Man Trying to Raise $1.5M to 'Recreate' 9/11

Paul Salo is an American entrepreneur living in Thailand, and his latest project has earned him the descriptors of "delusional" from the website Coconuts Bangkok and "possible supervillain" from Gothamist. Why? He's trying to raise money so he can buy an old 747 and fly it into a building in a remote locale to determine "once and for all" whether 9/11 was a hoax. "I want to fly that sucker in there and see what happens," Salo says in a YouTube video. The American expat says he personally doesn't believe the conspiracy theories out there, but he's curious to see what happens to the jet. "Everything that was in 9/11, we're putting in this one," including passports and a functioning black box, he says. "Will the plane disintegrate? Will the black box disappear? Will the out-of date passports we scatter in the plane survive? You will see it all."

Salo, who doesn't appear to have any background in science, says he's spoken to the Thai military about buying a 747 and a building about to be torn down, but there's no deal yet. If the stunt isn't possible in Thailand, Salo says he'll head anywhere in the world. "I have no desire to downplay the heroism on that fateful day," but "I really want to make something everyone in the world will want to watch." (It's that sentiment that has Gothamist criticizing him for trying to make "entertainment out of tragedy.") Might this be a hoax? A post at Jezebel says it "appears to be an entirely serious, non-trolling effort, but given how outlandish it is, there does exist the slim possibility that Salo is messing with us." Donate $5,000 and you'll get to see the event in person, though you'll have to pay your own way, according to his fundraising page. He's raised $105 as of this writing. (A blacksmith had his own way of debunking conspiracy theorists.)