Eddie Shalev was a flight instructor at Congressional Air Charters, Gaithersburg, MD, in 2001. He accompanied Hani Hanjour in August 2001 on a training flight to evaluate Hanjour's flying abilities, and told the 9/11 Commission that, based on his observations, Hanjor was a "good" pilot.
9-11 Commission Report
Shalev made a brief appearance in the 9-11 Commission Report:
170. FBI report,“Summary of Penttbom Investigation,” Feb. 29, 2004, pp. 52–57. Hanjour successfully conducted a challenging certification flight supervised by an instructor at Congressional Air Charters of Gaithersburg, Maryland, landing at a small airport with a difficult approach.The instructor thought Hanjour may have had training from a military pilot because he used a terrain recognition system for navigation. Eddie Shalev interview (Apr. 9, 2004).
Footnote #170 to Chapter 7, 9-11 Commission Report
9-11 Commission MFR
In 2009 NARA released the MFR of Shalev's interview with the 9/11 Commission.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
Event: Interview of Eddie Guigui Shalev
Date: 04/09/2004 9/11 Personal Privacy
Special Access Issues: Agreement dated 07/29/2003 with the Attorney General
Prepared by: Quinn John Tamm, Jr.
Team Number: IA
Present for the interview was Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire, Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI), in accordance with the cited agreement.
Mr. Shalev is an Israeli national who was employed as a flight instructor by Congressional Air Charters, Gaithersburg, MD airport in 2001. Mr. Shalev served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the paratroop regiment. He was a jumpmaster on a Boeing C-130. Mr. Shalev moved to the Gaithersburg, MD area in April 2001 and was sponsored for employment by Congressional Air Charters. Congressional Air Charters has subsequently gone out of business and Mr. Shalev is presently unemployed. He is attempting to obtain permanent alien resident status.
In August 2001 he evaluated the flying ability of Hani Hanjour, to determine if Hanjour would be allowed to rent an aircraft from Congressional Air Charters. This is known as "certification." Mr. Shalev stated that he was interviewed by two FBI agents soon after 09/1112001. At that time Shalev told the FBI agents that Hanjour came to Congressional Air Charters accompanied by two mid-eastern males. The males did not fly with Hanjour, but remained in a motor vehicle, Mr. Shalev described as a 1990 Toyota Camry.
On his first certification flight a Cessna 172 was used. This is a single engine aircraft. Mr. Shalev sat next to Hanjour and had him fly north from the Gaithersburg airport away from Washington, D.C. Mr. Shalev noticed that Hanjour used a landmark or terrain recognition system for navigation and did not use the VOR or Very High Frequency (VHF) Omni Directional Rangefinder instruments. Mr. Shalev stated that he considered this unusual because basic ainnanship requires knowledge of the operation of the VOR. Mr. Shalev selected Clearview airport in northern Maryland as their designation. The airport is located near Westminster, Maryland. Mr. Shalev said that the runway is small at Clearview and difficult to land. Hanjour landed at the airport without any difficulty. Mr. Shalev stated that based on his observations, Hanjour was a "good" pilot. Mr. Shalev thought that Hanjour may have received training from a military pilot because of his use of terrain recognition for navigation. Hanjour told Mr. Shalev that he (Hanjour) had most recently trained in Florida as a pilot.
After the certification flight, Mr. Shalev approved Hanjour for the rental of the Cessna 172 from Congressional Air Charters. Mr. Shalev said that Hanjour had his own flight bag, headset and aviator's chart for the Washington, D.C. area airspace. On 08/26/2001, Hanjour returned to Congressional Air Charters and rented an aircraft. Hanjour came in and spoke briefly with Mr. Shalev. The conversation related to the air corridor between Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. The airspace is restricted because of heavy commercial airline traffic. Mr. Shalev said that the Cessna 172 that Hanjour would be flying is not pressurized and that would restrict the altitude. Generally, the air controllers allow small aircraft to fly to an altitude of 5000 feet. Hanjour was accompanied by a young mid-eastern male, who was different from the two mid-eastern males, who came with Hanjour when Hanjour took his certification flight at Congressional Air Charters. Mr. Shalev does not know where Hanjour flew on 08/26/2001. When Hanjour returned to the airport, he did not speak with Mr. Shalev.
Mr. Shalev stated that Hanjour rented aircraft from Congressional on at least two other occasions. On 09/1112001, after Mr. Shalev heard about the terrorist attacks he spoke with the owner of Congressional Air Charters, Monty Lilley. He told Mr. Lilley that he (Shalev) was suspicious of Hanjour and recommended that Mr. Lilley contact the appropriate authorities. Mr. Shalev was also suspicious of two Egyptian flight students at an adjacent flight school at the Gaithersburg airport, Montgomery Flight School. FBI agents contacted Mr. Shalev two days later.
Observation: Mr. Shalev would make a decent witness as part of a panel of flight instructors. His English language skills are good. Mr. Shalev has some reluctance, because he feels guilty that as a former Israeli soldier he was not more aware of Hanjour's radicalism and interest in flying in the Washington, D.C. area. His visa expires in July 2004 and he will have to return to Israel if he does not find another employer.
NARA Source
Experienced researchers
Shalev's experiences with Hanjour pose a problem to those who want to claim Hanjour couldn't possibly have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and as a result they try to make his testimony appear as mysterious as possible.
David Ray Griffin tells us:
Dr Griffin doesn't tell us what he believes this failure by "experienced researchers" means, however we'd hazard a guess that some people will wonder if Shalev exists at all. So it's worth noting that an Intelius.com search of public records on 16th February 2009 does show an Eddy (rather than Eddie) Guigui Shalev living in Gaithersburg:
We also found a profile, presumably of the same man, at an online index of flying instructors:
Are these old records, discovered by the "experienced researchers", but ones that didn't leave them to Shalev? Perhaps. Shalev's MFR above with the 9-11 Commission shows that he may have had to return to Israel if he couldn't find another job in the US, so he may now have left the country. In any event, we can say that there is evidence beyond that of the 9/11 Commission placing a flight instructor called Eddy Shalev in the Gaithersburg area, and we've yet to see any reason to disbelieve his experiences with Hanjour.
[to be continued]