Rob Lowe: 'I flew with 9/11 hijackers on their practice run'

Actor Rob Lowe has revealed he had a close call with the 9/11 tragedy - when he unwittingly flew alongside the bombers on their dry run.

The Brothers and Sisters star said he was on the flight that 11 days later would crash into the Pentagon, killing all on board.

The actor spoke about the experience on The View, a chat show for American TV channel ABC, as it was confirmed that Osama Bin Laden had been assassinated.

He told host Whoopie Goldberg: 'I flew with the 9/11 hijackers on the dry run, without realising.'

But he appeared confused about the flight number of the plane he took.

'I was working on the West Wing in DC at the time and I always took Flight 93 or 73, the flight that leaves Dulles that they eventually put into the Pentagon,' he said.

United Flight 93 was the plane that was brought down by brave passengers who realised it had been hijacked. It crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board. There are theories that the hijackers had wanted to use the plane in an attack on the White House.

American Airlines Flight 77 was the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The actor seems to have meant he was on that flight, but has not yet clarified.

Lowe explained how he didn't have any indication that he was flying with the terrorists.

'It was 11 days before 9/11, I made the flight a lot and I didn't think anything of it. I got on the plane and it was packed.

'Nobody looked scary, nobody looked like a terrorist. It looked like an absolutely normal flight... then 9/11 happened.'

It wasn't until a year later that the 47-year-old found out how close he'd come to the attacks.

He received a letter from the attorney general's office in Maryland informing him that he was
on the list to be deposed for terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui's defence.

He revealed he thought it was an 'April Fool's joke'.

'Even just telling the story, it almost feels like it didn't happen to me. I'm just grateful that I wasn't one of the so many Americans who had suffered.'

Rob joined in with crowds celebrating the demise of Bin Laden in New York's Times Square, where he sat with firefighters on top of their truck to mark the moment.

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