Mohamed Atta, Egyptian terrorist (b. 1968)
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta ( AT-ah; Arabic: محمد محمد الأمير عوض السيد عطا Muḥammad Muḥammad al-Amir 'Awaḍ as-Sayyid 'Aṭā [mæˈħæmmæd elʔæˈmiːɾ ˈʕɑwɑdˤ esˈsæj.jed ˈʕɑtˤɑ]; September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks in which four United States commercial aircraft were commandeered with the intention of destroying specific civilian, military, and governmental targets. He was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 which he crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks. At 33 years of age, he was the oldest of the 19 hijackers who took part in the attacks.
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. In Hamburg, Atta became involved with the al-Quds Mosque, where he met Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ziad Jarrah, together forming the Hamburg cell. Atta disappeared from Germany for periods of time, embarking on the hajj in 1995 but also meeting Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan from late-1999 to early-2000. Atta and the other Hamburg cell members were recruited by bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for a "planes operation" in the United States. Atta returned to Hamburg in February 2000, and began inquiring about flight training in the United States.
In June 2000, Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi arrived in the United States to learn how to pilot planes, obtaining instrument ratings in November. Beginning in May 2001, Atta assisted with the arrival of the muscle hijackers, and in July he traveled to Spain to meet with bin al-Shibh to finalize the plot. In August 2001, Atta traveled as a passenger on several "surveillance" flights, to establish in detail how the attacks could be carried out.
On the morning of September 11, Atta boarded American Airlines Flight 11, which he and his team then hijacked. Atta took control of the plane and crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. The crash led to the collapse of the tower and the deaths of over 1,600 people.