The Associated Press
Battle Creek - Federal agents are investigating an international pilot-training program at Western Michigan University’s College of Aviation in their search for clues to the terrorist attacks in New York and the Pentagon, the Detroit Free Press reported today on its Web site.
The FBI investigation was confirmed by Elson Floyd, president of the Kalamazoo-based university. He declined to discuss details of the investigation, though he denied that any previous or current student had been linked to Tuesday’s attacks.
“We have no reason to believe that,” Floyd said.
The university called a news conference for 5:45 p.m. at the aviation college.
Special Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Detroit office, said today the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.
The newspaper said the school’s International Pilot Training Centre in Battle Creek is likely of interest to authorities because of its size and prestige, and because it has long trained pilots from overseas, including pilots from Emirates airlines, based in the United Arab Emirates.
At least two men who have emerged as suspects in the federal probe are from the United Arab Emirates. The men were trained as pilots capable of flying large commercial aircraft like those hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center towers, the Boston Globe reported today.
There had been no reports, however, linking Emirates airlines or its pilots to the attacks.
Emirates airlines officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Western Michigan’s aviation college also may be of interest to authorities because, unlike most domestic flight schools, it has a multimillion-dollar flight simulator that can train pilots to fly large commercial crafts.
“They have a full-range, 737 simulator ... it’s the real McCoy,” said Chuck Hawes, president of the Michigan Institute of Aeronautics, a training school at Willow Run Airport in Belleville. Hawes said his school had not been contacted by federal investigators.
Western Michigan’s College of Aviation created the International Pilot Training Centre in 1997. It has an international faculty. Almost all of its students are sponsored by the airlines that employ them, said David Thomas, assistant to the dean at the college. Among the airlines that contract with the training center are Delta Airlines, Aer Lingus and British Airways.
Western Michigan spokeswoman Cheryl Roland cast the FBI investigation as routine, and denied that authorities had found specific links between the school’s aviation program and Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.
“I’m assuming they’re contacting every college that does pilot training,” Roland said.
But some major U.S. flight schools reached by the Free Press had not been contacted by authorities as of Thursday afternoon, including at least one that had expected an FBI inquiry.
“I would have expected them to be at the front door by yesterday,” said Bruce Smith, dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota.
However, Smith said he heard from the FBI shortly after the Free Press call.
Last year, FBI agents contacted Smith twice to request a list of students receiving flight training. Smith supplied the lists, but never heard back from the FBI, even after this week’s attacks.
“The fact that they haven’t been back after Tuesday is an indication there’s nothing here they’re interested in,” Smith said.
