[eno_]

Who knows what the real story is? Some of the possibilities are:

a) The hijackers had more weapons than just boxcutters. Some might have been placed aboard planes by co-conspirators.

b) The hijackers might have had a small bomb.

c) The plane might have been shot down.

I really don't care if any of these are true, or not. It takes nothing away from the heroism of the passengers that fought the hijackers. But I DO want to know just how bad security was before 9/11.

[BigBobber]

I agree with you. But of the three scenarios you list, the hijacker bomb is the only one confirmed by the passengers in their phone calls.

[Pukka Puck]

The man from mars might have been helping the terrorists, too, but it is pretty damn unlikely, just as all the things you think might be the case are unlikely and totally unnecessary, given what we know about the modus operandi of the other three planes.

[mikegi]

b) The hijackers might have had a small bomb.

The hijackers probably said they had a bomb to discourage a passenger revolt.