Documents: Logan State Trooper Ignored Warning About 9/11 Hijacker

Court documents reveal that an American Airlines mechanic reported four months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that he had intercepted terrorist Mohammed Atta in a secure area of Logan International Airport.

In May 2001, the mechanic, Steven Wallace, found Atta and another man taking video and still images of security checkpoints at Logan. They were carrying pilots’ bags. Wallace asked them if they were carrying items not permitted on planes and they moved away.

In 2002, WBUR broke the story of the encounter. At the time, American Airlines said they were not aware of any of their employees reporting the encounter.

Now, in court documents filed by the family of Mark Bavis, who was killed on 9/11, Wallace reveals that he reported Atta to a state trooper at Logan, but Atta was allowed through a security checkpoint without even being asked for ID.

Atta went on to crash American Airlines Flight 11 into one the World Trade Center towers.

Bavis, a NHL scout for the Los Angeles Kings flying from his hometown of Boston to LA aboard a second aircraft, United Airlines Flight 175, perished when that plane crashed into the other tower.

The Bavis family is the only family to have refused to settle its lawsuit. The family says it wants to use the case to reveal how negligence on the part of United and Massport, which runs Logan, led to the 9/11 attacks.

Massport is trying to have the lawsuit against it dropped. It argues that it was not responsible for the checkpoints at Logan.

A New York federal court is due to hear the case in November.