38 Facts About Hani Hanjour

Hani Salih Hasan Hanjour was a Saudi Arabian terrorist who was the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, crashing the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Hani Hanjour returned to the United States in 1996, studying English in California before he began taking flying lessons in Florida and then Arizona.

Hani Hanjour received his commercial pilot certificate in 1999, and went back to his native Saudi Arabia to find a job as a commercial pilot.

Hani Hanjour applied to civil aviation school in Jeddah, but was turned down.

Hani Hanjour left his family in late 1999, telling them that he would be traveling to the United Arab Emirates to find work.

Hani Hanjour arrived in the United States again in December 2000.

Hani Hanjour joined up with Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego.

Hani Hanjour returned to the Washington, DC, metropolitan area on 2 September 2001, checking into a motel in Laurel, Maryland.

Hani Hanjour was deported from his Palmerston North home after his links to Hanjour were exposed.

Hani Hanjour was one of seven children, born to a food-supply businessman in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia.

Hani Hanjour was the first to arrive in the United States, much earlier than other hijackers.

Hani 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.

Hani Hanjour arrived for the English language program on 3 October 1991, and stayed until early February 1992, when he returned to Saudi Arabia.

Hani 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 Hani Hanjour.

Hani Hanjour was a model housemate; he was extremely respectful of others, apolitical in his points of view, and appeared as a nonchalant happy-go-lucky teenager with very weak English-speaking skills.

Hani Hanjour participated in morning, noon, and evening prayers at the local mosque.

In December 1991 Hani Hanjour informed Bob that he missed Saudi Arabia and would be leaving the United States due to homesickness.

Hani Hanjour was the only hijacker to visit the United States prior to any intentions for a large-scale attack and was not linked to the Hamburg cell in Germany, which composed of the three hijackers who were taking flight lessons to become pilots.

Hani Hanjour was the first to receive a license out of the three other men, most likely due to arriving to the US prior to the preparations for the attacks.

Hani Hanjour was admitted to the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, but before beginning flight training, the academy arranged for Hani Hanjour to take intensive English courses at ESL Language Center in Oakland.

The flight school arranged for Hani Hanjour to stay with a host family, with whom he moved in on 20 May 1996.

Hani 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.

Hani Hanjour re-entered the United States on 15 November 1997, taking additional English courses in Florida, then returning to Phoenix, where he shared an apartment with Bandar al-Hazmi.

Hani Hanjour was identified as a friend and colleague of Hanjour in July 2006, less than six months after he first arrived in New Zealand.

Bandar al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour stayed in Arizona, continued taking flight lessons at Arizona Aviation throughout 1998 and early 1999.

Lotfi Raissi would begin taking lessons at the same school a month after Hani Hanjour quit, part of what piqued the FBI's interest in Raissi.

An FBI informant named Aukai Collins claims he told the FBI about Hani Hanjour's activities during 1998, giving them Hani Hanjour's name and phone number, and warning them that more and more foreign-born Muslims seem to be taking flying lessons.

Hani Hanjour gained his FAA commercial pilot certificate in April 1999, getting a "satisfactory" rating from the examiner.

Hani Hanjour 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.

Hani Hanjour came back to San Diego in December 2000, frequently visiting Abdussattar Shaikh's house, which was shared with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.

The ELS Language Center at Oakland University said Hani Hanjour reached a level of proficiency sufficient to "survive very well in the English language".

On 4 April 2001, Hani Hanjour asked to forward his utility deposits to 3159 Row Street, Falls Church, Virginia, which was the same address as the mosque.

Sometime at the end of May 2001, Hani Hanjour rented a one-bedroom apartment in Paterson, New Jersey.

Hani Hanjour lived there with at least one roommate and was visited by several other hijackers, including Mohamed Atta.

Hani Hanjour later made his last phone call to his family back in Saudi Arabia, during which he claimed to be phoning from a payphone in the United Arab Emirates, where he was supposedly still working.

Employees at Advance Travel Service in Totowa, New Jersey later claimed that Moqed and Hani Hanjour had both purchased tickets there.

Hani Hanjour requested a seat in the front row of the airplane.

At 09:37:46, Hani Hanjour crashed the Boeing 757 into the west facade of the Pentagon, killing himself and all 63 passengers and 6 crew members aboard along with 125 on the ground in the Pentagon.