WAR ON TERROR: TARGET LONDON: HE PLANNED DEATH DIVE

THE man who tried to board a London-bound jet with a pistol in his hand luggage was a pilot who trained at a US flying school.

Like the Muslim zealots who flew hijacked jets into New York's World Trade Center on September 11 last year, Kerim Chatty, 29, had clocked up many hours of training on light planes.

He spent at least two months at a flying school in South Carolina but was kicked off the course because of his bad temper and poor performance.

The revelations about his background came as America's Central Intelligence Agency said he had planned to hijack a Ryanair Boeing 737 and fly it into a US embassy in Europe - with London the most likely target.

Security sources believe that Chatty intended to crash the Stansted-bound jet into the embassy at Grosvenor Square, just 45 miles from its destination.

Last night it emerged that an RAF Tornado F3 fighter would have been scrambled to shadow the flight from Sweden if a hijacking was reported - but defence sources refused to say if the aircraft would have been ordered to shoot down the passenger jet.

However, the plot failed when the loaded pistol Chatty tried to carry on to the flight was spotted by security staff.

US security chiefs believe he chose Vestaras airport - 60 miles west of the Swedish capital Stockholm - because he believed security would not be intense.

Last night four other people, including an explosives expert, were being hunted by security forces.

President George Bush is said to have been "deeply disturbed" by the events and is to convene a special National Security Council meeting in Washington today.

Chatty was an experienced pilot who - like nine of the September 11 hijackers - underwent training in the US.

He had also been studying at a Muslim school in Saudia Arabia at the time of the attacks.

His former flying instructor reported him to the FBI straight after the 9/11 atrocity. He was quizzed by Swedish security services but there was no evidence to link him to the attacks.

In the past 18 months Chatty has travelled extensively throughout the Arab world - visiting Yemen eight times and Saudia Arabia seven times as well as three visits to the US, five to France, twice to Italy and Tunisia.

Yesterday his father Sarok, from Stockholm, revealed how his son's interest in Islam had "deepened considerably" after her had met a group of Muslims during a spell at the flying school in South Carolina.

He said: "He had met some Muslims in Sweden and was interested in what they had to say, but after he returned to America he was much more serious about it."

Last night his sister Sophie, 22, confirmed that Chatty held a private pilot's licence, but strongly denied that he was a terrorist.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror from her home in Stockholm, she said: "My brother is innocent and my family is going to fight to prove he's innocent."

Her brother was seized on Thursday afternoon when he tried to board Ryanair flight FR685 from Vasteras to Stansted.

Security workers found a 6.5 calibre pistol loaded with three or four bullets in a washbag in his hand luggage.

The flight had 189 passengers on board, including a group of 20 people heading for a Muslim conference in Birmingham.

Strict security was in operation at the conference after it emerged Chatty was due to attend the event.

But Chatty's lawyer Nils Uggla last night denied that he was plotting a hijack and said he could explain why he had a firearm.

He said: "He denies this has anything to do with terrorism or plane hijacking. He is deeply sorry he caused trouble for others who were travelling." Yesterday David Learmount - Operations and Safety Editor of Flight International magazine - said that extra security measures introduced since September 11 made it "extremely unlikely" any plot to crash into an embassy would succeed.

He said: "First of all, the cockpit remains locked at all times. All cabin crew are instructed not to open it under any circumstances.

"Even if a would-be hijacker had gained access, it is unlikely, with his level of training, that he would be able to direct a plane so accurately - it is more likely that he would have simply got lost.

"If this guy was a hijacker, it looks like he was a complete amateur."

Chatty - who publicly converted to Islam in 1998 - was interrogated by the Swedish intelligence service SAPO after the World Trade Center atrocities but no action was taken. A US official admitted he had slipped through security screening to take his flying lessons in the first place.

Douglas Beckner, president of the North American Institute of Aviation in Conway, South Carolina, where Chatty took lessons, said: "It makes me feel sick to think he used his training to plot such an awful thing."

The keep-fit fanatic, whose parents are Tunisian, paid pounds 3,125 for the course which included 300 hours in Cessna light aircraft. But Aviation Institute spokesman Bob Sunday said: "He was not a good student and was terminated from the school after two months. He did not have a suitable temperament for flying."

As Chatty, who lived with his brother Semir in Stockholm, remained in police custody, details of his criminal past and hatred of Americans were coming to light.

He was badly beaten by American Marines in July 1997 after a fight in a nightclub and he was later jailed for four months for a savage attack on a US Marine. A friend said: "He was deeply religious and wanted to participate in a holy war."

Detectives are now investigating whether Chatty - a follower of the strict Salafi branch of Islam - may have been a lone operator or part of a terrorist cell.

Swedish police are considering charging him with plotting a hijacking and illegal possession of a firearm.

Western security services fear Muslim fanatics plan an outrage to mark the September 11 anniversary.

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