When the hijackers steered commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it wasn’t their first time flying over American soil.
It came to light later that Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi had attended Huffman International Flight School in Venice, Fla. The two had also rented single-engine airplanes at Lawrenceville’s Briscoe Field about eight months before the attacks.
Atta died aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which slammed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Al-Shehhi, who lived with Atta for a time in Florida, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the World Trade Center.
Even though they were there for only a day, the stigma of their visit has never entirely left Briscoe Field, to the dismay of Lanny Pruchnicki, who co-owns the Flight School of Gwinnett.
Pruchnicki has heard others say countless times, “Oh Gwinnett, that’s where they trained the terrorists.”
“I am so sick and tired of hearing that over the last 10 years,” he said.
To set the record straight, the terrorists did not take flight training at Briscoe Field. They were already licensed pilots when they arrived in February 2001 at Advanced Aviation, another flight school at the airport. They demonstrated their proficiency in a brief outing with a flight instructor and then returned about three weeks later to rent a plane for a one-hour solo flight. The owner of that business declined to comment for this story.
But Pruchnicki said the distinction between taking flight lessons and renting a plane is important. He thinks Atta and al-Shehhi would’ve raised red flags had they taken flight lessons with a local instructor. But there was no reason to be suspicious of a customer who already had a legitimate pilot’s license.
“That bothers me a little, because it just seems to me that it makes our operations look a little sloppy,” Pruchnicki said. “I don’t feel good about that because we’re pretty serious.”
Even so, the Transportation Security Administration, which was formed in response to the attacks, implemented new rules for flight schools that have changed the way they operate.
Applicants now must prove they are U.S. citizens and present valid birth certificates or passports. A citizen of a foreign country must register with the TSA and submit to a lengthy background check. Applicants must submit fingerprints and cannot start lessons until the background check -- which takes about three days and costs about $130 -- is completed.
Even licensed pilots who come to rent a plane cannot get the key to start the engine during pre-flight inspections, which are required before any plane can be used. They are only given the key once they have been green-lighted to fly solo.
Pruchnicki said there is little to fear from general aviation planes in terms of terrorism. Most of the planes are no heavier than a car. They would not be capable of causing major damage to a bridge, dam or power plant, Pruchnicki said.
“Quite frankly,” Pruchnicki said, “if someone did take one of these things and fly it into Spaghetti Junction, you might scratch the paint on the bridge, but you’re not going to do anything.”
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