London, January 30: A Muslim pilot, who worked for a prominent British-carrier, has told a tribunal that he was thrown out of his job over fears he might “fly planes into buildings” and replicate the 9/11 attacks.
The pilot was arrested over his links to an alleged terror plot by extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir but was never charged.
However, the airline felt he was “in a position to divert or sabotage an aircraft” and judged him as a security risk, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
The pilot, who was not named because of legal reasons, told an employment tribunal in a tearful appearance that his bosses feared he might copy the September 11 attacks.
“I felt they believed I was going to fly planes into buildings. I believe the basis they had for that was my race and religion, because of the actions of other people of a similar race and religion,” he told the tribunal hearing a case of discrimination.
The airline had reportedly claimed that he was unsuitable to fly because of his links to two alleged extremists suspected of ‘planning to use an aircraft as part of a hostile or terrorist act’.
However, the two men themselves had the charges against them cleared.
The pilot and his brother an active member of extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir were also arrested but never charged.
The paper said the pilot was questioned by the airline over his alleged remarks on a flight deck in 2005, in which he was claimed to have said that those killed in the September 11 attacks were ‘not innocent victims’.
The pilot, however, denied making such remarks.
Despite clearing him of misconduct, the airline concluded that he posed a security risk.
According to the report, during cross-examination, the airline’s operations manager accepted there was nothing in the investigation file to indicate that the pilot would do anything ‘hostile’ with any aircraft.
The pilot maintains he has been unfairly treated, but one of the airline’s security managers told the tribunal that “anyone caught up in a terror plot has the potential to damage the good name” of the company.
-Agencies