An airline ticket agent who checked in two of the September 11 hijackers says he remains troubled by a split-second decision that morning, admitting he “didn’t listen to his gut” despite sensing something was wrong.
Michael Tuohey was on duty at Portland International Jetport in Maine on September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda operatives Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari arrived for the first leg of their journey to Boston.
According to Tuohey, the pair reached their Boston connection with little time to spare. They would later board and hijack American Airlines Flight 11, the plane that was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
More than two decades later, Tuohey says he is still haunted by the possibility that he might have been able to intervene, recalling that the men struck him as suspicious but were ultimately allowed to continue.
“If anyone looked like a terrorist, he was a terrorist,” he said of Atta.
“My gut instinct was good, but there were laws, there were laws against profiling people,” the 80-year-old former ticket agent told RTE.
“It’s just that it could have changed something. Not that it would have, but it could have. Who knows?… I didn’t listen to my gut. And it turned out to be an awful thing,” he said.
Tuohey recalled first noticing the two men as they appeared to have difficulty navigating the small Maine airport, having arrived only about 30 minutes before their scheduled departure.
“They looked confused,” he said, explaining that he guided them through the check-in process so they could make their connecting flight.
Michael Tuohey, 80, the airline ticket agent who checked in two of the 9/11 hijackers, says he still regrets not acting on his instincts after noticing their suspicious behavior before the attacks
Tuohey described a tense exchange with lead hijacker Mohamed Atta (left) and Abdul Aziz al Omari (right), but ultimately helped them reach their connecting flight before the hijackings
The former ticket agent said he was struck by the fact that the men had booked first-class seats. He also remembered Atta growing irritated as Tuohey slowly reviewed their travel documents.
He recalled Atta barking at him, ‘They told me it would be a one-step check in’, so Tuohey gave him his boarding pass and sent him on his way.
Tuohey said he told Atta that because he had a first class ticket, he should head to the Admiral Lounge when he got to Boston, where they would ‘set him up’ with a more comfortable experience.
He said Atta responded to his friendly suggestion by bluntly repeating, ‘They told me it would be one-step check in.’
This rude remark caught Tuohey off-guard, he said, and he then warned the terrorist: ‘Mr Atta, if you don’t get upstairs real quick, you’re going to miss your flight altogether.’
He said Atta then gave an ‘order’ to al Omari, and the two men hastily picked up their belongings and headed for their flight.
Tuohey said he was glad to see the men walk away because of their rude encounter, as he ‘didn’t want to deal with this guy anymore.’
Tuohey, seen during his time working at Portland International Jetport in Maine, said he has been left haunted by the thought that he could have prevented the attacks
When Tuohey saw the 9/11 attacks unfolding on the news, he said it quickly dawned on him that he may have encountered the hijackers that day
Some time later, Tuohey said he saw the 9/11 attacks unfolding on the news, and a colleague reminded him that he had helped passengers get onto the flight to Boston.
‘Oh my god, the poor guys, they’re dead,’ Tuohey recalled thinking, unaware at the time that the Atta and al Omari could have been responsible.
‘And then it dawned on me, wait a minute… if anyone looked like a terrorist, he is a terrorist,’ he said.
‘That passed through my mind earlier that day.’
Tuohey said even though he had his suspicions about Atta, he understood ‘there are laws against profiling people’, and he believed at the time he would have been accused of racial profiling.
‘I don’t want to get into a pissing contest about that,’ he said. ‘My opinion is, I didn’t listen to my gut, and it turned out to be an awful thing.
‘It wasn’t that I was right, it’s just that it could have changed something… I followed all the guidelines, I did my job, and 3,000 people ended up paying with their lives.’
