Ziad Jarrah (11 May 1975-11 September 2001) was an al-Qaeda member from Lebanon who was one of the hijacker-pilots during 9/11, hijacking United Airlines Flight 93 and crashing it into a field in Pennsylvania during a struggle with the passengers. Jarrah was born to a wealthy, secular family, but he was radicalized while he was studying in Germany, and he was one of the key members of the "Hamburg cell" alongside fellow pilots Ahmed Al-Nami and Marwan al-Shehhi. He ultimately ignored all of the chances that he had to leave his path towards the suicide attacks of 9/11, and he has the distinction of being one of the only attackers to maintain contact with their families (Jarrah told his father that he would attend his cousin's wedding, which was shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and Jarrah was engaged to marry his Turkish girlfriend Aysel Sengun).
Biography
Early life
Ziad Jarrah was born on 11 May 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon to a secular and wealthy Sunni Muslim family. He always wanted to be a pilot, but his parents discouraged him from doing so, as they feared that their only son would crash and die. From 1995 to 1996, he studied in Yemen before moving to Germany later that year to continue his studies. Jarrah studied at the University of Greifswald, and he attended beach parties and discos instead of mosques.
Radicalization
In 1997, Jarrah began to study aerospace engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, and it was there that he met other Islamists from the "Hamburg cell". Jarrah met Ramzi bin al-Shibh upon his arrival at Greifswald, the first German school that he attended, and Ramzi introduced him to Islamist circles. Jarrah met Ramzi's friends Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, and he was radicalized by the teachings of Mohammed Haydar Zammar and other speakers at the mosque. One day, he was urged to become a terrorist when he got into a fight with fellow mosque attendee Bashar Musleh, who claimed that Jarrah's country of Lebanon betrayed Musleh's Palestinian people during the Lebanese Civil War, and that Jarrah needed to prove his loyalty to Allah by blowing himself up. Musleh's argument with Jarrah was mediated by the imam, but Jarrah eventually became friends with Bashar and subscribed to Islamism. Jarrah grew out a beard, but his friends were shocked that he still lived with his Turkish girlfriend Aysel Sengun, as only husbands and wives could live together in Islamic law. Ziad loved Aysel deeply, but he would later attempt to convince her to become a fundamentalist as well.
Abandoning family
Jarrah would become radicalized as he attended the mosque and met several Islamist ideologues, and he got into a fight with his cousin Salim when Ziad and his girlfriend were invited to celebrate the opneing of Salim's "Bella Italia" pizzeria; Salim criticized Ziad for refusing to drink or smoke, asking him if Muhammad made him give them up, and Ziad got into a fight with his cousin. Ziad told his girlfriend and Salim that they should not drink or smoke in order to be good Muslims, and his cousin told him that "good Muslims" did not sleep with their girlfriends, leading to Ziad leaving with an angry attitude. His girlfriend grew estranged from him as he became more and more radical, putting jihad before her and saying that he wanted her to be a "good Muslim wife" and do whatever he said, including covering herself up.
Travels to Afghanistan
In November 1999, Jarrah, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Said Bahaji, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh planned to head to Chechnya to fight against the Russian Army during the Second Chechen War to die as martyrs, but Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi convinced them to head to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden instead, with Bin al-Shibh convincing Mohammed Haydar Zammar to let Jarrah come with him; Atta believed that Jarrah was distracted, but Jarrah had become a radical and was ready for martyrdom. The jihadists took part in training exercices, and Jarrah took on the kunya of "Abu Tarek al-Libnani". In January 2000, he read out his will alongside Mohamed Atta, and he obtained a new passport to hide the fact that he headed to Afghanistan. He shaved the beard that he had grown in order to hide his radicalization, and many other terrorists also tried to blend in with the local population by shaving. Jarrah dropped out of the applied sciences school and decided to move to the United States to attend flight school, ostensibly to pick up on his childhood ambitions, but really to train for the suicide mission that Bin Laden had assigned to him.
Before 9/11
On 27 June 2000, Jarrah arrived in the United States at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, and he traveled to Florida. Jarrah enrolled at the Florida Flight Training Center in Venice, but he violated his immigration status by not changing his visa from tourist to student. From June 2000 to 15 January 2001 he was enrolled in flight school, and many of his classmates remembered him fondly, as he was kind, trustworthy, and an occasional drinker. He lived with a German student named Thorsteinn Biermann, who was not suspicious of him, and he called or e-mailed his girlfriend back in Germany nearly every day, also flying out to visit her sometimes. In August 2000, he obtained his license to fly small aircraft, and in January 2001 he flew to Sanaa to visit his ill father. Unlike the other hijackers, he continued to have familial and romantic relationships up until his suicide mission.
Last days
On 6 May, he signed up for a two-month membership at the US1 Fitness Center in Dania Beach, Florida, and he signed up for two more months - he learned close-quarters combat from Bert Rodriguez. Ahmed al-Haznawi moved in with Jarrah at Lauerdale-by-the-Sea on 8 June 2001, and it was here that Haznawi would gain an apparent anthrax injury. In mid-July, when he traveled to Salou, Spain, Jarrah argued with Atta, and he almost decided to back out of the suicide mission. On 25 July, he flew to Germany on a one-way ticket to visit his girlfriend for one last time, but Bin al-Shibh convinced him to return to the operation. On 27 August 2001, he checked into a hotel in Laurel, Florida, a mile away from the Valencia motel, where his team members stayed. On 7 September 2001, the hijackers flew from Fort Lauerdale to Newark International Airport, and Jarrah made his last contact with his family members. He told his parents that he wanted to see them at his cousin's wedding on 22 September, and he wrote to his girlfriend Aysel, telling her that it was an honor to die a martyr and telling her that she would see the results of the attack and be proud.
Suicide mission
On the morning of 11 September 2001, Ziad Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami, and Ahmed al-Haznawi boarded United Airlines Flight 93 at Newark International Airport, and the plane took off at 8:41 AM, bound for San Francisco International Airport. At 9:28 AM, the four hijackers killed the pilots and took over the plane, with al-Haznawi claiming that he had a bomb. Jarrah told the people on the plane that there was a bomb on board, and he told the passengers to sit and remain quiet. However, the passengers heard news reports about other hijackings and their tragic fates, and they decided to rise up against the hijackers when one of the passengers said that they were able to fly the plane if it were taken over. Around 10:00 AM, the passengers rose up, using a fire extinguisher to kill al-Haznawi and snapping al-Nami’s neck. However, they were unable to get into the cabin, and Jarrah shouted "Allahu akbar" several times before crashing the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM. All 44 people on board the plane perished in the crash.