Page 348 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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328———September 11 Attacks

On August 17, 2001, Moussaoui was arrested in 15 minutes later. Atta, Alomari, al-Suqami, Wail
Minnesota. Moussaoui, who had more than $30,000 al-Shehri, and Waleed al-Shehri were aboard Flight 11.
cash when he entered the United States the previous On Flight 175 were al-Shehhi, Ahmed, Moahld al-
February, had attended the Airman Flight School in Shehri, Ahmed al-Ghamdi, and Hamza al-Ghamdi.
Norman, Oklahoma. He was an exceptionally poor Just before Flight 11 took off, Atta used his cell phone
student, and eventually left Airman. After being wired to call al-Shehhi and the two conversed briefly.
$14,000 by Binalshibh in Germany, Moussaoui Shortly after the two airplanes reached cruising
moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and began attend- altitude, the hijackers struck. As far as can be deter-
ing Pan Am International Flight Academy. mined from cell phone calls made by crew members
At Pan Am, Moussaoui quickly attracted the notice and passengers on Flights 11 and 175, the hijackers
of his teachers. He was secretive about his back- attacked crew members and passengers with knives
ground, and he had paid the $6,300 fee in cash. Obvi- and box cutters, wounding those who resisted. They
ously incompetent even with small airplanes, forced open the cockpit doors and disabled or killed
Moussaoui nevertheless insisted that he must learn to the pilots. Then the hijackers with flight training took
fly a Boeing 747. His instructors contacted the FBI, over the planes, while the rest of the team kept the
and Moussaoui was arrested. His arrest, however, did passengers and crew at bay.
not derail the plot. Federal investigators found no evi- Instead of heading to Los Angeles, the planes
dence of wrongdoing except that Moussaoui had over- turned south, flying toward New York City and the
stayed his visa. Moussaoui was jailed on immigration World Trade Center. At 8:48 A.M., Flight 11 flew into
charges, and the plan proceeded without him. the north tower of the 110-story World Trade Center
In late August, the hijackers bought first-class from the north. At 9:06 A.M., Flight 175, approaching
tickets aboard four flights:American Airlines Flight 11, from the south, crashed into the south tower.
United Airlines Flight 175,American Airlines Flight 77, The towers initially withstood the impact of the
and United Airlines Flight 93. crashes. But the fuel in the jets poured into the build-
Investigators believe that the hijackers traveled first ings and ignited. Thousands of workers in the lower
class to be closer to the cockpits. The flights were floors began evacuating, but those in the upper floors
apparently chosen with great care. They were all non- were trapped by the intense heat and choking smoke.
stop, cross-country flights and thus had full fuel tanks. Some managed to telephone relatives before they per-
They took off at about the same time, and the planes ished. Eyewitnesses on the ground saw people jump
were all either Boeing 767 or Boeing 757 models, from windows to their death to escape the flames.
which have similar cockpit designs. The terrorists, Jet fuel burns at temperatures high enough to melt
who had purchased instruction videos on flying such steel, and the buildings’ steel supports collapsed. Just
airplanes, knew enough about them to disable the before 10:00 A.M., the south tower collapsed, killing
transponders on two of the planes to prevent them all but a handful of the office workers and rescue per-
from being tracked from the ground. sonnel inside. Less than 30 minutes later, the north
In the days preceding the attacks, the hijackers tower went down. Several nearby buildings were seri-
wired money to the United Arab Emirates. Investi- ously damaged, with one collapsing completely, and
gators believe that these were excess funds that were the subway, train, telephone, and electricity systems in
returned to Al Qaeda. Binalshibh left Germany for the area all suffered heavy damage. Hundreds of
Spain, then disappeared; al-Hawsawi left the United rescue workers and 147 passengers and crew on Flights
Arab Emirates for Pakistan on the day of the attack. In 11 and 175 were among the nearly 3,000 people killed
the United States, the hijackers split up into small in the World Trade Center attack. The fire was so hot
groups and traveled to different cities, apparently to and the destruction so complete that incomplete
avoid notice. remains of only about 1,100 people were recovered.

SEPTEMBER 11 PENTAGON HIT
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Flight 11 and At about the time Flights 11 and 175 were hitting the
Flight 175 both departed from Logan Airport in World Trade Center, Hanjour, al-Midhar, Moqed,
Boston—Flight 11 at about 8 A.M., Flight 175 about Nawaf al-Hamzi, and Salem al-Hazmi were hijacking