This story has always fascinated me because there are flight schools all over Europe and Asia where the guy could easily have walked in and put down cash...and gotten training. Yet, they all seemed to want the US instruction package. This part of the story just didn’t make sense to me.
Flight training in Europe is nowhere as easy as it is here. The airspace in Europe is very crowded, and Euros ask a lot of questions...
Here, you put down money, there you are learning large Boeings in a sim session, and nobody bats an eye.
Also, if the target is here, it makes sense to train here.