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Born in Egypt, al-Ridi moved to the United States and settled down in Texas where he took flight lessons. Eventually he became a flight instructor himself, teaching at the Ed
Boardman Aviation School.
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and its engines were filled with sand. The brakes failed after a test flight with both men flying, and the plane crashed into a
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Since the plane had a range of only 1,500 miles, al-Ridi was forced to make a seven-leg journey to deliver the plane, flying to
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missiles and other materiel the group had acquired in
Afghanistan. With $ 250,000, al-Ridi purchased a 1960s
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The event attracted public attention, since the plane was unique in being a private aircraft at
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in 1993, bin Laden asked al-Ridi, then living in Texas, to buy a light aircraft to ferry
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requested that the pair fix the aircraft, and then take it back to Cairo to re-sell it.
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A year and a half after delivering the plane, al-Ridi was called back to
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The pair of them tried to repair the plane, its tires had melted to the
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Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002
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United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York
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in 1993; but fled after accidentally crashing the plane into a
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was an
American who was tasked to purchase a light aircraft by
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would learn of his whereabouts, al-Ridi fled the Sudan.
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where -65 weather cracked a windshield and burst the
81:309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group
106:, before embarking on the final leg of his trip.
8:
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155:In 1998, he was called to testify against
102:, through Europe and finally arriving in
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201:Avoiding Armageddon: Essam Alridi
47:, becoming close colleagues with
137:Khartoum International Airport
45:Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
43:In 1982, he went to repel the
18:Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
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143:. Worried that the Egyptian
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51:. He participated in the
139:and known to belong to
113:, where he met with
67:was moving into the
219:, January 14, 2001
88:Sault Sainte Marie
59:Sabrejet incident
16:A veteran of the
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141:Osama bin Laden
115:Ihab Ali Nawawi
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49:Osama bin Laden
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26:Osama bin Laden
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53:Battle of Jaji
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22:Essam al-Ridi
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119:Wadi el-Hage
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83:in Arizona.
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163:References
151:Later life
145:Mukhabarat
96:hydraulics
90:, then to
130:sand dune
30:sand dune
230:Category
111:Khartoum
77:Sabre-40
65:al-Qaeda
100:Iceland
126:runway
104:Cairo
69:Sudan
63:When
36:Life
197:PBS
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20:,
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