Marwan al-Shehhi

Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi (مروان يوسف محمد رشيد لكراب الشحي; 9 May 197811 September 2001) was an Emirati terrorist hijacker from al-Qaeda who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the 11 September attacks in 2001.

He was one of five hijackers aboard the aircraft and one of two Emiratis to take part in the attacks, the other being Fayez Banihammad, who helped him hijack the same plane.

Al-Shehhi was born in Ras al-Khaimah, on 9 May 1978, in the United Arab Emirates, to an Emirati Muslim cleric who died in 1997 and an Egyptian mother.

Described as a quiet and devout Muslim, details about al-Shehhi's life in the UAE, however, are difficult to acquire.

He was a part of the Shihuh tribe through his father's side.

Al-Shehhi was a student from the United Arab Emirates who moved to Germany in 1996 and soon became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, forming the Hamburg cell.

Together, after pledging their lives to martyrdom, they became the leaders of the 11 September attacks.

He left Germany in June 1997 to attend to problems at home although the university forbade him.

In early 1998, al-Shehhi transferred to the Technical University of Hamburg.

A poor student, al-Shehhi was directed by the Scholarship program administrators to repeat a semester of his studies back in Bonn beginning in August 1998.

After moving to Hamburg in 1998, al-Shehhi helped form the Hamburg cell with Mohamed Atta and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.

There, his views became more and more radical.

They met three or four times a week to discuss anti-American feelings and plot possible attacks.

When someone asked why he and Atta never laughed, al-Shehhi retorted, "How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?"

In late 1999, al-Shehhi, Atta, Jarrah, and bin al-Shibh traveled to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and met with Osama bin Laden who recruited the four Hamburg cell members for the attacks in the United States.

Al-Shehhi did not enroll back at Bonn until January 1999 and continued to struggle with his studies.

By July 1999, Marwan returned to Hamburg to study shipbuilding.

It has been reported al-Shehhi also married in 1999, holding a belated celebration in January 2000, in an arranged marriage by his half-brother with a young woman named Fawzeya.

On 9 October 1999, Marwan al-Shehhi was filmed at Said Bahaji's wedding in Germany with other 9/11 hijackers including Ziad Jarrah.

In late 1999, al-Shehhi, Atta, Ziad Jarrah, Said Bahaji, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh decided to travel to Chechnya to fight against the Russians, but were convinced by Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi at the last minute to change their plans.

They instead traveled to Afghanistan to meet with Osama bin Laden and trained for terrorist attacks.

Immediately afterwards, Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah reported their passports stolen, possibly to erase travel visas to Afghanistan.

After their training, the hijackers began to attempt to hide their radicalism.

al-Shehhi shaved his beard and seemed to his old friends like he had become less religious.

After the attacks, a librarian in Hamburg reported that al-Shehhi boasted to her "There will be thousands of dead. You will think of me ... You will see, in America something is going to happen. There will be many people killed."

Al-Shehhi was the first of the Hamburg group to leave for the United States.

He arrived in the United States in May 2000, one month before Atta.

Atta, Al-Shehhi, and Jarrah had been trained as pilots in Florida at Huffman Aviation, receiving their commercial pilot licenses in December 2000 and January 2001 from the FAA.

Al-Shehhi spent his time making preparations for the attack itself, such as meeting with crucial planners abroad, assisting with the arrival of hijackers aboard the other flights, and travelling on surveillance flights determining details on how the hijacking would take place.

He arrived in Newark, New Jersey on 29 May 2000.

Atta and Jarrah joined him the next month, and the three men began to search for flight schools.

Al-Shehhi and Jarrah posed as body guards of Atta, who were also posing as a "Saudi Arabian royal family member" while the three of them took flying lessons in Venice, Florida.

On 9 September 2001, he traveled from Florida to Boston, where he stayed at the Milner Hotel until 11 September.

After boarding United Airlines Flight 175 at Logan International Airport, al-Shehhi and 4 other hijackers waited 30 minutes into the flight to make their attack, which then allowed al-Shehhi to take over control as pilot, and at 9:03 a.m., 17 minutes after Mohamed Atta crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower, Al-Shehhi crashed the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center between floors 77 to 85.

At 23 years of age, he was the youngest hijacker-pilot to participate in the attacks.

The impact of the Boeing 767 into the South Tower was seen live on television as it happened.

At 9:59 a.m., after 56 minutes of burning, the 110-story skyscraper collapsed, killing hundreds of people, including around 900 office workers and first responders.

According to an October 2001 article in The New York Times, "If residents of Mr. Shehhi's hometown had heard of him before now, they were certainly not telling strangers. Four hours spent in the community yielded no address and no one – policemen, firemen, pedestrians or local officials – who did anything more than shrug at the mention of his name."

His teacher in Germany, Gabriele Bock, recalls him as someone who seemed to be struggling to have plans for the future while studying there.

While in Germany, al-Shehhi enrolled in the University of Bonn after completing a German course.