Alleged Hijacker Instructor Eyed
Algerian Pilot Lived in Phoenix, Has Ties to One Suspect

By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 30, 2001; Page A30

PHOENIX, Sept. 29 -- Night after night, for months, the two young men came to the Sawyer Aviation School here and took seats inside a small dark room to begin another round of practice on a flight simulator.

Lotfi Raissi, a licensed pilot, was helping Hani Hanjour learn the skill. Sometimes, a few other Middle Eastern men also came to watch and listen.

"I instantly recognized Raissi when I saw his picture yesterday," Sylvia Stinson, a former director at the aviation school, said today. "He and the other guys usually came in at night to practice. They came a lot. But there were no red flags. They were polite, and they paid their bills."

Raissi, a 27-year-old Algerian, has been arrested by British authorities, who contend he was the "lead instructor" of four of the hijackers who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and may have played a central role in the terrorist plot.

An attorney for Raissi has told reporters in England that the Algerian "adamantly denies" any involvement.

But law enforcement officials in the United States view Raissi as a potentially key figure in the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities in Arizona also are alleging Raissi failed to disclose a criminal conviction and a serious knee injury on pilot licensing forms.

So far, what is clear is that Raissi spent several years in the Phoenix area learning to become a pilot and has ties to Hanjour, who is believed to have been the pilot of the hijacked American Airlines plane that hit the Pentagon.

Authorities also say they have evidence that Raissi and Hanjour flew together from Arizona to Las Vegas this summer at a time when motel records show that other suspected hijackers were there, too.

Raissi and Hanjour paid for sessions on a flight simulator at the Sawyer School of Aviation this past summer and during the summer of 2000. Stinson said the men had each paid $300 for three months of unlimited use on equipment that simulates flight and were frequent visitors. She said students could use the simulator 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At a court hearing Friday in England, British authorities alleged that Raissi was working with other suspects in the attacks to "ensure that the pilots were capable and trained for this purpose."

In the United States, Raissi and Hanjour, who resided in San Diego for parts of recent years and also sought training at other flight schools in the Phoenix area, appear to have led strikingly similar lives. The men each rented inexpensive apartments in sprawling complexes in quiet suburban neighborhoods, each near a sleepy community airport -- one in Phoenix and one in San Diego.

All that set Raissi apart here at the Wickertree Apartments was his attire. As he came and went at the complex, a maze of modest units beside a highway, neighbors saw a solitary man almost always wearing a pilot's uniform.

"I remember saying to him that it must be exciting to fly," said a woman who lived below his third-floor apartment. She would only identify herself as Conni, 51. "He just told me, 'You don't have to be afraid.' "

Other residents at the apartment complex, which rents one-bedroom units for about $550, said they were shocked to see Raissi linked to the terrorist plot, because in conversation he did not ever seem to be angry with America or preoccupied with either politics or his religion.

"He was talkative, but never about anything serious," one neighbor said. "He mostly seemed nice. But sometimes I thought he kind of had an arrogant attitude, like maybe he was better than you or something. Sometimes I got a bad vibe."

Neighbors said Raissi lived alone, and they could not recall ever seeing guests visit him. They said he moved sometime last year. One neighbor recalled him saying that he often traveled to Boston to visit his girlfriend. Officials at the apartment complex have declined to speak to reporters.

Raissi received a commercial pilot's license in the United States in January 1999, with a rating to fly a Boeing 737. That same year, he was certified as a ground instructor and later received a license to be a flight instructor.

In Phoenix, Raissi trained and worked at a flight school at the city's small Deer Valley Airport. A spokesman for that school, which was sold and reopened under new management in the time since Raissi was there, said that the company, Pan Am International Flight Academy, is cooperating with the FBI.

Federal agents also are questioning pilots and officials at other flight schools at the airport. Jerry Dilk, director of Westwind School of Aeronautics, said the FBI showed him a picture of Raissi and a document in which Raissi claimed to have been an instructor and to have trained there in 1997 and 1998.

"He got trained, got all his licenses and certificates up to multi-engine commercial" pilot license, Dilk said.

Because it is dry, warm and sunny all year, the Phoenix area is a haven for aspiring commercial pilots from around the world. Its desert climate, Dilk said, particularly attracts young flight students from the Middle East.

"All of us get dozens of kids of Arab descent every year," he said. "Many of these schools basically cater to the international market. This guy Raissi probably would not stand out. He would have seemed like just another student."

Staff writer Lena H. Sun in Washington contributed to this report.