Flight Instructor Warned FBI of Use of Jet as a Weapon

A flight instructor’s tip to the FBI about terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui included a warning that a fuel-laden jetliner could be used as a weapon, according to two congressmen who were briefed on the case.

Moussaoui, the only person so far charged with direct involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, was detained Aug. 17, two days after the instructor at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minn., contacted the FBI.

School officials have declined to discuss the episode. But they disclosed some details while lobbying Democratic Reps. Martin Olav Sabo and James L. Oberstar, both of Minnesota, for legislation to shield schools from lawsuits for reporting suspicious activity, the congressmen said.

The story was first reported Thursday in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. Paul McCabe, spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis, said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Pan Am Vice President Marilyn Ladner declined to comment.

Moussaoui arrived at the Minnesota school Aug. 10 and aroused suspicion because, though he said he was from France, he didn’t seem to understand French when an instructor spoke it to him. Moussaoui was born in France and attended school there, but he told the instructor he was from the Middle East, without identifying a country.

Suspicions were sharpened because of Moussaoui’s limited skills.

Moussaoui grew agitated when he was told he would need as many as 2,000 training hours before he could be licensed to fly a commercial jet.

Moussaoui’s instructor, described by Oberstar as a former military pilot with experience in the Middle East, called a the FBI to report his suspicions.

According to Sabo, the instructor told an FBI agent, “Do you realize how serious this is? This man wants training on a 747. A 747 loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon.”

“That got their attention,” Oberstar said. “Things began to happen.”

Though Moussaoui was in custody Sept. 11, authorities say he was part of the plot to hijack and crash airliners and followed many of the same patterns as the 19 hijackers.

Moussaoui, 33, is charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, aircraft piracy, destruction of aircraft, use of weapons of mass destruction, murder of U.S. employees and destruction of U.S. property.