1N4DL01D81C212547 is the

VIN Vin or VIN may refer to: Abbreviations and codes Arts, entertainment, and media * '' Vos Iz Neias?'', American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a station in the former Australian coastal radio service Pl ...

of a blue 2001

Nissan Altima The Nissan Altima is a mid-size car manufactured by Nissan since 1992. It is a continuation of the Nissan Bluebird line, which began in 1955. The Altima has historically been larger, more powerful, and more luxurious than the Nissan Sentra b ...

GXE rental car belonging to

Alamo Rent a Car Alamo Rent a Car is a rental car agency based in Clayton, Missouri, United States. The company has branches across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania. Alamo is owned by Enterprise Holdings, along with ot ...

, that was found in the

Portland International Jetport Portland International Jetport , locally known as the Jetport, is a public airport two miles (3 km) west of downtown Portland, Maine, Portland, Maine, United States. It is owned and operated by the City of Portland. A portion of the Jetpo ...

parking lot following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also 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, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001. It was issued a

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

license plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British, Indian and Australian English), license plate (American English) or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for ...

3335 VI. While it was initially reported that Adnan and Ameer Bukhari had rented and driven the car, the accepted story is now that

Mohamed Atta Mohamed Atta (1 September 196811 September 2001) was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist, he was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks and served as the Aircraft hijacking, hijacker-pi ...

rented the car, although later reports continued to suggest that Adnan Bukhari fell under suspicion because of documents found within the car. The car had been rented by Atta from the

Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport — also known as Boston Logan International Airport — is an international airport located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Covering , it has ...

terminal in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, at 6:08pm on Sunday, September 9th. He provided his address of ''10001 W Atlantic Boulevard'' in

Coral Springs Coral Springs is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 134,394. Approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, it is a pri ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, where he is believed to have stayed in room #122. He listed his phone number as 954-815-3004, a number also associated with

Fayez Banihammad Fayez Banihammad (March 19, 1977September 11, 2001) was an Emirati terrorist hijacker from al-Qaeda who was one of the five terrorist hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 175 that was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center du ...

. He used his

Visa card Visa Inc. () is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit c ...

ending in ''7778'' to pay for the rental. According to the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

story on September 13, the same Boston terminal had also rented Atta the

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

sedan seized at Logan Airport. Atta is thought to have picked up

Abdulaziz al-Omari Abdulaziz al-Omari (, , also transliterated as Alomari or al-Umari; 28 May 1979 – 11 September 2001) was a Saudi imam and terrorist who was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Pri ...

on September 10, and the two of them drove it to a Comfort Inn in South Portland,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, where they spent the night in room 233. At 8:31pm, the car was photographed with two occupants at a

KeyBank KeyBank is an American regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 27th largest bank in the United States. Organized under the publicly traded KeyCorp, KeyBank was formed from the 1994 merger of the Cleveland-based Society Corpora ...

drive-thru ATM at 445 Gorham Road in South Portland. According to parking receipts found in the car, it arrived at the

at 5:40am on September 11, and was parked on the first level. After checking in at 5:43, and passing security and an

X-ray machine An X-ray machine is a device that uses X-rays for a variety of applications including medicine, X-ray fluorescence, electronic assembly inspection, and measurement of material thickness in manufacturing operations. In medical applications, X-ra ...

at 5:45, Atta and al-Omari are believed to have taken the 6:20

Colgan Air Colgan Air was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 1965 until 2012, when it became a subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. The initial headquarters of Colgan Air was in Manassas, Virginia, Manassas, Virginia until 2010, and ...

Flight 5930 to Boston. Officials became aware of the car around 11pm on September 11, and by 3:30am on September 12, the car was the subject of a

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize Police, law enforcement officers to conduct a Search and seizure, search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to Confiscation, confiscate an ...

issued to

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent James Lechner, and taken by a

flatbed truck A flatbed truck (or flatbed lorry in British English) is a type of truck the bodywork of which is just an entirely flat, level 'bed' with no sides or roof. This allows for quick and easy loading of goods, and consequently they are used to trans ...

to a crime lab in

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Maine. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Maine, 12th-most populous city in Maine, and third ...

. The warrant was sealed until October 4.

Contents of car

While it was not listed in the search warrant's findings, a cigarette butt was reported to have been removed from the car separately, and taken directly to a crime lab.{{cite news , url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/12/targets.htm , title=U.S. targets cells tied to bin Laden , date=September 13, 2001 , archive-date=July 14, 2003 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030714020954/https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/12/targets.htm , access-date=2007-08-06 , work=

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

References

September 11 attacks Logan International Airport Mohamed Atta Nissan Altima American Airlines Flight 11 Individual cars