French Pilot Who Removed Jewish Campers Once Trained 9/11 Terrorists

The pilot who recently ordered dozens of French Jewish children off a flight was previously an instructor to two of the September 11 hijackers, the British Telegraph revealed Sunday.

Vueling Airlines identified Iván Chirivella as the captain of the Wednesday flight from Valencia to Paris Orly that removed 47 Jewish children and their adult chaperones before takeoff.

As captain, Chirivella contacted Spain’s Guardia Civil and requested the removal of the group, mostly teens, citing what he described as “disruptive behaviour” and a “confrontational attitude” toward crew members.

In a statement, Vueling claimed the children, aged 10 to 17, interfered with safety equipment — including attempts to “take out life vests, manipulate ceiling compartment oxygen masks and remove the high-pressure oxygen cylinder.”

Both the airline and the Guardia Civil denied that the group’s expulsion had anything to do with their singing in Hebrew, which one parent said had occurred prior to the removal. However, multiple witnesses testified that the campers were not behaving disruptively.

Chirivella subsequently deleted his social media pages, an online search by Belaaz indicates, after his name was connected to both incidents. However, he had made no secret of his training the terrorists, having written about it in a memoir.

A further statement from Vueling on Friday provided background on Chirivella, born in 1976 in the Canary Islands. He has flown with the company since 2006 and previously served as a flight instructor, including at Florida’s Jones Aviation academy — where he trained 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al Shehhi.

Atta piloted the plane that struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, while Al Shehhi crashed another into the South Tower minutes later. Together, their attacks killed 2,753 people.

In his 2003 memoir Innocent Accomplice, Chirivella wrote about instructing the terrorists, claiming he had no way of knowing their intentions at the time.

Despite criticizing their attitude towards women, Chirivella recalled Atta and Al Shehhi as “normal lads” and said they “never said anything bad about the US.”

He added that the two were ultimately expelled from the flight academy for their treatment of female staff and for attempting to forge a signature on a training log.

Chirivella was investigated by the FBI due to his link to the hijackers. He told El Mundo during a book promotion tour that he and many others were treated “unfairly” by the bureau.