May Day Attacks (Al Gore's 9/11)

On May 1, four Malaysian men – Mohamad Farik Amin, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, Zaini Zakaria, and Masran bin Arshad – boarded American Airlines Flight 24 from San Francisco Airport bound for New York, scheduled to depart at 8:01 AM PST. Additionally, 4 other men boarded four separate aircraft in Dallas, Miami, Chicago, and Toronto (one of whom is Richard Reid) around the same time in their respective time zones. With the exception of Reid, all came from Malaysian, Indonesian, or Filipino backgrounds. All of these men had two things in common – they were sworn members of al-Qaeda, and all carried explosive substances hidden in their shoes.

At 8:43 AM, as the plane has reached cruising altitude, bin Arshad signals his men to act. They overpowered the crew and used their explosive shoes to blow the protective doors on the cockpit. The terrorists disabled the flight crew but not before the co-pilot could send a hijacking mayday. Zakaria, a trained pilot, quickly disabled the flight transponder for the plane, and turned the plane on a course due southeast.

President Gore was notified of the hijacking at 11:59 AM EST and called in his National Security staff to discuss the situation. Not knowing what to make of the situation, at 12:07PM, Gore ordered two F-18s from North Island NAS in San Diego to scramble and look for the aircraft. The jets were airborne 7 minutes later.

At 12:11 PM EST (9:11 AM PST), 3 explosions were reported aboard the Dallas, Chicago, and Toronto originating flights. Pilots struggled to control the planes as they rapidly descended, and the aircraft crashed in Texas, Indiana, and Michigan, respectively. One passenger aboard the Miami flight, Richard Reid, had trouble igniting the explosives in his shoe. When spotted by a flight attendant, she called for help and Reid is overpowered by the passengers and crew. At 12:16 EST, an aide to President Gore rushed in on the National Security meeting and said to him, “Mr. President, it’s happening again!” Gore immediately ordered all inbound and outbound flights to be grounded.

The hijackers of Flight 24 made their way to Los Angeles airspace unmolested and at 10:21 AM PST, crash the aircraft into the US Bank (formerly the Library) Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Much like the World Trade Center 8 months ago, fire swept the crash area of the building and at 11:04 AM PST, the tower collapsed.