Marwan al-Shehhi
Who was Marwan al-Shehhi?
One of the 19 hijackers in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, who piloted United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center's South Tower.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Marwan al-Shehhi (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Marwan al-Shehhi was born on May 9, 1978, in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. He was an Emirati national and one of the nineteen hijackers in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Al-Shehhi flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, killing himself, everyone on board, and hundreds more in the tower. He played a key role in the plot as one of the pilots targeting the World Trade Center.
At eighteen, al-Shehhi moved to Germany in 1996 to study, first at the University of Bonn and then at the Hamburg University of Technology. In Hamburg, he met Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah, who shared radical Islamist views. Ramzi bin al-Shibh later joined them, forming what was later known as the Hamburg cell, a central group in the September 11 plot. In Germany, they became increasingly radical, committing to violent jihad under al-Qaeda.
In late 1999, members of the Hamburg cell went to Afghanistan, trained at al-Qaeda camps, and met Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden assigned specific roles for an attack on the United States. Al-Shehhi arrived in the United States in May 2000, about a month before Atta. They joined Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida, for intensive flight training with Jarrah. In December 2000, al-Shehhi and Atta got their commercial pilot licenses from the Federal Aviation Administration, marking an important part of the plan's preparation.
In the months before the attacks, al-Shehhi handled logistical planning, did surveillance flights to gather details, and coordinated with other hijackers. On September 9, 2001, he traveled from Florida to Boston and stayed at the Milner Hotel. On September 11, he boarded United Airlines Flight 175 at Logan International Airport with four other hijackers. About thirty minutes into the flight, they took control of the plane. At 9:03 a.m., al-Shehhi crashed the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, killing all 65 people on board and hundreds more in the building. He was twenty-three years old when he died.
Before Fame
Marwan al-Shehhi grew up in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the smaller and less affluent emirates in the United Arab Emirates. There's not much public information about his childhood, but he came from a modest background and aimed for academic success, which took him abroad. At eighteen, he left for Germany to study applied sciences at a university, driven by personal ambition and a trend among Gulf Arab students in the 1990s to seek higher education in Western Europe.
His experience in Germany changed his life in unexpected ways unrelated to school. Hamburg in the late 1990s had a network of radical Islamist groups, and al-Shehhi became involved with them. Meeting Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh altered his path entirely, steering him away from education and toward violent extremism. The group that formed around these figures was influenced by geopolitical issues fueling Islamist radicalism at the time, including conflicts in the Muslim world and strong opposition to American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Key Achievements
- Served as hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175 on September 11, 2001
- Co-founded the Hamburg cell, the primary organizational unit behind the September 11 plot
- Obtained an FAA commercial pilot license in December 2000 after completing training at Huffman Aviation
- Coordinated logistical preparations for the September 11 attacks, including surveillance flights and hijacker support
Did You Know?
- 01.Al-Shehhi received his FAA commercial pilot license in December 2000 after training at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida, the same school attended by Mohamed Atta.
- 02.He arrived in the United States in May 2000, a full month before Mohamed Atta, making him the first of the Hamburg cell pilots to enter the country for flight training.
- 03.Al-Shehhi stayed at the Milner Hotel in Boston on September 9 and 10, 2001, in the two days immediately preceding the attacks.
- 04.He was one of only two Emirati nationals among the nineteen hijackers; the other was Fayez Banihammad, who was also aboard United Airlines Flight 175.
- 05.Al-Shehhi personally met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in late 1999, during which bin Laden directly assigned operational roles to the Hamburg cell members.
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