Hijack pilots showed average skills, say their instructors
“To be honest, I had a problem with Atta the first time I talked to him.

“To be honest, I had a problem with Atta the first time I talked to him. I didn’t like his personality,” Rudy Dekkers, president and owner of Venice, Fla.-based Huffman Aviation International, said of suspected World Trade Center terrorist Mohamed Atta. “But what are you going to do? I’m going to deny someone flight training because I don’t personally like him?”

But Dekkers’ first impression proved to be prophetic because during the first four weeks of training, Atta’s flight instructor was complaining to the chief instructor that Atta had a continuous attitude problem. “Our chief instructor told Atta he would terminate his instruction if he didn’t change his behavior, and just like that he changed. There were no more attitude problems,” Dekkers told AIN.

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