I sold ticket to hijack ringleader - clerk

A woman who believes she sold hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta the ticket he used to get on the flight he helped crash into the World Trade Centre today told of her ordeal.

The American Airlines ticket agent, who has asked not to be named, has been interviewed by the FBI, believes she sold Atta his first-class ticket for the carrier’s flight 11 from Boston on September 11.

Today the mother-of-three, from Long Island, east of New York, told of her guilt that she had sold him the ticket, at La Guardia airport, 10 days before the kamikaze attacks.

‘‘I believe it was Atta,’’ said the woman, who has lost her job in the sackings which have followed the downturn in air travel because of the attacks.

‘‘The FBI was here yesterday.’’

The woman said she had sold the man she believes was Atta a ticket from La Guardia to Portland, Maine, on an American Eagle flight that day.

He had then asked for a ticket from Boston to Los Angeles, and insisted it was first-class after she had quoted a regular fare.

He paid the 1,300-dollar fare (£930) in dollars 50 and dollars 100 notes, and showed her a driving licence in the name of Mohamed Atta.

‘‘Oh, so you’re not coming back?’’ she asked.

‘‘No,’’ he replied.

‘‘His first answer was a quick no’, but then he said Well, I don’t know’. I guess he realised that, knowing what he was going to do, I might catch on,’’ she said.

The woman told how she had remembered the sale as details of Atta’s involvement emerged in the aftermath of the attacks.

‘‘All of the pieces just flooded my memory,’’ she said.

‘‘For the first couple of weeks, it was very difficult for me, emotionally. I wasn’t able to go to work because I was crying.

‘‘I know there was nothing I could have done to prevent this, but it’s very upsetting to know you were so close to someone who did something like this. In a strange way, you feel so violated. It’s very difficult.’’

Atta, 33, boarded the flight from Portland early on the morning of the hijackings and then went onto the American Airlines flight to Los Angeles which he and his accomplices hijacked.

The FBI has not confirmed whether the woman’s claim is true, but a senior official told the New York Post it was being taken seriously.

Atta was known to have lived in Florida before the attack, but there had until now been no reports that he was in the city where the attacks took place before September 11.

La Guardia is the busiest of New York’s three hubs and offers only flights within the US.