Posted on 04/08/2005 3:33:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Authorities have issued an alert for a 35-year-old British man who was taking flight lessons at Gwinnett County Airport-Briscoe Field and allegedly tried to have his pilot rating upgraded despite not being qualified.
In a special alert bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies and aviation facilities this week, the Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force said the man, Zayead Christopher Hajaig, became "aggressive" and also tried to have the flight school speed up his training schedule, which began in 2002 and continued off and on for more than two and a half years.
The flight school notified the task force.
The bulletin does not name the flight school or specify what rating Hajaig sought to have upgraded. The special agents handling the investigation could not be reached Thursday night.
An upgrade in rating could mean several things for pilots: it could mean that a pilot is qualified to fly larger and more complex aircrafts, or that a pilot is trained to fly in poor conditions.
Two of the hijackers who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, trained at Briscoe Field for a time. Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi rented a single-engine airplane at the Lawrenceville airport about eight months before the attacks and flew with flight instructors of Advanced Aviation.
The task force bulletin said Hajaig, a British national born in Nigeria, had been in the United States illegally. He had no known means of income and used calling cards to communicate with associates, the bulletin said.
Authorities believe Hajaig may have left the country once he found out he had been reported to the task force. The task force alerted the Federal Aviation Administration, had Hajaig placed on the "no fly" list, and notified authorities in the United Kingdom, where Hajaig is believed to have fled.
The bulletin was sent to airports and flights schools statewide so that Hajaig is not able to rent aircrafts, fly from or take lessons anywhere, the bulletin said.
Anyone who comes in contact with Hajaig — who also uses the names Christopher Haijag, David Haijag and Alex Haiaig — is asked to call the Atlanta taskforce at 404-679-9000.
And no, I haven't been through flight training. Have you had a hysterectomy? That question seems about as relevant as yours.
Please tell me how the Department of Homeland Security has anything to do with the case of Zayead Hajaig. What exactly did DHS do that you feel was commendable?
Re-read the thread.
If we were discussing gynecological procedures, then asking about hysterectomies would be in order. We aren't.
Excuse me, but any private pilot will be happy to tell you that there is no terrorist threat posed from the smaller GA airstrips.
Gee, it only takes a minute or two for the sharp elbows to start moving. Pilots.
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Excuse ME??? Mamzelle...you are kidding, right? Please read more on this ALERT, such as follow-up post #52 on this thread...my DHS cynicism remains very high.
Yeah, I consider the AJC as the enemies' BoP, Bureau of Propaganda and just had to stick 'em in the eye when given an opportunity, eh, eh, so to speak.
"allegedly tried to have his pilot rating upgraded despite not being qualified."
Right. How just how did this bozo hope to accomplish that? Oh mister instructor, could you please just annoint me a an ATP?
Um, and the sun comes up in the east, too.
Every time they run something about people arrested, suspected, etc. as being "citizens" of France, Germany, Great Britain, I used to expect to read "Cleauseu, Steinhauser or Whitley-Jones" instead of hearing Allahbi, Farouk, and Zhguahghi. I suppose that the MSM believe that they can describe the perps as Europeans, the idiots out there, will not finish the article to find that the perps really were "Egyptian born, Syrian born, Tunnisian born", ad nauseum.
Did it take HS that long to get up to speed?
Was the illegal in the country 2.5 years?
iconolast, like your tagline...don't know how long it took DHS to react but from the AJC article, I did read this:
Zayead Christopher Hajaig, became "aggressive" and also tried to have the flight school speed up his training schedule, which began in 2002 and continued off and on for MORE THAN two and a half years.
Do you realize that there are nuclear power plants within a hour's flight from Gwinnett? If it's a good day, a small plane could reach one in just about half an hour.
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