Fayez Banihammad
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Photograph of Fayez Banihammad released by the FBI in the days following the attack. |
Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan al Qadi Banihammad (
Arabic: فايز راشد احمد حسن القاضي بني حمد) was named by the
FBI as one of the hijackers aboard
United Airlines Flight 175 in the
September 11, 2001 attacks. Both Banihammad and the media would refer to him alternately by any of a number of his names, including Fayez Ahmad, Banihammad Fayez Abu Dhabi Banihammad, Fayez Rashid Ahmed, Rasid Ahmed Hassen Alqadi, Abu Dhabi Banihammad Ahmed Fayez, and others.
2000
Fayez left his family in
'Asir, telling his parents that he hoped to find work with the
International Islamic Relief Organization. He only contacted his parents once after that. He is believed to have visited the
Philippines for three days from October 17-20,
2000.
Banihammad used the controversial program
Visa Express to gain entry into the country together with
Saeed al-Ghamdi. Upon later review of his application, it was noticed that he hadn't listed an occupation or reason for visit, and when asked where he would be living in the country, simply wrote
No. However, he still received his Visa.
2001
Before the pair arrived in
Orlando, Florida on
June 27,
2001, Banihammad had opened a bank account in the UAE to which $30,000 was deposited by unknown parties only two days before his arrival. He opened another account with
SunTrust Banks in Orlando several days after his arrival, becoming one of nine hijackers to open an account with the bank.
The
9/11 Commission noted:
He appears to have played a unique role among the muscle hijackers because of his work with one of the plot's financial facilitators, Mustafa al Hawsawi. On July 18, Banihammad gave Mustafa power-of-attorney over his Dubai bank account, and Mustafa reportedly mailed him a
VISA and bank card.
A licensed pilot, he was registered as having trained at the
Spartan Aeronautics School in
Tulsa, Oklahoma - although the school denies that he ever attended.
Fayez Banihammad purchased both his and
Mohand al-Shehri's one-way first class tickets for
United Airlines Flight 175 online on August 27th or 29th, charging the $4464.50 to a
Visa card from
Mustafa al Hawsawi, listing their addresses both as a
Mailboxes Etc. in
Delray Beach. This was
not the same postal box used by
Hamza and
Ahmed al-Ghamdi who purchased their tickets for the same flight a day later with another Mailboxes Etc. postal box in Delray Beach, although both groups listed the same phone number.
Staying in the
Milner Hotel from September 8-10, Banihammad asked a hotel clerk to fill out the registration card for the room, citing his poor English. On
September 10,
2001, he was one of four hijackers (Marwan, Banihammad, Mohand, and al-Suqami) sharing a room at the
Milner Hotel in
Boston, Massachusetts, where one of them called around for prostitutes, but eventually nixed the idea, possibly based on finances.
The following day, pilots
Mohamed Atta and
Marwan al-Shehhi checked into the adjacent room.[
1]
The next morning, Banihammad drove al-Shehri in a rental car to
Logan International Airport, where they returned the car and boarded Flight 175. He sat in seat 2A, adjacent to al-Shehri. About a half an hour into the flight, the plane was hijacked and
Marwan al-Shehhi flew it into the south tower of the
World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.
After the attacks it was reported by some sites that somebody with the same name had attended the
DLI at
Lackland Air Force Base - a claim that may have been borne of a false address Banihammad had used.
