[wcbtinman]

Wait a minute. Atta checks out of the Comfort Inn at 5:33am and then is seen 12 minutes later at 5:45am boarding a flight?

I wish someone could show me how to get from the motel, move through an airport and what little security they had at the time, and get on to an airplane in 12 minutes. Either this is a typo, or somebody is full of of it.

[hobbes1]

Boarding a flight could mean standing on line, waiting to be boarded, which, at that time of day, would probably not take too long, as the airport would not be too crowded.Showed up late, to further lessen the chance of being screened tightly, and got on. This is why they boarded in Portland, instead of Boston. They would have been inside the airport, transferring, not checking in in Boston, which probably would have had better security.

[erk]

This hotel is referred to as the "Comfort Inn Airport" and the following is from its website:

Location: The Comfort Inn is located off exit 7 of I-95 (North or South) at 90 Maine Mall Rd. We are 1 mile from the Portland International Jetport and offer complimentary airport transportation.

[ironman]

My initial thoughts were same as yours, 12 minutes? Seems improbable but possible if the hotel was right there at the airport.

[ALASKA]

Those were the good ol days.

[Mitchell]

Here's the information as it's been published before:

5:33 a.m.: Atta and Alomari checked out of the Comfort Inn.
5:40 a.m.: The 2001 blue Nissan Altima rental car, bearing Massachusetts license 3335VI, entered Portland International Jetport Airport parking lot. It was parked on the first floor directly across from the airport entrance.
5:43 a.m.: Atta bought a one-way ticket from Portland, ME, to Los Angeles, with a stopover in Boston. Atta and Alomari checked in at US Airways counter.
5:44 or 5:45 a.m.: Atta and Alomari went through airport security, Portland, ME.
6:00 a.m.: Colgan Air plane took off for Boston. The two men sat behind one another on the plane.

[eno_]

I don't know about Portland, but I could check out of a motel by the airport in Manchester, NH and be on a plane in 15 minutes - at least that was possible before the federalization of the ineffectual a-holes at the x-ray machine. Portland is no megalapolis.