Saudi pilot with hijacker's name says attack changed his life forever

“I was shocked and hurt at seeing my name linked with such a great tragedy,” Abdulrahman Saeed Alomari told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah.

“I am totally innocent and feel very, very sorry for all those affected by this tragedy,” he said.

The FBI has said it is looking for more than 200 people for questioning about the terror attacks.

Initially, Alomari's name was similar to one of the 19 suspected hijackers identified by the FBI. But the suspected terrorist was later identified by the FBI with the slightly different name of Abdulaziz Alomari.

FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Thursday that authorities have questions about the identities of several of the 19 hijackers whose names the FBI released two weeks ago.

Alomari is a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot based in Jeddah.

Like the other Alomari, he was also training for his commercial pilot's licence at Flight Safety International in Vero Beach, Florida. Several of the hijackers who died in the crashes were described as pilots who had gone to aviation schools in Florida.

“There are thousands of Alomaris in the kingdom and unfortunately I happen to be one of them,” he said.

The 39-year-old said he contacted Saudi authorities right after he saw his photo and name in the newspapers, television and other media.

“It was already difficult to watch the tragedy on TV and when you are linked to it, it really shatters you ... it's unbearable,” the father of two sons and two daughters said.

The FBI and US embassy officials declined to comment on the investigations, including any information regarding Alomari.

Alomari, who has worked for Saudi Arabian Airlines since 1982, said he plans to continue flying. He has 300 hours of flying experience, about 200 of which he gained while in the United States.

“Other than the pain that it has caused, it has changed my life forever and it's going to take time to get over it,” he said.

Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Prince Nayef was quoted by newspapers Monday as saying the kingdom had still not received confirmation from the United States that Saudis were involved in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Nayef said that on the FBI list of Saudi suspects, seven of them were in the country and have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

“There are more than 10 or 15 people we don't have detailed information about, such as full names, photographs and passport numbers, which we need to make sure whether they are in fact Saudis or not,” he was quoted as saying by the London-based Saudi newspaper Arab News. His comments were part of an interview with CNN on Sunday.

The English-language newspaper also reported that 5,532 Saudi passports had either been stolen or lost between the 1997 and 2000. The figure does not include passports lost inside the country and have not been reported to the authorities.

Saudi Arabia plans to issue new passports in December, which would reduce forgery cases by 95 per cent, the paper said.