Yemeni arrested at US flight school of 9/11 attackers

Al-Araby al-Jadeed has learnt that federal authorities in the United States have arrested a Yemeni pilot who was training at Huffman Aviation in the southern state of Florida, the same school attended by two of the September 11 attackers.

The trainee pilot, Salah Mohammad al-Yafie, was arrested days before the 14^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which indicates a high state of alert among authorities in the US.

The trainee, who is believed to be in his early twenties, had stopped attending classes at the flight school last month according to sources, which prompted the Florida school to notify authorities of the trainee's absence.

US authorities launched a manhunt to locate al-Yafie, who was finally arrested for a traffic violation in the northern state of Michigan.

Al-Yafie had arrived in the United States at the end of 2014 on a student visa from Saudi Arabia according to al-Araby al-Jadeed's sources, and authorities found an expired passport in his possession upon his arrest.

He told authorities that he has applied for political asylum through an American lawyer, however he was not able to prove his claim at the time, which allowed the authorities to detain him before referring him to the Department of Homeland Security for questioning, added the sources.

Al-Yafie was attending the same flight school attended by Egyptian Mohamed Atta and Emirati Marwan al-Shehhi, who were members of the group that carried out the September 11 attacks against the Twin Towers in New York.