"The flight I took was actually on August 1," said Woods, who spoke publicly about the encounter for the first time on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
After spotting four Arab-looking men with no carry-on luggage who seemed to be behaving suspiciously, he took action.
"I took it upon myself to go to the flight attendant and asked to speak to the pilot of the plane," Woods said. "The first officer came out. I reported to him that I felt that these four men.... I said, I think they're going to hijack this plane."
"I found out later that not only did he make a report but the flight attendant also made a report of my suspicions to the FAA," he added.
Woods said that when he got home that night friends asked how his flight went. He replied jokingly, "Well, aside from the terrorists and the turbulence it was fine."
Though nothing came of his vigilance for the next 40 days, Woods said that on the morning after the attacks, the FBI was outside his house waiting to talk to him at 7:15 a.m.
"Since then I have identified for sure two of them (on my flight) as two of the terrorists who actually were not on Flight 11, but one was on Flight 175 and one was on Flight 77."
United Airlines Flight 77 slammed into Tower Two of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. on 9/11. American Airlines Flight 175 hit the Pentagon some 45 minutes later.
Woods said that someone "in a higher level of government" has told him that all four of the Middle Eastern men he observed in August participated in the 9/11 attacks in some way.
The politically conservative actor said that earlier accounts suggesting he reported the suspected terrorists to the FBI before 9/11 - and that the bureau failed to take his report seriously - were erroneous. Woods said instead that the flight crew may have made an FBI report.
A secondhand account of Woods' encounter with the 9/11 terrorists first surfaced in Cindy Adams' New York Post column just days after the attacks. (See: Twin Tower Terrorists May Have Made Dry Run )
But Woods himself has never publicly described the chilling encounter before.
Actor Woods Fingered 9/11 Kamikaze Terrorists on Previous Fight
He spoke with the FBI AFTER the attacks on the morning of 9-11.