Majed Moqed and Khalid al Mihdhar booked their tickets for Flight 77 on August 25, 2001. Setting aside the fact that they joined American Airlines' frequent flyer program a day earlier, on September 24, as who joins a frequent flyer program when they know they're going to die on their first flight?, instead of buying business class tickets and sit together with their co-conspirators on the plane, they buy two economy class tickets and choose seats 12A and 12B respectively:
Now, what an odd choice of seats for two prospective hijackers...
A 757 is a single-aisle narrow body jet, with six seats abreast, three on either side. Majed and Khalid must have liked looking out at the view, as they went for what most passengers, especially younger ones, go for when flying and that is a window seat; and then a middle seat so they could be together. Which makes very much sense if they were on a recreational flight, and absolutely no sense if they were on a suicide mission, hell-bent on hijacking the plane and crashing it into a building.
If you were going to hijack an airliner and were able to prebook your seat, a logical assumption is that you would pick a seat that would grant you direct access to the aisle, thus facilitating your task of taking over the aircraft. At the time of booking, neither Majed nor Khalid would have known that the aisle seat next to them would be empty. For all they knew, that seat could have been occupied by a 6" tall 300 lb gorilla blocking their access to the aisle. That alone would have jeopardized the whole operation...
And then there's the issue of where Majed and Khalid were sitting in relation to where the rest of the alleged hijackers of flight 77 were sitting. This is what the 911 Commission had to say about American Airlines flight 11 when it discussed the subject of in-flight seating and hijacker communication:
What did they have to say about alleged flight 77 hijackers and the way they would have communicated with each other onboard the plane? Nothing. Hani Hanjour did indeed have direct line of sight with the cockpit door, but what good would it have done him if he was unable to communicate with the rest of the team?
So, alone up front was Hani Hanjour, four rows behind were Salem and Nawaf Al-Hazmi, five rows behind them and separated by a curtain between first and coach class which is always down during cruise were Majed and Khalid. No direct line of sight whatsoever...Who do you think would have got up first to notify the others it was time to take over the plane? Puny Hani Hanjour? Somehow and from what I've read he doesn't strike me as a leader. Salem and Nawaf? So they got up, first went to the front to notify Hani, then drew the curtain that separates first and coach, went back to Majed and Khalid, told them "it's time", the person who could have been sitting in the aisle seat blocking their way would have been politely asked to "please, get up and stand to the side" because Majed and Khalid have some serious business to attend to and need to reach the aisle...Fortunately for them, this seat turned out to be empty, so one less thing to worry about, but I'm just saying...
Or was it Majed and Khalid who got up first, pulled the curtain, entered first class without being asked by crew what they were doing, reached Salem and Nawaf, and then they all went up front to notify Hani and get the show started?
Or maybe they had arranged on a particular time for all of them to simultaneously make their move, say 40 minutes into the flight, as indeed we're told happened? But then again they still would have had to visually communicate with each other...Which begs the question: If they were planning to hijack the plane, why not simply choose seats that would have allowed them to coordinate with each other? It's not for lack of funds and that's for sure with all the money that was being poured into them. And it's not for lack of availability either, there were lots of unoccupied seats in first and further to the front in coach. So why? WHY?
To any logically thinking person the whole thing makes absolutely no sense. Apparently though it did make sense to the 911 Commission and that's what matters. All the rest of us need to do is find a way to wrap our heads around the 911 Commission's rational and throw logic out the window...
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