February 14, 2002	Thursday	Zilhaj 1, 1422

HANOVER, Feb 13: A pilot who said he had thought of emulating the Sept 11 plane hijackers was sacked by his employers, a labour court in Hanover heard on Wednesday.

But in a compromise deal with business airline Hapag Lloyd Executive, the 51-year-old pilot, who had been dismissed outright for the remark, won the right to be sacked on “economic grounds” from March 31.

Seeing television footage of a plane crashing into the World Trade Centre, the pilot allegedly said: “I’ve also thought of doing the same thing... You only need to find out beforehand which storey the people are on.”

The counsel for the pilot said that when he made the remark he had thought the crash was an act of suicide. But he accepted that in the circumstances it was best if the pilot and the company parted company.—AFP