Gwinnett instructor flew with Sept. 11 terrorists

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Posted 8:15AM on Monday, January 28, 2002

ATLANTA - The only remarkable thing about the two Sept. 11 terrorists who practiced flying from a metro Atlanta airport was just how unremarkable they seemed at the time, a flight instructor said. Instructor Laurie Anderson said Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi took two evaluation flights with her at Gwinnett County Airport about a year ago and rented airplanes to practice flying. Investigators have determined that Atta was at the controls of the hijacked passenger jet that flew into the north tower of New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, and Al-Shehhi piloted the plane that crashed into the south tower shortly afterward. The two Middle Eastern men were polite and well-dressed when they arrived at the Gwinnett airport, filled out the required forms and showed their commercial pilot licenses. As required by the flight school, they hired Anderson to take them on an evaluation flight in a single-engine, four-seat Piper trainer. ``They were wearing Polo sweaters and some gold jewelry,'' Anderson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ``They seemed pleasant and friendly, even a little shy. My only question to them was 'Who's going to fly first?' '' Anderson said the three made a 27-mile flight to Jackson County Airport on Jan. 31, 2001, with Atta at the controls. Atta easily performed the climbs, descents, turns and radio transmissions that are standard parts of such flights, Anderson said. At the Jackson County field they practiced crosswind landings on the north-facing runway, then stopped to replace a worn tire at the flight school's maintenance facility there. The three fliers chatted amiably on the ramp while they waited for the new tire. The men told Anderson they had learned to fly in Florida and were preparing to start careers as airline pilots when they returned to their home countries. The two men returned a week later for a similar flight with Anderson, this time with Al-Shehhi at the controls. Anderson's logbook shows the one-hour flight included several practice takeoffs and landings, and she determined he, too, was safe to rent planes from the flight school. ``Nothing about them, their manner, the way they flew or anything else seemed unusual,'' Anderson said. ``Mohamed said he'd like to fly with me again when they returned so that he could brush up on crosswind landings, and that's where we left it.'' Although the two men returned later that month to rent the Piper for more practice flights, Anderson never saw them again. In fact, she hardly even thought about them until Sept. 11 her 46th birthday when the nation was rocked by terrorist devastation in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Anderson remembers wondering momentarily whether the two Middle Eastern men she had flown nine months before could have been involved in those atrocities, but she quickly dismissed the idea. Three days later, a flight school receptionist called to tell her the news. ``I was alone at the time,'' she said. ``The kids were at school and (husband) Steve was at work. I was in tears when I called Steve and told him I felt like I'd contributed. I felt shocked, dirty and violated. I was just numb.''