Prior To 9/11, Hijackers Within U.S. Threaten To Use Planes As Missiles

Jon Gold
4/17/2022
UPDATED: 5/1/2022
UPDATED: 7/2/2022

I don't know if you're aware, but prior to 9/11 there were hijackings within the United States where those planes were almost crashed into buildings. In other words, planes were to be used as guided missiles.

The following information I obtained long ago from a site that no longer exists.

1974 February 22: Samuel Byck shot and killed Maryland Aviation Administration Police Officer Neal Ramsburg at BWI before storming aboard Delta Air Lines flight 523 to Atlanta. He gained access to the cockpit while the plane was on the ground, intending to assassinate President Nixon BY FLYING THE DC-9 INTO THE WHITE HOUSE (emphasis mine). He shot both the pilot and the copilot before he was shot through the aircraft window by another officer.

1994: FedEx Flight 705 hijacked by disgruntled employee Auburn Calloway as it left Memphis, Tennessee, WITH THE INTENTION OF USING IT AS A CRUISE MISSILE AGAINST FEDEX HQ (emphasis mine). He was subdued by the flight crew before an emergency landing back at Memphis.

The following is a full entry from HistoryCommons.org that I can't get a proper link to so I figured I would just post the whole thing here. This entry is astounding.

November 10-12, 1972: Hijackers Threaten to Crash a Plane into a Nuclear Facility in ‘the Most Chilling Domestic Hijacking in US History’

Three men hijack a commercial airliner AND THREATEN TO CRASH IT INTO A NUCLEAR PLANT (emphasis mine), and authorities also fear THEY MIGHT CRASH IT INTO PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON'S WINTER HOME IN FLORIDA (emphasis mine). [GRAFF, 2011, PP. 43-47] The hijacking occurs on Southern Airways Flight 49, a DC-9 bound from Memphis, Tennessee, to Miami, Florida, with scheduled stops in Birmingham, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama, and Orlando, Florida. [SLATE, 6/19/2013] The plane has 27 passengers and four crew members on board. The hijackers—three men with criminal records—are Lewis Moore, Henry Jackson, and Melvin Cale. The aim of the hijacking, Moore will later say, is to bring attention to the brutality and racism of the Detroit Police Department. The ordeal, which lasts 29 hours, is, at the current time, “the most chilling domestic hijacking in US history,” according to national security historian Timothy Naftali. [NAFTALI, 2005, PP. 61; DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/6/2016]

Hijackers Demand a $10 Million Ransom - The hijackers manage to smuggle guns and grenades onto Flight 49 in a raincoat. [SLATE, 6/19/2013] The plane takes off from Memphis at 5:05 p.m. on November 10. The hijackers seize control of it at 7:22 p.m., during the second leg of the flight. One of them enters the cockpit carrying a revolver and with an arm around the neck of a flight attendant. He tells the pilot, William Haas, “Head north, Captain, this is a hijacking.” [DETROIT FREE PRESS, 11/12/1972; GRAFF, 2011, PP. 43] The hijackers demand $10 million to release the plane. [NAFTALI, 2005, PP. 61] Haas transmits a hijack code to air traffic controllers who, in response, begin the well-known and widely used procedures for dealing with a hijacking. They notify the FBI in Washington, DC, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s special hijacking command post.

Airline Is Told of the Hijackers' Ransom Demand - The plane lands in Jackson, Mississippi, at 8:10 p.m. to be refueled and then takes off at 8:36 p.m., heading for Detroit, Michigan, where the hijackers intend to settle their complaints with city officials. At around 10:30 p.m., while the plane is circling over Detroit, the FBI notifies the city’s mayor and Southern Airways of the hijackers’ ransom demand. At 12:05 a.m. on November 11, the plane leaves the Detroit area due to bad weather and heads for Cleveland, Ohio, where it lands and is refueled. It takes off from Cleveland at 1:38 a.m. and heads for Toronto, Canada.

Hijackers Threaten to Crash the Plane into a Nuclear Facility - While it is on the ground in Toronto, the hijackers learn that Southern Airways has only gathered $500,000 in ransom money. They refuse to take this and release the passengers. Consequently, after being refueled, the plane takes off at 6:15 a.m. and flies back to the US. It heads for Knoxville, Tennessee. As it is ascending, the hijackers tell controllers that unless their demands are met, THEY WILL CRASH FLIGHT 49 INTO THE OAK RIDGE NUCLEAR FACILITY (emphasis mine), near Knoxville. [DETROIT FREE PRESS, 11/12/1972; GRAFF, 2011, PP. 43-45] Jackson says: “We’re tired of all this bull. No more foolin’ around. WE'RE TAKING THIS F_CKER TO OAK RIDGE AND DIVE IT INTO A NUCLEAR REACTOR (emphasis mine).” [BURLESON, 2007, PP. 66] By this time, the White House, the Pentagon, and the Atomic Energy Commission are all involved in dealing with the crisis. [GRAFF, 2011, PP. 45] Meanwhile, KEY PERSONNEL AT OAK RIDGE DISCUSS THE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES OF FLIGHT 49 CRASHING INTO THEIR FACILITY. At the bare minimum, they all agree, THE IMPACT COULD RUPTURE THE PROTECTIVE SHELL AND RESULT IN A MASSIVE RELEASE OF RADIOACTIVITY; THE WORST POSSIBILITY IS A CORE MELTDOWN (emphasis mine). [BURLESON, 2007, PP. 66-67]

White House Official Talks to the Hijackers - The plane diverts to Lexington, Kentucky, to be refueled and, by 11:00 a.m., is again over Oak Ridge. The hijackers are then connected to the White House. John Ehrlichman, the president’s top domestic aide, comes on the radio and Jackson tells him, “I’m up over Oak Ridge, where I’ll either throw a grenade OR I'LL PUT THIS PLANE DOWN NOSE FIRST (emphasis mine).” He says he and the other hijackers want a letter signed by the president stating that their ransom money is a grant from the government and they won’t be prosecuted. Ehrlichman says it will take some time to fulfil their request.

Hijackers Receive the Ransom Money - The hijackers then direct the plane to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it lands at 1:30 p.m. It is refueled and the hijackers are given the ransom money, along with food and other supplies. Southern Airways has only been able to put together $2 million, but the airline is assuming—correctly, as it turns out—that the hijackers will lack the time to count the money and realize it is much less than the amount they demanded. The plane leaves Chattanooga at 2:35 p.m. and heads to Cuba, where many hijackers fled during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Authorities Fear the Plane May Be Crashed into the President's Winter Home - As Flight 49 is flying south over Florida, AUTHORITIES BECOME CONCERNED THAT THE HIJACKERS MIGHT CRASH IT INTO THE PRESIDENT'S RETREAT IN KEY BISCAYNE (emphasis mine), where Nixon is currently staying. Military officials contact Florida’s Homestead Air Reserve Base and fighter jets there are placed on alert as a precaution. Fortunately, no incident occurs and Flight 49 lands in Havana at 4:49 p.m. However, to the surprise of the hijackers, the Cubans are unhappy about the plane’s arrival and soldiers surround the aircraft after it touches down. José Abrantes, President Fidel Castro’s head of security, explains to the hijackers the nation’s discomfort about the situation. Therefore, after being refueled, Flight 49 leaves Havana and heads back to the US.

FBI Agents Shoot the Plane's Tires - It lands at McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando at 9:17 p.m. By now, Robert Gebhardt, assistant director of the FBI’s investigative division, has given the order to disable the plane when it is next on the ground. Consequently, after it lands, FBI agents start shooting at its tires. The hijackers, realizing what is happening, order Haas to start the plane’s engines. In the panic that follows, Jackson threatens Harold Johnson, the co-pilot, and shoots him in the arm in front of the terrified passengers. The hijackers give the order to take off and, despite now having two flat tires, the plane is able to get off the ground. Jackson then orders Haas to fly to Cuba again. The damaged plane makes an emergency landing in Havana at 12:32 a.m. on November 12. [DETROIT FREE PRESS, 11/12/1972; GRAFF, 2011, PP. 45-52] Cuban soldiers then arrest the hijackers and seize the ransom money, so it can be returned to Southern Airways. [SLATE, 6/19/2013]

New Security Measures Will Be Introduced in response to the Hijacking - The catastrophic incident will lead to increased security in the aviation industry. Within two months, mandatory screening of all passengers and carry-on luggage will be introduced. THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WILL SIGN AN AGREEMENT WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, MAKING MILITARY ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE TO THE FBI IN THE EVENT OF A TERRORIST EMERGENCY (emphasis mine) Other measures will be considered but not introduced, such as armoring cockpit doors, allowing pilots to carry weapons, and centralizing airport security nationwide under a single agency. [NAFTALI, 2005, PP. 66-67; GRAFF, 2011, PP. 53] “No one understands the impact that this flight and this 30-hour ordeal had on the nation, and transforming everyone, from the White House to the FBI, to the way that we board an airplane every day,” Brendan Koerner, author of a book about aircraft hijackings, will comment in 2016. [DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/6/2016] As a result of the hijacking of Flight 49, “the American public for the first time began to take the question of terrorism seriously and began to accept trade-offs of civil liberties in exchange for greater security,” journalist and author Garrett Graff will write. [GRAFF, 2011, PP. 53-54]

WOW, right? What a harrowing story. Not only was it a story about a plane possibly being used as a guided missile, but policies were implemented to make the military available to the FBI in the event of a "terrorist emergency."

The following is a statement from the 9/11 Report.

Prior to 9/11, it was understood that an order to shoot down a commercial aircraft would have to be issued by the National Command Authority (a phrase used to describe the president and secretary of defense). Exercise planners also assumed that the aircraft would originate from outside the United States, allowing time to identify the target and scramble interceptors. THE THREAT OF TERRORISTS HIJACKING COMMERCIAL AIRLINERS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES "AND USING THEM AS GUIDED MISSILES" WAS NOT RECOGNIZED BY NORAD BEFORE 9/11 (emphasis mine). pg. 17

Do you think they are telling the truth? Did "exercise planners" just miss out on this history or the policies that followed? Are Hollywood writers that much more imaginative than those tasked with protecting us? Are we to believe they thought it unimaginable just as the 9/11 Report cites a "failure of imagination?" Don't believe it. I certainly don't.

ADDITION - 4/21/2022

Something I have thought about before, and something someone else just pointed out to me... with regard to the idea of "planes as weapons" the person pointed out "haven't they ever heard of kamikaze's?" Think about how simplistic that is. That's what makes it so great.

ADDITION - 7/2/2022

I have a question for you...

This isn't within the U.S., but it is related. On May 16th 2002, Condoleezza Rice held a press briefing. During that briefing she said "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." On April 13th 2004, George Bush held a press briefing. During that briefing, he stated "nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envision flying air planes into buildings."

Basically, statements that say they had a "failure of imagination" as the 9/11 Report states. They couldn't imagine planes being used as weapons.

During that same press briefing on 4/13/2004, Bush was asked about the August 6th PDB which famously warned of "hijackings or other types of attacks." Bush apparently asked for the August 6th PDB "because there had been a lot of threat intelligence from overseas. And so, I — part of it had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference that I was going to attend."

In July 2001, Bush and Rice attended the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy. During their time there, they slept on an aircraft carrier for reasons of security. According to author Philip Shenon, Condoleezza Rice is involved in discussions about the security precautions taken while they're there.

One warning talks about how "Osama bin Laden might attempt an air attack on some of the world leaders present." Italian authorities surround the summit with anti-aircraft guns. They keep fighter jets in the air and close off local airspace to all planes.

My question is this, do you think either Rice or Bush were aware they were sleeping on a boat because of a possible threat from above? An air attack presumably by a plane being used as a weapon? I think they would use a plane rather than a balloon per say for an air attack.

The Los Angeles Times, “Italy Tells of Threat at Genoa Summit Plot: Officials there took seriously a report that terrorists would try to crash a plane to kill Bush and other leaders,” September 27, 2001

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...549-story.html