WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden might have chartered a plane that carried his family members and Saudi nationals out of the United States after the September 11 attacks, said FBI documents released on Wednesday.

The papers, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, were made public by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based group that investigates government corruption.

One FBI document referred to a Ryan Air 727 airplane that departed Los Angeles International Airport on September 19, 2001, and was said to have carried Saudi nationals out of the United States. “The plane was chartered either by the Saudi Arabian royal family or Osama Bin Laden,” according to the document, which was among 224 pages posted online. The flight made stops at Orlando, Washington DC as well as Boston and eventually left its passengers in Paris the following day.