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.
CDC is definitely the first Atlanta target, then the Big Chicken.
You should have seen the outrage when KFC was going to tear it down! Smashing the Big Chicken would demoralize people and cause mass confusion for drivers.
LMAO Poultritude!!!!!I nominate that for word of the month.
I'm going to make a detour next month to take in all of it's poultrimonsity.
Well, if Forrest Sawyer's report is to be believed, at least three of them spent their last living night spending heavily at a strip club...
Thought so myself; but then OTOH. . .they need CNN; it is their mouthpiece to the world; and where they get much of their 'info' as well.
But maybe not, in any event, there is enough here for them; but maybe on the 'long list'. . .
Think I sat with three terrorist a few years ago, on a Delta flight. . .
To a safe America. . .for the good guys. . .
The first time I saw it I was surprised at how ordinary it looked considering what's inside of it. I don't see how it can be adequately secured in its location--near a university and in a big city. Scary.
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