Rod “MAC” McAlear, Major USAF (Retired) flew in the Air Force and as commercial airline pilot for over 23 years. One week in March 2001, while working at a Flight School in Phoenix, AZ, he taught a ground school with a student named Hani Hanjour, the hijacker ultimately responsible for flying a plane into the Pentagon. During the course of the ground school, he and the school reported the suspicious individual to the FAA, as mentioned on page 521 of the 9/11 Commission Report. He has never spoken publicly about his experience until now. CAMP NEWSLETTER HERE: https://camp.beehiiv.com/ THANK YOU! Morgan & Morgan, Prizepicks, Bashmouth and Bluechew for making this show possible and paying these editors and stuff haha - Save 20% sitewide at BASHMOUTH com with Promo Code: GAGNON20 Intro: Chifftie Edited and produced: Christos Papastefanou 00:00 Intro 1:15 Mac's flying history + flight sims 5:07 Typical students at the time + advanced sims today 9:01 First day training the Hijacker + ground school 16:12 Hijacker wasn't good enough for ground school 19:45 Commercial license 22:22 How advanced was his training? 23:40 Reached out to FAA with suspicions 27:56 9/11 + scheduled to fly to NY 33:33 Hijackers' names release + Where did they take off from? 38:48 Government reaching out + law change 43:20 Anyone else report? Named in the Commission + pre-plans 49:00 Feeling any guilt? Could FAA done more? 52:56 Mac continued teaching + Checks & balances now 57:07 Other connections to hijackers + Pentagon 1:04:51 Pre & post 9/11 1:10:18 Theories surrounding 9/11 + other attempts 1:14:02 Being comfortable talking about it + making peace 1:17:47 Mac's career + scariest thing that happened 1:24:10 Planes landing themselves + unruly passengers 1:30:09 High profile passengers + medical emergencies 1:34:55 How do you make up time? 1:36:36 Worst airports? Annoying co-pilots + Yappers 1:41:17 Are pilots out here cheating? Drinkers too 1:45:01 Female pilots are GOOD 1:46:50 Sky King 1:49:25 Boeing + crazy plane stories