Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Flight instructor warned FAA, breaks down on stand in Moussaoui trial

WP

In emotional testimony in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui today, the former manager of an Arizona flight school that trained one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers told a federal jury that she had expressed alarm about her student to the Federal Aviation Administration and cried when she learned he had flown an airliner into the Pentagon.

Margaret Chevrette said she helped train hijacker Hani Hanjour at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix, from late December 2000 until March 2001. She said Hanjour, a Saudi who is believed to have piloted the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon, was a poor pilot who spoke limited English....

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When she heard about the Sept. 11 hijackings, "I already knew in my heart that Hani was a part of it," Chevrette said....As Chevrette spoke, her voice hoarse and breaking at times, two family members of the Sept. 11 victims cried softly in the third row of the U.S. District Courtroom in Alexandria.

Chevrette said she reported her concerns to the FAA during Hanjour's training at the flight school but that the agency did little in response. She said an FAA official who oversaw her school suggested she obtain an English interpreter for Hanjour, which was against the agency's own regulations....

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The day after the attacks, she said, her FAA contact called and told her, "Your worst nightmare has been realized."...

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