The pilot of the recent Vueling flight from which several Jewish children were forcibly removed has been identified as Ivan Chirivella, a Spanish aviator who once trained two of the terrorists

behind the September 11 attacks.

Vueling confirmed on Friday that Chirivella, the pilot of the controversial flight, had previously worked as a flight instructor in Florida, where he taught Marwan al-Shehhi and Mohamed Atta—two of the hijackers responsible for crashing planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Chirivella chronicled this connection in his 2003 memoir, The Innocent Accomplice. According to the book, he moved to the U.S. at age 12 with dreams of becoming a professional tennis player. When that didn't pan out, he turned to aviation and joined Jones Aviation Academy in Florida to gain flight experience and earn a commercial pilot’s license.

At the academy, he was assigned to al-Shehhi and Atta after they reportedly paid for top-tier instruction. Chirivella described them as having “short tempers” and an unusual fascination with Boeing commercial jets—despite struggling with basic aviation theory. “At the time, I didn’t understand their obsession with those planes,” he wrote.

He recalled the shock of learning about the 9/11 attacks. “An hour after the attacks, the school called me about an FBI investigation. When I learned who had been involved, I felt shivers down my spine.”

Though U.S. authorities concluded that Chirivella had no knowledge of the terrorists' intentions, his U.S. work permit was revoked after the attacks. Speaking to Spanish media, he remarked, “I don’t know if the investigation was connected or just bad timing, but after 12 years in the U.S., my permit was suddenly revoked.”

Reflecting on the experience, he added: “I’ll always remember what I lived. I try to focus on the good things I learned. As for the bad—I try to forget them.”

Whether the Spanish pilot is an antisemite or not will be determined by a further investigation being conducted by the French authorities. The news of his presence on the Vueling flight has sparked controversy, particularly in Israel, where Diaspora and Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli highlighted Chirivella’s past in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “Chirivella was the flight instructor of two of the terrorists who carried out the horrific 9/11 attacks.” Photo by Aldo Bidini, Wikimedia commons.