Hani Hanjour

)
, birth_place = Taif, Saudi Arabia
, death_date =
, death_place = Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
, death_cause = Plane crash, suicide
, known_for = Hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 (as part of the September 11 attacks)

Hani Saleh Hasan Hanjour ( ar, هاني صالح حسن حنجور, ; August 30, 1972September 11, 2001) was the lead hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Hanjour first went to the United States in 1991, enrolling at the University of Arizona, where he studied English for a few months 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 September 11 attacks.

Hanjour arrived back in the United States in December 2000. He joined up with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego, and they immediately left for Arizona, where Hanjour took 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 September 2, 2001, checking into a motel in Laurel, Maryland. On September 11, 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 September 11 attacks. The crash killed all 64 passengers 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 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 education

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.

Career

Early 1990s

Hanjour first came to the United States in 1991 to study English at the University of Arizona's Center for English as a Second Language. Hanjour's eldest brother Abdulrahman helped him apply to the eight-week program, and found a room in Tucson, Arizona, for Hanjour near the Islamic Center of Tucson. Hanjour arrived for the English language program on October 3, 1991, and stayed until early February 1992, when he returned to Saudi Arabia. Hanjour shared a three-bedroom home on the corner of 4th Avenue and 4th Street owned and managed by a father-son team, who made a living renovating and renting rooms to international students and devoting their energies to spreading a born-again Christian influence; Bob, the oldest son, lived in this house and rented the room directly to Hanjour. Hanjour was a model housemate; he was extremely respectful of others, apolitical in his points of view, enjoyed his Turkish coffee, and appeared as a nonchalant happy-go-lucky teenager with very weak English-speaking skills. Hanjour claimed that he was interested in being an airplane mechanic and claimed that such a position was considered highly in Saudi Arabia. Hanjour participated in morning, noon, and evening prayers at the local mosque. As early as Hanjour moved into this house, he was under the constant watch of two "uncles" who would pick him up for the weekends so that he would spend time with them within their circle, thereby minimizing his contact with his American housemates and friends from the university. In December 1991 Hanjour informed Bob 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 he was not part of the Hamburg cell in Germany.

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 obtained a visa in March 1996, and arrived in the United States on April 2, 1996. 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 May 20, 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 Phoenix, Arizona, paying $4,800 for lessons at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management in Scottsdale. 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 November 15, 1997, taking additional English courses in Florida, then returning to Phoenix, where he shared an apartment with Bandar al-Hazmi.

After arriving in Florida on 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 subsequently trained together both in Florida and Arizona, and became friends. Ali was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix where, the FBI says, he "reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque". This, however, 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 Abdullah attended the same Phoenix flight school as Hanjour and records show the pair used a flight simulator together on June 23, 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".

In December, he resumed training at CRM Flight Cockpit Resource Management for a few weeks, before pursuing training at Arizona Aviation. Bandar al-Hazmi and Hanjour stayed in Arizona, continued taking flight lessons at Arizona Aviation throughout 1998 and early 1999. After moving out of Bandar's place in March, Hanjour lived in several apartments in Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix.
In February, financial records showed that Hanjour had taken a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to flight training at Arizona Aviation, Hanjour enrolled in flight simulator classes at the Sawyer School of Aviation where he made only three or four visits. Lotfi Raissi would begin taking lessons at the same school a month after Hanjour quit, part of what piqued the FBI's interest in Raissi.

An FBI informant named Aukai Collins claims he told the FBI about Hanjour's activities during 1998, giving them Hanjour's name and phone number, and warning them that more and more foreign-born Muslims seem to be taking flying lessons. The FBI admits it paid Collins to monitor the Islamic and Arab communities in Phoenix at the time, but denies Collins told them anything about Hanjour.

Hanjour gained his FAA commercial pilot certificate in April 1999, getting a "satisfactory" rating from the examiner. Hanjour's bank records indicate that he travelled to Ontario, Canada, in March 1999 for an unknown reason.

He traveled to Saudi Arabia to get a job working with Saudi Arabian Airlines as a commercial pilot but was rejected by a civil aviation school in Jeddah. His brother, Yasser, relayed that Hanjour, frustrated, "turned his attention toward religious texts and cassette tapes of militant Islamic preachers." He told his family in late 1999 he was heading to the United Arab Emirates to find work. However, it is likely that he headed to Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.

2000

In May 2000, a third person accompanied Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar to Sorbi's Flying Club where he waited on the ground as they took a flight lesson. It has been theorized this may have been Hanjour.

In September Hanjour again sent his $110 registration to the ELS Language Center, which leased space on Holy Names College campus in Oakland, California, to continue his English studies. He also applied for another U.S. student visa. Although he was accepted, after the attacks, it would be reported that his visa application was 'suspicious'. Granted an F-1 student visa in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 2000, he failed to reveal that he had previously traveled to the U.S. He never turned up for classes at the ELS Language Center, and when the school contacted its Saudi representative, he reported that he could not find Hanjour either.

On December 5, Hanjour opened a CitiBank account in Deira, Dubai. On December 8, Hanjour was recorded flying into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and is thought to have met with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego shortly thereafter.

2001

Hanjour came back to San Diego in December 2000, frequently visiting Abdussattar Shaikh's house, which was shared with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid Almihdhar. During this time Hanjour may have visited the San Diego Zoo in February, as a security guard recalls having to page his name to reclaim a lost briefcase containing cash and Arabic documents and later recognized his photograph. Shortly afterwards, the three hijackers moved out of Shaikh's house to Falls Church, Virginia.

The ELS Language Center at Oakland University said Hanjour reached a level of proficiency sufficient to "survive very well in the English language". However, in January 2001, Arizona JetTech flight school managers reported him to the FAA at least five times because his English was inadequate for the commercial pilot certificate he had already obtained. It took him five hours to complete an oral exam meant to last just two hours, said Peggy Chevrette. Hanjour failed UA English classes with a 0.26 GPA and a JetTech manager said "He could not fly at all." The certificate was a requirement for him to join the Saudi Arabian pilot's academy. His FAA certificate had become invalid late in 1999 when he failed to take a mandatory medical examination. In February, Hanjour began advanced simulator training in Mesa, Arizona.

He and Hazmi moved out of Mesa at the end of March, and they were in Falls Church, Virginia, by April 4. Falls Church was the location of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Anwar Al-Awlaki was the recently appointed new Imam whom Hazmi had met with in San Diego.

At the mosque, Hanjour and Hazmi soon met Eyad Alrababah, a Jordanian who later pleaded guilty to document fraud and was deported. They had told him that they were looking for an apartment to rent, and he found a friend who rented them an apartment in Alexandria where they stayed. On April 4, 2001, Hanjour asked to forward his utility deposits to 3159 Row Street, Falls Church, Virginia, which was the same address as the mosque.

When police raided the Hamburg apartment of Ramzi bin al-Shibh