Gwinnett County Airport

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Gwinnett County Airport (Briscoe Field)
IATA: LZU - ICAO: KLZU
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Gwinnett County
Serves		Lawrenceville, Georgia
Elevation AMSL		1,061 ft (323.4 m)
Coordinates		33°58′41.07″N, 83°57′44.55″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
7/25	6,000	1,829	Asphalt

Gwinnett County Airport (IATA: LZU, ICAO: KLZU) at Briscoe Field is a municipal airport located about two miles (3km) northeast of Lawrenceville, Georgia, in the United States. It is owned and operated by the county government of Gwinnett County, in the northeastern part of metro Atlanta.

It has a 6000-foot or 1852-meter runway, and is 1061 feet or 323 meters above mean sea level (AMSL). Student training is conducted at the airport by several different flight schools.

[edit] History

A small plane crashed on the evening of April 26, 2005, though both on board escaped safely before the aircraft caught fire.

Two of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and sidekick Marwan Al-Shehhi, took practice flights at Briscoe Field airport. Half a year before terrorists crashed two jetliners into New York's World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks, two men identified as among the hijackers rented a single engine Piper Cherokee Warrior at this small suburban Atlanta airport and took off for a one-hour "checkout" flight with an instructor.

Sources close to the investigation say flight school records list Mohamed Atta and sidekick Marwan Al-Shehhi, both named on the FBI list of terrorists aboard the planes that on Sept 11 were flown into the World Trade Center. Atta is thought to be a leader and organizer of the hijacking plot, al-Shehhi was a fellow student and apartment roommate.

Both had instrument ratings and were qualified to fly twin-engine planes. Each had to show his commercial pilot's license at Briscoe Field, an Atlanta suburban airport. A source said Atta used a credit card to rent the planes, $69 an hour, plus $32 an hour for an instructor the first time in late February.

Their names and FAA license numbers were entered in the school computer by a flight dispatcher. Each man flew a leg with the instructor. When they returned later to rent another plane, they were able to fly together since they had already qualified.