Posted on 09/26/2001 11:39:16 AM PDT by ruppertdog
Ringleader may have flown practice flights at Gwinnett's Briscoe Field
Terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta is suspected of being one of two men who rented airplanes from a Gwinnett County flight school seven months ago.
The two men, both among 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, took a one-hour flight with an Advanced Aviation instructor at Briscoe Field some time around February, company President Bruce Buell said. A few weeks later, the men returned to the school and rented an airplane for an hour without an instructor. They stayed in metro area motels while visiting Briscoe Field. It was unclear exactly when or where the men flew the plane from Briscoe.
Authorities believe Atta died aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which slammed into the World Trade Center's North Tower.
WAGA-TV reported Tuesday that Atta was accompanied to Briscoe by Marwan al-Shehhi, another suspect named by the FBI in the terrorist attacks.
The FBI has said that al-Shehhi, who lived with Atta in Florida and is believed to be related to him, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the World Trade Center.
Authorities have said both Atta and al-Shehhi were piloting the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, killing more than 6,000 people.
The FBI has identified Atta, 33, as one of the terrorists' ringleaders. He also was in Atlanta on July 19 following a flight from Spain, according to published reports.
Advanced Aviation dispatcher Chrissy Ross, 19, said she was eating dinner Sept. 13 when the names of the hijackers appeared on the news. She recognized two of them.
"I was really calm about it," she said. "I didn't believe myself. I thought I was crazy."
The next morning she searched a company database and found the names. "I didn't know what to do," she recalled. "I froze for a minute."
She called her boyfriend's father, who told her to call the FBI. A few days later, she saw pictures of the men and was sure they had been at the school.
"They came in like any other pilots would and they asked for a checkout," Ross said. "They had their commercial licenses.
"They were very polite, they were just really nice. There was nothing that would make me think they would be terrorists."
According to published reports, Atta and al-Shehhi, 23, were constant companions and attended Huffman International Flight School in Venice, Fla.
The FBI refused to comment on details of the investigation.
Buell said the FBI had asked that no one with the company make anything but general statements.
"We are very proud of the diligence of our . . . personnel in recognizing and contributing to the investigation and defense against terrorism," Buell said.
In the days that followed the terrorist attacks, there was some speculation that Atlanta may have been a potential target, but federal investigators have discounted that theory.
Jack Williams, a terrorism expert at Georgia State University's College of Law who is familiar with the investigation, said the local incidents are not thought to be part of a terrorist operation here.
"It's all part of their training . . . and they did that in a variety of places," he said, describing the flights here as "a more transient operation."
Retired Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms terrorist expert Robert Finke suggested, however, that Osama bin Laden and his agents might well have been operating in the Atlanta area.
"You can go from Lake Lanier, all around the area and Hartsfield, in less than an hour," he said. "They could have been providing information for other people as alternate targets or even future targets."
In the months leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center, some of the hijackers flew small planes around New York City, apparently eyeing their target, according to published reports.
Williams said he believes terrorist cells have operated out of the Atlanta area, especially in the period leading up to the 1996 Olympics. He added that some are likely to be operating here now.
"We have no reason to believe they have pulled back," he said. "We have Hartsfield, the second or first busiest airport in the world, we have the CDC . . . so you have legitimate political targets."
Calls to more than a dozen flight schools in metro Atlanta turned up none, other than Advanced, where the suspected terrorists are thought to have rented airplanes or taken flight instruction. The FBI has been requiring flight schools around the country to supply training records of all flight students going back at least three years.
Briscoe Field, about a mile east of Lawrenceville, is the third largest airport in metro Atlanta. It is about 20 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. Before Sept. 11, planes that took off there were allowed to fly over downtown Atlanta as long as they remained below 2,500 feet.
Advanced Aviation has at least six single-engine and multi-engine airplanes used for flight training. The planes include Cessna 152s and 172s, the same type the terrorists reportedly learned to fly at flight schools in Florida.
Flight schools routinely require private pilots to fly with an instructor for at least an hour before allowing them to rent aircraft. During the initial flights, instructors make sure renters can fly the planes and teach them about local airspace.
Staff writers Larry Hartstein, David Hirschman and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this article.
I had a severe broken hip nearly 20 years ago. I was on crutches for nearly a 7 months. I did not fly for 8 months. It took a couple of hours dual instrution before I felt safe to fly again. I had less than 250 hours at the time.
These fellows had so few flight hours,that they would lose skills rapidly. They had to rent planes and fly to keep the skils. I have seen high time pilots with 7 or 8 thousand hours under their belts take a lot of time off, and not loose that much skill. But not so with low time pilots like these people were.
They were most likley just trying to stay current using as few a dollars as possible.
It would be very interesting to see how much money these guys had left when they died and what they did with it.
Scary stuff....
NeverGore
You are correct. Someone posted on the thread something about Briscoe field in Gwinett County.
The other target would be the Coca-Cola world headquarters building.
Two internationaly known symbols of America (despite CNN trying to become a countryless symbol.) The targets they hit on the 11th were as much or more for their symbolism as for the number of lives they would take.
I suppose renting a plane would keep you fresh, and also serve the dual purpose of recon, if your goal was to have several follow on waves.
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