I know the comment was sarcastic -- I was just pondering the risk involved in relying on a connection.

I truly wonder what their contingency plan was? If they missed the connection, they would not have been the first airplane to impact the WTC.

Would they have waited for the next flight to LAX? That would make the most sense. If they had tried to get on the next flight to anywhere (with lots of jet fuel, of course), that would have raised all sorts of questions.

Would they have simply canceled their mission? We would have had the first true "sleeper cell," I suppose.

Perhaps, the next flight to LAX would have been grounded after one WTC attack and the Pentagon attack. Then, the mission would have been over for Atta. If I had questions about Al Qaeda and the militant movement, this would have been a great opportunity to "defect."

If they had missed their connection and taken the next AA flight to LAX and discounted the loss of the element of surprise, my guess is that they would have never gained access to the cockpit and would have been beaten to a pulp, if not killed, by passengers already greatly annoyed by the events of 9/11.

When I think this through, it makes me realize that the whole operation on 9/11 relied on luck.