Marwan Al-Shehhi

Marwan Al-Shehhi

Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi (Arabic: مروان يوسف محمد رشيد لكراب الشحي‎, Marwān Yūsuf Muḥammad Rashīd Lekrāb ash-Sheḥḥī, also transliterated as Alshehhi) (May 9, 1978 – September 11, 2001) was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks.

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 September 11 attacks.

In late 1999, 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. Shehhi arrived in the United States in May 2000, one month before Atta. They both trained in Florida at Huffman Aviation, receiving their commercial pilot licenses in December 2000 from the FAA.

Shehhi spent 2001 making preparations for the attack itself, such as meeting with crucial September 11 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.

On September 9, 2001, Shehhi flew from Florida to Boston, where he stayed at the Milner Hotel up until September 11. Upon boarding United 175, Shehhi and 4 other hijackers waited 30 minutes into the flight to make their attack, which then allowed Shehhi to take over control as pilot, and at 9:03 a.m., 17 minutes after Mohamed Atta crashed American 11 into the North Tower, 23-year-old Shehhi crashed the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He was the youngest hijacker-pilot in the attacks. The impact of the Boeing 767 operating as United 175 into the South Tower was seen live on television around the world as it happened.