Suspicions Raised When He Pushed For Higher Rating

A student authorities said raised suspicions at a Georgia flight school has been located in London after he became the subject of an international search. The FBI said he was learning to fly at the same field where two of the 19 9/11 hijackers took lessons and rented aircraft.

Zayead Christopher Hajaig, 35, was learning to fly at Briscoe Field in Gwinnett County, GA, when he began pushing his instructor to bump his rating up -- even though his training warranted no such increase in status.

The Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force issued an alert for Hajaig earlier this week, saying he was in the US illegally, became "aggressive" and had attempted to get a rating in spite of the fact he hadn't completed his training.

Federal records show Hajaig began flight training at Astron Enterprises on September 10th, 2002 -- one year before the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. WXIA-TV reported Hajaig already had a single-engine pilot rating, but wanted commercial, IFR and multi-engine tickets as well.

Astron Enterprises notified the Joint Task Force when Hajaig signed up for lessons. After finding that Hajaig had no real address, no identifiable source of income and was in the US illegally, the FBI said it issued a warrant and put the Nigerian-born British citizen on its no-fly list.

Hajaig was spotted in London, according to a spokesman for the Bureau in Atlanta. But he didn't know whether Hajaig had been arrested, detained or questioned. Those questions were referred to the FBI's Washington headquarters.

FMI: www.fbi.gov