A BRITON who trained as a pilot at the same American flight school as two of the September 11 hijackers has been arrested after an international terror alert issued by the FBI.

Senior security sources yesterday said Zayead Christopher Hajaig, 35, a white Briton born in Nigeria, had been arrested by detectives from Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism branch SO13 in Britain last Friday. He is being held pending an extradition request by the Americans.

“This is a current operation,” a senior British official said. “He is wanted for questioning by the Feds and he was picked up by the British police. He’s not running loose.” Hajaig was not considered a threat to Britain, but the Americans were taking the case seriously, the official said.

A “special alert bulletin” sent to airports and flight schools by the Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force said Hajaig had taken flying lessons at Gwinnett County Airport near Atlanta in 2002 — where Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, two of the hijackers who crashed aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York, had learnt to fly.

Hajaig was living in America illegally but had managed to obtain an official pilot’s licence from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in April 2002. Roland Herwig, an FAA spokesman, said Hajaig had obtained single-engine and multi-engine ratings, but his licence was revoked in November 2002 because he had not been examined by an aviation physician.

He apparently raised suspicions when he tried to have his pilot rating upgraded, despite not being properly qualified. The warning said that he became “aggressive and attempted to have the flight school accelerate his training”.

Officials said Hajaig was believed to have fled from America when he became aware that his activities had sparked an official investigation.

The FBI said Hajaig should not be allowed to rent or fly planes or take any flying lessons. He has been put on a “no-fly” list which bans him from flying any form of aircraft.

Steve Emmett, an FBI spokesman in Atlanta, said that Hajaig “remains a person of interest” to the authorities. “All flight schools after 9/11 have been asked to increase their state of alertness,” he said. “They’ve been asked to report any suspicious behaviour. This is what happened in this case.”

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