Police stopped September 11 hijacker two days before attack

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - One of the hijackers of United Airlines flight 93 was stopped for speeding only two days before he helped to seize the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania, killing all 45 passengers and crew.

Maryland police released a videotape yesterday of Ziad Jarrah being pulled over on Interstate 95 and fined $US270 ($NZ628) after driving at 90mph in a 65mph zone shortly before midnight on September 9.

On the morning of September 11 he and his fellow hijackers boarded the flight to San Francisco. The ticket was found in the glove compartment of the car he left at Newark international airport.

Had Jarrah been arrested rather than simply given a ticket, it would have reduced the flight 93 hijack team to three members.

But police said he had been treated in the same way as any other speeding motorist.

Thornnie Rouse, a state police spokesman, said: "It was a routine traffic stop. There was no conversation, no comments from the driver."

Meanwhile, a man was arrested yesterday at Chicago Midway airport as he tried to board a flight with pocket knives, box-cutters, flares and lighter fluid in his bag.

- INDEPENDENT

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