Review of The Assault (2014) by John D — 02 Aug 2013

The four suicide-hijackers receive next to no attention. That is unfortunate because in the event they were veterans of Usama bin Laden's operation during the Afghan-Russian war. Their intent was to crash the Airbus 300 jumbo jet into what had been the tallest building in the world when it was constructed -- the Eiffel Tower.

Still, the preparations against terrorism that Air France and G.I.G.N. had made prior to 1994 all came into play and are presented effectively. Contrary to the Americans in 2001, this Afghansi plot is stopped cold and the procedural flow of the movie blends into video footage of the actual retaking of the A300 on the tarmac at Marseilles.

When people are shot in this film it is the real people taking real bullets. For Americans this should be a disturbing film start to finish: why did we not prepare and why not lock our airline cockpits? Avoiding the 9/11 attacks would have been so easy.

Air France changed its rules after this attack and prevented any possibility of a repetition. Our FAA saw AF's new procedures but despite spending tens of millions on counterterrorism, FAA ignored the problem.

And now every year the names are read down at WTC and it takes hours.