Washington, D.C.: Two hijackers had run-ins with law before Sept. 11
One of the hijackers aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon was stopped for speeding within a few miles of the military headquarters six weeks before the attack, police confirmed Tuesday.
Hani Hanjour, who is believed to have piloted the hijacked plane into the Pentagon, was ticketed Aug. 1 for driving 55 mph in a 30 mph zone in Arlington, Va., police said.
The revelation came on the same day that Maryland State Police released a videotape of a trooper pulling over another of the hijackers, Ziad Samir Jarrah, in Maryland two days before the attacks. Jarrah was ticketed for going 90 mph on Interstate 95.
Three weeks after his stop, Hanjour mailed a money order to pay a $70 fine and $30 in court costs..
Jarrah did not pay his fine of $270; the ticket was found after the attacks in the glove compartment of his car at Newark International Airport.
Florida: Pilot took controversial drug
A 15-year-old student pilot who killed himself by crashing an airplane into a skyscraper was prescribed an acne medication whose links to suicide and depression have been the subject of federal inquiries, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
A prescription for Accutane, used to treat severe acne, was found at the home of Charles J. Bishop, Pinellas County Sheriff's Maj. Sam Lynn said.
The Food and Drug Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which affects the body's central nervous system, either committed suicide or were hospitalized for suicide attempts from 1982 to May 2000.
Toxicology tests that will determine whether any drugs were in Bishop's system will be completed in about two weeks.
Los Angeles: Airport passengers charged
A passenger who allegedly punched a flight attendant and opened the rear door of a Southwest Airlines jet was charged Tuesday with interfering with a flight crew.
According to an FBI affidavit, David Boone, 36, told a fellow passenger Monday that everyone on the plane was "doomed" before leaping over a row of seats and heading for the emergency door.
Also Tuesday, a 20-year-old man was charged in federal court in Chicago with trying to bring four pocket knives, a box cutter, two flares and a bottle of lighter fluid onto an airplane out of Midway Airport.
Security screeners found the items in Steven Paul Johnson's carry-on bag along with a one-way ticket on an American Trans Air flight to Orlando, Fla. He was arrested without incident.
New York City: Ground zero tickets issued
The line of people solemnly waiting outside in the cold to see the ruins of the World Trade Center is so long that the city has decided to issue tickets to the viewing platform.
The free tickets would allow up to 100 people on the platform for about 15 minutes at a time. Tickets will probably be required beginning Thursday.
The 13-foot-high wooden viewing platform, the first of a planned four, opened on Dec. 30. Despite bitter cold in recent weeks, thousands of people line up every day and wait up to three hours to climb onto the platform.
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