Alert issued on man who took flight lessons at Gwinnett airport

Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | April 8, 2005 | SAEED AHMED

[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.

[iconoclast]

his training schedule, which began in 2002 and continued off and on for MORE THAN two and a half years.

Wow!

That's the part I missed!

Thanks.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

This is absolutely nuts. I don't even know where to begin if there isn't more to this story...

Just a tad of profiling and MO awareness on the part of the flight school in this case would have been elementary. That's if this is all true as publicly reported and there isn't more that we do not know about.

In other words, I wonder if the Feds were already made aware of him by the flight school back in 2002 and we were monitoring him to see where it all would lead...I hope this is the case here, otherwise what lessons did the flight schools learn from 911?!

And if by chance this is the case here, well, the birdie flew and left egg on our faces; still not favorable news.

[bill1952]

Manzelle, from the airport where I am located to the Saint Lucie Power Plant is roughly 2 minutes at best.

Fortunately, at least to many, the giant Pan Am flight school has decided that the current restrictions in place here are too much to take, and they are relocating their entire fleet operations to their FBO in Arizona.
This will be complete in July.

The DEs here regularly fail students for not understanding their instructions in English.

Remember that English is required worldwide to fly.

[bill1952]

I know.

I have no idea just *how* he thought that such a thing could be done.

"Hey you! Designated FAA examiner!" "Upgrade my cert!" 8^)

I used to wonder why almost all of the nationals from Arabic and other countries were just so darn poor students, but one examiner gave a pretty good explanation:

"They are not from a country where they grew up with technology and advanced mechanicals since birth, therefore having some passing knowledge of using it.

They are here by privilege, and they don't know Bernoulli from Newton."

Not that the typical product of liberal public education here in America does, but it struck a note.

[pitinkie]

My local news in Jax, Fl just did a story on him because he lived here. Said the feds were just here looking for him...if so then why say he is in UK???

[Donna Lee Nardo]

The authorities appear to believe he may be in the UK. But since they cannot be 100 percent sure where he is, they must cover all bases.

Also, there may be folks in Florida who know him and who can give clues or other information about where he might have gone.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Pilot subject of terror alert - Man, who trained at Briscoe Field, found in Britain