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Probe turns up knives on airplanes
Officials look at airline employees
By Naftali Bendavid
Washington Bureau
Published September 23, 2001
WASHINGTON --
A box-cutter knife has been discovered under a seat cushion on American Airlines Flight 160, a Boeing 767 that was to have flown from San Diego to New York's Kennedy International Airport the morning of Sept. 11 but was unable to take off before federal authorities halted commercial air traffic.
The plane is one of several aircraft on which knives or box cutters have been discovered after hijackers crashed four jetliners into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania. Investigators also are scrutinizing knives found on an airplane that was scheduled to leave from Boston on Sept. 11, and another on a plane that was due to depart from Atlanta, a source close to the investigation confirmed.
Authorities are interested in the box cutters because they have concluded that the hijackers used the knives to commandeer the planes. In addition, authorities have stepped up efforts to determine whether airline employees might have aided the hijackers and whether the terrorists embarked on multiple practice flights in preparation for the attacks.
Another source familiar with the investigation said the knife on the San Diego plane was discovered by maintenance personnel on Monday, after the 767 was flown from San Diego to American's maintenance base near Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport.
Although airline mechanics and other ground personnel routinely carry box cutter-type knives, in which a push-up blade is encased in plastic, the source said the knife found on Flight 160 was made by the Stanley tool company and was not the company's standard knife.
But he noted that American personnel are free to carry their own box cutters, and that the airline could not rule out the possibility that the knife had inadvertently been placed there by an American Airlines mechanic or seat repairman.
Federal investigators also have begun exploring the possibility that airport or airline employees were involved in the hijacking plot.
An FAA official said the authorities are working with airlines and airport operators to determine whether the hijackers received inside help to smuggle knives aboard the planes.
A congressional source added, "Investigators are looking at the possibility that the breakdowns in security were not just those at the screening checkpoints."
Secure areas
The FAA official said that in addition to passenger security checkpoints, the secured areas of airports--doors leading to jet bridges, the aircraft and the gate ramps on the airfield--are receiving special attention.
Some airlines have canceled food service since the attacks, citing financial concerns. But a congressional source said the move also was due partly to security concerns.
Two of three men arrested in Detroit last week and charged with identity fraud worked as dishwashers for Sky Chefs, a company that prepares food for airlines. The day of the attacks, FBI agents also found a pilot's uniform in the luggage of Mohamed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers. The bag had been checked in Portland, Maine, but it didn't make it onto the fatal flight that left from Boston.
In Chicago, security considerations have prompted a new requirement that airlines and airport service companies verify the identities of 38,000 workers who have badges allowing them access to restricted areas at O'Hare International and Midway Airports.
Investigators also are intensifying efforts to uncover previous flights taken by the hijackers as practice runs in preparation for their Sept. 11 operation. Dozens of FBI agents have set up shop at the corporate headquarters of United and American Airlines to comb through passenger lists, airlines sources said.
At American Airlines, the FBI has seized manifests--known as Passenger Name Records--for American flights going back several months.
"The FBI is asking for a lot--a lot--of PNRs," a source said, adding that the lists would have to be searched by hand for the names of the 19 suspected hijackers or others on the FBI's growing list of suspected associates.
Chemicals found
The investigation continued its international sweep Saturday. In Belgium, investigators discovered large quantities of chemicals linked to one of two men arrested last week and suspected of planning anti-U.S. attacks.
In Chicago, federal authorities continued to question a 34-year-old Burbank convenience store cashier detained in connection with the hijackings. Nabil Al-Marabh, who was arrested Wednesday, was held Friday night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and questioned by FBI agents Saturday.
A former Boston cabdriver, Al-Marabh is on the FBI's watch list for people wanted for questioning. He had transferred money to another former Boston cabdriver who is facing trial in Jordan on charges he plotted terrorist activities for New Year's Eve 1999, according to a law-enforcement official. Some Jordanian authorities have argued that the millennium terrorist plot was tied to Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 U.S. attacks.
Meanwhile, authorities said Saturday they have no immediate plans to bring another man with a Chicago link to the city for questioning.
The man, identified in court papers as Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohamed Al-Hadi, was on a Chicago-bound international flight that was diverted to Toronto the day of the attacks.
He was charged here with federal passport violations after Canadian authorities found he was carrying three Yemeni passports. He attracted the FBI's interest after his luggage proceeded to Chicago on Sept. 11 and U.S. customs inspectors here discovered two Lufthansa crew uniforms and a paper with Arabic writing sewn into the pocket of a pair of pants.
Tribune staff reporters John Crewdson, Stephen J. Hedges and Doug Holt in Washington and Jon Hilkevitch and John Schmeltzer in Chicago contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
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