Agency Was to Crash Plane on 9/11

August 22, 2002 3:46 PM

Agency Was to Crash Plane on 9/11 How weird is this??!?
posted by bas67 (8 comments total)

I just read this in Newsday, page A20. Pretty nuts, considering. I can't imagine what went through the organizers heads as they watched the TV: "Uh, how much budget did we have for this little stunt? I didn't authorize any CGI..."
posted by Busithoth at 3:57 PM on August 22, 2002

That headline is misleading. The article states: "No actual plane was to be involved — to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were to be closed off." Maybe saying "Agency was to simulate plan crash on 9/11" would be more appropriate.
posted by Xkot at 4:02 PM on August 22, 2002

Oh gee. Yet again headline fever strikes.

Real story: Some government agency was going to have a fire drill. No story there.

Implied story: An ad agency was going to crash a plane into a building to hype a new product.
posted by wackybrit at 4:56 PM on August 22, 2002

i do wonder if they ever ran the exercise? It seems like it would have been an appropriate thing to test for after seeing it really happen.

Then again, i could also see it causing a lot of unpleasant anxiety in their staff.
posted by quin at 6:24 PM on August 22, 2002

What I find interesting is the parallel from 9/11 to the pilot episode of "The Lone Gunmen" TV show. On that episode, there is a plane that has been programmed by a shadowy govt agency to crash into the WTC, a plot which is narrowly averted by the protagonists. There is even a realistic CGI shot of the plane's near miss. A month or so after 9/11, I remembered this, and looked online to see what people were saying about this amazing Hollywood co-incidence. I was amazed to find that the only mention of it was on conspiracy theory sites. Not a single legit new piece saying, "Wow, isn't that weird?"

While I am not a conspiracy theory sort of person, the lack of any sort of comment on the co-incidence wierded me out more than the co-incidence itself.
posted by kayjay at 9:55 PM on August 22, 2002

It's a little known fact that, before Michael Jackson's last plastic surgery, federal agents were running simulations to see what would happen if the self-proclaimed King of Pop went under the knife yet again.

They weren't even close.
posted by NedKoppel at 8:46 AM on August 23, 2002

From the synopsis of the show, aired March 4, 2001: [The Lone Gunmen] realize that the airplane will be remote controlled ... [so they] hack into the aircraft controls. They do and discover that the plane is programmed to crash into the World Trade Center.

That's ... really ... odd.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 9:38 AM on August 23, 2002

You can see clips from that episode of The Lone Gunmen here. It really is quite strange.
posted by ToothpickVic at 5:36 PM on August 26, 2002