Rudi Dekkers Continues Wild Ride After 9/11 | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-12.01.25

AirborneNextGen-
11.18.25

Airborne-Unlimited-11.19.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-11.20.25

AirborneUnlimited-11.21.25

LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

Wed, Aug 31, 2011

Rudi Dekkers Continues Wild Ride After 9/11

The Man Who Taught Atta And Al-Shehhi To Fly Tries To Move On

You may not know who Rudi Dekkers is, but you can probably appreciate his dilemma. He's the guy who owned the flight school in Venice, Florida which trained Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who flew the two planes that hit the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11. He's currently promoting a book on the topic, titled "Guilty by Association," which he hopes will set the record straight.

Dekkers says he endured death threats, and was the victim of false rumors that he had been friends with Atta, and had even gone to a strip club with him while the terrorist trained at his flight school. Dekkers claims he has lost a total of $12 million as a result of the association, and rumors which included one about the hijackers specifically requesting to be taught to steer, but not land, Boeing airliners.

In his book, Dekkers tells his story of an entrepreneur who rose from beginnings living on a houseboat in the Netherlands with an alcoholic mother and authoritarian father. After a series of menial jobs, Dekkers says he made it big as a home developer, and took up flying when his income afforded him the opportunity. He moved with his family to Florida at age 35. He never bothered to get a green card.

A partner financed his takeover of Huffman Aviation in Venice. He says Atta and al-Shehhi said they wanted to get their pilot certificates so they could get airline jobs back home in the middle east, and that their arrival during the slow summer months promised to bring his flight school $40,000 in needed revenue. He says both students did earn pilot certificates.

For all he says other people and 9/11 itself did to him unfairly, Dekkers has also created his own problems. The St. Petersburg Times reports he's left a trail of claims for unpaid bills, owes a fine for installing swimming pools without becoming a licensed contractor, and surrendered his pilot certificate to settle FAA allegations he conducted unlicensed charter flights. He and his wife are awaiting a foreclosure notice after discontinuing mortgage payments on their 6,500-sq.-ft. home in the gated La Vida community. He owes the IRS over $50,000.

But his situation may not be hopeless. His book is generating interest and sales, and Dekkers tells the St. Petersburg Times, "I have so many ideas to start a business. All my life I think outside the box. That's how I make money.'

FMI: www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1187734.ece

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.28.25): Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) An unmanned aircraft and its associated elements related to safe operations, which may include control stations (ground, ship, or air based), control>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (11.28.25)

Aero Linx: Cactus Fly-In The Classic Airplane Association of Arizona, Inc. (CAAA) was incorporated in Arizona as a not for profit corporation on January 10, 2014. The CAAA roster i>[...]

Airborne 11.21.25: NTSB on UPS Accident, Shutdown Protections, Enstrom Update

Also: UFC Buys Tecnams, Emirates B777-9 Buy, Allegiant Pickets, F-22 And MQ-20 The NTSB's preliminary report on the UPS Flight 2976 crash has focused on the left engine pylon's sep>[...]

Airborne 11.26.25: Bonanza-Baron Fini, Archer v LA NIMBYs, Gogo Loses$$$

Also: Bell 505 on SAF, NYPA Gets Flak For BizAv 'Abuse', FAA Venezuela Caution, Horizon Update Textron Aviation has confirmed it will be ending production of the Beechcraft Bonanza>[...]

Airborne-NextGen 11.25.25: EHang Manned Flt, Army UAVs, Starship V3 Booster Boom

Also: FedEx SAF, Archer Midnight Powertrain Tech, Rocket Lab Record, Perseverance Rover Find EHang has logged a major milestone in the development of its pilotless air taxi, loggin>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC


Debugging Information
ColdFusion Server Enterprise 2023,0,16,330828
Template /subsite.cfm
Time Stamp 02-Dec-25 01:13 AM
Locale English (US)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Remote IP 10.0.20.1
Host Name 10.0.20.1


Execution Time

Total Time Avg Time Count Template
92 ms 92 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequest(/subsite.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
91 ms 91 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/parsed/main.textpost.cfm
53 ms 53 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actTextPost.cfm
6 ms 6 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actWidgets.cfm
6 ms 6 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspWidgets.cfm
5 ms 5 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestStart(/subsite.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryTextPost.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspTextPost.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspBannerAds.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fusebox.init.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAnnouncements.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAudio.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryNewscats.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspSidebar.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_234BannerZone.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestEnd(/subsite.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | compileRequest(main.textpost, CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/CustomTags/bph/QuerySim.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/cftags/sharelinks.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/comments/actDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actFooter.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryWidVideo.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/comments/dspDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspAnnouncements.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspNewscats.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/layAnnNew.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_admin.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_flashAd.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_podcasts.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_search.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_today.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_topvideos.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onSessionStart() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 13 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | RandomNumber() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | tagstripper(<h2>The Man Who Taught Atta And Al-Shehhi To Fly Tries To Move On</h2>

You may not know who Rudi Dekkers is, but you can probably appreciate his dilemma. He's the guy who owned the flight school in Venice, Florida which trained Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who flew the two planes that hit the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11. He's currently promoting a book on the topic, titled "Guilty by Association," which he hopes will set the record straight.

) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc | getAccess() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | expandFuseboxPath(parsed/) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getCoreToAppRootPath() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getVersion() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc | init([complex value], [complex value], CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getMyself() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getSelf() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | init(fusebox, [complex value], [complex value]) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | trace(Fusebox, Request completed) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
3 ms  STARTUP, PARSING, COMPILING, LOADING, & SHUTDOWN
101 ms  TOTAL EXECUTION TIME
red = over 250 ms average execution time


SQL Queries

post (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=2ms, Records=1) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryTextPost.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT
	cb.ContentBlockID as id,
	cb.ContentBlockName as title,
	cb.Display,
	ct.DisplayTemplate,
	cb.HTMLContent as description,
	cb.ForumCode,
	cb.Icon,
	convert(varchar(20), cb.Display, 111) AS GroupDate,
	t.TeaserText as teaser,
	cb.SortOrder
FROM
	vwContentBlock cb INNER JOIN ContentType ct
	ON cb.ContentTypeCode = ct.ContentTypeCode
	LEFT OUTER JOIN Teaser t
	ON cb.ContentBlockID = t.ContentBlockID AND t.TeaserType <> 'L'
WHERE
	cb.ContentBlockID = ?
	AND Status IN ('60','80') AND (Display <{ts '2025-12-02 01:13:17'} OR Display IS NULL)
Query Parameter Value(s) -
Parameter #1(CF_SQL_varchar) = BB42FB36-8F5E-4C08-8C81-3B6A6AB6F045

GetAnnouncements (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=1, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAnnouncements.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT HTMLContent
FROM ContentBlockLive
WHERE ContentBlockKey = 'ANNOUNCE' 
	AND Status = 60 
	AND ((Display <{ts '2025-12-02 01:00:00'} OR Display IS NULL) 
	AND (Expire > {ts '2025-12-02 01:00:00'} OR Expire IS NULL))
qryAudio (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=0, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAudio.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT NewID() as id,
	CAST(episodesid AS VARCHAR(38)) as myid,
	title,
	CAST(subtitle  AS Varchar(800)) as teaser, 
	CAST(summary AS Varchar(2000)) as description,
	ApprovedDate as published,
	episodefile as filelocation, 
	podcastsid as categoryid,
	CAST('audio' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	ApprovedDate as GroupDate,
	SPACE(2) AS previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
FROM episodes
	WHERE Approved = 1 
		
	AND ApprovedDate <{ts '2025-12-02 01:00:00'} ANd ApprovedDate > {ts '2025-11-28 01:00:00'} 

Order By published DESC, sortorder DESC
qryWidVideo (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=3, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryWidVideo.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT TOP 3
videoId as id, 
	convert(varchar(38), videoId) as myid, 
	title, 
	CAST(description AS Varchar(2000)) as description, 
	Cast(teaser AS Varchar(800))as teaser,
	published,
	filelocation, 
	categoryid,
	CAST('video' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	published as GroupDate,
	previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
	
FROM Videos
WHERE active = 1 AND approved = 1 AND published <{ts '2025-12-02 01:00:00'} 
ORDER BY published DESC
widgetsorted (Datasource=, Time=4ms, Records=6) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\actWidgets.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT *
	FROM qryWidgets
	WHERE wname IN('flashAd','today','search','podcasts','topvideos','adsection234')
	ORDER By sortorder
NewsCategories (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=7, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS' AND CONTENTTYPECODE <> 'ATRVNW'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName
NewsCategories2 (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=8, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 01:13:17.017
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName


Scope Variables

CGI Variables:
AUTH_PASSWORD=
AUTH_TYPE=
AUTH_USER=
CERT_COOKIE=
CERT_FLAGS=
CERT_ISSUER=
CERT_KEYSIZE=
CERT_SECRETKEYSIZE=
CERT_SERIALNUMBER=
CERT_SERVER_ISSUER=
CERT_SERVER_SUBJECT=
CERT_SUBJECT=
CF_TEMPLATE_PATH=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\subsite.cfm
CONTENT_LENGTH=0
CONTENT_TYPE=
CONTEXT_PATH=
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
HTTPS=off
HTTPS_KEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SECRETKEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SERVER_ISSUER=
HTTPS_SERVER_SUBJECT=
HTTP_ACCEPT=*/*
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING=gzip, br, zstd, deflate
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE=
HTTP_CONNECTION=Keep-Alive
HTTP_COOKIE=
HTTP_HOST=www.aero-news.net
HTTP_REFERER=
HTTP_URL=/subsite.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=BB42FB36-8F5E-4C08-8C81-3B6A6AB6F045
HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
LOCAL_ADDR=10.0.20.10
PATH_INFO=
PATH_TRANSLATED=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\subsite.cfm
QUERY_STRING=do=main.textpost&id=BB42FB36-8F5E-4C08-8C81-3B6A6AB6F045
REMOTE_ADDR=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_HOST=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_USER=
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
SCRIPT_NAME=/subsite.cfm
SERVER_NAME=www.aero-news.net
SERVER_PORT=80
SERVER_PORT_SECURE=0
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.1
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Microsoft-IIS/10.0
WEB_SERVER_API=
Cookie Variables:
CFID=5111938
CFTOKEN=d92267f1151cc497-A8ECF641-048B-ED04-136AD079C62E637D
Session Variables:
sessionid=E7F6FB3DA61FAC785370ACECA25743D2.cfusion
urltoken=CFID=5111938&CFTOKEN=d92267f1151cc497-A8ECF641-048B-ED04-136AD079C62E637D&jsessionid=E7F6FB3DA61FAC785370ACECA25743D2.cfusion
URL Parameters:
do=main.textpost
id=BB42FB36-8F5E-4C08-8C81-3B6A6AB6F045
Debug Rendering Time: 22 ms