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CNN Live Saturday

Man Arrested in Sweden Suspected of Attempting to Hijack Plane

Aired August 31, 2002 - 12:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: From Sweden, there are reports a man of Tunisian origin faces charges after he was arrested on a suspicion he was about to hijack a plane and crash the aircraft into a U.S. embassy in Europe. And there are also reports the suspect attended flight training school in South Carolina. CNN's Kathleen Koch has been looking into the story and she joins us with the very latest. Hi there, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Well, we have indeed learned that a 29-year-old man who was just arrested out of small airport west of Stockholm, Sweden did indeed train at a flight school here in the United States. The man identified as Kerim Chatty was arrested trying to carry a 6.5-caliber pistol loaded with three or four rounds of ammunition in his carry-on bag onto an (UNINTELLIGIBLE) flight to Great Britain.

Now, Reuters News Service is quoting military intelligence services who say that Chatty was planning on crashing the plane into a U.S. embassy in Europe. However, Chatty's defense attorney says that he denies that this has anything whatsoever to do with terrorism or airplane hijacking. Again, we have confirmed, though, that Chatty did train to fly at a flight school in Conway, South Carolina. It's called the North American Institute of Aviation. And I just got off the phone with President Bob Sunday. He says that Chatty trained there in 1996 or 1997 as a student from Sweden. However, Chatty did not graduate and was terminated for lack of progress in the program. Sunday basically says, quote, "he didn't cut it." He wasn't a very good student.

The school is trying to check its records for more specifics on Chatty, but apparently many of the school's student records were damaged or destroyed in a May fire in the administration building there. So it was an instructor at the school who remembered Chatty's attendance.

Sunday said that Chatty was trained to fly small private aircraft, under 12,500 pounds, things like Cessna 152s, 172s, Piper Seminoles, and Sunday says that the training provided at the flight school would not under normal circumstances equip someone to be able to fly a commercial jet. And at this point, the FBI has no comment on this case. And it is important to emphasize that this school regularly trains students from overseas and primarily from Sweden. In fact, the U.S. as a whole trains more students around the world to become pilots than any other country. Back to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Kathleen, because of that, it didn't necessarily raise a red flag at the time, because it wasn't atypical to have someone from, say, Sweden to be taking these instructions in South Carolina at that school?

KOCH: Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, Mr. Sunday told me that they have been training students from Sweden since the school was founded in the 1970's. It's one of their biggest client countries, apparently.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kathleen Koch, thank you very much.

KOCH: You bet.

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