Mohamed Atta in the context of "Hijackers in the September 11 attacks"

The September 11 attacks, colloquially known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, then flew one into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, and another into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the global war on terror over decades, to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, and the governments purported to support them.

Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Both collapsed within an hour and forty-two minutes, destroying the remaining five structures in the complex. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, was believed by investigators to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers who crashed the aircraft into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an indefinite ground stop for all air traffic in U.S. airspace, preventing any further aircraft departures until September 13 and requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon.

The September 11 attacks, colloquially and perhaps more commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, then flew one into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, and another into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. In response to the attacks, the United States launched and waged the global war on terror over two decades, with the mission to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, and the governments purported to support them.

Ringleader and hijacker Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower. Both collapsed within an hour and forty-two minutes, destroying the remaining five structures in the complex. Hijacker Hani Hanjour flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, flown by hijacker Ziad Jarrah, was believed by investigators to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers who crashed the aircraft into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an indefinite ground stop for all air traffic in U.S. airspace, preventing any further aircraft departures until September 13 and requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon.

American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing everyone aboard the flight and resulting in the deaths of more than one thousand people in the top 18 stories of the skyscraper in addition to causing the demise of numerous others below the trapped floors. The crash of Flight 11 stands as the deadliest of the four suicide attacks executed that morning in terms of both plane and ground fatalities, the single deadliest act of terrorism in human history and the deadliest plane crash of all time. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-200ER with 92 passengers and crew, was flying American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts to Los Angeles International Airport in California.

The airplane left the runway at 07:59. Less than fifteen minutes after takeoff, the hijackers injured two flight attendants, murdered one passenger, and breached the cockpit while forcing the passengers and crew to the rear of the aircraft. The assailants attacked both pilots, allowing lead hijacker Mohamed Atta to take over the controls. Air traffic controllers suspected that the flight was in distress because the crew became non-responsive. They realized that the plane had been hijacked when Atta's announcement to the hostages was accidentally transmitted to air traffic control instead of through the aircraft's PA system. Also, two flight attendants were able to contact American Airlines and pass along information relevant to the situation, including casualties suffered by the crew and passengers.

Marwan al-Shehhi (9 May 1978 – 11 September 2001) was an Emirati terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. He was the hijacker-pilot on United Airlines Flight 175 (Boeing 767). As part of the September 11 attacks, he crashed the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in a suicide attack. He was one of five hijackers aboard the aircraft and one of two Emiratis to take part in the attacks, the other being Fayez Banihammad, who helped him hijack the same plane.

Al-Shehhi was a university student in applied sciences from the United Arab Emirates. In 1996, at the age of 18, he moved to Germany to pursue his university education. There, he met Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah, who were also studying applied sciences and engineering. Shortly thereafter, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who provided them with financial support, joined them, and they formed the Hamburg cell. Together, after pledging their lives to martyrdom (Jihad), they became the leaders of the September 11 attacks.

The September 11 attacks, colloquially known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, then flew one into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, and another into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. In response to the attacks, the United States launched and waged the global war on terror over two decades, with the mission to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, and the governments purported to support them.

Ringleader and hijacker Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower. Both collapsed within an hour and forty-two minutes, destroying the remaining five structures in the complex. Hijacker Hani Hanjour flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, flown by hijacker Ziad Jarrah, was believed by investigators to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers who crashed the aircraft into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an indefinite ground stop for all air traffic in U.S. airspace, preventing any further aircraft departures until September 13 and requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon.

Ziad Samir Jarrah (Arabic: زياد سمير جراح; 11 May 1975 – 11 September 2001), also known as Ziad al-Jarrah, was a Lebanese terrorist who was a member of al-Qaeda, a pan-Islamist militant organization. During the 11 September attacks in 2001, he was one of 19 al-Qaeda members who hijacked four American commercial flights in an attempt to crash them into national landmarks in the country. Jarrah's group hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, departing Newark, New Jersey, for San Francisco, but they failed to reach their target when the plane crashed.

Jarrah grew up in a secular and wealthy family living in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). In 1996, he moved to Germany to study aerospace engineering at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. In Hamburg, he became part of a clandestine cell system known as the Hamburg cell with fellow hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, among many others. In 1999, member Ramzi bin al-Shibh took the cell to Afghanistan to meet al-Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, where they were instructed to receive flight training. In 2000, Jarrah enrolled in a flight school in Florida.

The Hamburg cell (German: Hamburger Zelle; Arabic: خلية هامبورغ, Khalia Hamburh) were a clandestine cell system of eleven Islamist terrorists living in Hamburg, Germany, in the late 1990s. In 1999, they traveled to Afghanistan to meet with leaders of the militant organization al-Qaeda, and then returned to Hamburg to work on al-Qaeda's plan for terrorist attacks against the United States. This led to the September 11 attacks in 2001, in which four American airliners were hijacked in an attempt to crash them into important landmarks in the country.

Germany, the U.S., and the United Nations collectively consider eleven people to have been members. Three of them—Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah—were hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, and United Airlines Flight 93, respectively. In 2002, Ramzi bin al-Shibh stated that only he and those three men were members. However, authorities also list: Abdelghani Mzoudi, Mamoun Darkazanli, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, Mounir el-Motassadeq, Naamen Meziche, Said Bahaji, and Zakariya Essabar.

The al-Quds Mosque (Arabic: مسجد القدس, romanized: Masjid al-Quds, lit. 'The Jerusalem Mosque'; German: al-Quds-Moschee) was a Sunni Islam mosque, located in Hamburg, Germany. The mosque was opened in 1993 and operated until 2010 when it was shut down by German security officials.

The mosque was known for preaching a radical form of Sunni Islam. The al-Quds Mosque was attended by some of the September 11 attackers including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ziad Jarrah who formed the Hamburg cell.