September 11 early morning

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Good scope?N Timeline? +Y wikified? +Y red links < 10?N all red links fixed?N referenced?N Illustrated?N Googled and added info? N Checked 9/11 records archives? N Checked Wikinews? N Checked Wikisource? N

early morning* morning* 6am-7am* 7am-8am* 8am-8:30am* 8:30am - 8:40am* 8:40 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.* 8:45 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.* 8:50 a.m.* |9am-10am 10:00-10:10* 10:05-10:10* 11am-midday* afternoon

(1:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Hours Before Attacks, San Francisco Mayor Receives Warning

Eight hours prior to the attacks, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown receives a warning from “my security people at the airport,” advising him to be cautious in traveling. [SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9/12/2001] Later reports claim that this is because someone saw the State Department warning of September 7 , which focused on the threat to military personnel in Asia. Brown is scheduled to fly to New York the next morning. [US DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 9/7/2001; SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9/12/2001; SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9/14/2001] The source of the warning, and why it was personally issued to Brown, remains unknown.

(3:40 a.m.-4:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Newspaper Delivery Driver: Suspicious Middle Eastern Men Witnessed at Airport Later Used by Hijackers

Chris Lyons, a newspaper delivery driver, sees four or five Middle Eastern men near the entrance of Portland International Jetport, from where Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari will later take a plane to Boston . The men are speaking Arabic among themselves and hauling about ten suitcases into the airport. Lyons later says they “stuck out because usually no one is around at that hour.” After 9/11, local police will say they don’t think the men are connected to the attacks. However, Lyons is concerned that they might have been “support people,” because, he says, “It’s just too much of a coincidence that this group of businessmen was leaving Portland the morning of the terrorist attacks.”

5:33 a.m.-5:40 a.m. September 11, 2001: Hijackers Drive to Airport

Having spent the previous night at the Comfort Inn in Portland, Maine , hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari check out at 5:33 a.m. and drive their rented Nissan to the nearby Portland International Jetport, entering its parking lot at 5:40 a.m. The FBI will later seize their car there.Their flight is due to take off for Boston at 6:00 a.m. . The Boston Globe points out, “Any significant delay would foil [Atta’s] big plans for the day.” The 9/11 Commission later concludes: “The Portland detour almost prevented Atta and Omari from making Flight 11 out of Boston.”

5:43 a.m. September 11, 2001: Hijackers Check in at Portland Airport; Atta Becomes Angry with Ticket Agent

Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari check in at the US Airways counter at Portland International Jetport. They are wearing ties and jackets. Atta checks in two bags, Alomari none. Atta is randomly selected for additional security scrutiny by CAPPS . However, the only consequence is that his checked bags will be held off the plane until it is confirmed that he has boarded.

Noting that their flight is soon due to leave, the ticket agent who checks them in, Michael Tuohey, says, “You’re cutting it close.” Tuohey thinks the pair seems unusual. He notices they both have $2,500 first-class, one-way tickets. He later comments, “You don’t see many of those.” Atta looks “like a walking corpse. He looked so angry.” In contrast, Tuohey says, Alomari can barely speak English and has “a goofy smile, I can’t believe he knew he was going to die that day.” Tuohey will later recount, “I thought they looked like two Arab terrorists but then I berated myself for the stereotype and did nothing.”

Atta becomes angry when Tuohey informs him he will have to check in again in Boston. He complains that he was assured he would have a “one-step check-in.”

Tuohey will be recalled to work later in the day to speak to an unnamed FBI agent about his encounter with Atta and Alomari. He is shown video footage of them passing through the airport’s security checkpoint upstairs . Although recognizing the two men, he notices that in the video they are no longer wearing the jackets and ties they’d had on when checking in just minutes before. He assumes they must have taken these off and tucked them into their carry-on baggage. He is also informed that the security camera behind his own desk, which should have captured the two hijackers, has in fact been out of order for some time.

(Between 5:45 a.m. and 5:53 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Two Hijackers Caught on Video as They Board a Flight to Boston; Footage Shows Two Times

Minutes after arriving at the Portland International Jetport, hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari pass through the airport’s single security checkpoint, on the way to boarding their 6 a.m. flight to Boston,Colgan Air Flight 5930. The checkpoint has a surveillance camera pointing at it, which captures them as they go through.

Some reports say the pair passes through at 5:53 a.m. Other reports put it earlier, at 5:45 a.m. Strangely, when stills from the surveillance camera are later publicly released, they show two time stamps, one of 5:45 and another of 5:53. When they’d checked in just minutes earlier, Atta and Alomari were observed wearing ties and jackets . But in the security video footage, they have just open-necked shirts, with no jackets or ties.