Hijacker took flying lessons at Clark — resort worker

CLARK FIELD — Recognizing him from a newspaper photograph, a former chambermaid at a resort in Dau, Pampanga said yesterday one of the five hijackers of a commercial airline that was crashed into the World Trade Center in New York last Sept. 11, took lessons at a flying school in Pampanga in April 1999.

Mohamad Atta stayed at the 40-room Woodland Resort in Dau town while enrolled at the Aeroclub flying school in Mabalacat town two years ago, Victoria Brocoy told The STAR in an interview yesterday.

"I cannot forget his face because his left eye was kirat, " she said in Pilipino. "He was also the only Arab guest at Woodland who was taking flying lessons."

Journalists learned about the 61-year-old Brocoy’s story after she told her new employer, Antonio Salanga, former vice president of Clark Development Corp., that she recognized the photograph of Atta which appeared in The STAR after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released photographs of the suspected hijackers.

Josie Mendoza, former head of the reception desk at Woodland, said she also remembers Atta as having been a guest at the resort two years ago.

But Mendoza said she doubts if Woodland management still has records of Atta’s stay at the resort, where Arabs, Americans, Australians, and Japanese had been billeted.

"For one thing, I don’t think he showed his passport since he was introduced by Zamir, a regular hotel guest," she said.

When The STAR showed Brocoy and Mendoza a copy of an American newsmagazine which carried on its cover a photograph of Atta, the two women agreed that he was indeed the student pilot who stayed at Woodland Resort when they were working there.

The interviews with Brocoy and Mendoza were conducted at Salanga’s residence in Mabalacat town.

Brocoy said she did not know Atta’s name or that he was a terrorist when he saw his photograph on The STAR’s front page until Salanga informed him that Atta had taken part in the attack on the World Trade Center.

"I was shocked when I learned that (Atta) was involved in the (terrorist attack)," she said.

Brocoy said she was sure that Atta was booked in one of the rooms that she had been assigned to clean as she remembers that he was a student pilot.

"Zamir, another Arab I knew told me that another guest would be arriving to take up flying lessons (at Aeroclub flying school)," she said. "The guest turned out to be Atta who had been fetched several times at about 7 a.m. during his stay for flying lessons at Aeroclub."

Brocoy said she remembered Atta talking in English with a smattering of Pilipino with girls whom he had been bringing to his room.

Atta stood 5’ 7" tall, medium built, and with skin darker than other Arabs who were staying at Woodland, she added.

Brocoy said some Arab guests would stay at Woodland for days and then disappear for three days after receiving calls on their cellular phones.