10 Famous People Who Escaped Death on 911

10 Famous People Who Avoided Death on 9/11 NUMBER 10: MARK WAHLBERG. Transformers actor Mark Wahlberg was scheduled
to fly on American Airlines Flight 11, the plane that would eventually crash into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 am. However, at the last minute, he and his friends
decided to change their plans. Instead of traveling to Los Angeles, they boarded a plane
to Toronto, Canada, in order to attend a film festival.

The actor later got into trouble for remarks
he made implying that he would have been able to overthrow the terrorists, had he ended
up on the plane. He apologized to the victims families for the insensitivity of his comments. Sources: Huffington Post, Fox News. NUMBER 9: IAN THORPE.

Ian Thorpe, the five-time Olympic swimming
champion from Australia, was extremely close to falling victim to the devastating terrorist
attacks. On the morning of 9/11, Thorpe was out for
a jog in New York City when he decided to visit the observation deck of the World Trade
Center. Upon realizing that he had forgotten his camera, Thorpe hailed a cab back to his
hotel room to collect it. Once at the hotel, Thorpe immediately noticed
the horrors unfolding on TV screens, exactly where he had been planning to visit.

Sources: Swimming World Magazine, The Australian,
Smallworlds. NUMBER 8: LARRY SILVERSTEIN. Less than two months before the attacks, property
developer and billionaire Larry Silverstein acquired the 3.2 Billion lease to the World
Trade Center. Silverstein spent every morning attending
breakfast meetings at the top of the World Trade Center North Tower.

On September 11th,
however, Silverstein was at a doctors appointment. Silversteins children, Roger and Lisa,
were also due to attend meetings in the building, but were fortunately running late. Some conspiracy theorists have speculated
that Silversteins lucky escape was due to him having prior knowledge of the plot
- a theory fueled by the fact that he received a whopping $4.5 Billion insurance payout. Sources: New York Observed, Business Insurance,
Wall Street Journal.

NUMBER 7: SETH MACFARLANE. On the morning of the 9/11 attacks, Family
Guy creator Seth MacFarlane had a ticket to fly to Los Angeles on the ill-fated Flight
11. The previous nights drinking had left MacFarlane
hungover in the morning and he was running late as a result. Also, his agent had mistakenly
told him that his flight was due to depart at quarter past eight, rather than quarter
to.

He arrived at the boarding gate a couple of
minutes after the gates had been closed. He was told that he would have to wait for a
different flight an hour later, a setback that ultimately saved his life. Sources: CNN, Huffington Post. NUMBER 6: GABOUREY SIDIBE [Gab-or-ay Sid-ibb-ay] Before she rocketed to fame for her performance
in Precious, Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe attended a Community College in Manhattan.

On the morning of the attacks, Sidibe had
overslept - something that she later said she very rarely did. As a result, she wasnt
at school when the planes hit the World Trade Center, throwing debris across the neighboring
buildings, including Sidibes college. The debris severely damaged the school buildings
and 8 of its staff and students tragically lost their lives. Sources: Borough of Manhattan Community College,
The New York Times.

NUMBER 5: PATTI AUSTIN. Grammy award-winning singer Patti Austin had
booked a seat on United Flight 93, due to fly from Newark Airport to San Francisco on
the morning of September 11th. Her plans were altered the previous day, when
her mother suffered a sudden stroke. Austin immediately rescheduled her plans and flew
home on an earlier flight.

Had Austin boarded Flight 93, she would have
been on board when passengers attempted to regain control from the four Al-Qaeda hijackers
and the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. All 44 people on board were killed. Sources: The Washington Post, National Commission
on Terrorist Attacks, NBC Los Angeles. NUMBER 4: SARAH FERGUSON.

The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, was in
New York on the day of the devastating attacks. Her charity, Chances for Children was
based in offices on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. Ferguson was being interviewed live on NBC
when the first plane hit the North Tower, and the television cut away to news footage. The strange thing was that the Duchess
interview was already running late, and she was due back in her office at the time the
plane hit.

Fortunately, none of the charitys employees
lost their lives in the buildings collapse. Sources: Metro, SmallWorlds, New York Daily
News. NUMBER 3: MICHAEL LOMONACO [Lom-man-echo] As head chef at the Windows on the World restaurant,
television personality Michael Lomonaco was based on the 106th floor of the North Tower. Lomonaco had recently sent his glasses to
the opticians for repair and he was due to collect them on the afternoon of September
11th.

However, on his way to work that morning,
he decided to take a detour to see if the glasses were ready early. It was this decision
that would end up saving his life. He had just reached the lobby of the tower
when the first plane hit. Sources: Foodandwine, New York Daily News,
Live Leak.

NUMBER 2: JIM PIERCE. Jim Pierce is the cousin of George W. Bush
and managing director of New York-based AON. Corporations.

On September 11th 2001, he was scheduled to
attend a conference on the 105th floor of the South Tower. Luckily for him, the location
of the conference was rearranged at the last minute to a larger venue, due to high attendance
numbers. Pierce later learned that 11 out of the 12
people in the original location had perished in the attack. Sources: The Guardian, History Commons.

NUMBER 1: MICHAEL JACKSON. In a 2011 interview, Jermaine Jackson revealed
that his brother Michael was supposed to be in meetings in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The King of Pop had been performing in New
York City the night before and - exhausted from the show - canceled his appointments
for the following morning. Jermaine Jackson said that the family had
been very worried that morning, as they didnt realize that Michael hadnt attended his
planned meetings.

Luckily, Michaels decision saved him from
being in the vicinity of the twin towers when they fell, killing 2,752 people. Sources: New York Post, Washington Post, Ad
Week..