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Mark Wahlberg still dreams about stopping the terrorists who attacked New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, because he should have been on one of the planes that crashed. The actor and some friends were booked on United Airlines flight 93 from his native Boston, Mass., to Los Angeles, which was hijacked by Al-Qaida terrorists.

Brave passengers forced the jet to crash into a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach it's intended target, and the thought that he could have been involved still haunts Wahlberg.

The 34-year-old, who decided to fly from Toronto, Canada, instead at the last minute, says, "We certainly would have tried to do something to fight. I've had probably over 50 dreams about it."

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Experience with September 11, 2001 attacks

On the morning of the September 11, 2001 attacks, MacFarlane was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston, Massachusetts, after being a keynote speaker at his alma mater. According to MacFarlane, his travel agent recorded the wrong time that the plane would depart (8:15 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m.).[54] He was also hung over from drinking the previous night.[55] As a result of the combination with both factors, he arrived at 7:30 and found out the gates were closed.[54] At 8:14 a.m., fifteen minutes after the departure of American Airlines Flight 11, the plane was hijacked.[56] The plane was later flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City and crashed at 8:46 a.m., with no survivors.[57]

In an interview with TVShowsOnDVD.com, MacFarlane said the following about his close call:

The only reason it hasn’t really affected me as it maybe could have is I didn’t really know that I was in any danger until after it was over, so I never had that panic moment. After the fact, it was sobering, but people have a lot of close calls; you’re crossing the street and you almost get hit by a car… this one just happened to be related to something massive. I really can’t let it affect me because I’m a comedy writer. I have to put that in the back of my head.[58]

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Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel.

The mayor, who was booked to fly to New York yesterday morning from San Francisco International Airport, said the call "didn't come in any alarming fashion, which is why I'm hesitant to make an alarming statement."

In fact, at the time, he didn't pay it much mind.

"It was not an abnormal call. I'm always concerned if my flight is going to be on time, and they always alert me when I ought to be careful."

Exactly where the call came from is a bit of a mystery. The mayor would say only that it came from "my security people at the airport."