Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi (Arabic: مروان يوسف محمد رشيد لكراب الشحي, romanized: Marwān Yūsuf Muḥammad Rashīd Likrāb al-Shiḥḥī; 9 May 1978 – 11 September 2001) was an Emirati terrorist hijacker from al-Qaeda who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks.

[1] Al-Shehhi was a student from the United Arab Emirates who moved to Germany in 1996 and soon became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, forming the Hamburg cell.

Al-Shehhi was born in Ras al-Khaimah, on 9 May 1978, in the United Arab Emirates, to an Emirati Muslim cleric who died in 1997 and an Egyptian mother.

Four hours spent in the community yielded no address and no one – policemen, firemen, pedestrians or local officials – who did anything more than shrug at the mention of his name.

A poor student, al-Shehhi was directed by the Scholarship program administrators to repeat a semester of his studies back in Bonn beginning in August 1998.

[5] It has been reported al-Shehhi also married in 1999, holding a belated celebration in January 2000, in an arranged marriage by his half-brother with a young woman named Fawzeya.

[9][10] In late 1999, al-Shehhi, Atta, Ziad Jarrah, Said Bahaji, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh decided to travel to Chechnya to fight against the Russians, but were convinced by Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi at the last minute to change their plans.

[14][15] On 23 August, the Israeli Mossad reportedly gave al-Shehhi's name to the CIA as one of 19 belonging to US residents suspected of planning an attack on the United States in the near future.

[16] On 26 August, al-Shehhi signed into the Panther Motel in Deerfield Beach, Florida, paying US$500, saying he wanted to stay until 2 September, and listing a Mailboxes Etc.

His register entry indicated that he was driving a blue Chevrolet Malibu, assumed to be the one rented by Atta two weeks prior, and manager Richard Surma said that he bent rules to allow al-Shehhi to have another man as an overnight guest.

[17] At 5:01 a.m. on the morning of 11 September Al-Shehhi in Boston received a phone call from Flight 93 hijacker pilot Ziad Jarrah in Newark.

The call would be the last time Jarrah and Al-Shehhi spoke and is believed by authorities to be the two confirming to one another that the attacks were ready to begin.

The terrorists gained access to the cockpit through unknown means[19]: 23  and murdered both pilots, allowing Al-Shehhi to assume control of the flight.

Thus, the estimated 300 people still alive following the impact were left stranded in the upper floors of the catastrophically damaged skyscraper, now set ablaze and rapidly filling with smoke.