BBC NEWS Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific Arabic Spanish Russian Chinese Welsh
BBCi CATEGORIES   TV   RADIO   COMMUNICATE   WHERE I LIVE   INDEX    SEARCH 

BBC NEWS
 You are in: World: Middle East
Front Page 
World 
Africa 
Americas 
Asia-Pacific 
Europe 
Middle East 
South Asia 
-------------
From Our Own Correspondent 
-------------
Letter From America 
UK 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Entertainment 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 


Commonwealth Games 2002

BBC Sport

BBC Weather

SERVICES 
Saturday, 22 September, 2001, 20:41 GMT 21:41 UK
Hijack 'suspect' alive in Morocco
Suspected hijackers Mohammed Atta (right) and Abdelaziz al-Omari (centre)
An airport security video shows two of the alleged hijackers
By David Bamford in Rabat

A Saudi-Arabian aircraft pilot who was named as one of five suspects on board one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre, has turned up alive and well in Morocco.

The man, Waleed Al-Shehri, has told Saudi journalists in Casablanca that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco at the time.

Police at Boston's Logan International Airport
The US authorities are following up thousands of leads
The FBI named five men with Arab names who they say were responsible for deliberately crashing American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.

One of those five names was Waleed Al-Shehri, a Saudi pilot who had trained in the United States.

His photograph was released by the FBI, and has been shown in newspapers and on television around the world.

That same Mr Al-Shehri has turned up in Morocco, proving clearly that he was not a member of the suicide attack.

He told Saudi journalists in Casablanca that he has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities to advise them that he had nothing to do with the attack.

He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al-Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring.

Confusion

But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, and became a pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines, and is currently on a further training course in Morocco.

He says he was in Marrekesh when the attack took place.

Mr Al-Shehri's case is not the first in which there has been apparent confusion as to the identities of the hijackers who commandeered the four planes on 11 September.

Mr Al-Shehri said he has now been interviews by the American authorities, who apologised for the misunderstanding.

See also:

21 Sep 01 | Americas
FBI probes hijackers' identities
18 Sep 01 | Americas
FBI probes 'attempted fifth hijack'
15 Sep 01 | Americas
Worldwide hunt for hijack plotters
15 Sep 01 | Europe
Europe hunts for US clues
14 Sep 01 | Americas
Nineteen hijack suspects named
13 Sep 01 | Americas
Evidence trails lead to Florida
14 Sep 01 | Sci/Tech
FBI probes ISPs for clues
20 Sep 01 | Americas
The trail to Bin Laden
Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Middle East stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Middle East stories