Wail al-Shehri
Wail al-Shehri (وائل الشهري, also transliterated Alshehri) was named by the FBI as one of the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles that crashed into the World Trade Center as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks. His brother, Waleed al-Shehri, is also a suspected 9/11 hijacker.
Little of al-Shehri's history is known. He used the date of birth September 1, 1968. There are reports that he was having psychological problems in 2000, and traveled with his brother Waleed to Mecca. Afterwards, they both disappeared for a time, saying they were going to Chechnya to defend Muslims there. This has not been confirmed.[1]
In March of 2001, Wail al-Shehri was filmed in a farewell video that was later aired on al-Jazeera. In the video, many future 9/11 hijackers swear to become martyrs, although no details of the plot are revealed. Al-Shehri does not speak in the film, but is seen studying maps and flight manuals.[2]
On June 8, 2001, al-Shehri entered the United States in Miami, Florida with fellow al-Qaida member Ahmed Alhaznawi. They were among what were called the "muscle" hijackers, who were not expected to act as pilots, despite the fact that al-Shehri was reportedly trained as a pilot. CIA director George Tenet later said that they "probably were told little more than that they were headed for a suicide mission inside the United States."[3] [4]
On September 11, 2001, al-Shehri boarded American Airlines flight 11, hijacked it, and assisted Mohammed Atta in flying it into the World Trade Center in an attack that killed thousands of Americans.