'There was a cold steeliness about him ... which did not tie in with a love of aviation'

Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have piloted one of the aircraft that was flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, posed as an Arab prince at the Florida flying school where he studied.

Anne Greaves, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, who also attended the school, remembered Atta as an immaculately dressed figure who was always accompanied by a bodyguard during training.

While the other students at the Huffman International Flight School in Venice wore trainers and khakis, Atta was always dressed in collared shirts and ironed trousers.

"I was really a little bit jealous in that they were always given preference with one of the Warriors which was a much newer, much neater aircraft," she said.

"I had to say to my instructor one day, 'why is it that these Arabs are not having the same sort of problems that I seem to have, technical problems with the aircraft?'

"I was told by my instructor that he, Atta, was an Arab prince and his companion was his bodyguard."

But she said she doubted the story because she thought people with royal connections trained at military establishments. During the six months that Mrs Greaves, an osteopath, was a student at the school, she had daily contact with Atta and his fellow suspect, Marwan Al Shehhi, but said they "kept to themselves". Al-Shehhi always got into the seat behind him when Atta got into the plane for instruction, said Mrs Greaves. The two men spent much longer in the computer room than other students, sending e-mails and using the internet.

She said she recalled, in October last year, hearing noise from the room. When she went in she saw the men embracing and dancing. "They had obviously got some information they were thrilled with," she said. In hindsight, Mrs Greaves believes they were celebrating the attack on the US warship Cole, in Yemen.

The day after the American attacks, Mrs Greaves telephoned the US embassy and spoke to the FBI. Since then she has also had "extensive conversations" with Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist unit.

When Mrs Greaves discovered she had shared an aircraft with the suspected suicide bomber, her said her reaction was "absolute horror initially, utter disbelief to think that you innocently go halfway around the world to learn something that you are particularly fond of only to find yourself among terrorists".

"It's the sort of face that once you've seen it, you would never forget it. I think particularly I noticed his determination. There was a cold steeliness about him, sadly, which I think to anyone who is keen on flying did not tie in with love of aviation or anything like it."