’t have justice.”
The Herald has filed an appeal with the FBI to release the records on the fifth jet.
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