Man who checked in terrorist onto 9/11 flight says it still haunts him

People couldn't look him in the eye the next day

The man who checked in the terrorists who crashed Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11 said it still haunts him to this day. On September 11, 2001, four passenger planes were hijacked by terrorists who intended to crash them into important US buildings. Most notably, two of the planes struck the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people. But two other planes were also hijacked. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on the same day, killing 189 people. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was heading for Washington DC and was supposed to crash into the US Capitol Building. However, passengers on the flight were able to gain control of the plane and crash it into a field. All 44 on board were killed. The man who checked in the two terrorists into Flight 77 was Vaughn Allex. He was working for American Airlines at the ticket counter of Dulles International Airport, Virginia, on that fateful day, and has revealed it still haunts him. He spoke to Story Corps about the day, and remembered how the two men came rushing up to his check-in desk, saying they were late for their flight. He said: "I checked in a family that was a retiree and his wife, I had time to talk to them.

While it's something that has haunted him ever since, it is only in recent years that he has been able to talk about it. But there is no way he could have known what the men he let on the flight were about to do. All Allex saw at the time was two passengers rushing to get on their flight. Many of his friends and colleagues have told him he was just doing his job.