why did mohamed atta crash the plane
", The other possibility is that Atta went to Portland for a final meeting with an unknown supporter. The report suggests that incident was an inconvenience but did not result in major delays. They were among the first to enter the U.S. in May and . [73], On the morning of July 9, Mohamed Atta rented a silver Hyundai Accent, which he booked from SIXT Rent-A-Car for July 9 to 16, and later extended to the 19th. The same day, he booked a one-way first-class ticket via the Internet on America West Flight 244 from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Las Vegas. Mr. Pursell, meanwhile, had already gotten a cellphone call from Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi. [6] At 8:18am, flight attendants Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney began making phone calls to American Airlines to report what was happening. [115], Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, Mohamed Atta's first announcement, heard by ATC at 08:23, Mohamed Atta's second announcement at 08:33, sfn error: no target: CITEREFWright2006 (. We went through the logs of ferries leaving Maine, and we went through the logs of airlines and anything associated with potential for a terrorist cell to support Atta. 1) Making an oath to die and renew your intentions. He rented a Chevrolet Malibu from an Alamo Rent A Car agency. Twelve minutes later, at 8:46:40a.m., Atta crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. 9/11 mystery: What was Atta doing on 9/10? - NBC News They lived in the area for several months. Some say it was the makeup of Jarrah's team, that he had only three instead of four muscle men (because the 20th hijacker and his fourth was denied entry into the U.S.). On Sept. 12, 2001, investigators combed over the field near Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 crashed a day earlier. In Germany, he enrolled in the urban planning graduate program at the Hamburg University of Technology. Atta said, he was to crash the plane. [51] They met three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American feelings and to plot possible attacks. They board a commuter flight to Boston Logan International Airport, they then board American Airlines Flight 11.. 7:59 AM - Flight 11 takes off from Boston, headed for Los Angeles, California. FBI investigators have officially concluded that 11 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the aircraft on 11 September did not know they were on a suicide mission, Whitehall . The night before, Atta went to Portland, Maine, a trip that has mystified terrorism experts for five years. before the crash, the . Don't try to make any stupid moves." They drove to Cambrils, where they spent a night at the Hotel Monica. On April 11, Atta and Shehhi rented an apartment at 10001 Atlantic Blvd, Apt. Atta flew Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Said Bahaji, a German citizen, was a close friend of Mohammed Atta, the hijacker in control of American Airlines Flight 11 which was the first plane to strike the World Trade Center. As the five-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, major questions about the terrorist attacks remain unanswered. The third hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 that took off from Dulles Airport . One theory suggests that Mohamed Atta and the other pilots who led the hijacking teams were here planning the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. A secret police intelligence report . Follow the Newsweek live tweet of September 11, 2001 (based upon the new book On That Day) starting at 4:45 a.m. EST @Roadto911. [73][74] He drove east out of Madrid towards the Mediterranean beach area of Tarragona. On the way, they were seen getting gasoline at an Exxon gas station and visited the Longfellow House in Portland that afternoon;[82] they arrived at the hotel at 5:43p.m. and spent the night in Room 233. [34] His friends in Germany described him as an intelligent man in whom religious convictions and political motives held equal sway. refused to comment on whether any official investigation had ever been started against the two men, citing the criminal investigation into the hijackings. That night and twice the next morning, he called Bashar Ahmad Ali Musleh, a Jordanian student in Hamburg who served as a liaison for bin al-Shibh. Passengers must leave the secured area, go outdoors, cross a covered roadway, and enter another building before going through security once again. Former Metro Sheriff Jerry Keller recounts the time 9/11 terrorists spent in Las Vegas. Almost all of these points discuss spiritual preparation, such as prayer and citing religious scripture. It is not known where he stayed that night, but on the 29th he registered at the Econo Lodge at 1150 South Las Vegas Boulevard. Spanish investigators have said that Marwan al-Shehhi and two others later joined the meeting. Born and raised in Egypt, Atta studied architecture at Cairo University, graduating in 1990, and continued his studies in Germany at the Hamburg University of Technology. I have been planning and working with Bin Laden on the destruction of certain American targets. [73] The absence of other hotel stays, signed receipts or credit card stubs has led investigators to believe that the men may have met in a safe house provided by other al-Qaeda operatives in Spain. He was therefore treated favorably and not scrutinized. Mohammed Atta | Egyptian militant | Britannica The reservation was not used and canceled on August 9 with the reason "Family Medical Emergency". At 8:25 . Usually in these types of things you have your initial plan and you have a fallback plan. Mr. Pursell said that because the airport was secured, the two men could not have simply left undetected. And that may have been what he was doing. Iconic images from the September 11 attacks and their aftermath - France 24 As his father insisted that he go abroad for graduate studies, Atta, to this end, entered a German-language program at the Goethe Institute in Cairo. Bin al-Shibh explained that he passed along instructions from Osama bin Laden, including his desire for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible. There was some confusion regarding who Mohamed Atta was, and cases of mistaken identity. Bin al-Shibh would not discuss this meeting with Fouda. By early 1999, Atta had completed his thesis, and formally defended it in August 1999.[47]. "[113] In turn, political scientist Robert Pape has claimed that Atta was motivated by his commitment to the political cause, that he was psychologically normal, and that he was "not readily characterized as depressed, not unable to enjoy life, not detached from friends and society. His mother, 79, at the time denied her son's involvement in the attacks and that she feels he is in Afghanistan. Mohamed Atta is believed to have been the pilot of the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. . ; Azrbaycanca; Catal; etina; Dansk; Deutsch; Espaol; ; Franais; ; Hausa; Bahasa Indonesia; Italiano; . [77] On July 19, Atta returned to the United States, flying on Delta Air Lines from Madrid to Fort Lauderdale, via Atlanta. By early 1993, Atta had moved into university housing with two roommates, in Centrumshaus. THE LAST NIGHT. [16] When Atta and Shehhi arrived in Florida, they initially stayed with Huffman's bookkeeper and his wife in a spare room of their house. [38] Even before bin al-Shibh had arrived, Atta, Shehhi, and Jarrah were sent to the House of Ghamdi near bin Laden's home in Kandahar, where he was waiting to meet them. One former flight instructor said a Federal Aviation Administration official placed an angry call on Dec. 27, threatening to investigate the maintenance record of the plane as well as the two pilots. The 9/11 Commission obtained details about the meeting, based on interrogations of bin al-Shibh in the weeks after his arrest in September 2002. They may have helped arrange and host the meeting in Tarragona. They drove a rented Nissan to Portland, Maine, and arrived at the Comfort Inn Hotel at 5:43 p.m. At the time, Tyler Drumhiller was a top official at the CIA, responsible for all European Operations. He lived in Hamburg in the 1990's and is now believed to have trained at an Al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan in 1999. This claim has been disputed; Terry McDermott has argued that it is unusual for someone to go on pilgrimage so soon after the first time and to spend three months there (more than Hajj requires). A spokesman for the F.A.A. Atta checked in for American Airlines Flight 11, passed through security again, and boarded the flight. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport." The Mohamed Atta Files. On December 26, Atta and Shehhi needed a tow for their rented Piper Cherokee on a taxiway of Miami International Airport after the engine shut down. The two other "muscle men," intended to take over the plane, were also Saudi citizens: Abdulaziz al-Omari (A. al-Omari on the flight manifest) and Satam al-Suqami. There, Mr. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, another man the F.B.I. [26] While in Syria, he met Amal, a young Palestinian woman who worked for a planning bureau in the city. [48] When he returned in spring 1998, after disappearing for several months, he had grown a thick long beard, and "seemed more serious and aloof" than before to those who knew him. Newsweek is reconstructing the road to 9/11 as it was constructed 20 years ago, day by day. The video, bearing the date of January 18, 2000, is of good resolution but contains no sound track. Atta earned his private pilot certificate in September, and then he and Shehhi decided to switch flight schools. There, Mr. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, another man the F.B.I. "These guys looked like they might have been on business travel," Tuohey said. Mohammed AttaUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (U.S. v. Moussaoui) Mistakenly broadcasting over the air traffic control channel instead of the public-address system, flight 11 hijacker Mohammad Atta, who is piloting the plane, announces, "We have some planes. "I suspect they were casing a fallback position to launch from if, for weather or security, they couldn't get out of Boston, Drumhiller said. Atta did not take the return flight. 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, who is thought to have flown American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center AP "I said, specifically, 'These two clowns are up to . Of the four hijacker pilots, Jarrah was the most westernized, coming from a Lebanese secular background and Christian schooling before moving to Germany for university studies. September 11 attacks: How 9/11 unfolded | ITV News 9/11 hijackers were in plain sight in New Jersey before Sept. 11, 2001 [97] After 9/11, there also were reports stating that Mohamed Atta had attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. It . Mr. Kraus said Mr. Atta and Mr. Shehhi told him they had not been aware that they needed to radio the tower for instructions. On September 11 we'll live tweet the events of the day, minute by minute, starting at 4:45 a.m. EST, @RoadTo911. Throughout the summer, Atta met with Nawaf al-Hazmi to discuss the status of the operation on a monthly basis. By the time it took off, Mohammed Atta was just four minutes away from hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. [76], During the meetings in Spain, Atta and bin al-Shibh had coordinated the details of the attacks.