Ali tipoff came from air school

Rayed Ali

The man deported for his links to the September 11 terrorists was in New Zealand for two months before authorities were alerted to his presence.

An Auckland flying school manager believes officials were unaware of Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali until he tipped them off that the man was seeking flying lessons.

As revealed in the Weekend Herald on Saturday, Ali was deported last month as a threat to national security.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that it was difficult to police border security, and the critical fact was that Ali had been found.

"The key thing for me is that Mr Ali was detected, he was apprehended, and he was deported. That is a very satisfactory outcome."

However, Ali - who arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in February - may have been investigating flying schools weeks before authorities were made aware of the fact.

Aucklander Philip O'Sullivan told the Herald yesterday that he met Ali at North Shore Airfield on March 12, and Ali had told him he was looking for a place to fly.

"He seemed very friendly and a very normal sort of person, not fitting the mould of a terrorist, if there is such a thing at all," said Mr O'Sullivan.

A month later, on April 12, Ali visited Ardmore Flying School and attempted to enrol in a flying course - an action which school general manager Craig Hunter believes may have been the beginning of the end of Ali's time in New Zealand.

The school would not let Ali fly as he did not want to follow rules established to protect overseas students.

"He said he would go somewhere else and left. We then handed on all the information to the authorities, so we are the source of where it was discovered," Mr Hunter said.

The Government would not comment yesterday on whether it knew of Ali before April 13, the day Mr Hunter contacted the Immigration Service.

"He obviously wanted to extend his visa," Mr Hunter said.

"He came in the door and he asked the person at reception and another person whether they could write a letter saying he was a student here so he could alter his visa.

"That just doesn't happen for a start, I don't know where he got that idea from, and we don't issue such letters."

Ali was obviously interested that the school had a flight simulator, Mr Hunter said.

He was interviewed by school staff and his passport and documentation were photocopied. But while other people who met Ali in New Zealand have described him as polite, Mr Hunter said he had been rude and arrogant, and shouted at school staff.

"He was not the least bit interested in complying with the rules, in terms of we would have made him pay a third of his total fee and he would have been granted an eight-month visa and we would have made him reapply for a student visa with the Ardmore Flying School as his training provider," said Mr Hunter.

"He did not seem to want that. Personally, I got the impression he did not have the money because he told me everything was expensive ... I suspected he was more of an immigration problem than anything and we handed it on to the appropriate authorities."

Ali showed the school a visa allowing him to study at a language school which Mr Hunter did not recognise. Mr Hunter got the impression Ali had been at the school about three weeks.

"He spoke perfect English. He spoke it very fast because he got quite heated within discussions here," Mr Hunter said.

"I questioned him about why he would go to a language school when he spoke such brilliant English and he did not reply ... English was obviously his second language and he was very good at it."

North Shore Aero Club manager Neil Kimpton said he was contacted by Ardmore "a week or two ago" and told to look out for Ali.

Mr Kimpton said there was no evidence Ali had made any formal approach to the club.

"We certainly had not processed anything for him.

"We'd know exactly if he had done anything here and if he had flown anything at all or even contacted us."

Mr Kimpton was surprised to hear Ali had been seen at the airfield on March 12, but said if that was the case he was probably "scoping" the club.

Helen Clark said yesterday that Ali had obviously intended to deceive New Zealand officials by adding an extra surname to his travel documents.

"What also indicates deception is that Mr Ali applied for a student permit to learn English. He then subsequently enrolled in a pilot training course. That in itself I think indicates that he didn't really come with the fundamental purpose of learning English."

Shortly after being turned away by Ardmore, Ali moved to Palmerston North, where he flew for some weeks with the Manawatu Aero Club before being detained and deported.

- Additional reporting by Louisa Cleave