Hani Hanjour

Hani Hanjour - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Hani Hanjour

Hani Salih Hasan Hanjour (Arabic: هاني صالح حسن حنجور, romanized: Hānī Ṣāliḥ Ḥasan Ḥanjūr; August 30, 1972 – September 11, 2001) was a Saudi terrorist and member of al-Qaeda. Hanjour was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

This profile of Hani Hanjour covers Early Life and Family Background, Early 1990s, 1996, Late 1990s and 2000.

Hanjour first went to the United States in 1991, studying English for less than two months at an American higher education institution before returning to Saudi Arabia early the next year. He returned to the United States in 1996, studying English in California before he began taking flying lessons in Florida and then Arizona. He received his commercial pilot certificate in 1999, and went back to his native Saudi Arabia to find a job as a commercial pilot. Hanjour applied to civil aviation school in Jeddah, but was turned down. Hanjour left his family in late 1999, telling them that he would be traveling to the United Arab Emirates to find work. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden or Mohammed Atef identified Hanjour at an Afghanistan training camp as a trained pilot and selected him to participate in the 11 September attacks.

Hanjour arrived in the United States again in December 2000. He joined up with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego. They immediately left for Arizona, where Hanjour engaged in refresher pilot training. In April 2001, they relocated to Falls Church, Virginia and then Paterson, New Jersey in late May where Hanjour took additional flight training.

Hanjour returned to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area on 2 September 2001, checking into a motel in Laurel, Maryland. On 11 September, Hanjour boarded American Airlines Flight 77, took control of the aircraft after his team of hijackers helped subdue the pilots, passengers, and crew, and flew the plane into the Pentagon as part of the 11 September attacks. The crash killed all 64 occupants on board the aircraft and 125 people in the Pentagon.

While in Florida and Arizona, Hanjour befriended and trained with Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, a fellow Saudi Arabian who emigrated to Manawatū-Whanganui in 2006 to train as a pilot. He was deported from his Palmerston North home after his links to Hanjour were exposed.

Early Life and Family Background of Hani Hanjour

Hanjour was one of seven children, born to a food-supply businessman in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia. During his youth, Hanjour wanted to drop out of school to become a flight attendant, although his brother Abdulrahman discouraged this route, and tried to help him focus on his studies.

According to his eldest brother, Hanjour traveled to Afghanistan in the late 1980s as a teenager to participate in the conflict against the Soviet Union. The Soviets had already withdrawn by the time he arrived in the country and he instead worked for a relief agency.

Early 1990s of Hani Hanjour

Hanjour was the first to arrive in the United States, much earlier than other hijackers. He first came to the United States in 1991 to study English for a few months. He arrived for the English language program on 3 October 1991, and stayed until early February 1992, when he returned to Saudi Arabia. Hanjour claimed that he was interested in being an airplane mechanic and claimed that such a position was considered highly in Saudi Arabia. In December 1991 Hanjour informed friends that he missed Saudi Arabia and would be leaving the United States due to homesickness. Hanjour was the only hijacker to visit the United States prior to any intentions for a large-scale attack and was not linked to the Hamburg cell in Germany, which composed of the three hijackers who were taking flight lessons to become pilots. He was the first to receive a license out of the three other men, most likely due to arriving to the U.S. Prior to the preparations for the attacks.

Over the next five years, Hanjour remained in Saudi Arabia, helping the family manage a lemon and date farm near Ta'if. His family often reminded Hanjour that he was getting past the age where he ought to get married and start a family, but Hanjour insisted he wanted to settle down more. While in Saudi Arabia, Hanjour applied for a job with Saudi Arabian Airlines, but was turned down due to poor grades. The airline told Hanjour they would consider him if he obtained a commercial pilot's license in the United States.

1996

In April 1996, Hanjour returned to the United States, staying with family friends, Susan and Adnan Khalil, in Miramar, Florida, for a month before heading to Oakland, California, to study English and attend flight school. Hanjour was admitted to the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, but before beginning flight training, the academy arranged for Hanjour to take intensive English courses at ESL Language Center in Oakland. The flight school also arranged for Hanjour to stay with a host family, with whom he moved in on 20 May 1996. Hanjour completed the English program in August, and in early September 1996, he attended a single day of ground school courses at the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics before withdrawing, citing financial worries about the $35,000 cost.

Hanjour left Oakland in September and moved to Tucson, Arizona, paying $4,800 for lessons at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management. Receiving poor marks, Hanjour dropped out of flight school, and returned to Saudi Arabia at the end of November 1996.

Late 1990s

Hanjour re-entered the United States on 15 November 1997, taking additional English courses in Florida, then returning to Tucson, where he shared an apartment with Bandar al-Hazmi near the University of Arizona, where he enrolled.

After arriving in Florida in November 1997, Hanjour met a man Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, a mutual friend through Bandar al-Hazmi. Al-Hamzi had suggested that Ali train to be a pilot in Florida. Hanjour and Ali later trained together both in Florida and Arizona, and became friends. Ali was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Tucson where, the FBI says, he "reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque". This, but was disputed by a mosque staff member, who told the New Zealand Herald in June 2006 that Ali "was never a leader for the mosque and he never gave speeches at the mosque".

The 9/11 Commission Report reported that Abdullah attended the same Phoenix flight school as Hanjour and records show the pair used a flight simulator together on 23 June 2001. Ali later emigrated to New Zealand, where he settled in Auckland and then in Palmerston North to train as a pilot. He was identified as a friend and colleague of Hanjour in July 2006, less than six months after he first arrived in New Zealand. Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said that Ali "was directly associated with persons responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001".

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hani_Hanjour), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.