"We'd gotten clearance to push-off the gate and clearance to taxi, and literally at 9:03 is when we released the brakes," she said in a 2011 interview. "We turned right so our tail was facing the city and we couldn't see the city."As they sat there, Timmons said news of what was happening began to come over her and the pilot's radio, including an order from the ground controller for every plane to stop where they were and another to barricade the door to the cockpit.
"It was a very difficult thing to do," she said, adding that she regretted leaving the flight attendants in the rear of the plane to deal with whatever.
Timmons was able to tune into a local AM station on one of the radios and play it over the PA system so passengers would know what was going on as well. Then at approximately 9:20, the traffic control tower announced that the airport was being evacuated and all planes were left to figure out how to get back to their departure gates.
"When we turned to taxi back to the gate, I could see that the Twin Towers were on fire -- I can still see that pretty clearly," she said.
It was shortly after arriving at the gate that a flight attendant alerted the pilots that a few of the passengers were unusually agitated that the plane was not taking off after all.
As soon as we opened the doors, those guys were off, she said.
"It was total chaos at the airport and they just disappeared," Timmons said of the two men. Investigators would later find evidence of links to al Qaida in their abandoned bags aboard the aircraft.
First time I've heard about this.
I wonder what the FBI did (or did not) find out about those that took off abandoning their bags with w/AQ linked stuff.
Yet another FBI failure?
How is it that it has taken 17 years to learn about a fifth plane?