TMZ Will Air Story On ‘9/11: THE FIFTH PLANE’

A United 767 scheduled to depart from JFK Airport on September 11, 2001, could have been the 5th plane targeted by hijackers.

TMZ conducted a six-month investigation into what the flight attendants and pilots on that plane claimed. The story of United 23 will air Monday on FOX at 9 PM ET.

The story will include the interviews of 3 flight attendants, the pilot, the United dispatcher, and a member of the 9/11 Commission, who will talk about a series of suspicious activities that happened on the plane that tragic day.

Flight attendants of United flight 23 recalled becoming suspicious of four first-class passengers. The flight attendants say one of them was a man disguised as a woman. The first-class flight attendant told the outlet that those passengers did not eat meat, and because there were only two fruit plates in the galley, the flight attendant wanted to get more fruit plates for them, which triggered a heated argument.

One of the passengers insisted, “We do not want to eat. We don’t need food. We want to take off … We just want to go,” the attendant said.

Two passengers in business class also aroused the suspicion of crew members.

The plane was close to taking off. At one point, it taxied to the runway, but news of the hit on the World Trade Center caused the airport to shut down, and United 23 returned to the gate and was evacuated.

Twenty minutes later, people saw two uniformed people running into the plane’s cabin. Authorities responded and noticed a door was opened and found the hatch that led from the belly of the aircraft to the cabin was also open.

The pilot believes the two people seen running may have been there to remove weapons or other incriminating evidence.

It was never determined what was removed from Flight 23, but box cutters were found in the first-class seat pockets of a plane parked next to United 23. The United 23 pilot believes those boxcutters were supposed to be on his flight, but there was a mix-up.

The FBI investigated the flight attendants later that day and took them to a lineup at the Port Authority to see if they could ID the four passengers.

“TMZ Investigates 9/11: The Fifth Plane” airs Monday on FOX at 9 PM ET.