September 11, 2001 Research & Archives

Chris Lyons, a newspaper delivery driver, sees four or five Middle Eastern men near the entrance of Portland airport, from where alleged hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari will later take a plane to Boston (see (6:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The men are speaking Arabic among themselves and hauling about ten suitcases into the airport. Lyons later says they "stuck out because usually no one is around at that hour." After 9/11, local police will say they don't think the men are connected to the attacks. However, Lyons is concerned that they might have been "support people," because, he says, "It's just too much of a coincidence that this group of businessmen was leaving Portland the morning of the terrorist attacks." (Portland Press Herald 9/22/2001; Walsh 10/21/2001)