Fog delay in Boston on 9/11

Consider the scenario where instead of having good weather in Boston on 9/11/01, fog creeps in overnight and people wake up on the morning of the 11th with low visibility. As a result, all flights out of Boston -- and only out of Boston -- are delayed by two hours. People spend a lot of time sitting in the airport waiting for their flights to leave. Meanwhile, two planes are already in the air, headed towards their targets.
 
Both World Trade Center flights. Here's the whole list.

American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles
United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles
American Airlines Flight 77 from Dulles to Los Angeles
United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco
 
What times were the take offs in relation to the attacks?

AA11 -- leaves BOS at 7:59 and hits WTC at 8:46.
UA175 -- leaves BOS at 8:14 and hits WTC at 9:02
AA77 -- leaves Dulles at 8:20 and hits Pentagon at 9:38
AA93 -- leaves Newark at 8:42.

The most obvious changes are: the two WTC flights are probably shot down or at least noticed as hijackings (or at least one of them is taken over by the passengers similar to AA93), and the Capitol is probably hit (the Washington defense networks didn't do much to prevent the plane from hitting the Pentagon).

Having the Pentagon and Capitol planes hit and the WTC's not happen could make the people think it's an attack on government facilities and not civilians.
 
When does the fog roll in? Looking at the timeline of events, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari, two of the hijackers of American Flight 11, flew into Boston Logan from Portland on the morning of 9/11, which, if it gets delayed, may affect things - the hijacker-pilot for United 175 called to confirm the attack plans at 6:52 AM. Not sure what their plans were if the flight was delayed; it's possible their plans could've unraveled.

If Boston flights are delayed, American Flight 77, out of Dulles, is going to be the first to take off at 8:20 AM, followed by United 93 out of Newark at 8:42, then American 11 at 9:45 (or 9:59 - it was delayed 15 minutes in OTL), and finally United 175 at 10:14. American 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37, but I'm not sure when United 93 would've crashed into its target. Still, it seems possible that the people aboard United 175, and possibly aboard American 11 as well, would know something's up. Whether they'd guess suicide attacks, I'm not sure.

It's possible that people would've gotten in contact by cell phone, been informed of the attacks in DC - maybe there would've been two flights seized from the hijackers?
 
When does the fog roll in? Looking at the timeline of events, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari, two of the hijackers of American Flight 11, flew into Boston Logan from Portland on the morning of 9/11, which, if it gets delayed, may affect things - the hijacker-pilot for United 175 called to confirm the attack plans at 6:52 AM. Not sure what their plans were if the flight was delayed; it's possible their plans could've unraveled.

If Boston flights are delayed, American Flight 77, out of Dulles, is going to be the first to take off at 8:20 AM, followed by United 93 out of Newark at 8:42, then American 11 at 9:45 (or 9:59 - it was delayed 15 minutes in OTL), and finally United 175 at 10:14. American 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37, but I'm not sure when United 93 would've crashed into its target. Still, it seems possible that the people aboard United 175, and possibly aboard American 11 as well, would know something's up. Whether they'd guess suicide attacks, I'm not sure.

It's possible that people would've gotten in contact by cell phone, been informed of the attacks in DC - maybe there would've been two flights seized from the hijackers?

You can assume that the day starts off foggy and the sun burns it off by 10:00 or so (or even earlier). However, there will still be a bit of a backlog even if the fog disappears earlier.

Portland and Boston aren't that far away from each other. There could be a minor fog delay in Portland as well. However, we'll assume that there is less of a delay in Portland than in Boston, so Atta would still be able to get to the cockpit for the hijack attempt.
 
Top