Hijackers
The hijacking of Flight 93 was led by Ziad Jarrah, a member of al-Qaeda. Jarrah was born in Lebanon to a wealthy family and had a secular upbringing. He intended to become a pilot and moved to Germany in 1996, enrolling at the University of Greifswald to study German. A year later, he moved to Hamburg and began studying aeronautical engineering at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. While living in Hamburg, Jarrah became a devout Muslim and associated with the radical Hamburg cell.
In November 1999, Jarrah left Hamburg and went to Afghanistan, where he spent three months. While there, he met with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in January 2000. Jarrah returned to Hamburg at the end of January and obtained a clean passport in February by reporting his passport as stolen.
In May, Jarrah received a visa from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, and he arrived in Florida in June 2000. There, he began taking flying lessons as well as training in hand-to-hand combat. Jarrah maintained contact with his girlfriend in Germany and his family in the months preceding the attacks. This close contact upset Mohamed Atta, the tactical leader of the plot, and al-Qaeda planners may have considered another operative, Zacarias Moussaoui, to replace him if he backed out. Soon after the attacks, Jarrah's family asserted that he was an "innocent passenger" on board the flight.
Four "muscle" hijackers trained to storm the cockpit and overpower the crew accompanied Jarrah on Flight 93. One of them, Ahmed al-Nami, arrived in Miami, Florida, on May 28, 2001, on a six-month tourist visa with United Airlines Flight 175 hijackers Hamza al-Ghamdi and Mohand al-Shehri. Another Flight 93 hijacker, Ahmed al-Haznawi, arrived in Miami on June 8 with Flight 11 hijacker Wail al-Shehri. The third Flight 93 muscle hijacker, Saeed al-Ghamdi, arrived in Orlando, Florida, on June 27 with Flight 175 hijacker Fayez Banihammad.
On August 3, 2001, the intended fifth hijacker, Mohammed al-Qahtani, flew into Orlando, Florida, from Dubai. He was questioned by officials dubious he could support himself with only $2,800 cash to his name, and suspicious that he intended to become an illegal immigrant as he was using a one-way ticket. He was sent back to Dubai, and subsequently returned to Saudi Arabia.
The passports of Ziad Jarrah and Saeed al-Ghamdi were recovered from the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93.
Read more about this topic: United Airlines Flight 93