EXCLUSIVE
MOHAMED ATTA AND 9-11:
THE SECRET FAA FILES
ON THE TRAIL OF AL QAEDA'S CHIEF TERROR PILOT:
TRAINED IN THE USA

ERSNews has exclusively obtained the Federal Aviation Administration’s secret airmen files on Mohamed Atta lead pilot-terrorist in the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. These records have never been revealed to the public.  The files document Atta’s extensive flight training here in the United States before the 9-11 attacks.  Despite the many media myths about the 9-11 attacks, one fact is clear from a reading of the documents; Mohamed Atta was a skilled and well-trained pilot.  As the world learned the morning of 9-11 2001 when he put those skills to deadly use.

On Sept 11, 2001, the world watched as two hijacked American commercial jetliners slammed into the New York’s famed World Trade Center Twin Towers.  Shortly after, two other hijacked passenger jets took aim at the Pentagon and a forth target somewhere in the nation’s Capitol. One of the hijacked planes hit its mark at the Pentagon while the other crashed into a Pennsylvania field, after the flight’s passengers fought the terrorists and stopped them from carrying out their mission.  The images that day seared into world history and the consciousness of every American on that fateful day nearly six years ago. 

Despite the media hype and the missed opportunities by the U.S. government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to detect and thwart this terrorist attack little has been revealed about the lead terrorist and lead pilot of the attack, Mohamed Atta.

Despite what the media to date have implied and informed the American public, flying a Boeing 767/757 into a target at near 500 miles an hour is no easy task.  A few flying lessons aren’t enough to learn the skills necessary to pilot a jetliner with skill and precision like Atta and the other Al-Qaeda terrorist pilots did successfully.  The kind of pilot skills and training needed to do so was evident to Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist cohorts who seemed to understand the nature of their mission better at the time than the U.S. aviation or law enforcement community ever did before the attacks took place. 

Mohamed Atta first entered the United States at Newark New Jersey’s International Airport on June 3rd of 2000.  Soon after, he would begin his pilot training as all new pilots do by getting a FAA student pilot certificate and a FAA medical certificate issued the same day.  Both of Atta’s initial FAA certificates (student and medical) were issued to him on July 24th, 2000.  These certificates allow a flight student like Atta to begin flight training both on the ground and in the air.

Atta began his pilot training at the Huffman Aviation flight school in Venice Florida in the summer of 2000.   Atta and another of the 9-11 terrorist pilot trainees, Marwan Al-Shehhi did so after Atta had scouted out and visited other flight schools around the country and ultimately settled on Huffman as their primary flight school.  Atta and the other 9-11 terrorist pilots trained at a myriad of U.S. flight schools and with independent flight instructors across the country.  A detailed (TSA) Transportation Security Administration map obtained by ERSNews last year shows the full extent of the flight training across the country prior to 9-11 undertaken by the terrorists. 

Atta studied, trained and flew with Huffman aviation in mid-2000 as he perfected his flying skills with his flying instructors at the school.   In late 2000, Atta was ready to seek his first FAA issued pilot’s license.  FAA pilot licensing requirements mandated Atta take and pass a written test as a part of his initial private pilot’s license.  He did so with little trouble scoring a 97 out of a possible 100 on the test, which he took on August 14, 2000.  The only areas he missed pertained to “engine operation” and “the pilot static system and associated instruments”.  Atta would soon be ready to attempt to get what would be the first of three FAA issued pilots’ licenses he ultimately obtained.

On September 18, 2000 Atta utilized a local longtime FAA Designated Pilot Examiner based in Punta Gorda Florida named Walter A. Bradshaw.  As part of the official requirements of the FAA, Atta had to receive an endorsement from a flight instructor who vouched for his readiness to take the flight test.  In Atta’s case that was a flight instructor named Erin M. Schierloor of Florida.

This would be the first attempt by Atta to obtain his U.S. private pilot’s license from the FAA.  Although not all pilots pass the test on the first try, Atta had little trouble.  FAA Designated Pilot Examiners are independent contractors who are given the authority by the U.S. government to conduct pilot flight-testing in order to certify that applicants can demonstrate the required skills necessary to receive the type of pilot’s license they are seeking.  The testing is known in the aviation world as a “check ride”.  Atta and Bradshaw met at Charlotte County Airport on Florida’s southwestern coast for the testing.  Before Atta actually could get into an airplane with Examiner Bradshaw, Bradshaw was required to review and inspect Atta’s pilot logbook and a variety of other issues.  Bradshaw was required to first give Atta an “oral” portion of the exam (which Atta was required by FAA regulations to pass) before the actual flight portion of the testing could be begun.   According to the FAA documents obtained by ERSNews, Atta had little trouble passing any aspect of the testing and spent little over an hour on the ground and nearly an hour and half in the air with Examiner Bradshaw that day.  As identification that day, Atta provided Bradshaw with a copy of his Egyptian passport. 

ERSNews contacted Walter Bradshaw and spoke to him about his time flying with, testing and ultimately licensing Mohamed Atta in 2000.  At first, Bradshaw claimed no memory of having tested Atta and haven given him his private pilot’s license.  When informed that ERSNews had the actual FAA pilot records of the testing in its possession and was referencing them, Bradshaw acknowledged he “may have” done so but that he would have to check his own records to verify the information.  In a surprising development when asked by ERSNews whether he had ever been contacted or interviewed by the FBI since 9-11 or by any other agency of the US Government concerning his knowledge of Atta’s flight training or any aspect of his involvement with Atta, Bradshaw told ERSNews he had “never” been contacted nor spoken to the FBI about his direct knowledge of Atta and his flight training.

In 2000, at the time of the testing, Atta had accumulated just over 67 hours of flight time training.  Over 18 hours flying solo, some of it at night.  Atta had over 17 take off and landings in the dark.  The Cessna 150 used by Atta that day in Florida in 2000, tail number N234HA, is a small two seat aircraft most pilots initially learn to fly in.  The plane was sold to a new owner in Boulder Colorado sometime after 9-11, according the FAA records. ERSNews attempts to contact the current owner were unsuccessful.

Atta continued to train throughout the rest of 2000, honing his flying skills in south Florida at an extremely rapid pace.  Just over 2 months after receiving his private pilot license, Atta was back with another FAA designated pilot examiner seeking a special license for flying airplanes on instruments only. 

Atta passed his written portion with flying colors, scoring a 90 out of a 100 on the “Instrument Rating” test.  Atta was once again deemed ready to take his FAA license test, this time with a different flight instructor by the name of Thierry A. Leklou, according to FAA records reviewed by ERSNews.   This time Atta would also face a new pilot examiner,  David L. Whitman.  Whitman was the only person standing in the way of Atta moving onward and upward to a higher level of pilot skill.  On November 20 Atta arrived at the small local airfield in Venice Florida to take his instrument license test.  Having the skills to fly an airplane on instruments only is, in the simplest sense, being able to fly an airplane when a pilot’s visual references are inhibited or diminished usually by weather or other in flight factors.  According to FAA records, Atta had little trouble passing this test as well, spending over an hour and a half on the ground and nearly two hours in the air with Whitman.  Atta had increased his flying time as a pilot in less than 3 months to just over 96 hours, according to FAA records

When contacted by ERSNews to discuss his time with Atta and Atta’s flying skills, Whitman mostly deferred and didn’t want to go into detail with ERSNews.  He did however voice his clear opinions about what may have happened on September 11th and whether or not Atta and his Al-Qaeda terrorist accomplices who carried out the attacks really had the knowledge and skill to do so.  Whitman also voiced his unhappiness about how the media treated him just after the 9-11 attacks, when his name was leaked to the media who attempted to speak with him about his experience flying with Atta.  Whitman said he was poorly treated by the media and had noting but disdain for the media in general.  He spoke of being promised in the only TV interview he did that certain questions would not be asked, and he says he was assured they wouldn’t.  The most important being how he “felt” knowing that he had trained Atta and what ultimately happened on 9-11.  He said the major television news network that did it, did not keep its world.  Since then he has specifically chosen to not speak with the media about his involvement in Atta’s pilot training and has little respect for the quality and accuracy of the reporting about 9-11 and Atta and the media’s lack of expertise when it comes to aviation reporting in general.

Atta was back in Venice Florida on December 21, 2000 again seeking to increase his flying skills and have the U.S. government itself sign off on his documented skill as a pilot, by none other than the FAA.  He once again scored well on his written exam for his commercial pilot’s license, garnering a 93 out of a 100.  He took the written on December 19th, just two days prior to his actual flight portion.

Once again Atta’s flight instructor was Theirry Leklou, who would recommend that he was ready to take his FAA license test.  Atta met Pilot Examiner David Whitman again.  This time Atta was after a “Commercial” FAA pilot’s license with a “rating” to fly multi-engine airplanes. Atta was now much more than a “novice” pilot.  He had accumulated just under 250 hours of flying time and was on the verge of obtaining an advanced FAA pilots license with the ability to fly mullti-engine airplanes – all perfectly legally and by the book, according to the FAA’s own rules and regulations.  Whitman and Atta spent an hour and half both on the ground and in the air that day, according to FAA records obtained by ERSNews.  Once again Atta passed with little trouble according to the FAA’s own records.

Also little reported to date was the documented  truth that 9-11 pilots Atta, Al-Shehhi and Hanjour and ultimately Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person ever charged in relation to the 9-11 attacks, all attended flight training at large jet flight schools run by Pan Am International, a pilot training company with facilities in Florida, Arizona and Minnesota.  This additional training, although unrelated to the terrorists official FAA pilot licenses and the legal training used to obtain those licenses -- allowed the Al-Qaeda pilots to train on large simulators, of the type of larger jet aircraft, like the 757 and 767’s they would ultimately hijack and fly.  This was something they had never done until the morning of September 11th 2001 in the skies over America.

Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorists, led by Mohamed Atta on 9-11 2001 seem to this reporter to have understood that the skills needed to successfully pull off the largest scale terrorist attack in history on American soil would require a level of pilot and aviation skill and sophistication that even the American government and its law enforcement and intelligence agencies never seem to have been able to grasp until it was too late.  The news media continue to misinform the American public about this aspect of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  Much of reporting since  9-11 has perpetuated a myth that a handful of Al-Qaeda terrorists came into the United States, took a few flying lessons and then successfully hijacked and piloted four American airliners in the skies over the United States into their intended targets. Anyone who still believes that is as naïve as America was on September 10th 2001.

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