The CFI who trained two 9/11 terrorists... and flunked them out...

denverpilot

denverpilot

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When I lived in Blue Ridge Ga, the local paper had an article from an airport north of there, Copperhill I think, where FastEddie is based I believe. An old timer at the airport said 2 middle eastern guys were asking about the nearby copper plant (copper smelting I believe) and the old timer told them that the plant had been closed up for years. They had flown in and when they found out the plant was closed they acted agitated and got in their plane (rental C172 I believe) and flew back out. Think it was from Lawrence airport just NNE of ATL.

Here's the kicker. One of them was Mohammad Atta, the ringleader. Who knows how many potential targets they checked out while they were here. Ever hear that story Fasteddie?
 
They didn't all pass.

A friend of mine in law enforcement investigated a crash a couple years before 9/11. 2 killed. The students killed were doing a cross country and crashed. Hard. They were listed as from Saudi. Two other students in the same flight school also listed as from Saudi were not able to communicate in English and were obviously agitated at having to speak to law enforcement.

After 9/11 the FBI visited him and asked to look at his reports from the crash. After looking at them for a couple hours, they gave him a receipt and said thanks. Turned out one of the dead students was from Iraq, the other from Saudi, and the names listed at the flight school wasn't their real names. Missed out on their 72 virgins.

Another story. Little more than a couple years after 9/11 an air ag operation in Texas called police. Seems two middle east men visited their private airport. They claimed to be college students and wanted to learn more about crop dusting and its effectiveness on spreading the chemicals. The owner of the operation felt uneasy and really didn't give them any useful information. Then one of the guys got in a plane and asked how to operate the sprayer and how to start the plane. At that point the owner pulled his pistol and told him to get out, and yelled at his pilots to get a shotgun and come help him. The two students left post haste.
 
It was an instructor in Chandler I think, who reported another 2 guys to the FBI in Phoenix because they showed no interest in landings.

typical knee jerk reactions, his business disappeared after it all happened.
 
Scrabo said:
It was an instructor in Chandler I think, who reported another 2 guys to the FBI in Phoenix because they showed no interest in landings.

typical knee jerk reactions, his business disappeared after it all happened.
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Why? It was a false report? Who wouldn't do business with him? (Just curious. Doesn't make any particular sense unless he had reputation for lying before that.)
 
The FBO owner at an airport near me had interviewed two of the hijackers before 9/11, and decided to turn them away, keeping their records in his "NFG" folder. They later went elsewhere and got accepted. Apparently this was one of the very few cases he's ever had rejecting a paying customer upfront.
He was proud to show that folder to the FBI later on when they came to investigate.
 
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denverpilot said:
Why? It was a false report? Who wouldn't do business with him? (Just curious. Doesn't make any particular sense unless he had reputation for lying before that.)
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It innocently tarnished his business, merely by association and people not having the full facts.

I don't remember the guys name but the way he was treated was similar to the Venice guy, who once his name surfaced he received death threats; bank loans were called in; he lost his business; his health suffered; and his 22-year marriage came to an end.
 
Found this but not the individual guys name...

Commission]In January 2001, the Arizona flight school JetTech alerts the FAA about hijacker Hani Hanjour. No one at the school suspects Hanjour of terrorist intent, but they tell the FAA he lacks both the English and flying skills necessary for the commercial pilot’s license he has already obtained. For instance, he had taken classes at the University of Arizona but failed his English classes with a 0.26 grade point average. A JetTech flight school manager “couldn’t believe he had a commercial license of any kind with the skills that he had.” A former employee says, “I’m still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon. He could not fly at all.” They also note he is an exceptionally poor student who does not seem to care about passing his courses.
 
In hindsight.. his insights into thier lack of flying skill is pretty amazing. Makes you wonder if he prevented more "flying" on that sad day.
Great story.
 
There are very few books that I pick up and can't put down, surprisingly the 9/11 congressional report was one of them, hard read but both fascinating and scary at the same time. It went into detail about who used what flight school, how they moved money and the multiple passports they used and the ease by which they entered and exited the US.

It is a great read.
 
I had a Saudi student at a flight club I teach at on the side. He wanted to fly commercially in Saudi Arabia and his wife was in school at the local college for Nuclear Engineering. Apparently they were sent over with a **** ton of money by the Saudi government.

I taught him until I couldn't anymore. The guy was always nervous nor did he understand landings.
 
ARFlyer said:
I taught him until I couldn't anymore. The guy was always nervous nor did he understand landings.
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When I was at Columbus AFB (pilot tng base) we had a ton of foreign student pilots (incl Iranians) during the 70s. We also had 4-5 Iranian trainee controllers in the RAPCON (approach control). A couple tried to get their PPC. Another CFI couldn't get anywhere with one of them and asked if I'd give it a go. I did, and I could never solo the cat. He greased one in, then follow up with 2-3 where I had to take the controls and flare. I finally told the FBO owner I couldn't do any more, and the boss sent him on his way.

I had an IP friend who taught on the T-38 at Columbus. He had an Iranian student who banked from downwind to base w/ a near 90* bank and was about to go thru that. IP says watch your bank a few times, Iranian says "Allah take care of it" (something like that), and IP says "**** that, I have the jet".

It was entertaining for sure.
 
I seem to remember there was a flight school in Norman, OK that had a couple hi-jackers train there.

That school received a lot of flack and eventually closed down. I think it was Airman Flight School.
 
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