Patrick Flannery had no idea the man who had just walked into his family's Arizona restaurant was capable of committing an atrocity that would change the course of world history – but he knew he could not forget his piercing stare.
The arresting brown eyes belonged to Hani Hanjour, the al-Qaeda terrorist who would go on to hijack the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
uncertain
that → have → 9/11
Now, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Flannery is speaking out for the first time about his eerie encounters with the restaurant regular – and why they have haunted him for more than 25 years.
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they → speak → years
Back around the turn of the century it was an otherwise ordinary day at the Left Seat Restaurant at Scottsdale Airport when five men in grey overalls walked up to pay for their lunch.
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men → walk → lunch
They were pilots, or at least that was how Flannery understood them, and part of the steady stream of aviation students and private-jet customers who regularly passed through.
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who → understand → students
Flannery’s mother had noticed them first.
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mother → notice → them
She touched his hand and leaned towards him: 'Those are Saudi pilots who are taking flying lessons here,' she told him.
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she → touch → him
Then came the sentence that, in retrospect, is unbearably ironic: 'Isn’t that neat?
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that → come → retrospect
Flannery turned around.
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Flannery → turn → ?
One man, standing in the middle of the group, was quite clearly the ringleader, joking in Arabic and making the others belly laugh.
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others → stand → Arabic
Flannery did not understand him but remembers his moustache, short hair, slight stubble and his 'piercing eyes that bore into you.'
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that → understand → you
Most of all, he remembers the direct eye contact from just two feet away.
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he → remember → contact
Patrick Flannery remembers the moment his family's restaurant brought him face to face with a man he would later recognize as one of the 9/11 hijackers
Hani Hanjour, who Flannery says frequented his restaurant, led the hijack on American Airlines flight 77
Patrick recalled Hanjour standing among four other men joking in Arabic as they waited at the counter after lunch.
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they → remember → lunch
He also recalled that the booth pictured here is one they chose to sit at most days
When photographs of the 19 hijackers appeared after the attacks, Flannery said his stomach sank as he realized he recognized one of the faces
He carried on with his day but the man stayed lodged in his memory.
'
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man → recall → memory
The image of his face burned in my brain,' Flannery recalled.
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Flannery → burn → brain
'It never left me.'
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It → leave → me
When photographs of the 19 September 11 hijackers splashed across TV screens less than two years later, Flannery says he recognized the man instantly.
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he → splash → man
I mean, clean as day,' he said.
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he → mean → day
'I would never forget this guy’s face.'
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I → forget → face
The man he identified was Hani Hanjour, the hijacker of American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
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which → identify → 9/11
Flight 77 was seized by five hijackers after leaving Washington Dulles.
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Flight → seize → Dulles
The Boeing 757 was turned back towards Washington and, at 9.37am, was deliberately flown into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people aboard and 125 people inside the building.
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Boeing → turn → building
Hanjour had spent significant time in Arizona learning to fly.
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Hanjour → spend → Arizona
He obtained his private pilot’s license before receiving a Federal Aviation Administration commercial pilot certificate in 1999.
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He → obtain → 1999
Later he returned to Arizona with fellow hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi for further training.
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he → return → training
For Flannery, the enormity of Hanjour's atrocities made the memory of that ordinary encounter almost impossible to bear.
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memory → make → encounter
Flannery's mother had told him 'Isn't that neat?
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that → tell → him
They are our allies', he says
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he → say → ?
His long-term partner Margie added that none of the servers would want to wait on their tables on account of their lack of tips
When the suspects' images were released Flannery's mother told him that Nawaf Alhamzi, who also trained in Arizona, was another of the restaurant's regulars
Flannery and his partner Margie
The revelation was all the more unsettling because the men were far from strangers to the restaurant. Flannery’s family had owned the Left Seat from 1987 until February 2000, and the men came in repeatedly while taking flying lessons.
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men → add → lessons
Margie, Flannery’s longtime partner, worked there and served them frequently.
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Margie → work → them
The other waiters did not particularly want their tables, but the reason was strikingly mundane: the men were known never to tip.
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men → want → tables
According to Flannery, his mom pointed out Nawaf al-Hazmi after the attacks and told him that she had seen him eat at the family restaurant several times.
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him → accord → restaurant
Al-Hazmi was one of the five hijackers aboard Flight 77 alongside Hanjour and also trained at the airfield.
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Hazmi → train → airfield
For Flannery, the discoveries brought a terrible sense of guilt.
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discoveries → bring → guilt
'You can imagine the shock and horror that our family felt knowing that these evil men had eaten at our restaurant.'
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men → imagine → restaurant
He added: 'I still feel bad in my heart that we served them food.'
But while those encounters seemed utterly unremarkable inside the restaurant, elsewhere in Arizona questions were beginning to surface.
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questions → add → Arizona
In July 2001, FBI agent Kenneth Williams, working out of Phoenix, wrote a memorandum raising concerns about the number of people of investigative interest attending civil aviation schools in the state.
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Williams → work → state
Williams suggested that Osama bin Laden might be directing students to the United States for flight training and urged the FBI to examine the pattern more closely.
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Laden → suggest → pattern
'You can imagine the shock and horror that our family felt knowing that these evil men had eaten at our restaurant,' Flannery said
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 passed, the documentaries and coverage brought the memory back to Flannery with renewed force
The memorandum became known as the Phoenix Memo.
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memorandum → imagine → Memo
It did not identify the September 11 plot, nor was it specifically a warning about suicide pilots.
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it → identify → pilots
But it showed that, before the attacks, an FBI agent had already noticed an unusual pattern around Arizona’s flight schools.
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agent → show → schools
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
