Hani Hanjour

Hani Salih Hasan Hanjour (Arabic: هاني صالح حسن حنجور, romanized: Hānī Ṣāliḥ Ḥasan Ḥanjūr; August 30, 1972 – September 11, 2001) was a Saudi terrorist and member of al-Qaeda. Hanjour was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Hanjour first went to the United States in 1991, studying English for less than two months at the University of Arizona before returning to Saudi Arabia early the next year. He returned to the United States in 1996, studying English in California before he began taking flying lessons in Florida and then Arizona. He received his commercial pilot certificate in 1999, and went back to his native Saudi Arabia to find a job as a commercial pilot. Hanjour applied to civil aviation school in Jeddah, but was turned down. Hanjour left his family in late 1999, telling them that he would be traveling to the United Arab Emirates to find work. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden or Mohammed Atef identified Hanjour at an Afghanistan training camp as a trained pilot and selected him to participate in the 11 September attacks. Hanjour arrived in the United States again in December 2000. He joined up with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego. They immediately left for Arizona, where Hanjour engaged in refresher pilot training. In April 2001, they relocated to Falls Church, Virginia, and then Paterson, New Jersey, in late May where Hanjour took additional flight training. Hanjour returned to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area on September 2, 2001, checking into a motel in Laurel, Maryland. On 11 September, Hanjour boarded American Airlines Flight 77, took control of the aircraft after his team of hijackers helped subdue the pilots, passengers, and crew, and flew the plane into...