Mohamed Atta biography

Synopsis

Mohamed Atta was born in Egypt, where he joined a professional association controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. He studied architecture in Cairo and trained as a flight pilot in Florida. During the 9/11 attacks, he piloted American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center.

Profile

Terrorist. Born Muhammad Ata al Sayyid on September 1, 1968 in Kafr el Sheikh, Egypt. Raised in a suburb of Cairo, Atta received a degree in architecture from Cairo University and a degree in urban planning from the Technical University of Hamburg in Germany.

During his time in Germany, fellow students recall Atta??s anti-Semitic and anti-American views. Increasingly religious, he joined al Qaeda and an Islamic prayer group at the university. He also signed a lease on a Hamburg apartment that became an al Qaeda cell, where members would come together to plot terror attacks.

In 1999, Atta traveled to Kandahar, Afghanistan for terrorist training at an al Qaeda camp. He returned to Hamburg under CIA surveillance, but when he entered the United States on June 3, 2000, surveillance was halted. He and other hijackers enrolled in flight school at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida, earning their instrument certificates from the FAA in November and their pilot licenses in December.

In July 2001, Atta traveled to Spain for a final meeting with al Qaeda operatives on the Mediterranean coast. The hijackers also took several ??surveillance flights?? to Las Vegas in the days leading up to the attacks. On the morning of September 11, Atta and fellow hijacker Abdulaziz al Omari departed Boston on American Airlines Flight 11 carrying 81 passengers. Atta is believed to have been the pilot of the plane when it crashed into the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., killing everyone on board.