Huffman Aviation

Huffman Aviation was a flight-training school in Venice, Florida at Venice Municipal Airport This flight school has no affiliation with a flight school in Texas with the same name.

Huffman Aviation Florida was established in 1972 as Venice Flying Service, and was reorganized in 1987 and renamed as Huffman Aviation. Huffman Aviation was purchased by Dutchman Rudi Dekkers in 1999. At the time of purchase, the school had a fleet of 12 small aircraft. Huffman offered private pilot, instrument rating, Commercial pilot, Multi-Engine Ratings, and flight instructor training, but did not offer training on larger, jet aircraft.

More than 80% of the school's students were foreign nationals, following a marketing campaign designed to attract overseas students.[2] It also suffered from a poor local reputation, as the Venice Gondolier ran continuing stories about the flight school's troubles.

The business gained further notoriety after the September 11th attacks, when it was revealed that Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi had both attended the school to learn how to fly small aircraft.

On July 3, 2000, both applied to the school; Atta claimed to be of royal Saudi descent and presented Marwan as his bodyguard. In August, the school filed the necessary INS paperwork in order to allow both pilots to switch from 'tourist' Visas, to 'student', in order to allow them to enroll in the school's piloting program. While they were allowed to apply, final verification did not reach the school until March 11, 2002, 6 months after both pilots had been killed in the attacks.

For a short while, during their time at the school, both Marwan and Atta lived with a company employee named Charlie Voss for a few days, paying him about $250 cash. After a week, Voss reportedly kicked them out of his house for insulting his wife.

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