On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in modern history.
Nineteen hijackers took control of four passenger planes. Two were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both towers to collapse.
A third plane struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back. Nearly 3,000 ordinary people lost their lives.
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The attacks changed the world almost instantly. Air travel, global politics, national security, and everyday life were reshaped almost instantaneously by what happened that morning.
But amid the tragedy, there were also stories of chance survival, people who missed flights, changed plans, or were delayed just long enough to avoid being caught in the disaster.
Here are five famous people with chilling 9/11 near-miss stories.
Seth MacFarlane
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Seth MacFarlane wasn’t yet the household name he would become. Family Guy had aired, but its creator was still early enough in his career to be traveling like any other working entertainer.
That morning, he was booked on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, American Airlines Flight 11. But everything went wrong.
His travel agent gave him the wrong departure time, and he had been drinking heavily the night before. As such, he was hungover, in a rush, and very late.
He finally arrived about 10 minutes late, but the opportunity to board had passed. The gate was closed, and the plane was gone. He cursed his luck, booked another flight, and waited in the airport lounge, taking a nap.
45 minutes later, he was awoken by a commotion. The news began to spread. A plane had hit the World Trade Center. Eventually, he realized the truth. It wasn’t just any plane, but his plane. American Airlines Flight 11.
After telling the lounge’s bartender, MacFarlane was offered a shot on the house.
Although nobody had any idea at the time, Flight 11 was the first plane to be hijacked. It was then flown into the North Tower.
Seth MacFarlane lived to become one of television’s most influential comedy creators, responsible for Ted, American Dad!, The Orville, and the rest of his long career. Purely by chance, had he been a few minutes earlier, none of that would have existed.
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg also had a 9/11 near miss. But his story is a little more controversial.
He had originally been scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 11, the same Boston-to-Los-Angeles flight that Seth MacFarlane missed and that struck the North Tower. But his plans changed.
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Instead of going to L.A., he and his friends went north across the border to Canada and traveled to Toronto to attend the film festival.
That small and random choice was the only thing that removed him from one of the darkest passenger lists in modern history, for whom there was no escaping fate.
It should have remained a humble story about accidental escape. But in 2012, Wahlberg drew criticism from the victims’ families.
He told Men’s Journal that, had he been on the plane with his children, things “wouldn’t have went down like it did… There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”
There was outrage that bravery alone would have made a difference to the passengers, crew, and World Trade Center attacks. While there can be no doubting Wahlberg’s commitment to his family, everyone on board that plane – and everyone in that tower – had no idea what was going to happen.
Mark later apologized, saying it was “ridiculous” to speculate and that his comments were insensitive.
His story highlights something we all struggle with. Part of Mark wanted to believe he was saved by his own actions, foresight, and bravery. In truth, he was saved by the terrible randomness of fate.
Patti Austin
Singer Patti Austin had been in New York around the time of Michael Jackson’s thirtieth anniversary tribute concert events. She was supposed to fly west, but a family emergency changed everything. Her mother had suffered a stroke.
Hurriedly, Patti brought her plans forward and traveled home earlier than she had intended. The flight she canceled? United Airlines Flight 93. The plane that left Newark for San Francisco. The plane that would never make it.
Flight 93 is one of the most solemn stories of 9/11. Through phone calls, the passengers and crew learned of the other planes being used as weapons. Instead of letting other innocents be hurt, they acted together and stormed the cabin.
Their actions forced the hijackers to abandon their intended target – reportedly the U.S. Capitol Building – and crash the plane in a field.
Like the other three, not a single person on that plane survived. For Patti Austin, her mother’s medical emergency – frightening in itself – was the only reason Austin wasn’t on that plane.
Like MacFarlane and Wahlberg, sometimes the line between life and death runs through the most ordinary human disruptions and decisions.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, had a charity, Chances for Children. Ominously, it had an office on the 101st floor of the North Tower. And the British Royal was in New York on the morning of September 11, preparing to visit.
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However, earlier, an interview ran late. That meant she got stuck in traffic and would be late for her meeting.
Before she ever got there, though, Flight 11 crashed into the tower. Just a little later, and one of the most well-known figures in the world may have been senselessly killed like so many others.
But a small detail makes this story even more heartbreaking. The charity’s mascot was a small red doll, known as Little Red. Later, it was found in the rubble, having fallen 101 floors to the ground.
It now sits in the 9/11 Museum at Ground Zero.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson’s near-miss is one of the most famous. The story mainly comes through his brother, Jermaine Jackson.
The night before, the Jackson family – his mother and brothers – had been together late. His family had only left him at around 3 am.
At the time, none of them knew that he had a meeting scheduled at the top of one of the Twin Towers the next morning. September 11.
As a result, Michael overslept and missed his appointment. In fact, when his mother called to check on him after the attacks, Jermaine wrote that Michael told her she had kept him up so late that he missed his meeting.
It’s a somewhat chilling image. The most famous entertainer in the world, exhausted and asleep in a New York hotel while what could have been his fate unfolded not far away.
Like everyone else on this list, it was a time-and-chance encounter, a split-second decision, a harmless part of daily life that meant his life happened to be spared.
Conclusion
As you’ll have noticed, there’s a common theme to these stories. There was no warning. No reason to suspect danger. Not even a particularly meaningful decision. There was only chance, timing, and the ordinary disruptions of daily life.
They also leave behind a sobering thought. If 9/11 had never happened, how many more famous artists, actors, writers, musicians, athletes, parents, friends, and future public figures would we know today?
How many books, songs, films, inventions, businesses, families, ordinary private lives, visions, and dreams disappeared before the world ever had a chance to see them?
These celebrity near-misses are haunting.
But not because they were celebrities. Plenty of other ordinary people were in the right place at the right time – for no reason.
But what happened to them reminds us of the nearly 3,000 people who didn’t miss their flight, change their meeting, or arrive late enough to be spared.
Their absence is the real story.
Sources
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/singer-patti-austin-talks-about-911-experience/1907363
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