October 18, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 30, 1422

NEW YORK, Oct 17: Two suspected hijackers in the Sept 11 attacks came close to official scrutiny last December when they stalled a small plane and abandoned it at Miami International Airport, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper cited airport records and a Venice, Florida, flight school instructor who said suspected hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi taxied the Piper Cherokee toward a runway Dec. 26 when it stalled. They flipped off the lights and walked off, the report said.

Dale Kraus, the flight director at Huffman Aviation in Venice, the flight school where Atta and al-Shehhi earned their pilot licenses and had rented the Piper Cherokee that day, told the Times he received a phone call from an annoyed official in the airport tower within minutes of the incident.—Reuters