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Neena Bhandari in Sydney
The man arrested in Bombay for allegedly planning September 11-style terrorist strikes in India, Australia and Britain was 'completely switched off' in the cockpit during pilot training, and was focussed only on gazing outside, according to his Australian flying instructor.
Mohammed Afroz Abdul Razzak's instructor at Melbourne's Moorabbin airport Brad Fuller also said that his student paid nearly Aus $20,000 for the training in 1997 and 1998 and left without completing the course for a commercial pilot license, according to Australian media reports.
Razzak, who is suspected to be Osama bin Laden's man, was remanded to judicial custody by a Bombay court till December20 after being charged with offences relating to conspiracy and waging war against the country.
"We would be flying and I would tell him how to do something, but he would just gaze out of the window looking at the view," Fuller told the Weekend Australian.
Fuller recalled that Razzak's behaviour was like he 'completely switched off in the cockpit'.
"He wasn't interested in learning to fly. He struck me as a very dumb student, to put it bluntly he hardly said anything. He was very quiet. He didn't strike me as unpleasant. He was courteous but distant and a day-dreamer," the instructor said.
He flew a two-seater Cessna 152 and a four-seater Piper Warrior aircraft.
Related Report: Australia seeks own probe of terror suspect held in Bombay
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