Mohamed Atta [ a ] 1 September — 11 September was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist , he was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks and served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 , which he crashed into the North Tower of the original World Trade Center as part of the coordinated suicide attacks. Aged 33, he was the oldest of the 19 hijackers who took part in the mission.
Before the attacks, he worked as a construction engineer. Born and raised in Egypt, Atta studied architecture at Cairo University , graduating in , and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany at the Hamburg University of Technology.
Atta disappeared from Germany for periods of time, embarking on the hajj in but also meeting Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan from late to early Atta and the other Hamburg cell members were recruited by bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for a "planes operation" in the United States.
Atta returned to Hamburg in February and began inquiring about flight training in the United States, where he, Jarrah, and al-Shehhi arrived in June to learn how to pilot planes, obtaining instrument ratings in November. Beginning in May , Atta assisted with the arrival of the "muscle" hijackers whose role was to subdue passengers and crew to enable the hijacker-pilots to take over.
In July, Atta traveled to Spain to meet with bin al-Shibh to finalize the plot, then in August traveled as a passenger on "surveillance" flights to establish in detail how the attacks could be carried out. More than 1, people died as a result of the crash, ensuing fire, and subsequent collapse of the tower, making him responsible for the single deadliest air crash of all time , as well as the single deadliest terrorist attack of all time.
